Introduction - Online Equalizer
How your small business can outperform larger competitors online, using effective web marketing strategies!
The Internet as Equalizer
I've worked in a variety of Internet marketing roles for a number of years now, and there is one lesson I've learned above all else. When it comes to business competition, the Internet is the Great Equalizer.
In fact, that's the entire premise and title of this book. In this book, I will show you how to use the Internet to take your small business to the next level, closing in on your larger competitors in the process.
With effective Internet marketing strategies and a healthy dose of enthusiasm, small businesses can easily keep up with (and often surpass) their larger competitors online. I see it happen all the time, and it usually goes something like this:
The "little guy" approaches the Internet with enthusiasm and focus, using effective web-marketing strategies he or she picked up through research and experimentation. In contrast, the overly confident "big guy" keeps doing business as usual. Next thing you know, the smaller company starts pulling ahead of their larger competitor, in terms of website traffic, search engine rankings, and web-driven sales. In other words, David beats Goliath by being smarter online!
Like I said, I see it all the time. That's why I refer to the Internet as the Great Equalizer from a business standpoint. It's also why I've entitled this book "Online Equalizer."
Let me share a quick story with you, and then we will move on to the good stuff.
I once worked as a search engine optimization (SEO) specialist for an Internet marketing company in the Austin, Texas area. It was my job to improve the search engine rankings for our clients' websites, through keyword research, content development, link building, networking, and other SEO techniques.
One day, I was sitting in on a meeting with a custom home builder who was also a client of ours. I had only recently begun working on his website SEO program, so he felt the need to share certain frustrations with me (a common occurrence). By my client's estimation, his website should have enjoyed better search engine rankings than a particular competitor of his, who was currently outranking my client in all of the major search engines. My client expected better rankings and traffic levels because, as he put it, "we build a helluva lot more houses than that guy does."
You probably see where I'm going with this. I explained to my client that search engines do not "care" about things like sales volume or staff size. Search engines rank and reward websites based on the relevance of their content, the number of websites linking to them, the frequency of updates, and other factors deemed important for search engine ranking.
Here was yet another case of a smaller competitor outsmarting the larger competitor online, and capturing more website traffic and web-driven business as a result. It was another case of David beating Goliath, as the old story goes. It was another case of the Internet — the Great Equalizer — rewarding the "little guy" who was more active online than the "big guy."
Some companies think that, because of their size and age, they can simply put up a website and capture the lion's share of web traffic. These companies base their assumptions on a mixture of pride and ignorance.
Don't get me wrong. An older, well-established company has certain advantages online. Brand awareness is one of them. But a smaller company that is more active online, and more savvy with their Internet marketing, can easily outperform a larger competitor.
Here's what it all boils down to. These days, the Internet can make or break a company — especially a small- to medium-sized business. Good search engine rankings alone can easily triple a company's sales. That's how powerful the Internet can be for your small business.
Online, it does not matter how larger your budget is, or how long you've been in business. It only matters how effectively you drive traffic to your website, and how well you capitalize on that traffic.
These are the things I will teach you in this book.
Purpose and Objectives
The Internet has grown by leaps and bounds over the years. So the Internet marketing tactics that may have sufficed in the past are no longer sufficient. The Internet is a crowded place with a lot of noise, and — depending on your industry and niche — it can also be hypercompetitive.
So you need to work harder in order to make a web presence for yourself. That's one of the things you will learn in this book, how to create a successful web presence for your business.
So our mission statement and goals would look like this:
- To broaden your Internet presence so that your target audience (potential customers) has multiple ways to find you online.
- To increase the chance people will find you through search engines like Google when researching topics relevant to your business.
- To help you consistently increase your web traffic over time, thereby increasing your online inquiries and sales as well.
- To help you level the playing field between you and your larger competitors, by using the Internet as an equalizer.
How will we do all of this? We will do this by first establishing your web presence, and then ensuring that your web presence exceeds that of your competitors (or most of them, anyway). Lastly, we will look at some effective ways to capitalize on all of that newfound web traffic, by focusing on website conversions.
What's a Web Presence?
The Internet can be truly mind-boggling in scope. Today, the size of the web is measured in billions of individual documents, with millions of new documents coming online every year. These documents run the gamut from web pages to PDF documents, from audio files to images and beyond.
What's the end result of all this content? For one thing, it's harder to be found online than it used to be. So you have to work smarter and publish content through multiple channels to ensure your future "findability." And remember, being found online is the first step to being successful online.
The Need for a Web Presence, Illustrated
Let's look at a hypothetical scenario. For the sake of choosing a particular industry, let's say we operate a mortgage company in San Diego. (This example can be translated to any industry by the way, from financial consulting to auto-body specialists, and all things in between.)
There was a time, just a few short years ago, when only about a dozen mortgage companies in San Diego had websites. Websites used to be more expensive than they are today, and they took a lot longer to build and put online. On top of that, few mortgage companies felt the need to go online ten years ago. There wasn't the "Internet rush" that we see in today's business world.
