Blog posts tagged with 'marketing'

So, today I'm crafting a blog post that's a little off topic from the usual postings on this blog. We are an auto tools and equipment store, with full online shopping capabilities (my job to promote), and therefore, I'm feeling compelled to write about some of my daily pursuits in making sure that everyone knows we are here. That is, here in the "physical sense" at the shop in Bow, NH, but also Here Online, ready and waiting for you to peruse our great selection of various tools and equipment, and take note of our rock bottom prices...well....rather than go into a sales pitch, I'll try to stay on topic.

How Do We Let People Know We Are Here? We've been faithfully hammering away at the many facets of Search Engine Optimization to make sure we're right at the top of the searches in Google for those folks seeking our products. And we are at the top in many searches for many of our products, which is really exciting! There is a LOT involved. It's absolutely mind-boggling reading Google Analytics. The amount of data they are able to capture is just incredibly helpful re: tailoring our SEO approaches.  On our 1000+ page website, I'm trying to reduce photos sizes, add meta tags, headline tags, and including as many resources as I can pack into our product descriptions to make them as informative and helpful as possible.

We want the customer to have a unique experience when shopping on our site. We want to offer as much information as we can so you won't have to feel like you need to shop elsewhere to find answers or other pertinent product information. That's been our goal. Has this effort been helpful to you? Is there anything else you'd like to see on our website that you haven't been able to find? I'd love to hear from you --feedback, positive or negative, is what guides us to stay on the right path. I find myself focusing on a number of things simultaneously to keep us in the Top 10 [p.1 in Google], and ultimately propel us to the Top of the Top 10.

Right now, my focus is on reciprocal links. Ideally, you want people to just link to you, without you having to link back. That means you have awesome content and people like it enough to share it with the world. (Yep. Working on that...) Having links from other websites is HUGE. But you have to be careful...Don't get sucked into "link farms" or anything else that might drop your ranking in Google. Many times a link from a completely unrelated site is something that could knock you down a few pegs because it's become a "cheap" way, of sorts, to gain momentum; "cheap," because it's too easy, and not really legitimate or relevant.

A sign that you may be seeking out a link farm is that there are 4,000 other websites listed on the page that you are hoping to be listed on. There are no special parameters, they just list anyone who requests that they be listed. Google is able to detect an astronomical number of links on one page, which could raise red flags to them. SO...What I am looking for is folks in the auto industry, or in the trucking industry, or even the logging industry. Police Departments. Fire Stations. NH.gov websites.

Your ideal reciprocal links should be with businesses in the same general industry, but not a direct competitor to your business. And websites that have significance - not just any website. If a website is highly-ranked, and you are linking from it, this will be very helpful to your SEO. If the website doesn't carry any particular weight, while it may not be harmful, it also will likely not be beneficial.

Make sure you are selective and choose your connections wisely.

If you are interested in seeking out reciprocal links: Do it the Right Way. When Google put the smackdown on business who are listed with link farms, several years ago now, it was a huge boon to those operating in an 'above board' way. If you are doing the hard work to achieve your gains in Google, you should be rewarded as such - conversely, if you are paying for links you should be penalized. Some links may look legit, but...are they really? They might advertise under the guise of something that might appear to be legit (e.g. 'Worldwide Directory'). Make sure you Google the URL that you are interested in signing up with, to find out more information about them. And it always makes sense to do a search for their page rank, to get a better sense of how Google views them.

To quote my favorite SEO book, InBound Marketing: Get Found using Google, Social Media and Blogs: "The most effective way to get inbound links is by creating remarkable content that is useful and interesting. And, getting inbound links is the most effective way to get better rankings in Google." Creating content is the best thing you can do - as a natural order of things, people will share that content if it's something worth reading about - so make it good, really dig in and find those gaps that haven't been covered in discussions. Answer questions that customers tend to ask. Write about what you know and what might be of interest to someone else who isn't as knowledgeable. The possibilities are endless.

Next stop: Inbound links.

