Many times when people find my video archive page, they get a little overwhelmed with how many videos exist. Some even ask, "Eric, if I only had time to watch ONE video, which covered the most important strategies of online marketing, which would it be?" Answer: This one.
Hey, I am Eric Spellmann and today's video is kind of gonna be the 1 video that if you watch this video only out of all the ones I've made, this would be it. You know people keep asking me if there is anyway if I can put the best of the best altogether into 1 video. If they can only watch 1, what would it be? This is it! Now heres the deal.
I had a lot of fun with a little literation in this video, so don't laugh at it, okay. Maybe it'll help make it be more memorable for you. But trust me. If you only watch 1 video, this is the 1 because I basically cover everything that needs to go into having the Ultimate Online Marketing Strategy, although not in great depth. So, let's begin.
First, you have to understand what I call the 3 S. Okay. Basically they are Site, Social Media and Standing. Basically when we talk about your website, we're not just talking about you building a little pamphlet website and you're up and going. Theres some things that must be in play here. Number 1, find ability. And yeah I put that at number 1. You have got to be found.
What's the point of having a website if you can't be found? And I'm not just talking about for your name! Everyone's website should come up number 1 for their own name. You'd be surprised how many don't! But I'm talking about for what you do, you should be coming up. At least in the top 5, organically. And once again I'm not talking about Pay per Click (PPC). I'm not talking about the little Google Ads. You know theres a lot of companies out there that when it comes to Online Marketing; they are trying to sell you Pay per Click Ads. And they'll "promise" to get you to number 1 in Google.
The problem is yeah you're number 1, but that's an Ad. And every time someone clicks on that, it's costing you money! So, rule number 1 as it relates to that is to never let anyone convince you that a Pay per Click Ad is the way to go as it relates to ranking. Oh and by the way, never let anyone use your name as one of the keywords in a Pay per Click Ad. Like I said, you should be coming up organically. If people are looking for you directly, you shouldn't be paying Google every time someone clicks on it.
So find ability, you know showing up in Google which means content. And we've talked about this before. Your content must be unique, not exist anywhere else on Planet Earth. Your content must be conversational, it must be written at a 5th grade level. All that text must be written at a 5th grade level.
And 3, you've got to be updating it on a regular basis. I have entire videos just on this whole section, if you want to go into depth on what that looks like. But basically, rule number 1 as it relates to your website strategy is to be FOUND. Or else everything else is irrelevant.
Next, suitability. I'd told you there will be some literation here. Suitability basically means your website must be Mobile-responsive. In other words it must automatically adjust itself no matter what device people are viewing it on. Google has now made that a requirement! Because the majority of traffic today is now going across mobile devices.
I mean people are pulling up your website more on those than they are on a regular PC. So Google has now made it a rule that your ranking will now be affected if you do not have a website that is Mobile-responsive. And you can check to see if your website is Google friendly as it relates to mobile.
Simply Google up "Google Mobile Friendly Test" and you'll find it. Go there, put your website in and it will tell you if it likes it. It's got to be. And if it's not, contact your web provider immediately and have them fix that.
Usability. Your site has got to work for users. I mean forget all the SEO stuff. When we talk about Online Marketing, we're talking about Online Marketing to users, actual people. Sometimes people mistake what I'm teaching them and they think they need to build a website just for Google and the users are secondary! NO.
Users are primary! And so everything you put on it like every picture, every bit of text, every call-to-action, everything has got to speak to the users. Which means they've got to be able to find everything they want on your website very quickly.
You know, one of my rules is what I call the rule of 3 clicks. Someone should be able to find ANYTHING on your website within 3 clicks. Because you won't get a 4th! Remember, everyone on the internet has ADD and they're lazy.
So make sure that your website is understood and can be navigated very easily by users. That includes how you setup the homepage. You can't overload it. Too many people put too much on there and when you land there you go "Oh my GOD!" Because remember what I told you.
When people land on your website for the very first time, they're going to scan it for 5 seconds from top-left to bottom-right. And if they don't see anything that catches their attention, makes them want to go further, makes them want to click – they're gonna leave!
Your website has got to convince people to take 1 more click, and in fact that's the goal of the homepage of your site. That's the only goal it really has – is to convince them to take 1 more click!
This is also where the Bounce Rate comes into play. You want to know if your website is working or not, make sure you have Google Analytics installed on your website. And if you don't, ask your web provider to do that. And then login and look at that stat called the Bounce Rate.
