The Number One Secret Of Online Business Marketing is a post from: #1 Melbourne SEO Services Company

People ask me what is the one secret of online business marketing I would pass on, if I had to summarise it in one phrase for someone.

Through my own experience and the experience of interviewing some of the leaders in online marketing I can say that there is one thing that stands out for successful web businesses and we share that below.

Focus On Automating The Back End

I cannot over-stress the importance of automating your back-end systems so that they can run without your constant input; the idea is to create a website that can gather leads, process them and convert them into sales with the minimum of your time and effort, allowing you to concentrate on growing your business rather than working in it all the time.

Sounds easy? Well, you should know by now that it’s not easy – if it was, everyone would be doing it and I wouldn’t need to write this!

But it is key – and if you get it right you can really propel your business forward and ahead of the competition; once you get the back end right you can focus your attentions on front-end marketing that can drive huge amounts of leads to you.

What Do You Mean By “Back End”?

Back end means the systems to capture leads like a free report which visitors to your website opt in for; an auto-responder series that bonds with and educates your clients; a small variety of products and services – low cost and premium products; perhaps some info product for people to learn how to do it themselves; affiliate marketing opportunities for people to sell your products to their audiences.

All this is focused on a lead being fed into the top of the “funnel” and coming out of the bottom as a sale.

Once this is working, you can start to market your business for more leads to put into the funnel, knowing that a certain proportion will convert.

A Marathon Not A Sprint

None of the methodology we pass on to you is “get rich quick.” Anyone who says that is usually to be avoided and most “overnight successes” ignore the ten years of hard work that preceded it!

What we try to give you at Melbourne SEO Services is the methodology that will get your business going in the right direction from the “off” and this can shave a long time off your journey to success. But it won’t come without hard work and some mistakes along the way.

Our methodology is built around doing the hard work once and getting paid for it “forever” not repeating the same mistakes over again; most people are prepared to work hard if there are results at the end of it.

Resources

Don’t believe me? Well take a listen to my podcast interviews with online business marketing leaders Jim Fleck and Rick Schefren and see what they have to say about the back-end of your business.

They both touch on business owners trying to build out their back end by adding products to it rather than getting it automated so that you can then shift focus to front end marketing that drives the leads into the funnel, as mentioned before.

Check out the Competition Crusher workshop at www.crusherworkshop.com; it has plenty of small business advice if you are just starting out with your online set up. It’s totally free and passes on some great ideas for your online business plan.

Don't be in a hurry with your business.

3-Step Guide To Writing An Internet Marketing Business Plan is a post from: #1 Melbourne SEO Services Company

Take the measured steps to success!

Writing an Internet marketing business plan should be a top priority if you are just starting out building your online “empire”; this can be the map that your business follows over the coming months and years to guide it to where you need it to be.

It can be a little daunting for some people who have never written a business plan before so we have broken it down into 3 steps that we ourselves have followed at Melbourne SEO Services.

1. The Back End Of The Business

You need to create a stable foundation for your business by automating the back end; that means creating seamless ways for the sales funnel to attract and convert leads into sales of your products and services.

At Melbourne SEO Services we set up the following:

• The SEO free report – leads are sent an auto-responder sequence of emails over 3 months – pointing to different parts of the website including products and services; introducing the client to the business, bonding and creating buying opportunities.
• 4 different products –SEO Course/Outsource Course/Web Video/Small Business – info products that teach small business owners how they can look after their own marketing strategies.
• Workshops /Masterminds Sessions/ Coaching/ Services – SEO, ADP, Press Releases, Web Video etc (these are “done for you” services if you don’t want to learn how to do them yourself via the info product)
• The Affiliate Option – whereby affiliate marketers can promote our products like the SEO Method; this is $1300 and the affiliate can earn 40% for each sale with the other 60% coming to us.

2. The Front End Of The Business

Once the back-end web-based products, services, lead capture and conversion processes are doing their jobs, the next stage of our online business plan looks at organising the front end of your business; that means focusing on marketing and branding, which ramps up lead generation and sends more traffic to your website.

For Melbourne SEO Services this included:

• YouTube – creating video snippets and pushing leads to the back end through these videos
• Facebook and Twitter – mainly for bonding and positioning ourselves as experts in the field
• The Melbourne SEO Blog – to generate traffic and again demonstrate expert status with SEO
• DaveApproved – product reviews which provide industry tips to others
• Podcast Interviews – again helps with expert positioning

All the above provide free content and actively collect leads and send them to the website where they can enter the back-end sales funnel.

