Leveraged Promotion » demand generation

Go Beyond SEO: Is it more search engine traffic you need- or more sales?

Tinu — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 03:25:07 +0000

If you’re faced with more traffic from search engines, or better traffic regardless of source, what do you choose?
The truth is, the question of more search engine traffic vs. getting quality traffic from anywhere, is not necessarily an issue of choice. The fact is, you can shape your traffic building to be in line with building better search engine results by combining the two tasks under one philosophy, Search Engine Simplicity.
The concept of Search Engine Simplicity is geared towards getting the most amount of traffic, from search engines and elsewhere, with the least amount of daily effort.

Why constantly chase algorithms and tweak your site to pursue a single number one page ranking for a specific term, when you can rank on the first page for the entire keyword tree of several hundred keywords, with less effort?

This is the technique we employ at Leveraged Promotion. The irony? In the long run, you get those first page and number one rankings anyway…. and many of the rankings in-between. We’ll show you how to turn that traffic into more sales.

We Fix $6 Traffic Gimmicks

Tinu — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 02:48:46 +0000

Have you seen the new commercial from Office Depot about the Barber? It was recently featured on AdWeek, and made me think of how much we all have to offer in our businesses.

Recessions and other hard times we control come and go and the first thing many entrepreneurs want to do is cut their prices. Some of my partners on various projects wanted me to, just like the barber in the commercial. But I know what it costs to do a quality job, and our margins are thin enough already. If anything, we should be raising prices, but I refuse to do that until we can’t help it, at least until we’re clear of the recession.

So many people think you have to cut prices to compete, but experience has taught me that people who are only concerned with cost are not the greatest customers in the world. Not to mention that most of the time, to cut costs, you also have to cut quality.

If you want to compete, there are other things to compete on besides price. Like what?

Well, if you didn’t watch the commercial above, let me explain what it was about and you’ll see for yourself one obvious place. Quick summary: a local barber is charging $15 for quality haircuts. A chain moves in offering $6 haircuts across the street from him. He creates a banner to hang on his shop that says “We fix $6 haircuts”. The competition is run out of business.

You got it: quality.

You can compete on quality, speed, customer service, variety of selection, personal service, automated check-out, catering to certain demographics like Work at Home Moms, or personality types, like techies who don’t want to stand in line at the store and can order your widget online.

The only problem you may have is in finding that audience. If you do, call us up. Or email. Or reply to the blog post.

You get the picture.

Reach the Thirty-five to Forty-four Age Group with Internet Exposure

Tinu — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:08:48 +0000

Oldie but Goodie: Clickz.com demographic report gives clues to reaching certain age groups

From a report from Clickz.com, citing the Census Bureau as the source:

A higher percentage of homes with computers and Internet access were run by individuals aged 35-44 than by any other age group. That’s the finding from the “Computer and Internet Use in the United States: 2003″ report released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

In 2003, of the 35-44 age group 73.3 percent owned computers and 65.3 percent had Internet access at home. The next-highest penetration was households run by 45-54 year olds. Nearly 72 percent owned computers, and 65.1 percent of those households had Internet access.

Add that to the growth in Broadband access, as well as new updates to mobile online access ,and access to the Internet is quickly turning into a household fixture. Particularly with the growth of blogging and the advancing sophistication of platforms such as Blogsite, it’s increasingly easier and less expensive to reach your clients via online marketing.

Your Brand needs a Face

Tinu — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:08:55 +0000

The heart of branding is often visual.

When I first started out online, the one thing I was irrationally terrified of was having any part of my physicality associated with my business. I’m quite shy in real life, so I wanted to be a post office box with a pen name.

But one day I realized that every person I bought from on a regular basis… was a person to me, not a company.

I don’t shop at Walmart – in my mind that’s where the funny lady with the pigtails works. I don’t buy music, I get the latest Beyonce CD. Even with brands like Amazon, I’m going there in search of something within the collection of brands they resell. I want the next Toni Morrisson novel, not just some book by anyone.

I started becoming really successful online when I tossed away the shield of anonymity, and displayed my personage, flaws and all. If I can publish a picture with my articles, I’ll do it. When I can share my voice on audio, even better. Haven’t worked my way up to video, but I’m getting there.

And watch out when I do…

Sometimes, with larger, corporate brands, the “face” on the company isn’t a person’s. It’s a logo that invokes a personality trait. IBM has a certain personality. So does Dell, Gateway or HP.

If you’re running a smaller business, you’re not exempt from the need for a brand. At some point you must create an association between yourself and the person you want to influence, the results they want to have.

Smaller businesses especially need not just a face, but a voice. It’s part of why blogging is so successful. People buy from people, not from vague entities.

Your brand needs a face, a representative, a personality. Develop a brand and get closer to your clients.

Business Marketing Concept #2

Tinu — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 18:05:33 +0000

Every Business isn’t the same. Marketing them the same way won’t work.

Selling is selling when you get down to brass tacks. But Marketing doesn’t quite work that way. The medium can change it. The corporate or consumer atmosphere affects it. The relationship isn’t as cut and dried as supply and demand. But it’s there.

Imagine if movies were marketed the same way as television shows. Since they’re similar, it seems like it would make sense at first. But wouldn’t it be weird to be watching a rerun of Seinfeld and see a 15 second spot that said “Next on the Theater 2 miles away, Mr. And Mrs. Smith is playing. In today’s film, viewers ignore the plot and try to figure out if Bradgelina was dating during the picture.”

There you are on your comfortable couch, waiting for your favorite (free) show to come on, and you’re supposed to care what is happening around the corner? As if you’d get dressed and go around the corner for that when you’re already comfortable and have what you want.

And yeah, there’s that minority it would work on. But really, no, it wouldn’t work at a rate that would make the spots cost-effective, especially since you’d have to have thousands of personalized versions.

So maybe. Just maybe, the way we market our businesses in newspaper ads or at trade shows isn’t the way we market our sites online.

I know. The parallel could be stronger. But the point? Couldn’t be stronger.