SEO. One of those mysterious tech TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms).   As a business coach, whenever I discuss outsourcing search engine optimisation (SEO) with my clients, I always find myself equating it with sending your car off to the mechanic; you may be left wondering “The bill was big but did they really do anything?”. (At least with your mechanic, you’ll know the problem has been fixed when that mysterious banging noise stops!) The objective for businesses doing SEO should be to get your website in the top 3 of organic search results. Why? Because 59% of clicks are from ...

The latest topic in our Business Marketing Essentials series is case studies. "Is your service/product/business worth my time and money?"   That's the risk that stops people from buying from you. And case studies are like a virtual reality answer. Telling a story about a customer’s problem and the solutions you provided gives people a way to virtually try you on. They get a feel for what they can expect to experience when they choose to engage your business. It sounds very simple and yet so many get this marketing strategy all wrong. Too often case studies wind up being boring, ...

Many of our coaching clients have driven traffic to their website by implementing search engine optimisation (SEO) and content marketing strategies. But, there’s no way around it – SEO is a long-game strategy with no guarantees. What’s more, achieving (and maintaining) a first page ranking for a the most relevant (and therefore popular) keywords can be extremely difficult, if not impossible. That’s why we advise our business clients who need to quickly drive relevant, qualified traffic to their website to consider supplementing their SEO strategy by running a Google Ads campaign. What are Google Ads? Google Ads are the pay-per-click ...

We always advise our coaching clients that if there’s one thing they must understand about Google it is this: Google’s main focus (their ‘why’) is to help their users find exactly what they are searching for. In fact, they want to be so helpful to their users that no other search engine can compete. So far, they’re definitely kicking that goal. But to stay in that top podium position, Google cannot afford to rest on their laurels. That’s why they change things up so often – they’re always looking for new ways to be faster, more precise and more helpful ...

Did you know that the human brain processes visual information 60,000 times faster than text? Here’s another number: 1 billion. That’s the number of people using Instagram each month. And they keep signing up in droves. With those two things in mind, there’s no question that increasing your business’ profile on a visual social media platform that almost one-in-seven of the world’s consumers regularly use is a solid marketing decision. In fact, many of our coaching clients are seeing great results from their Instagram strategy – especially those in the trades. This is because there is a visual element to ...

Ask any business owner about their morning routine and I can guarantee that one of the first things (if not the first thing) they do upon waking is pick up their smartphone… and check their email. In fact, according a survey by ExactTarget, 77% of customers prefer to receive permission-based marketing via email (that’s over social, direct mail, text or phone). Email is also famous for reportedly being 40x more effective at acquiring new customers (when compared with Facebook or Twitter). Forty times. That’s a compelling number. 7 reasons why we mentor our business coaching clients to add email to ...

LinkedIn. It’s the ‘middle child’ of the social media family – it doesn’t feel like it gets a lot of love and it hasn’t always been that sure about where it fits in to your marketing strategy. But this misunderstood business networking site presents an untapped opportunity for business owners - especially those operating within the business-to-business (B2B) space. I mentor my business coaching clients to incorporate LinkedIn to their marketing plan because it’s a H2H (human to human) strategy that puts you in direct contact with the people you want to do business with. LinkedIn: no longer where CV’s ...

It can be tempting as a business owner to pop marketing on your ‘to do’ list and just never get around to it. If it isn’t your ‘zone of genius’, then marketing can feel too hard, or too time consuming. Indeed, non-core business activities can often seem like they’re robbing you of time you could be spending on doing the work (you know – the thing you do that actually makes you money). BUT If you aren’t marketing your business then you are leaving money on the table. Without a steady stream of new customers, you’ll inevitably see a drop ...