3. Monitoring And Finding The Magic Number

The final stage is to monitor your conversion rates and find the cost of each customer to you; then you can effectively go out and buy more leads through paid media like banner ads, Google Adwords etc.

As we pointed out in an earlier blog post you should be able to work out the average lifetime value of a client and then how many prospects it takes to convert one – then you know how much a single client is worth to you and you have the magic number that allows you to create a budget for “buying” new leads.

The above Internet marketing business plan creates a sound model that you can work your business towards. Once you finish stage 3 you should be able to step back, watch it look after itself and move more into acquisitions of complimentary businesses.

The Competition Crusher workshop has plenty more great tips on how to plan, structure and execute best business practices that help get you to where you want to be. Check it out by clicking here.

7 Steps To Hiring “A” Players For Your Business is a post from: #1 Melbourne SEO Services Company

Learn how to find top team players.

The success of your business as it grows will partly depend on you hiring “A” players in all the key positions.

Hiring staff doesn’t need to be complicated – it’s a case of knowing who you need, using your marketing skills to attract them and then a filtering process to save time and effort in selecting the right one. We take you through it below.

Know Who You Are Looking For

If you have mapped out your business and broken it down into key systems and processes you should be able to clearly identify the skills and talents you are looking for in a new team member; what will make them an “A” player?

Also, think about the type of personality that will “fit” with your business – then you are well on the way to deciding on exactly who you are looking for. This is a key stage that all the rest of the hiring process hinges on.

Write The Ad

This is where your sales and marketing skills enter the fray – they’re never far away in business!

You need to hook people and make them want to read your ad, so make it high impact for the type of people you are trying to attract. This means you need to talk to the right people in their language– which is why identifying them first (see above) is so important.

Think about what is important to the people you are targeting; for example, video makers usually want their work to be seen around the world and writers want their work published – so you can play on these desires in your ad, to hook them.

Advertise The Position

This is where you decide where to advertise the position; it may be on several online sites like Seek and offline as well.

Run A Questionnaire

Rather than asking applicants to send resumes immediately why not ask them to fill in an online questionnaire?

This helps to weed out the non-serious applicants because some will not go to the trouble of filling anything in and others will miss questions, so they are probably not “A” players in any case. This saves time wading through resumes of people who wouldn’t get the job anyway.

Pre-Screen Resumes

After we sift through the questionnaires, we can request the resumes of our favoured applicants; pre-screen them and further whittle them down to a group of strong applicants. You can use the resumes to check important things like background and experience.

Task To Complete

A great way to check someone’s communication skills, ability to follow instructions and creativity is to give them a small task to complete; this allows you to see them “in action.”

Let’s face it – if they have little attention to detail in a task like this, there is little hope that they will succeed for you doing the “real” work your business needs.

The Interview

We’ve found the Top Grading style of interview, written about by Brad Smart, is the best method. We focus on asking the applicant about their past work experiences and look for recurring themes and patterns.

It’s best to have two people conducting the interview – one to ask the questions and another to write down the key points of the answers.

What we have presented above is a very effective filtering process to help you in hiring “A” players for your business. Start ups and growing businesses alike will find many more useful tips such as these in the Competition Crusher workshop available for FREE when you click here.

How To Use Web Outsourcing To Grow Your Business is a post from: #1 Melbourne SEO Services Company

If you don’t build a business that can operate when you’re not there you don’t really have a business – and web outsourcing is a great strategy for making sure you do have one.

If you have been following our posts on the Competition Crusher workshop topics you should be clear by now on mapping out your business into a series of detailed processes; if everything goes according to plan, you will reach a stage where you cannot look after all those processes yourself and, in order to expand, you will need to hire team members.

You Can’t Do It Alone!

Don’t pretend that you can do it all yourself – if you have built a strong business you won’t have the time or skill-set to be able to manage everything without some talented help.

Remember that a business needs to be able to operate and earn you income when you are not there, so the idea is to slowly remove yourself from the day-to-day running, so you can focus on the bigger picture.

Following The Franchises

Large, successful franchises that have become household names likes Subway or Starbucks have automated their core central systems so effectively that the same model can be plugged in anywhere in the world to achieve the same results.

This highly systemised approach is a good one for your business as you build it; focus on documenting and systemising everything that’s key to running your business, as this is a vital step to being able to grow.

