Brad Halcrow
Search Engine Marketing: a recent experience.
Some of you may already be aware that less people are looking to traditional directories for businesses in their immediate area. So where do they look? You guessed it, they ‘Google it’. Local Search is becoming increasingly popular. Let’s face it, how many enquiries have you had through the Yellow Pages lately? How much are you spending with them?
- Of 2,866 people surveyed, 70% had used the Internet to search for a local business such as ‘accountant’.
- 49% used a regional term (eg: “accountant in Ashgrove”)
Source: Greg Sterling of Search Engine Watch.
I recently embarked on a campaign to a) attract more customers for my own Web Design company and b) find a reliable search engine expert I’d be happy to for my own clients.
“But you’re a web designer” I hear you say. Exactly, I strongly believe in specialists. ie: Specialising so you become focused and guru-like at your specific field. Web Design covers a lot of fields.
Unfortunately I didn’t find the right company right away. As the saying goes, I learnt the hard way. One particular company, a big, Australian player in the industry, were, what I thought, ‘efficient’. I mistook a simple ‘Sign up and we’ll get you visitors’ for ‘Give us your money and we’ll catch you later’.
I soon realised when 2 weeks had gone by and I hadn’t heard from them, nor had I heard from any prospective customers either.
I did more research. Armed with more information, I gave them a call. It was the single most buck-passing, lack-lustre attitude you could possibly hope to encounter. The more I learnt the more I realised their practises were not so much lazy, as downright dodgy.
Luckily, I soon found Gary from Small Business Internet Marketing, an accredited Adwords Qualified Professional. The difference was immediately obvious, as have been the results.
The Comparison
The first company had a ‘can-do, good old fashioned sales guy’ attitude. I asked him if they could help optimise my landing pages, he said their CEO would contact me to help with that – Great! (He never did) By the time he asked me to ‘reach for the plastic’ I did so.
Gary instead, insisted we meet. He explained everything. I realised just how much there is to know and why it’s so important to hire a specialist (not just your local web guy who ‘can do it all’).
He’s also an accredited Business Consultant. We met again to run through a 2 hour process to help me better understand my business and therefore create an effective marketing strategy and to ensure an outcome was achievable. Even before proceeding with the campaign he was focused on achieving an outcome, not getting me to ‘reach for my plastic’.
Company A = 17 visitors in 2 weeks || SBIM = 3 visitors in 3 hours.
If you’re serious about generating enquiries through your website, I don’t want you going through what I did, just contact me and I’ll put you in touch or you could even contact them directly at Small Business Internet Marketing.
Nice Web Type – How to use CSS @font-face
Nice Web Type – How to use CSS @font-face.The Pomodoro Technique
A simple and affective approach to Getting Things Done. Put simply, strong focus for 25 minutes, rewarded by a 5 minute break. Could get a little monotonous, certainly worth a try if focus is not your strength. The Pomodoro Technique.Digital camera’s – Is more megapixels better?
Your average salesman at Hardly Normals will tell you that the more megapixels your camera has the clearer the picture. This is not necessarily true. Most compact digital camera’s nowadays have very small image sensors compared to the trusty old 35mm film. The problem with is that by trying to cram so many pixels on such a small sensor, the fidelity of each pixel quickly begins to deteriorate.
It’s the quality of each pixel that will make all the difference.
The result will quickly become evident if you’re trying to take pictures in low light conditions. In this instance the sensor’s sensitivity is is cranked and you’ll get a noisy picture.
So do your research, ask around and listen to people other than the salesman. Have a look at other peoples photos and zoom them up.
It’s a good reminder; more is not necessarily more.