This post is the second of 5 posts discussing 4 digital sales essentials for small business.
1. Overview, 2. Mobile, Web, SEO, 3. Compelling Offers/Clear Messages,
4. Automatic Lead Capture CRM & Follow UP, 5. Expertise-Execution
Mobile Web SEO
The Google Search Engine algorithm has become today's Yellow-Pages... And much more.
Winning here is essential.
Google dominates “search.” (Advanced Course: YouTube, Bing, Amazon, Yelp and Yahoo all matter but….) winning Google is essential to small business customer prospecting.
You must “get found” in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) and you must beat your competition there.
Then, when “searchers” click to your website, it must be much, much, more than a brochure. It has to try a lot harder. Studies show that customers have made over 70% of their buying decision before they ever talked to anyone at the business. Your website should make the sale, or at least most of it, by being better than the alternatives.
“Can I make a website?” is the wrong question.
“Can I make the sale online?” is the right question.
Everyone interested in your business will go to the website when they search for the service or product you provide. You have to “hook” them right then.
The “first-to-eyeball” messages must resonate, and entice engagement. This leads to phone or email contact, and CRM relationships.
Because if you don’t, your competition is a simple click away.
(You know this, right?)
Why “Mobile”? Why Web? Why SEO?
The majority of web searches happen on phones or tablets.
Google has specifically declared the algorithm favors, modern websites that are designed to be fully responsive for use on phones. The current web design ethos is to design for mobile first, and desktop second. It’s just a fact of web life. If your site does not work well on a phone, it will actually hurt your ability to “get found” on a good, old-fashioned desktop.
Also, while I am talking about essentials,” a secure, “https” designation is essential now.
Why Web?
The front door, the “portal” to your company is the web. And that “door” must open to interactions that are…uh… “interactive,” satisfying and enticing, and recorded in your CRM. Answers, offers, products, services, interactive assessments…THIS IS YOUR COMPANY ONLINE, and it’s the first “relationship”.
First impressions matter. Your website must engage and “sell” at least as well as you do. Or better!
And here is the most important point:
Everything… EVERYTHING that happens on your website (and email, etc.) should be recorded in your contact files automatically. Any coherent digital strategy is measurable for ROI. Anything measured gets better and yields selling knowledge.
“Can I make a website?” is the wrong question.
“Can I make the sale and a create a satisfied customer online?” is the right question.
Think “portal” rather than brochure. Think interaction with potential customers. Think offers, forms, automatic email responses, direct CRM connections, mailing lists, custom advertising landing pages and social media, actively and directly integrated into a dynamic web portal selling-machine! Your webpage is just the “pretty face” of all these dynamic interactive efforts. It talks back! And it sells.
Think about potential customers. Your digital impression is a dominant impression. It’s essential that it is impressive.
And “Why SEO?”
SEO is Search Engine Optimization. Until recently, SEO has been geeky, wonky, weird, and sometimes even kind of irrelevant to actual sales and selling. And there is still plenty of weird, under the hood - sophisticated SEO things that really high-end marketers can do.
But for a typical small business, those days are largely gone.
SEO is integral to marketing. It is the new normal marketing, for successful web and inbound marketing.
Google wants small business to have a fighting chance against the big guys, and they do. Today, the Google algorithm has become so sophisticated, that it largely does reward “merit.” If you provide significant value to "web searchers", your website will rank well. Still, there are specific signals that Google openly asks us to send to them, that tell them a site deserves to be ranked highly. And, there are specific differences to optimizing for national audiences vs. local audiences.
And yes, keywords and content quality and quantity still matter.
But today, SEO has become less, a wonky technical exercise, and more, just plain good old valuable sensible products and services, answers to questions, and smart marketing.
Having said that: An SEO expert is essential. An SEO strategy is essential. It’s essentially marketing and sales.
So… Mobile-Web-SEO… getting the basics really, really right, is essential.
Up Next:
Compelling Offers/Clear Messages
If you missed any of the posts in this series and are interested, here they are:
1. Overview
2. Mobile, Web, SEO
3. Compelling Offers/Clear Messages,
4. Automatic Lead Capture CRM & Follow UP
5. Expertise-Execution
