Convinced You Need A USP?

Part Four of Four

Here’s something I hear fairly often from clients.

“I don’t want a USP because I’m afraid to limit myself.”

I understand. When I started my online lead generation company, I stated that I offered a wide range of services including copywriting, offline marketing services, web design, graphic design, and other marketing and advertising services. Marketing Results can provide all these services today but several years ago, I simplified my USP and focused my website and my marketing on one service that’s vital to small businesses: online lead generation. Two things happened:

• 110% increase in enquiries.
• Much higher quality of lead…fewer tyre-kickers.

You would think that making potential clients aware of all the services you offer would increase the number of leads but precisely the opposite is true, as I discovered. One reason? Potential clients focus on the one service we provide that solves a specific problem: not enough qualified leads. Adjunctive services are not a distraction. This focus makes our marketing significantly easier and it makes the message easier to understand.

To develop this focus, identify a gap in your industry and choose the service you provide that fills this gap. Start by asking these questions.

1. What do people currently dislike about our industry?
2. What are our competitors’ weaknesses?
3. What specific needs are being unmet in the market?

Another client is Loans Approved, a mortgage broker specializing in serving the needs of property investors. The mortgage business is extremely competitive. We worked with the managing director to achieve marketing focus (and a much better USP). Every mortgage broker can handle a simple first home loan application but very few understand how to structure multiple loans for long-term success. Banks will structure loans on their terms unless and it turns out this can handcuff property investors and keep them from buying as many homes as they could.

The tagline for Loans Approved is…

The Property Investor’s Mortgage Broker.

Loans Approved goes well beyond this tagline. The company also provides prospects with the latest education and advice—specifically special reports and newsletters; the information reinforces their place in the market as THE experts in this highly specialized field. Prospects know precisely why it makes more sense for property investors to deal with Loans Approved than a bank or ‘one stop shop.’

Expertise in a specific niche can be a very powerful USP, especially on the Internet. Becoming more focused in a specific niche means you dominate a playing field which is always more successful than trying to secure some turf in a market that’s commoditized.

Sometimes, when I consult with a business to help them improve their online results, the company has a USP. But it’s a “faux USP” or a USP that’s not appealing to the target market. The classic faux USP is the One Stop Shop. For example:

“We’re a one stop shop for anyone interested in building wealth. I’m an accountant and I have a mortgage broker and a financial planner and a conveyancer to whom I can refer clients.”

The one stop shop sounds extremely convenient. Unfortunately, this strategy rarely works for small businesses. Why? There’s no focus and the prospect gets no sense you’re an expert. People will pay for expertise or specialization; in fact, they’ll pay MORE. There’s a reason heart surgeons and brain surgeons are paid much, much more than general doctors. If you went to see a knee specialist, I’m confident you would find it weird if the doctor said,

“I also perform open heart surgery.”

On the Internet, especially with search, prospective clients are looking for specific answers to specific problems. If you’re a small business, trying to solve too many problems is a mistake. Yes, the patient looking for a knee operation might need a new heart; the knee specialist refers the patient to the cardiologist. Yes, the knee doctor can help patients with a variety of ailments but he promotes himself as a specialist with a narrow focus.

Even big companies that offer a wide range of services stick to advertising they offer one solution. Again, take the example of FedEx. They sell themselves as offering just one solution (overnight package delivery) but they offer full logistics services.

Don’t tell anyone, but, at Marketing Results, we’re a one stop shop for lead generation and marketing. But our focus is providing a single solution: online lead generation. We don’t emphasize all the services we offer: AdWords management, conversion rate optimization, and search engine optimization—plus design, copywriting, and more. But the marketing center of gravity in the eyes of the prospect is getting leads through the Internet.

Here’s the real beauty of focus. Once you’ve solved the client’s problem the client trusts you, you can ask for additional business in related fields. Our USP helps us find clients because it’s extremely focused. Here’s the full version.

As Australia’s leading internet lead generation experts,
Marketing Results uses sophisticated web analytics to
precisely understand how visitors are interacting with your
website, then leverage proven traffic and conversion
strategies to cut marketing waste, expand your reach and
effectiveness and boost website profits by 2 to 21 times
(based on over 5 years of documented client results).