I have a whole video on it if you want to learn more but basically the Bounce Rate is the percentage of people who landed on that page and didn't click on anything. They bounced off! It's a bad percentage. That's why you should keep it below 30%.
Most websites I go to, their Bounce Rate is usually up around 70%, 80% and even 90%! 90% of the people not clicking on anything! Make sure it's below 30%. So usability is HUGE in the Online Marketing World.
Liability – this is big too. Well some of my most popular videos are the ones about Legal Liability. In other words, you got to make sure that all the pictures on your website are legal. Did your web provider just copy them off the internet and paste them on your site? Did they get them from a legitimate stock image site? Did you take the pictures yourself? Where did they come from?
What about the content? Was the text copied from anywhere? You'd be surprised how many automated little robots are out there constantly looking at all the pictures on websites and determining whether those people are using them legitimately. And then you get a little letter in the mail which I call a Getty Letter because Getty is one of the big groups policing this. The letter says "Hey that picture on your website you don't have the right to use it.
You owe use $10000." And believe it or not, you will have to pay them! You're wondering it was your web designer who did it. Doesn't matter. They'll go after you and it'll be you who pays. So make sure you use a web designer who gets all their images legitimately, or else you'll get one of those letters.
Make sure that you own your dot com. You know sometimes you let a web designer register your dot com for you. Be careful that they didn't put it in their name. You need to be what's called the "registrant." And when you register a dot com, theres a bunch of designations like the Billing Contact, Technical Contact etc. Theres one called the Registrant. And that must be you! That's one who legally owns it.
Also make sure that your web provider waives any rights to the website itself, so that once you're done with them you OWN the website. So you don't have to start completely over somewhere. Make sure that you legally own the website. In the State of Texas and a lot of other states in this country, if a web designer builds you a website and you pay them and you think you're done with them.
Believe it or not, the Intellectual Property Rights or the Intellectual Rights to the entire website still remain in the hands of the web designer! And if you ever become dissatisfied with them, they can hold you hostage with it. You don't want that.
So if you don't know whether you legally own your website or not, why don't you call your web designer and get that in writing. Keep in mind that I have a lot of videos that cover all of those things in greater detail.
Let's move to Social Media Strategy now. Because yeah you need a Social Media Strategy. Number 1, you've got to be picky. Don't choose every bit of Social Media out there. You only need to choose the ones where your customers are. And when I say customers I mean your perfect customers.
People ask me all the time how do they know who their perfect customer is? Easy. You want to know who your perfect customer is? Picture in your head the 1 customer you currently have right now, where you make the most money and they give you the least grief. That is your perfect customer.
And if you could copy them over and over and over and that's all what you'd have to deal with, you'd be happy! Your website, your Social Media Strategy, everything you do should be targeting those people. So choose the Social Media platform that they're already on. Don't feel you have to do them all.
Don't feel that you have to do Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and Pinterest etc. Find out where they already are, your perfect customer. And then just use those!
It's got to be purposeful. Your Social Media can't just be 1-way megaphone blast. "3% off today" and then nothing. You've got to be purposeful. That's why you must have Calls to Action (CTA).
You've got to have a call to action in every single social media piece you do. Based on what you just listed (3% off today), what do you want them to do with that. Tell them what to do. Are they gonna print this out and bring it to store. Are they gonna click on a link and get a discount code. What do you want them to do? Make sure and tell them to do that.
And then finally, you've got to have that Call to Interaction. That Call to Action where they want to comment. People ask me all the time how do they measure if their Social Media is working or not. Here I'll make it really easy. Don't look at the number of likes on your post; don't even look at the number of shares.
I want you to look at the number of comments on every post! Because that person actually took the time, stopped, was totally thinking about your brand and commented. To me, that is the true measure of Social Media success. How many people you got to comment on your post.
And it's got to be persuasive. And that means pictures! EVERY Social Media post you do has got to have a picture. I don't want you going on Facebook and just typing some text and posting it. No one sees it. Think about it. People on Facebook are scrolling up their feed. And what are you stopping on? Be honest, what are you stopping on?
The pictures! Make sure every post has a picture. And if you can't, make it an interesting picture. One that makes people stop and think about it. Make sure it's fun, I mean that's how you get them to stop, which is really what you want. Because there are so many other Social Media posts competing for the attention of everyone looking. You want to make sure that yours actually get looked at!
