Often, the business owners I speak to have misinterpreted the smooth pitches of SEO companies. The company is telling the truth but doesn’t tell the whole story. Often, this can lead to false hopes and money down the drain. Here’s what I mean:

FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Sample 1
SEO Company: “We can get you at the top of the first page of Google.”

Interpretation: They will help you place an advertisement with Google. The company that pays the most gets listed at the top for each keyword.

Is this okay? Sure, if you want advertising. This method is not search engine optimization or marketing. It can only be defined as advertising. It could get you some short-term results.

Sample 2
SEO Company: “We can get you at the top of the organic results in Google for whatever keyword you want.”

Interpretation: There are a variety of ways they can do this. Options include paying for other websites to link back to yours, as well as, hiring people to write massive amounts of poorly written articles about your company and posting them around the Internet.

Is this okay? It’s okay only if your priority is to have a lot of traffic quickly. Using this method for too long could hurt your brand and be very expensive. Soon after you stop paying the company, you will lose your standing with the search engine.

Sample 3
SEO Company: “We are going to address one keyword at a time.”

Interpretation: They want to ensure a steady stream of income from your company.

Is this okay? This scenario can sometimes help companies with smaller budgets that want to focus on a subset of keywords to start. However, it is easy for them to lose track of the overall marketing plan and get taken advantage of. If you choose to go this route, make sure that you work with a reputable company that has your best interest in mind and is not taking  you along for the ride.

Lately, it seems like the less successful companies right now are in one (or two) of two boats:
1.    They have a weak product.
2.    They have done a poor job at marketing their product.

A profitable business requires a strong foundation.

Product:
I define a weak product as one that does not fulfill a need or want of enough people to make the company sustainable.  As follows are the questions I use to measure the companies’ products with which I work (in 2nd person for your convenience):

• How many people REALLY will use your product?
• How many people will spend the time/money to use your company to purchase your product or use your service?
• Do people need your product? (Review Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs)
• If they do, do they know that they need it or will you need to sell them on the fact?
• If not, why do you think they will use it?
• Do they want it enough that they will pay for it or spend enough time on the site to make it worthwhile to your advertisers?
• What are the advantages of using your competitors? Do those advantages outweigh your advantages?
• Is something about your website turning people away?
• Is there a reason for people to use your company more than once or will you have to continually replace your customers?
• How much money will people REALLY spend for your product or service?

or

• How much money will advertisers spend to reach this customer base?

or

• Do you have another knock-your-socks-off revenue stream?

The strongest products are easy sell and go viral. They don’t require much  advertising (if any at all). Not only because of the economy but also because we can easily shop around for products on the internet, we are much more careful to spend money. And, with the current media overload, our attention is pulled in many different directions, so it’s hard to get our attention for long. Sure, companies sell weak products all the time, but it’s a struggle you don’t have to go through. If you start with a strong product and improve it over time, success will come much more easily. And, once you have a strong product, you can move your focus to marketing.

Marketing: If you have a strong product, marketing is the easy part:

• Honestly represent your product
• Determine your most accurate target demographic
• Engage your target demographic where they will feel most positively about your product.

So, there it is – a strong product and how to market it well – it’s definitely a good place to start when you’re writing your business plan. There are so many things to worry about when you have your own business. You don’t want to have to reinvent your product while you’re dealing with accounting and HR and permits. And, you aren’t going to get the revenue you need if you don’t know how to market your product.

According to a recent nielsen wire article, “Twitter’s Tweet Smell of Success,” written by Michelle McGiboney, Twitter has grown 1,382% from February of 2008 to February of 2009, “making it the fastest growing site in the member communities category for the month.” In February 2009, it had over 7 million unique visitors. And over 40% of its visitors are age 35 to 49, and almost 85% are over 25 years old.  In other words, Twitter is used by a large number of adults, and that number is growing every day.

Plenty of businesses have joined the bandwagon too, hoping to reach potential customers through this medium, and if the statistics haven’t sold you on the idea, here are my 5 reasons for brands to jump on the Twitter wagon:

1.    Opens Communication with Influencers: Twitter not only allows one to reach a large percentage of the public, many of these Tweeters are influencers among their network. These people pride themselves on having something to say, and their network is listening to them. This type of person is much more likely to voice their opinions of products than the average customer, making them the perfect people to introduce to your product; if they like it, they’ll tell everyone about it.

2.    Customer Service: Not only will these people share what they like, they will also share what they don’t like. But instead of this conversation going on behind the company’s back, companies can be involved in the conversation. If a complaint is made on Twitter, the company can address the problem and solve it within minutes. With Twitter, companies don’t have to wait until someone is angry enough to write a letter.

3.    Immediate Updates: Many companies don’t have the resources to send out regular press releases, and even if they do, a large percentage of their customers and potential customers will never read them. Twitter is the best way to keep these people informed of projects, improvements and anything else that you think they would like to know. According to the above article, many of these people (735,000 in January) access Twitter from their phones, giving the Tweeter direct access to people who want to read what they have to say. And, if nothing else, it keeps your brand on their minds.

4.    Initiates Ongoing Education: Successful Tweeters share interesting and current information. These people read articles, listen to other Tweeters and do whatever they can to be knowledgeable in their field. For most corporate Tweeters, this means they need to conduct their own ongoing education, which, in turn, makes them better at their business. Successful Tweeters have no choice in the matter: they must become more knowledgeable in their field.

5.    Increases Credibility: Also, by being one of these successful brand Tweeters, one not only proves that the company keeps up with trends and new technology, he also proves the company’s expertise among its competitors, which increases the brand’s credibility.

So, do some research, learn how to Tweet like a pro, lurk for a bit and jump in. The water’s fine.

Note: Photo is from FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

I attended one of the breakfast sessions at the NAMM show this year, and visited with a young man who had just opened his own music store, High Desert Music. He lives in a small town in Oregon, and there are barely enough musicians to keep him in business.

High Desert Music

More than anything else, this man needs to focus on creating musicians so that he will have customers. Not only will he have a thriving music store, he will be strengthening his community.

(Visit the Guitar Center Music Foundation’s website for more information about the benefits of making music.)

My first piece of advice for this gentleman was to form an alliance with all of the music stores and teachers in his area so that all of them can work together to create solutions. His market is not even close to saturation, so by working together, they will create enough customers for all of the local stores to share.

Then, it’s up to them how to create the customers. It needs to be a decision based on their own assets and skills. It could be that they need to better communicate the benefits of making music to their communities. It could also be that they just need to encourage more musicians to teach music. I also suggested that their schools work with Guitars in the Classroom because it greatly increases the number of guitarists in a community. But, however they choose to create musicians, it must be done for them to continue.

Who benefits?

The company – The company will not only gain customers, which will increase sales, they will gain support from the community and other local stores.

The other local stores – Other local stores will also gain new customers.

The community – The community will benefit from having more musicians. Music programs keep children off the streets, improve kids’ test scores, help keep the elderly active and healthy and generally keep a society safer over all.

The music industry – The music industry will also benefit from increased sales of musical instruments, in this particular scenario. The manufacturers need stores to create customers if they, too, are going to stay in business.