Again, we provide all the competencies necessary to help our clients. But the focus is lead generation. Clients don’t care that we offer all the services—all they want is qualified leads!

Final USP Thoughts

Online, a well-built USP plays a vital role keeping visitors on your website and letting prospects know you can solve a problem. When I’m working with clients, the first step is to write a compelling USP then base all the marketing around the USP. And remember, positioning is 50 times more important, and profitable, than branding.

A USP is not a slogan and a slogan is Not a USP…Crafting a Powerful USP and the Qualities of a Successful USP

Part Three of Four

A tagline is a short sentence or phrase that’s often part of, or next to, a logo. Here are some examples of taglines.

• Built Ford Tough
• USAirways: Fly with US
• YouTube: Broadcast Yourself
• Papa John’s: Papa’s in the House

A tagline is NOT the same as a USP. Your tagline is usually too short to communicate your entire USP. However, a great tagline quickly summarizes the full USP and communicates the key selling proposition in one or two seconds. A USP can be a few words or it can be full paragraph. Defining then encapsulating into what makes you different, unique, and desirable is more important than word county.

Remember, the successful USP answers this question: why should a potential client or customer buy from you? When answering this question, promise something special your competitors cannot deliver. Before we create your UPS, take a look at these excellent examples.

• SpeedFedEx: When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.
• Quality/SelectionWoolworth’s: The Fresh Food People
• GuaranteeCraftsman Tools: If any Craftsman hand tool fails to provide complete
  satisfaction, return it for free repair or replacement. Period. The first
  Craftsman hand tool we sold back in 1927 is still under warranty today.

Just as some taglines are poor, many USPs are awful. These approaches are too vague plus they are not unique.

• “Good Quality and Low Prices.”
• “Affordable Quality Since 1984.”
• “Service With A Smile.”
• “Excellence In Quality And Service.”

These USPs are commonplace and they scream, THESE COMPANIES KNOW NOTHING ABOUT MARKETING AND ARE DOOMED TO FAIL.

Four steps to creating a bulletproof USP.

STEP ONE. Choose your category. USPs are grouped into one of these:

Price. Quality. Service. Speed. Selection. Convenience. Guarantee. Customisation. Originality. Specialisation.

STEP TWO. Crystallise and communicate your unique strengths by asking yourself these four questions:

1. What do you offer your competitors don’t?
2. Is #1 important to your customers?
3. How easy is it for competitors to copy?
4. Can it be communicated easily?

Ask your current clients and customers what they like about your products and services.

STEP THREE. Flesh out the concepts. These concepts are broad. For example, if you choose ‘Service’ as your category, you have to say more and be more specific than “We Give GREAT Service.” This type of cliché will not convince someone to stay on your website.

STEP FOUR. Lay on the proof.

We use these steps with our clients before we take any of the steps necessary to generate leads.

How Would You Like an 800% Increase in Sales?

We built a USP for a client who sells stickers, primarily customized bumper stickers: CustomizedStickers.com; we proved that even a product as seemingly simple as a sticker can benefit from a USP. Here’s how we answered the USP formation questions.

What they offer: Customized Stickers only offers low prices on full colour stickers, but they also include added benefits at no extra charge: a free artwork service, unlimited colours, plus UV-resistant coatings.

Is it important to the customer? Yes. Stickers are a “commodity” item and customers are typically price-sensitive. Many potential customers resent the extra cost and inconvenience of getting artwork designed separately. All-in-one pricing is simpler and more transparent; customers like the ‘no hidden charges’ benefit.

Is it easy for competitors to copy? Competitors could copy these advantages but with great difficulty. Customized Stickers is the first to claim this space and can back up the promise through their unique production process. They can cost-effectively offer the added value of not injecting hidden charges.

Can it be communicated? Yes. The tagline? Full Colour Stickers at a 1-Colour Price. The content on the website augments, enhances, and buttresses the promise.

The result?

Customized Stickers clearly defined their USP and built their traffic generation and conversion around their USP. In 18 months, we helped Customized Stickers boost their online sales by over 800% to more than $2 million.

 … to be continued.

The following is a feature article from Jaaved Khatree, SEO Strategist at 123SEO.