Hire “A” Players

“A” players give great performance even when the systems they work with are not perfect; these are the people you need working in your business and it’s well worth taking the time and effort to create a hiring process that can find them (I have written a separate blog post on this.)

Out-Task

The first step to web outsourcing is often termed “out-tasking”; this is where small jobs are advertised online on sites like oDesk or Elance and you can hire contractors to complete these small, one-off jobs. The relationship usually doesn’t go beyond this.

Outsourcing

Outsourcing is a stage further on, when you hire the best contractors for more regular work. If you have mapped out your business then you should have a clear idea of the team members you need to get your business from where it is now to where you want it to be, and what the priorities are.

Insourcing

This is where you bring the best outsourced contractors in-house as part of your permanent team. Melbourne SEO Services, for example, has a team of Filipinos that are featured on our website and add huge value to our business.

Why The Philippines?

From our experience , Filipinos offer a superb work ethic, excellent communication skills, a great command of English, high skill levels and great value! Because of geo-arbitrage we can pay them a higher salary than they would normally get, but a fraction of what it would cost to hire an Australian.

Web outsourcing takes your business to a new level; there is advice on every level of your online business in the Competition Crusher workshop which you can access here; if you are just starting out as a sole trader you can pick up very useful hints at how to grow your enterprise into a fully-fledged business by watching the workshop (it’s free!).

Get "A" players to help your business.

How To Use Press Release Marketing In Your Business is a post from: #1 Melbourne SEO Services Company

If your business can get to grips with online press release marketing it can be one of the easiest ways to bring traffic to your website and boost sales. We show you how below.

Benefits Of Press Release Marketing

Offline PR brings you exposure in magazines, newspapers and maybe even local TV or radio; online we are targeting back-links and traffic to our website via well-written, optimised press releases that are interesting and widely distributed.

Traffic comes from the keywords and back-links that are embedded into optimised press releases, which help us get rankings in Google News and the main search engines.

Using A Distribution Service

In order to get a good level of traffic hitting our website we need to use a distribution service for our online press releases.

A great one to use is PRWeb . You submit your completed press release and they will send it to literally thousands of other sites.

A Melbourne SEO Example

You’ve probably seen the “Google vs Yellow Pages” article and video at the top of the blog page. That was incredibly successful for Melbourne SEO Services and drove huge amounts of traffic to our site, winning us valuable exposure in the process.

We wrote a press release about our survey called “Google vs Yellow Pages New Survey” and within a day or two it had over 10,000 references on Google for that exact phrase, meaning that PRWeb had sent it out and it had been picked up countless times.

Even now, a year and a half later, when it’s considered older and of slightly less value by Google, it still has over 500 references for that exact phrase, so it’s still promoting our business.

You can see how press releases give you a great return on your investment of time.

Writing And Optimising A Press Release

Getting varied back-links is one of the best things we can be doing for our SEO – and whether it is our website, articles, our videos or press releases, many of the same rules apply.

The reason we are writing the press releases is to give exposure to our keywords and our URL, so make sure you include keywords in the title tags and descriptions and in the main body of the article.

Your press release should not be about you or how great your business is! There is a section at the end of the release where you can talk about your business but the main body needs a catchy headline, a hook and an interesting angle to the story.

Think of your online press release as pre-selling online publishers that you are the expert in your area – so you need to demonstrate that with quality stories; the harder selling of yourself can come later.

Many online reporters use Google News to source stories, so making your press release interesting, informative and relevant to an important topic (maybe a breaking event in your industry) gives you a better chance of being picked up and distributed.

Essentially it’s pretty easy to ride on the coat-tails of a big story once you know how to – and you can get ranking easily if you are skilled at providing a new angle on a big story with the right on-page optimisation.

Press release marketing is one aspect of what you need to be doing. You can get a firm grasp on all aspects of your online marketing in the FREE copy of the Competition Crusher workshop. You can access it at www.CrusherWorkshop.com.

Use the best distribution service for your press releases.

How Press Releases Create The Ultimate Testimonial For Your Business is a post from: #1 Melbourne SEO Services Company

Go beyond celebrity endorsements.

We have often mentioned the importance of others vouching for your business; when the media vouches for you, that’s the ultimate testimonial– and online press releases are a great way to make that happen.

One of the most important marketing strategies for your business, after you have created an optimised website with a sales funnel in progress, is to “up” the exposure you are getting; this will enhance your expert status, provide free advertising and start to send more traffic your way.