So let's say that I put a new website online, catering to San Diego mortgage shoppers. If mine was one of only thirteen San Diego mortgage websites, that would make it really easy for people to find me online. If a search engine showed ten results on Page 1, I'd have a strong chance of being on that first page. Less competition, right?
Now flash forward to the present, where things have certainly changed!
It's 2007, and hundreds of San Diego mortgage companies are publishing websites and blogs online. In fact, when I search the phrase "San Diego mortgage company" in Google, I get more than two million results. That means there are more than two million individual documents online (and in the Google database) that somehow mention the phrase "San Diego mortgage company."
Even if you were to (A) eliminate repeat pages from the same websites, and (B) remove all web pages that were not owned by mortgage companies, you'd probably be left with at least 1,000 individual websites owned by mortgage companies. Search engines only show ten search results per page, so this means each of those 1,000 companies has something like a 1-in-100 chance of appearing on Page 1 of the search results.
This scenario could be applied to any type of industry or business: landscaping companies, software makers, lawyers and doctors ... you name it. The point is there's a lot more competition online these days, so you have to work harder to be found online. And you remember the mantra: Being found online is the first step to being successful online.
Sure, search engine optimization (SEO) can help you climb up through the search engine ranks. SEO is the act of improving a website for better search engine visibility and ranking. (We will cover the topic of SEO in detail later on.) But even if you do everything right from an SEO standpoint and reach the top two pages of search results, there is still only a 1-in-20 chance people will click through to your website, as opposed to one of the 19 other listings on those first two pages of search engine results.
So as a business owner, you can pretend the Internet isn't that big a deal, and then later on wonder why your business isn't growing. Or you can embrace the Internet and grow your business to exciting new levels. You could even surpass the Internet success of your larger competitors. If you choose the latter, you'll need a strong web presence. You need to give people more ways to find you online, and you need them to be thankful when they do find you.
That's what we're going to talk about throughout this book I won't waste your time with useless theories or unnecessary background information. I've stripped away all of that fluff. I will get right to the heart of things, by showing you the five fundamental pieces of your future web presence — the kind of web presence that can help you catch up with your larger competitors online.
Relieving the Marketing Burden
One of the primary benefits of a stronger web presence is the way it lifts part of your marketing burden off your shoulders. Here's what I mean by that:
Being active online is the first step to being visible online. In turn, online visibility is a key ingredient in online marketing success. When your business has a highly visible web presence, a certain burden gets lifted from your shoulders. With good online visibility, your audience can find you more easily, which means you don't have to rely as heavily on traditional outbound marketing techniques.
This brings up the ever-popular topics of search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), pay per click (PPC) and similar search engine visibility tactics. These are hot topics among businesses of all size, and with good reason. If more than 85% of your ideal prospects use the Internet to research products and services — and they do, by the way — you need to be visible online.
Another benefit to increasing your online activity and visibility is that you're tapping into something that is already taking place. Right now, there's plenty of online research taking place that's pertinent to your products or services. Regardless of what industry you're in, people are using the Internet and search engines to find the kinds of things your company offers. I can guarantee you that much.
So by increasing your online presence, you are taking advantage of Internet activity that is already taking place. You are plugging yourself into an existing and highly active marketplace.
I've mentioned the five-part web presence, and how it can help you catch up with (and even pass) your larger competitors online. In the chapters that follow, I'll explain each part of this web presence. You'll learn how these parts interact with and reinforce one another, and what you can do to maximize their effectiveness. In the process, you'll learn how to use the Internet — the Great Equalizer — to level the playing field in your favor.
So what are the five parts of this web presence?
The 5-Part Web Presence
- Business website
- Business blog
- Online articles
- Online press releases
- Website conversion (leads and sales)
If you don't have any of these elements going for you right now, you will get a lot out of this book. If you have one or two of these things in motion, you'll learn how to add the other parts to increase your Internet success.
And even if you have all of these things in operation, you'll still benefit from the information in this book. Because I'll show you how to work smarter, how to maximize your Internet marketing efforts, and how to achieve the best results possible without spending an unnecessary amount of time or money on it.
Don't be alarmed by the number of items on this list. In due time, you'll learn a variety of time-saving techniques, such as re-purposing web content to use for other channels, and these lessons will make things easier than they might seem at the moment.
The Parts are Good ... The Whole is Better!
Think of each action you take online as an investment in your future visibility, profitability and succcess. The more investments you make, the more visible you'll be to your target audience. The more visible you are to your target audience, the more likely you'll be to get a steady stream of qualified traffic to your website, your business blog, or both. And when you combine this kind of traffic with effective lead-generation and sales-generation techniques, you will enjoy a new level of growth and success.
Sounds good, yes? So let's dive right in. In the following chapters, we will examine each of the five items mentioned above in detail. But first, I want to talk about a topic that applies to all of the items listed above.
I want to talk about search engine visibility.