In the last quarter of 2010, there were more smartphones sold than PCs, for the first time in history. In mid 2011, consumers were spending more time on smartphones and mobile devices than on their PCs.

There’s now more people accessing the Internet from more devices, from more places than ever before, and this is a big deal for business owners and retailers.

Why? Because 79% of smartphone users in Australia use their devices for online shopping but a vast majority of Australian retailers don’t have a smartphone-friendly website. So when your customers are visiting your website on their mobile device, it doesn’t look half as impressive as it does when viewing it on a PC.

It doesn’t make for a great visual experience (tiny text, very large images, Flash, etc) and couple this with the generally slower loading times on mobile networks, your potential customers start to fade away quickly – and all because your site wasn’t optimised for a mobile device.

But it’s a relatively easy problem to solve – all it takes is a bit of time and dedication to provide a complete user experience, no matter where or how your customer accesses your website.

The trick is to keep it very, very simple. From navigation to calls to action to information. This is not meant to be like your regular website with all the bells and whistles. Know what your customer wants when they visit your website and make this the centre of attention. For example, if you’re a removalist, you’ll want to make your ‘free quote’ button big and clear as well as your contact number. Your customer should be able to get information easily without scrolling or navigating too much. There’s no need for fancy imagery either as this just adds to the load time which we want to minimise at all costs.

The other trick is to make your site work with any mobile device, since the screen sizes vary significantly. A key is to use responsive CSS when styling up your website as the site will stretch/shrink based on the screen of the device it’s being viewed on.

If the desktop version of your site is Flash based, there’s no need to replicate that on your mobile site as Flash doesn’t render on the iPhone/iPad and also adds to page load times. Stick to HTML and keep it simple yet classy. If you’re wondering about SEO, it’s actually very easy to optimise for a mobile site. Using clear headings, dot points and concise paragraphs that succinctly provide information whist using your target keywords, you can easily dominate the mobile space.

Now while you’re working on your mobile friendly website, you might be considering an app. It’s generally a lot more affordable and easier to develop and maintain a mobile website than a mobile app. Of course, there are many instances where an app makes sense but it doesn’t remove the need for a mobile friendly website. With mobile set to explode in 2012 in every way from usage to Internet connectivity to commerce, a website that displays correctly on a mobile device is an absolute necessity.

A Strong USP is Much More Important (and Profitable) than Branding

Part Two of Four

If you’ve read marketing books, been to conferences, or sat down with a marketing or advertising consultant, you may have heard the word ‘branding.’ For small business owners, it’s an extremely dangerous word: you can quickly waste tens of thousands of dollars on branding at the recommendation of a branding consultant or advertising agency that uses words like ‘brand-centric’ or similar nonsense. Ask a branding agency or a branding consultant about results. Ask them to show the actual revenue their latest ‘branding’ campaign produced. If you’re an owner or a marketing manager at a small or mid-sized business, be extremely wary when you hear amorphous marketing chatter about “building your online brand” and “leveraging brand equity.”

It’s tempting to listen to the branding experts and hand them money. After all, big companies spend money on branding so it must produce an ROI, right? Let’s take a quick look at branding and what it really means. To “brand” a product or service is to imprint your mark on it. Branding started to differentiate items that look similar…like horses and cattle.

The goal of branding is to increase awareness. Companies pour money into branding campaigns because they want to imprint the brand into the mind of the consumer, increase awareness, and create a certain feeling. The hope: when it’s time to make a buying decision, the consumer will recognize the brand, like its associations, remember the funny ad he or she saw on TV last night, remember the ‘certain feeling’ and buy ‘Brand X’ over all the other brands. Although it’s difficult to measure, branding can be effective for large companies that sell a mass-market service or product. And you must have deep, deep pockets to buy TV time and radio spots plus big ads in newspapers and magazines.

In one of his blogs, Dan Kennedy, widely regarded as one the top small business marketing experts (and an excellent marketer himself), writes:

“I do counsel AGAINST investing directly into brand-building, especially with large-company style ‘image’ advertising that cannot be accurately and ruthlessly held accountable.”

