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Ideas for Adding Value to Businesses, besides just getting their webpage on the 1st Page of Google

by david2012brown
10 replies
I am just beginning my Internet Marketing Venture; actually I started a Landscaping Business; and I ranked my business on Google for all kinds of terms and now all my business comes from the Internet.

Anyhow, times are forcing me too move so I will need to dissolve my business; not like it was making me rich anyhow, but nonetheless I think I have a good handle on SEO.

However, I know that almost everyday I get a stupid email from someone telling me that I don't rank for most of my important keywords (which is untrue) and they can help me get on the first page of Google (however I already am on the 1st page).

But as a business owner I do not want to position myself as another SEO person; as the SEO spam to business owners has created a negative feeling towards SEO professionals. I want to work with the business to create them more sales; through ranking their website on the 1st page of Google; but also I want to incorporate more value and that is what I am having trouble with.

For me to charge $1,000 - $2,000.00 for local Internet Marketing I need to be bringing something to the table if I want to keep them around. I need to be generating them far more then $1,000 - $2,000 in sales. Most large city local search results only come back less then 100 exact search results per month so I don't know exactly how much I would generate them.

I know that for me my website generates me about $100,000 per year this includes the referral that come from the sale my website made. For me I would never pay someone $12,000.00 - $24,000 per year for $100k in sales.

I guess what else can be done to help bring more sales to the customer than just ranking them on the 1st page of Google.

One Idea I had was using Facebook; since word of mouth is the biggest and best form of marketing; and facebook is like word of mouth on steroids. What about for each customer that buys a product or a service; give them a discount or a rebate if they write a review about their experience and blast it out to all their facebook friends. I am not sure how exactly you would go about doing that to prove that they did it or what the discount would be. Maybe the more friends they had the more of a discount or rebate they would get.

Another Idea that I kind of used with my own website is that if you offer a service; use your website to sell products related to your service. As an example maybe a sun tan place also advertises their sun tanning lotions on the website; or a trucking company can advertise mulch, topsoil, and organic compost that they can deliver.

Just trying to think outside the box. I am sure some of the seasoned Veterans have good ideas for certain local business niches that they are in that they have used to successfully increase the bottom line of their client's companies.

Thanks in Advance!
#1st #adding #businesses #google #ideas #page #webpage
  • Profile picture of the author Doran Peck
    Saturation direct mail postcards. Its extremely inexpensive...and quite frankly...it trumps local google ranking.

    1. Google ranking only gets seen by the tiny fraction of people who have figured out that they even need to go looking for a particular service.
    It completely bypasses everyone else who you and your client both know could certainly use their services but are still drifting blissfully in the dark. - and this is almost the entire population, for most businesses...thats alot of potential prospects being missed.

    2. Direct Mail gets seen by everybody every single day. Your monthly mailers will not get response by everyone, but they will read it...and above the percentage of responders, you are getting the opportunity to educate the masses, nudging them closer to the light, keeping your clients name fresh on their mind...branding. - and while all their competition is sitting around twittling their thumbs waiting for peeps to find them in the Yellowpages or on Google, your clients will be sucking in the market share at an accelerated rate, because they are constantly "out there" right in front of the faces of every single potential client simultaneously.

    For local marketing, direct mail is the game changer. No other medium can reach every possible prospect with 100% consistency - not even the internet.

    At the very least, direct mail should be active and in the mix of your clienta marketing push.
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  • Profile picture of the author tdm60
    Hello david2012brown
    You might want to ask your prospective clients do they have an email list of their clients, and if not you can help them build one. (A List is the key to repeat business online and offline) By your ability to rank their site high they will be able to capture emails from the TIRE kickers. Good Luck.
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  • Profile picture of the author Danielm
    Originally Posted by david2012brown View Post


    I know that for me my website generates me about $100,000 per year this includes the referral that come from the sale my website made. For me I would never pay someone $12,000.00 - $24,000 per year for $100k in sales.
    What if you didn't have the knowledge on how to setup and rank your website to pull in 100k of business per year from it? I'd think that if you told most new businesses that you get 100k of business from a 12k investment they'd be very interested.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sondor
    $12k to $24k to rank a landscaping business is outrageous. For that, yes, you would need to include much, much more than a Google Places optimization and a couple animoto videos...