The Value Of Testimonials

• Testimonials for your business can come in one of several ways:
• Customers – most are happy to say some good words about you.
• Celebrity Endorsements – expensive if you need Tiger Woods!
• Experts in your Niche – Interviewing them creates the “halo” effect for you
• Media and Other Organisations

You should try for all of the above, of course; but the one that stands out and will do the work of all the others is if you are regularly mentioned in the media in a positive light; this is truly the gold standard endorsement because it shapes the public’s perception of you and your business.

Media organisations are considered to only deal with experts. You benefit from the “halo” effect of being featured in the media, because it is perceived as a reliable source of information and it generally can’t be faked or bought, unlike with marketing (though some media organisations do try to disprove that theory!)

So you achieve instant expert status in your field that you can “dine out” on, for years to come. Newspaper articles, interviews and video clips can be featured on your website and elsewhere, giving you instant authority and positioning you as the expert with very little effort on your part.

Press Release Strategies

Bear in mind when you are thinking about crafting your press releases that all they really want is a good story!

Online press releases need to be based around something that people will want to read, otherwise a news organisation is not going to be interested in publishing them.

The key requirement is for a big hook than can grab the reader; often it’s good to focus on a big story that has recently broken and give it a unique “spin” or “twist” or “angle” that relates to your business.

In this way it can be pretty easy to bathe in the “glow” of the publicity this story has and, what’s more, reporters are often looking for a new approach to a story that has already broken and has people interested.

A great strategy for keeping up with what’s big in your business and in news in the general media is to use the following tools:

• Google Alerts
• Yahoo Answers
• Popular blog posts
• Survey your customers to find what they are interested in

These tools can help keep you across what’s going on and inspire topics for your online press releases. You can find loads more great marketing ideas in the Competition Crusher workshop, which you can watch completely FREE by simply clicking here.

A Sample PR Strategy – The MCG Way! is a post from: #1 Melbourne SEO Services Company

We have mentioned the “Selling the MCG” story in another post or two but we focus this post on it because it serves as a sample PR strategy for your business.

Below we cover how the idea came about and then how it was brought into the public arena to help sell it.

Of course, in this case we are talking about an Australian icon (the MCG) in a one-off venture, but many of the lessons I learned from this campaign I took into my later businesses and hope that you can use the lessons in yours too.

The Idea

I had just read the “One Minute Millionaire” by Robert Allen and Mark Victor Hansen and was intrigued by the story of how someone actually sold pieces of the Brooklyn Bridge for $14.95 during one of its reconstructions.

A while later I was driving past the MCG and saw that they were knocking one of the stands down and had my light bulb moment.

The MCG was an Australian cultural icon in much the same way as the Brooklyn Bridge is to East Coast Americans and the opportunities started flashing across my mind.

Making It Happen

I knew I had to speak to the demolition people and after a few conversations I had already managed to fill my vehicle up with $1000 worth of stuff to get started, with the promise to return the next day to collect the rest.

I was originally interested in the bricks but thankfully (for shipping reasons) I was steered towards the green wooden benches and pieces of iconic red carpet with the MCG logo on from a demolished bar.

Unfortunately when I turned up the next day the rest of the carpet had been snapped up already, supposedly by someone who wanted to line their pool room floor with it!

In the middle of this I had to attend a week-long boot-camp, but by the time that came around I had my strategy nailed and even had the press release written in my head: Melbourne Man Sells the MCG for $24.95!

I had the wood sliver packages all designed with certificates as a low-end product and the pieces of carpet in the process of being framed as a higher end product for $650.

You can imagine my horror when the phone rang a few days later and it was one of my friends asking whether I’d told anyone about my big idea, because there was another 21-year old guy in Melbourne doing the same thing right then!

Getting The Media Attention

I am now good friends with the guy who was my competition at that time, but I dearly wanted to come out on top of that battle because this idea was my “baby”; I knew that the way to do it was to become higher profile than him and use the media for attention.

I started with the press release and did it in the traditional way, sending it out myself to newspapers, rather than using online distributors like PR Web.

Some newspapers had editorial email addresses so I sent it to them, knowing that the story had legs because of its sporting and cultural hook that would interest many Australians.

Then I ran editorial ads in MX Magazine which is a free publication distributed on public transport in Melbourne. These were really ads that were formatted as articles, so it was more likely that people would read them.

These efforts led to the appearance on the Today Show and on Nova Radio, as well as the Herald Sun story entitled “Bench Mark of Success” and the rest, as they say, is history – sales took off through the roof!