Kennedy has a brand called “No B.S. Marketing” but it’s not where Kennedy spends his marketing money. And Dan Kennedy’s brand is Dan Kennedy. Kennedy has a logo with him standing behind a bull. That’s about it for Kennedy’s branding.

Highly successful direct response copywriter and marketing consultant Bob Bly, who is no great fan of branding, wrote a blog titled “Is Madison Avenue a Big Fraud?” In the blog he talks about an advertisement for Six Flags, a chain of American amusement parks. The ad is set in a town where everyone is so busy working they have no time to have fun. Up rolls a Six Flags bus and out pops an old man who starts dancing wildly. All the people in the town get on the bus, go to Six Flags and have a big time. Bly said the ad world acclaimed the ad for its “humor, energy, and cleverness.”

According to Bly, who cites Parade magazine, the ad campaign cost $72 million yet generated no increase in attendance and “not a drop of added revenue.” Look up Six Flags on Wikipedia and you’ll discover the New York Stock Exchange delisted the company in April 2009 and it filed for bankruptcy on June 13 the same year.

If you’re still in doubt about branding, watch a YouTube video comparing direct response (measurable) advertising to general (branding) advertising. The star of the video? David Ogilvy, one of the most famous and successful advertisers in the history of advertising. From the video…

General advertisers know almost nothing for sure because they cannot measure the results of their advertising.

Yes, a branding agency may win awards at advertising awards dinners and a campaign may temporarily (and expensively) build awareness, but it won’t produce what every small business needs: a daily torrent of qualified leads. Branding will not help you get these leads. We spend, and our successful clients spend, every marketing dollar and every ounce of psychic bandwidth generating qualified sales leads instead of building awareness.

Do You Want Customers to “Be Aware” or Do You Want them to Buy?

Instead of branding, start by positioning your product or service in the mind of potential customers.

Positioning begins by answering this question:

Why should I give my business to you, when with one click of a mouse button, or by flipping open the Yellow Pages. I can find 10 other providers who offer the same service?

When my clients answer this question in a compelling way, they start to generate top-quality enquiries and sales leads. And you can achieve this whether you’re a household name on the Internet or your website went live only last week. And when it comes to claiming prime USP real estate, it’s first-come, first-served. Think about the golf course: there may be other courses in the area with excellent greens but Rolling Lakes Country Club claimed the space first.

One of My Favorite USPs

Dilmah Tea is an example of a well-positioned business. I enjoy the tea and also admire the positioning. Founder Merill J. Fernando clearly differentiated his tea by focusing around a single, unique, and appealing idea. Here’s the tagline…The Single Origin Tea. (As I will detail in a minute, a tagline is not a USP and a USP is not a tagline.)

The company fleshes out the tagline in several places.

Each box of Dilmah tea contains a folded insert explaining the care the company takes sourcing, packing, and delivering each cup of their tea. There’s some excellent copy on their website. Here’s an excerpt.

Dilmah is the product of a lifetime devoted to tea. Founder of Dilmah, Merrill J. Fernando embarked on a quest to bring quality back to tea when in the 1950s, he witnessed the concentration of ownership in the tea industry into the hands of a few large corporations and as a result, the ‘commoditisation’ of tea. As one of the first Ceylonese to have the opportunity to be trained in tea, Merrill harboured a dream since his initiation in the world of tea, to launch his own brand of tea, and to offer consumers the choice of something truly different. His dream took over three decades to come true, and in 1988 he launched his own brand – Dilmah, coined from the names of his two sons Dilhan and Malik. Dilmah introduced lovers of fine tea to the concept of tea ‘picked, perfected and packed’ at origin. Being owned and managed by a tea producer, Dilmah is also a role model for producing countries. Merrill pioneered the concept of ‘Single Origin Tea,’ choosing to remain faithful to Ceylon Tea, acknowledged the finest tea on earth.

It’s “About Us” copy but notice how the copywriter wove these strands into a compelling story.

• A lifetime devoted to tea
• Struggling against the corporate hegemony to fulfil a dream
• The family story behind the name
• A model for developing countries
• Remaining faithful to Ceylon Tea

Combined, these elements of the story create a Unique Selling Proposition. And it’s a USP oozing with authenticity so often missing from most marketing.

