Get qualified business and sales leads from your website and Web outposts by using optimized content and a good search engine optimization and content strategy.Qualified Business Leads and the Buy CycleProspects go through a buy cycle. A buy cycle is the stages your business prospects pass through as they search for and retrieve information about products or services they want to purchase. It usually starts with searching for general industry information on Google and Yahoo about a product or service. It normally ends with qualified business prospect calling, or completing a web form on a company’s website. A lot also happens in between.Business Prospects Search for Information on Google and YahooYour business prospects perform research online and search for, and read reports, e-books and other material they can find. Prospects will read blogs from thought leaders and watch online videos on YouTube.com. At this state in the buy cycle your prospects are hungry for information because they want to be an educated and informed buyer. Research indicates that 80% of all Web activity starts with search. Your content and website need search engine optimization to appear on page one of Google and Yahoo in order for your business prospects to find you.Stop Marketing and Start Publishing OnlineIdentify your business prospects buy cycle and generate information in the form of optimized content for the Web. Write short reports and whitepapers that will position your business as a thought leader. Write about the success of your clients in case studies. Upload optimized customer testimonials in text and video formats to your website. Repurpose your content. Take your best report and turn it into a slide show and put it on a social media site. Create a blog and publish the main points of your reports. Write frequently about what’s going on in your industry. If you can’t write, find a local writer and request professional samples.Get Page One Results on Google and Yahoo* If you know your prospects conduct research and search for information on Google about products and/or services that your company provides, you should optimize your content and website pages so they appear on page one of Google and Yahoo.
* When your prospects are further along their buy cycle and want more specific product or service information, you should optimize case studies for the Web so they appear on page one of Google and Yahoo by using search engine optimization.
* When your prospects identify you as a possible solution and use Google and Yahoo to learn more about your company’s reputation, glowing customer testimonials and positive PR should appear on page one of the search results.Search Engine Optimization and Qualified Business LeadsNow that you have valuable information as content in different formats, it’s time to optimize your content by placing the keywords from the search queries your prospects are using to get information on Google. Identify the search terms that match the stages of your prospects’ buy cycles and optimize the content with keywords so that the content will appear on page one of Google when a prospect includes the keyword in their search query. Use Google’s external keyword tool to get ideas. Doing this kind of marketing will enable you to get qualified sales leads online.
Companies Large and SmallUsing the content and SEO strategy to get qualified leads is not just for big companies, it’s for small businesses too. Many small companies do not position themselves as thought leaders. The company that goes out of its way to help a prospect make an educated purchase decision will inevitably win the business.10 Step Prospect Buy Cycle Content and SEO Strategy for Getting Qualified Business leads:1. Your business prospects will move through their buy cycle
2. They want to make an educated purchase decision and feel good about it
3. They’ll use Google and Yahoo initially for industry research about a product or service (Your optimized content like online videos should appear on page one of Google and Yahoo)
4. Your business prospects will use search engines to find specific content further along their buy cycle They’ll find and download white papers, reports, articles and read thought leaders’ blogs (your blog and other optimized content should be in the search results)
5. Your business prospects will search for and create a shortlist of vendors’ products and services* They’ll find and read case studies on web outposts like blogs and on company websites (your optimized case studies and other content should be in the search results)6. Your prospects will visit your website again or for the first time
7. Your prospects will research your company on Google (glowing customer testimonials and positive PR should be in the search results)
8. They’ll contact you via phone, email or form on your website
9. They’re now qualified and close to making a purchase decision
10. You’ll continue publishing and optimizing your content for more qualified business leadsAbout the author: Ronan Keane is president and founder of UpClick Marketing (http://www.UpClickMarketing.com), an online marketing company that provides search engine marketing, social media marketing and other online services, and is dedicated to its clients’ success on the Web.
Tag Archives: services
What Are The Greatest Changes In Shopping In Your Lifetime
What are the greatest changes in shopping in your lifetime? So asked my 9 year old grandson.
As I thought of the question the local Green Grocer came to mind. Because that is what the greatest change in shopping in my lifetime is.