The reason I relate this story is in the hope that you apply the learning points in your own business to get media attention. Also, note that some things are best done offline, even in this increasingly online world we live in – combining the two approaches in your PR strategy will get the best results overall.

Get more marketing tips for your business in the Competition Crusher workshop. Just click here to learn more about it.

Get the attention you need through the right PR strategy.

3 Ways To Get Media Attention For Your Business is a post from: #1 Melbourne SEO Services Company

Online or offline, media attention can help our business in quite dramatic ways; below we look at a couple of personal examples of this and then suggest a few approaches that you can start looking at for your own business.

Example: Selling The MCG

My own example of selling the benches and carpets from the MCG is covered in more detail elsewhere but, suffice to say here, it was aided incredibly by the media attention I got following an initial press release and editorial ad.

When lastminute.com.au picked it up and promoted it the faxes hardly stopped for 2 whole days and sales went through the roof.

Obviously it helped that the MCG was part of Australia’s heritage and it was something of an interesting subject for most Australians, but the free media attention I received made me realise just how important it is to a growing business.

HARO Website

HARO  is an abbreviation of “Help A Reporter Online” and is a worldwide site that reporters go to and list the information they need to complete the articles and pieces they are writing; it is a much-visited resource for all sorts of press people who are after expert knowledge on a huge array of subjects.

We submitted a NetRegistry article to help them out once and you too might be able to find a demand for what you know, helping to raise your level of authority and giving good coverage for your business.

SOURCEBOTTLE Website

This is a similar site for Australian reporters where you may find a demand for expert help on stories in your business niche. Check it out, if you’re wondering how to get media attention – it could be the start of a wonderful relationship!

Become Their Friend

If you actively nurture relationships with reporters and become their friends it can be a real breakthrough for your business. I found this when I befriended a stock market reporter back in the days when my main business was stock market trading systems.

He came to me for a quote one day and that developed into contributions to larger pieces in the Financial Review and Smart Investor, which was great exposure for my business; it helped position me as one of the experts in my niche – and the value of that cannot be over-stated.

As well as reporters, authors often need material for their articles and books, so they can be a great source of exposure for your business too.

Getting media attention is one of the things that, if it works, can be a real catapult for your business; it’s worth spending some time on it and you can find out more about how to do this in combination with other online marketing techniques in the Competition Crusher workshop when you click here.

Promote your business in the media.

How Google Tools Can Help Transform You Into Market Leaders is a post from: #1 Melbourne SEO Services Company

Make sure you are always alerted.

Getting the news first and reacting first to it is one of the hallmarks of market leaders; in fact people have made their fortunes from being the first to the key news in their field – notable examples exist in the banking and financial sectors.

Nowadays it’s hard to be first with the news because people around the globe are more connected than ever to what’s happening; that’s why a couple of Google tools are so valuable for your online business and can help to propel you to the top of the heap.

Google Reader – or Reeder (iPhone)

Google Reader (Reeder on the iPhone) is a fantastic tool to ensure you don’t have to flit between 20 different websites to read the news you want to read.

Google Reader allows you to pick the most important sources in your industry (most market leaders have blogs which you can select) and it collates all relevant daily updates and posts in one place for you to read.

How convenient is that? It allows you to tailor the news you read every day and then presents it to you in a single place, so there is far less searching through irrelevant stuff to get to the nuggets of information you’re after.

It’s an excellent way to keep up to date – but not only that. The best articles and info you can re-Tweet or share on your Facebook wall – so it’s a great content generator too.

If you spread great content through social media you rapidly rise in authority online, as it shows you are on the cutting edge.

Plus, of course, Google Reader is also a great time saver for busy people; you can choose to read the news “on the go” (via your iPhone), while sipping a cup of coffee or over a cold beer at home later on!

Google Alerts

You can set Google Alerts up so that you get notified when your main keywords are used anywhere online; this helps you keep across all the news, views and developments that are directly related to your business – and it can be delivered daily in an “Alert” to you, for each keyword.

This is a great tool for giving you the latest news and, more importantly, the opportunity to be the first to react to it.

When a topic is hot or news is breaking it attracts media attention; being first to develop content around these hot topics means you can also grab some of that attention and essentially “ride on the back” of the buzz! That helps to position you as one of the market leaders.

These are just two of the tools discussed in the Competition Crusher workshop at www.CrusherWorkshop.com; you can find plenty of other essential online marketing tools and general online business tips there.