… to be continued.

How a Bumper Sticker Company Increased Online Sales by over 800%, Starting with a New USP

Part One Of Four

Pizza aficionados might disagree but, when it comes to delivery and ‘mass market’ pizza, there’s not a big difference in quality between the major players. I’m confident a blind taste test would prove my point.

To be successful, a pizza company must differentiate itself from the other pizza companies by positioning themselves as better and different. A small company in the United States faced this differentiation challenge in the 1960s. Tom Monaghan had bought his brother’s share of Domino’s Pizza (for a used Volkswagen Beetle) and was sleeping on a cot in the store. At the time, Domino’s was just another pizza restaurant in Michigan. Monaghan needed to increase revenue and he wanted to grow a franchise. To make Domino’s stand out from the competition, Domino’s came up with a promise:

Pizza delivered in 30 minutes or it’s free.

In 2009, Domino’s reported $1.4 billion in revenue.

People in the shipping and logistics business might disagree but what’s the difference between the major shipping companies to the average person in the street who wants a package or letter delivered overnight? FedEx recognized this and, like Dominos, came up with a promise.

When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.

FedEx went from being a small courier service based in Tennessee to one of the largest companies in the world; its airplanes travel nearly 500,000 miles a day.

When a potential customer decides to order a pizza, they’ve already decided to buy a pizza. The question becomes, “which pizza company?” When somebody needs to ship a package across the country and it has to be there tomorrow, they’ve already decided to ship the package. The question becomes, “which shipping company?”

Domino’s and FedEx succeeded and grew rapidly in part because they made a promise to their customers and kept the promise. In marketing, we call this promise a Unique Selling Proposition (USP).
In the mind of a potential client or customer, a USP defines the company’s position in the market. The USP positions a product or service as unique and desirable in the eyes of prospects and customers. The USP is the foundation of a marketing strategy for any company and every company that wants to be successful MUST have a clear USP.

Almost every day, I’m reminded of the importance of how vital a USP is to the success of every marketing project. A great USP with average execution can succeed but a weak USP with superb execution usually fails.

When I ask a prospective client, “what’s your USP?” I usually get this reply.

“What does USP stand for?”

I recently spoke to 165 business owners at an online marketing seminar; fewer than 10 of the attendees were able to state their USP. That’s the bad news. The good news is that each of these 165 business owners could quickly answer these questions:

1. What are the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors?
2. Why do repeat clients and customers like you?
3. What makes you better than your competitors?

If you can answer these questions, you can develop a USP. You know what makes your company different and better but you must communicate this to prospects. It takes a little time to develop a USP but there’s no cost; the USP is especially important for digital marketing.

Visitors to your website usually arrive through a search engine. Let’s say a man has decided to buy his loved one a diamond necklace. He’s already decided to buy so now the decision becomes, “which jewelry store is going to get my business?” If you’re in the diamond necklace business and you’re one of the sites the man is visiting, your competitors’ sites are just a click away. So it’s vital to differentiate your jewelry store quickly so they choose you and click around your site and ultimately click ‘buy now’ on your website instead of clicking to another site.

Leave Price Wars Behind

One of the major benefits of a strong USP is that it can help you get out of price war. Yes, some people shop purely for price and ‘the absolute lowest prices’ can be a USP but let’s take a look at Domino’s and FedEx. These companies stress a benefit, not price. Yes, price is important but it’s not the only factor in a buying decision.

When you position yourself correctly, you can charge more. For example, let’s say you’re in the public golf course business, which can be extremely competitive. Let’s say you’re in a suburb and there are five golf courses near yours and there’s a brutal price war going on and you’d like to get out of the battle. Golfers always comment on the quality of the greens at your course. A strong USP could be: Rolling Lakes Country Club has The Best Greens in the South Ridgewood area. Golfers value great putting surfaces and would be willing to pay for a course with excellent greens. In the New York City area, where golf can be funereally slow, especially on weekends, a course guarantees “a round of golf in four hours or less or your next greens fee is on us.” It’s a highly successful USP.

… to be continued

There are three keys to online marketing success.

• Traffic to your website.
• Converting traffic into buyers.
• Maximizing lifetime customer value.

