Every business, everyday, is asking their customers for the sale. Online or brick and mortar; it makes no difference. That’s a lot to ask for. Because you are not only asking for their hard earned dollars but also the acceptance of all the qualifiers that come along with that:

• Trust: the product or service lives up to expectations.
• Security: the safety of the transaction and all related information.
• Dependability: the promise that you will be there well after the sale.
• Value: the product or service is “worth it”

Let’s face it; there are a lot of different products and services they can choose from. The Internet has opened up the entire world to freely sell well beyond the “mall walls” that once surrounded them. CBS News ran an interesting feature yesterday, noting the Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz, discussing the world of choices and how having so many has actually made us LESS happy. (The topic of “happiness” is a whole ‘nother article.)

So if customers have so many choices, why wouldn’t you make it easier to choose YOU?

Take the web experience, for example. Do you like to get to a website and have the site ask you to install software to see their information? No. It would be easier if you were just simply presented with the information. Alternatively, I can click my back button and check out your competitors in my search results…maybe they make it easier.

I saw something interesting at TomPeters.com. He recently released a new version of his slide presentation, yet used a font that most people would not have on their computers. He suggests that you purchase it. While I’m a huge fan of design and branding, and would love for the world to use Frutiger as their default font, I realize that for people to see my message, I need to use the tools that are most accessible to them. I am already asking them for their business - their money - I do not want to ask them for more than that.

Peters, the exceptional professional that he is, realized this was a mistake and gracefully restored order by revising the presentation using fonts that everyone typically has available, and offering those that did purchase the font a free book.

Morale(s) of the story:

1. Make it difficult for your customers and you will lose them (with them goes their money)
2. If you make a mistake, fix it. The go over and above and make the customers smile.
3. Not everyone is Tom Peters. Learn from him. He’s human.

Internet marketing goes well beyond the walls of the Internet and search engines and optimization and all those buzzwords we are fed on a daily basis. Most good marketing stems from common sense. Common sense says, “Why be difficult?” Ask yourself that every step of the way and always keep in the back of your mind this: your customers are paying for every word, every image every bell and whistle you put on your site. Make sure that everything you do provides the customer with the four qualifiers and you will make the potential of them giving you their hard earned dollars that much easier…and regular!
Technorati Tags: internet marketing, website, marketing, sales, Lead Generation, Marketing Strategy

Yesterday Single Throw spent a very worthwhile morning at a Memory Training Seminar sponsored by business, sales and marketing seminar promoter Move Ahead 1. At our booth, the question always seemed to evolve around the same thing: “How do we show up for XYZ in Google.” (Replacing XYZ, of course, with what you feel is the be-all-end-all phrase that everyone that needs your product or service is madly typing in right at this very minute.)

Everyone wants that “secret.” No matter how many times you try to explain, “There is no secret,” they still think you’re holding out. I imagine they’re thinking, “Hey, they have a successful business doing just that. Of course there’s a secret.” Wrong.

I can understand why people think there’s a “secret.” It’s in the news, both in business categories and consumer headlines. There’s huge conferences built around it, with next week welcoming one of the leading annuals right here in New York City. Each conference, article, book, news headline and email spam makes us want to know…Search Engine Strategies, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Growing Your Business with Google, 20 Great Google Secrets, Google Secrets from Information Week, and I can go on adding some of the great resources out there as well as the never ending list of misinformation, but I won’t. (Just do a search in Google for Google secrets!)

Here’s the point. All these conferences, articles, books, news headlines, and spam emails exist for one main reason: there is NO secret! There are lots of tips, techniques, great ideas and almost daily revelations but there’s no single tip or secret. And there is no answer of how your site can be number one for this, or even show up for that.

There are things you should be doing that will help though. First and foremost, understand it’s not about being number one in Google, or Yahoo! or MSN for that matter. It IS about your viewers. Finding out exactly what they are looking for is a step in the right direction, because showing up in Google for XYZ means nothing if your target customer isn’t even looking for that.

So we’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. You can find all kinds of tips about showing up in the search engines. To make that have a positive effect on your bottom line is whole nothing column, or 10 or 100…

Visit the Search Engine Strategies Conference in NY

Technorati Tags: google, google secrets, search engine optimization, Internet Marketing

We have this discussion in our office all the time. It’s like the battle of the Italian Americans and those that grew up around them.

In my parent’s house, it’s sauce. Period. Sunday sauce. Meat sauce. If it’s red, it’s sauce. “Gravy is brown,” Dad always said.

Ask Single Throw’s CEO Larry Bailin who grew up in north Jersey, and it’s gravy.

Now ask yourself, if you had a website that featured Italian recipes, which terminology would use? Most people go with what they call it. Me, I’d make a site that featured recipes of the great sauces of Italy. But would my site - one that would likely appeal to even gravy lovers around the world - ever be found by them in the search engines? Not necessarily. And if it was, would they even click on it, knowing full well the two “may” be the same thing? Probably not.

First, simply speaking, the site that is most relevant to the search request will show up first. So “sauce” sites will likely show up for “sauce” requests before those that feature only “gravy” references. Secondly, if I am looking for “sauce” I am more likely to choose the site that says “sauce” not “gravy” as I know it matches my needs - even though in the back of my head they could be the same thing. (Although I hear my Dad’s words over and over again!)

So what’s the big deal? It’s this: the new world of Internet Marketing has introduced us all to new tools and skills that allow us to find out exactly what your customers are looking for. Don’t give them “sauce” if they are looking for “gravy” even though you think they are the same. They are not to the person with that specific need in their head. And they will choose the site that meets their exact needs first.

Mangia!

Read more about it…
About.com Italian Food article
Wikipedia definition of Tomato Sauce
Slow Travel Talk Forum Discussion
Technorati Tags: internet marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Marketing, SEM, tomato sauce

We hear that a lot lately. At work. At home. On TV. It’s all in our heads…all this “forgotten stuff.” There’s a lot to remember on a daily basis, both in our regular lives and our work lives. It’s stressful, isn’t it?

So how do we combat it? From a business perspective, there’s a TON to absorb, process and regurgitate on a daily basis. When we are completing an Internet marketing program for our clients, each member of our team has a hit list of questions they need answered. It’s an organized process of steps that we do not stray from.

That sounds great in a process situation, but what happens when someone throws a brick through the window (figuratively speaking, that is)? What happens when you need to adapt to a new set of requirements? We have to regroup and retrain ourselves and resort back to the one item we all have: our brain! That means we have to resort to absorb, process and recall to get the job done.

Since the advent of the personal computer, we’ve all become more reliant on these advanced systems to help keep track of what we need to do. In doing so, we tend to forget even more since our brain is a muscle and needs to experience fitness activities, just like what we pay to maintain our bodies at Bally’s and other similar venues.

Memory training and brain teasers will help you to retain and recall more. You will forget less and make your job - and life - easier.

So bottomline: stop going out of your mind! Train your brain! Here’s some recommended reading and events to help you on the way to remembering more, making your job and life better!

The Brain . . . Use It or Lose It, an article found on New Horizons For Learning
Brainbashers: Brain Teasers and Puzzles
Memory Training with Guinness World Record Holder Ron White (an event being held in New Jersey February 23rd)

Technorati Tags: internet, internet marketing, marketing, memory, Brain