    I'm not in a top ten, but am in a top 100 market, and I'd charge $300-$500 a month for a full service package for that niche. Would you pay $3,600-$6,000 for $100k in annual sales? I sure hope so!
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  • Profile picture of the author Danielm
    I wasn't really thinking of the standpoint of just Places and some video ranking. But more the idea, even removed from internet marketing, that if you approached a new business and said, "right now you make nothing, if I could get you 100k a year, would you give me 12k?"
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  • Profile picture of the author MaxReferrals
    Focus on two things, which is all a business owner really cares about anyhow:

    1. How the biz owner can get more customers
    2. How the biz owner can generate more sales/income

    Actually, I should add a third: 3. How they can have more freedom in their life.

    For most, #3 is a greater driver than #1 or #2 (my opinion).

    And #2 can easily be misconstrued as "working" more.... which using the power of online, we know isn't always the case.

    In any event, congrats on taking action mate!

    HIH
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    • Profile picture of the author david2012brown
      Originally Posted by MaxReferrals View Post

      Focus on two things, which is all a business owner really cares about anyhow:

      1. How the biz owner can get more customers
      2. How the biz owner can generate more sales/income

      Actually, I should add a third: 3. How they can have more freedom in their life.

      For most, #3 is a greater driver than #1 or #2 (my opinion).

      And #2 can easily be misconstrued as "working" more.... which using the power of online, we know isn't always the case.

      In any event, congrats on taking action mate!

      HIH

      This is an excellent post; it really had me thinking. I guess my natural thinking was that you should always try to show how you can increase their bottom line. While this is true, when dealing with business owners, there is more emotion behind how a increase in bottom line will afford them more freedom.

      Such as; it will allow them to hire that full time foreman and spend less time on the field and more time concentrating on sales. Or if they are larger, show them how this might allow them to be less involved in the day to day activities and more on the general oversight of the company or give them more time to spend with their kids. Show them how this is the step the could make them own their business and not have the business own them.

      I guess it is fundamental sales; appeal to their emotions. Find out what stresses them out the most and then show them how you can fix it. Maybe the owner hates laying people off; and feels very badly when he has too, or maybe he can not stomach his unemployment insurance going up anymore; now just show him show them how this will solve that problem.
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      • Profile picture of the author ZachWaldman
        I have several local clients that allow me to automatically charge their credit cards every month for the services I offer.

        The way I increase their bottom line is through lead generation.

        Here's some of what I do:

        1. I give them an education on sales letters. Local businesses hardly ever use them and it has to be explained to them why they're so powerful. Next, I offer to write their sales letter for them. Good copywriters can get $10,000 for this service alone.

        2. I redesign their website. I use ithemes and build them a killer site. The front page is the sales letter I wrote them.

        3. I do keyword research and start getting them on the first page of Google for various search terms. I explain to them that each search term I rank them for is a new project.

        4. I sell them aweber through my affiliate link and then I set it up for them.

        5. Their website gets traffic from Google, the sales page convinces people to opt-in for a freebie, Aweber follows up and the business gets leads.

        For all of that, I charge an upfront fee, followed by a monthly fee for hosting, maintenance, and of course, continued SEO work.

        Hope this helps!
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        Zach Waldman - Los Angeles Magician
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  • Profile picture of the author bdavisx
    To answer your question "Would you pay me $12,000 (or $24,000) if I could bring in $100,000 in new business for you?": You need to know the profit margin on what new business you are bringing them. If I have a 30% profit margin, and I'm already making enough money to survive on, then if you get me $100k more, that gives me $30k profit. Would I pay someone $12k to help me make $18k ($30k - $12k). That's a no-brainer, of course I would - some business owners are going to be worried that you can't deliver on your $100k though.

    You have to be able to reverse the risk on something like that though if you don't already have a reputation for delivering. How do I know if I pay you the $12k, I'm going to end up with the new business? How will you track that you even brought me the new $100k?

    This is why you have to sit down with the owner and determine what the lifetime value of a customer is, what the profit margin is on new business, etc.

    There are also business owners who will think that they're getting a bad deal from the above scenario, you can try to educate them, but it's not possible for many of them.
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    Local Search and Marketing Strategies

    Bloomington Landscaping
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  • Profile picture of the author david2012brown
    Thanks Zack, great info - thanks for the ideas!
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