I’m going to focus on a specific part of numbers two and three: copywriting. If you want to convert readers into buyers and you want to maximize what a client or customer will spend with you, you MUST have the right copy on your website—and in all your online marketing.

What is copy? It’s the words on your website, in your brochures, and in everything that’s marketing what you sell.

Great copy IS NOT flowery language that makes you feel good about your company; great copy persuades as many readers as possible to take the next step in the online marketing process. Testing has proven that copy written by a professional copywriter sells more than ‘words on a page’ written by someone at the company.

I like to go one step further and include ‘direct response’ copywriting on all websites and in all online marketing—including emails written to persuade current clients and customers to buy again. Direct response copywriting uses a set of proven techniques to maximize response.

The six characteristics of direct response copy written to produce ROI.

• It’s a conversation between the seller and the buyer—and nobody else.
• Direct response copy sells benefits more aggressively than features.
• The copy includes a guarantee, an offer, testimonials, a P.S., and a good story.
• The offer is especially important.
• A strong headline that arouses strong interest and desire is vital. You have less than three seconds to get the reader’s interest or you lose the prospect.
• Direct response is readable and conversational and not academic or complicated.

If you want to write your own copy, start with a simple and proven formula: AIDA. This stands for:

Attention.

Interest.

Desire.

Action.

• Get the reader’s attention with a sensational headline, a superb offer, or the lure of a stunning revelation.
• Arouse their interest through empathy, a compelling story, or by promising a solution to a pressing problem.
• Arouse their desire through the benefits—and the offer, guarantee, and testimonials.
• Get action by…get this…telling them the reader to take the next step.

I’m constantly amazed by the number of websites that completely fail when it comes to the extremely simple step of directing the reader to take a specific action. If you want to take a simple step right now to improve your online marketing, go through everything in your arsenal and make sure there’s a call to action to stimulate response in everything.

If you look online, you’ll find well over 100 books written about copywriting—it’s a complex subject. Direct response copywriters are highly specialized professionals who can execute all the techniques necessary to generate a response in different media. And direct response copy is proven to improve response significantly—and quickly.

So you have a choice when it comes to your online marketing—and even your ‘offline’ marketing like direct mail. You can write the copy in house and put ‘any old thing’ on your site…or…you can maximize response by using direct response copywriting techniques (or hiring a direct response copywriter).

If you’re serious about your online marketing then you’re investing in driving traffic to your website through SEO, PPC, or even direct mail. It makes total sense that when visitors come to your website, you want to convert as many visitors/readers into buyers. This can happen when you have direct response copy on your website instead of ‘words on a page.’

Article by Zac Grace, SEO Strategist and link building team leader at Dejan SEO company.

Google Places is one of the main ways that consumers find businesses online. That is especially true for local based businesses as local search is always on the constant rise and has been for the past few years. Besides being indexed in Google search you need to cover as many verticals as possible and local search is one you should not miss at any cost, which is why we create Google Places listings in the first place.

Some websites still make the mistake of not creating simple Google Places listings, and just a simple listing like this can triple your visits from local search. Having a listing in Google Places is not enough, you need to tweak it a bit, in other words you need to optimise Google Places and this can be achieved in just 15-20 minutes.

Create a complete profile

Creating a complete profile is the most important part of the process. Many businesses already have listings, but their listings are usually incomplete and missing vital information. A complete profile will include pictures, videos, and accurate contact information such as email, phone, fax, website, and physical address. Always update the contact information because the listing is no good if people cannot reach you due to inaccurate information. Pinpoint the exact location of your business and do not include a service area because it negates your score and it is very vague and confusing for consumers because it does not tell them exactly where you are located. Google will actually give a higher rank to businesses that offer pictures, descriptions, and hours on their profiles. This also makes customers see your business as more credible and legitimate.

Get positive reviews

Reviews are another aspect of a high ranking and optimised profile because people like to know what they can expect from the business. The problem is that most people do not usually report positive experiences that they have had with businesses and instead only leave reviews and feedback when they have had some sort of problem.

If there are negative reviews on your page, then you can try to respond or resolve the issues, but otherwise you must displace the negative reviews by getting positive reviews to show up on the first page of your profile. Google does not allow businesses to coax people into leaving reviews by paying people or offering discounts to leave reviews and the like.