Okay we've covered websites, we've covered social media and now we're going to cover your standing. Okay. I'm basically talking about your Online Reputation. And yeah I'm going to be very honest here. DO NOT pay someone to protect your Online Reputation. You need to do it YOURSELF! And I have a whole video titled "How to Manage Your Online Reputation for Free" on this very topic.
Check it out. But basically it involves setting up Google Alerts, it involves Googling yourself, checking out what people are saying about you by simply looking up your name. And theres some other tricks, so check out that video. Number 1, you've got to monitor your reputation on a regular basis. Number 2, you've got to do it correctly by searching for the right things.
Like your name, your business name, the products you create etc. You've got to have that proactively monitored, which means you get alerted whenever someone is starting to talk about you. And like I said, I use Google Alerts for that. Totally free, and once again don't pay ANYONE to monitor your online reputation for you. Also, you've got to know how to handle if someone says something bad about you. But we'll get to that a little later.
Part of your Standing is making sure that you're properly registered. Now, I don't mean that theres some central internet registry that you've got to be a part of. But the closest thing I've found is Google's. Google, when trying to figure out who a business is legitimately, where that business is on a map, what its hours are and what its correct web address is etc.
They have their own Yellow Pages, sort of. And so when a business first comes online, chances are that business already "existed" because Google had a huge set of maps and it went ahead and probably put your business in there. But it doesn't know the actual individuals who are currently running that business. So, Google made it very easy for you to find your business and make sure you're listed correctly. It's Get Your Business Online (gybo.com) and then you will want to search for your business.
And Google will walk you through the steps of claiming your registration. Trust me. When it comes to Online Marketing, this is critical! Because Google is the one who ranks you. And you know that basically 99% of all searches start online and about 96-97% of those searches start on Google! So Google will only return you if it knows what you do. If you're a plumber, make sure that in your registration at gybo.com; you're listed as a plumber.
Or Google will never show you when people are doing a search for plumbers. This is how Google knows who you are, and it is critical that you claim your business and then update it with all that information.
Reviews Reviews Reviews! Remember, everyone on the internet knows you're gonna embark on a self-praising spree. But it's totally different when other people say you rock! Remember the number 1 barrier to people using you on the internet is the trust barrier. Well, when they see that you're getting lots of good online reviews, then that helps to lower the trust barrier so that you can get their information.
You know we want to make sure that people can get to you, and that people want to get to you. But they're not just going to believe in every claim you make about your own business. The 2 places you've got to be looking at reviews, and by the way I have a whole video on this titled "How to Generate User Reviews for Your Company?" Be sure to check that out. The 2 places you really ought to be most focused on are Google Reviews and Yelp Reviews.
Those are the 2 main ones. And those are the two that I would check. When you do the gybo for Google, that's where you'll probably start seeing your Google Reviews there. But, you can also find them just by doing a search on Google Reviews. Now if you're in the travel industry, then you might want to check out Trip Advisor. And if you own a restaurant, you can check out Urban Spoon or some of the other ones that rate restaurants. You want to make sure that the reviews you're getting are good reviews.
Now people ask me all the time what if they get a bad review? Remember, and I've said this in other videos. You can't usually get that bad review removed. And don't let anyone tell you that it can be removed! Only way you can get a bad review removed is if there is some racist language in it or curse words.
These companies are not going to take any chance. Even if you claim it's a fake review or not right, they're not going to take it down. They're not going to take that liability. So the only thing you can do is reply to or respond to a review. This is key to Online Marketing – You manage your reviews. Everyone will get a bad review.
That's not what people are looking for. No one expects every single review for a company to be a 100%. People would question that thinking that can't be right. They expect to see a couple of reviews that are either average or negative. But when there is a negative review, I want to make sure you respond to it.
I had a bad review a long time ago in Google. But it was a fake review by another Online Marketing firm. And I could not convince Google to remove it, even though I could prove it was fake. So what I did was I responded. And simply called out the jerk for who he was. Everyone will get bad reviews. Learn how to deal with them.
Well, as always if you have any questions on this, let me know. And I hope the literation just wasn't too bad. Everything starting with the same letter or sounding the same, had a lot of fun with that. Remember I have a tonne of videos at my website ericspellmann.com that go into all of this in great depth. I am Eric Spellmann; I'll see you in cyberspace.