REPOSTED FROM A BLOG ENTRY FROM 2011

So a customer called us a week or so ago about a motorcycle lift. He had purchased a lift for just under $1,100.00 from another source, got it home to RI, and set it up. To his surprise the lift collapsed the first time he used it. The customer asked if we had anything “that isn’t a piece of junk.” First, I can’t help thinking what a sad situation it is for both the business and the customer. No business wants a dissatisfied customer, and no customer wants to be dissatisfied–right? Not to mention the “danger” factor. Certainly things can malfunction, but when you’re dealing with a lift? Need I say any more?

I told him we carry Titan lifts, Handy lifts, and Quality lifts, and I made a few recommendations based on what he was looking for. I’m a firm believer of following the customer’s lead. I have extensive product knowledge and offer as much information as I can when solicited, but I will never push a product they just don’t want or can’t afford. He said he’d stop by the shop, on his way to return the failed lift. They weren’t accepting of the explanation initially, but he was able to prove that it collapsed, and managed to get his money back. He was concerned and wanted to see bike lifts from each company we represent. I understood his concern (naturally) and reassured him that our offering of lifts wouldn’t fail on him. There’s a method to my madness. I’ve been doing this for 37 years, and the choices I’ve made in what lifts I carry are well thought out.

All are solid, well-made lifts, but I try to represent different price tiers, depending on the buyer’s needs and finances.

After recommending a Titan lift because of his price point with the failed lift, I told him it doesn’t have all finished polish he is looking for, but it is well-made, and I stand behind it. In fact, I never have had a return and never a dissatisfied customer. At this point, he told me he was serious about quality (preferring the best of the best), so then I got more of a sense of what he wanted.

Top of the line. I presented a Handy lift to him. After commenting on the fine details, he seemed to really gravitate to this lift, and he said he willing to put a little more money into it to know he had quality. He paid $2,050, nearly double what he paid for the failed lift, but that’s what he wanted. I didn’t have to “sell” him anything; he just wanted a premium quality lift. The experience actually made me realize why I started selling Handy lifts. I like the best of the best, too, and these are QUALITY lifts. Interestingly, even though Titan is in a different price tier, I chose them for their quality as well.

They may differ from Handy, but a good, solid lift with many extras as standard equipment, nonetheless. (Quite frankly, I wouldn’t be selling it if it wasn’t.) Titan motorcycle lifts fit people’s needs and the price is right. Here’s an analogy: Driving a BMW as opposed to a Ford Focus. BMW’s are engineered right, and they have all the polish to go with it! Costs a lot to fix, but it’s a rugged, nice, long-lasting car. Will the Focus work well? Yes, the Focus is a well-made car, too, but maybe the bumps feel a little different, and it’s a little noisier when riding on the road. With either choice, you reach your destination, right? And that’s all that matters.

I mentioned in a previous blog a little bit about our quest to reach customers all over the country with our online shopping cart. We have been so fortunate to have worked with so many of you who reside both near and far... We have been optimizing our website for the last year and I thought it might behoove our potential customers who might be on the fence about ordering equipment from several states away, to see our analytics with regard to our online sales and customer following. So I opened up our online sales administration page and made a list of all the states that were represented-- 36 states in total. I can't say this number represents ALL of our sales, as we do have a large number of folks who call us after finding us on the web, so they are 'unaccounted for' in this particular analysis. Here is the list of the states from where our 2011 online customers hail: Illinois New Jersey Maine Connecticut Michigan Alabama California North Carolina Oregon Arizona Louisiana Maryland Massachusetts Kansas Iowa New York Nebraska Rhode Island New Hampshire Texas Utah Minnesota Ohio Washington Colorado Pennsylvania Vermont Montana Indiana Florida Nevada Virginia Tennessee Wisconsin Georgia Mississippi I found it interesting that of those states, the highest volume of sales were from California, Texas and New York!

UPDATE! After conferring with Clark, I have verified that we have, in fact, sold to all contintental US 48 states! Direct phone calls have closed the gap! We are thankful that folks from all corners of the country have found us to be transparent in our mission and reputation to give us a chance to do business with. We continue to grow an ample presence online with the hope of gaining even more followers. Thanks for all your support. We couldn't do this without our customers!