If they find out that you have been doing that they will pull your listing. However, there are some subtle ways you can request that people leave positive reviews. It is perfectly fine to ask website visitors or followers from other sites like Twitter and Facebook to leave positive reviews.

Use keywords

Use the right keywords in your profile so that your profile will rank higher and attract more views. Keywords are just the words used to describe your goods and services, but they are the exact terms that people put into search engines. It is a good idea to strategically place keywords throughout your profile, but do not try to use too many because Google will mark it as spam and possibly pull your listing. The key is to use the most powerful keywords 2-3 times within the profile.

Having a fully optimised Google Places profile will draw more traffic to your website and possibly to your business if done properly. Include all relevant information about your business, include pictures, and keep all of your contact information up to date and that alone will go a long way. Add some positive reviews and strategically placed keywords to get the best results.

What is scalability and why should you care?

A scalable business is one in which revenue is able to grow faster than costs and other resources.

For example, where you can triple your revenues while only doubling costs.

Scalable businesses make great acquisition targets for VCs or trade buyers because of the upside leverage.

Many service businesses in particular are not scaleable.  Every dollar in additional revenue adds linearly to expenses.

Some are even negatively scaleable – where each additional dollar in revenue introduces higher marginal costs, overheads etc.

Fixed Cost vs Marginal Costs

Many businesses have a fixed cost to keep the doors open, plus a marginal cost based on each additional widget shipped or service rendered.

In many industries, once these fixed costs have been met, marginal profit can be enormous. e.g.

• Putting 10 people in a seminar room costs $X.  Adding another 10 only costs $0.1X
• Employing a team of staff at the carwash costs $Y.  But each additional carwash through the door delivers 90% profit
• Building the software costs $Z.  Each additional copy sold is almost all profit.  The only cost is marketing and sales cost

Applying This In Your Marketing

Depending on your own cost structure, it’s worth considering how much you would spend to acquire one more customer or make one more sale.  This “allowable cost of acquisiton” number is often far more than you would spend if you’re thinking in terms of “average profit margin” across all your client base.

We have a few clients who have, say, cost base $X and sales $1.2X.   But, at the same time, every incremental client delivers high (70%+) marginal profit.

For these companies to scale rapidly, a mindset shift is required… they need to stop thinking of themselves as a “widget” company and start thinking of themselves as a marketing company.

Often this shift in thinking allows more budget and focus to be poured into client acquision and rapid scaling in a way that is not possible if you’re still thinking in terms of “average cost”.

Many business owners say they want to do SEO. Far fewer understand the right keywords to target.

I hear you say, “That’s what SEO companies are for”, but sometimes the last person you want to leave this decision to, is your SEO company. That’s because many SEO companies may suggest keywords that are easily attainable (in order to make themselves look good). Or they may simply slip into “order taking mode” and quote on the keywords you specify, without advising on the suitability of your suggestions.

This article explains the 3 essential criteria for choosing the most productive (read: highest ROI) keywords for your search engine optimisation activities.

Here they are:

1. Traffic Volume: is the keyword searched frequently, or are you (and your SEO company!) the only people searching for it? This can be estimated using the Google Keyword Tool (among many others).
2. Conversion Rate: what percentage of searchers on this term make a desired action on your website (opt in, enquire, buy, donate etc.)? This can be determined by first running paid search campaigns for the same keywords and tracking conversion.
3. Competition: low competition is better (obviously!)  There are a number of ways to determine keyword competition.  My fave is the SEOmoz Pro Keyword Difficulty Tool.  It returns a percentage difficulty.  Two seemingly similar terms may have very different levels of competition.  Sometimes there’s a reason for this.  Other times, it’s an anomaly you can exploit.

The Perfect Keyword

For some time I’ve been using the DoFollow plugin, which has the effect of passing link-juice through to blog commenters.

But owing to the increasing number of spammy comments I’ve been receiving of late, I’ve just de-activated it.

Your comments will of course continue to be displayed and I welcome comments that add to the conversation – they will just no longer pass link juice.

R.I.P. DoFollow.