That was the first place to start with the question of what are the greatest changes in shopping in your lifetime.
Our local green grocer was the most important change in shopping in my lifetime. Beside him was our butcher, a hairdresser and a chemist.
Looking back, we were well catered for as we had quite a few in our suburb. And yes, the greatest changes in shopping in my lifetime were with the small family owned businesses.
Entertainment While Shopping Has Changed
Buying butter was an entertainment in itself.
My sister and I often had to go to a favourite family grocer close by. We were always polite as we asked for a pound or two of butter and other small items.
Out came a big block of wet butter wrapped in grease-proof paper. Brought from the back of the shop, placed on a huge counter top and included two grooved pates.
That was a big change in our shopping in my lifetime… you don’t come across butter bashing nowadays.
Our old friendly Mr. Mahon with the moustache, would cut a square of butter. Lift it to another piece of greaseproof paper with his pates. On it went to the weighing scales, a bit sliced off or added here and there.
Our old grocer would then bash it with gusto, turning it over and over. Upside down and sideways it went, so that it had grooves from the pates, splashes going everywhere, including our faces.
My sister and I thought this was great fun and it always cracked us up. We loved it, as we loved Mahon’s, on the corner, our very favourite grocery shop.
Grocery Shopping
Further afield, we often had to go to another of my mother’s favourite, not so local, green grocer’s. Mr. McKessie, ( spelt phonetically) would take our list, gather the groceries and put them all in a big cardboard box.
And because we were good customers he always delivered them to our house free of charge. But he wasn’t nearly as much fun as old Mr. Mahon. Even so, he was a nice man.
All Things Fresh
So there were very many common services such as home deliveries like:
• Farm eggs
• Fresh vegetables
• Cow’s milk
• Freshly baked bread
• Coal for our open fires
Delivery Services
A man used to come to our house a couple of times a week with farm fresh eggs.
Another used to come every day with fresh vegetables, although my father loved growing his own.
Our milk, topped with beautiful cream, was delivered to our doorstep every single morning.
Unbelievably, come think of it now, our bread came to us in a huge van driven by our “bread-man” named Jerry who became a family friend.
My parents always invited Jerry and his wife to their parties, and there were many during the summer months. Kids and adults all thoroughly enjoyed these times. Alcohol was never included, my parents were teetotallers. Lemonade was a treat, with home made sandwiches and cakes.
The coal-man was another who delivered bags of coal for our open fires. I can still see his sooty face under his tweed cap but I can’t remember his name. We knew them all by name but most of them escape me now.
Mr. Higgins, a service man from the Hoover Company always came to our house to replace our old vacuum cleaner with an updated model.
Our insurance company even sent a man to collect the weekly premium.
People then only paid for their shopping with cash. This in itself has been a huge change in shopping in my lifetime.
In some department stores there was a system whereby the money from the cash registers was transported in a small cylinder on a moving wire track to the central office.
Some Of The Bigger Changes
Some of the bigger changes in shopping were the opening of supermarkets.
• Supermarkets replaced many individual smaller grocery shops. Cash and bank cheques have given way to credit and key cards.
• Internet shopping… the latest trend, but in many minds, doing more harm, to book shops.
• Not many written shopping lists, because mobile phones have taken over.
On a more optimistic note, I hear that book shops are popular again after a decline.
Personal Service Has Most Definitely Changed
So, no one really has to leave home, to purchase almost anything, technology makes it so easy to do online.
And we have a much bigger range of products now, to choose from, and credit cards have given us the greatest ease of payment.
We have longer shopping hours, and weekend shopping. But we have lost the personal service that we oldies had taken for granted and also appreciated.
Because of their frenetic lifestyles, I have heard people say they find shopping very stressful, that is grocery shopping. I’m sure it is when you have to dash home and cook dinner after a days work. I often think there has to be a better, less stressful way.
My mother had the best of both worlds, in the services she had at her disposal. With a full time job looking after 9 people, 7 children plus her and my dad, she was very lucky. Lucky too that she did not have 2 jobs.