Recently, and by recently I mean right around Christmas, one of my clients called requesting a print ad for The Music Business Registry, Inc. to promote his companies line of Vintage Masters music.

Normally I’d put off such foolishness until after the holidays… However, these guys helped me a lot when I was starting out by sending work my way and have referred other business since so I figure I owe them the holiday time. Plus they are great guys.

Anywho, this is what inventiveWebs did for them in a pinch for The Music Business Registry’s rag.

Vintage Masters Print Ad By inventiveWebs | Click it for full size

Each year the fine folks at Wild Whirled Music want a custom card created for the holidays that they can send out to their clients.

And, this year was no different… I just finalized a couple proofs that are being sent over to their head honcho so here they are for you to peruse and critique:

The front looks like this:

Xmas card front designed for Wild Whirled

And what card would be complete without the simple message on the inside… Lol! The inside carries a simple message and all their branding. See below:

Inside of the Wild Whirled card

This project is designed to go to print. Done at 300dpi using a combination of Illustrator and Photoshop. What do you think? Feel free to offer up any comments…

The debate rages onward! Who will win out? Will it be SEO or PPC?

Well let’s see… These 2 forms of marketing accomplish very different objectives.

With PPC or pay per click marketing that you can setup on Google, Bing, or even Facebook what you get is the ability to setup ads and begin driving traffic almost immediately. Sure you may have to wait a few days to get your ad approved by the “PPC Gods” who run the platforms, but as long as what you are selling is above board and honest, you should encounter little in the way of obstacles.

PPC requires a good copywriter. Not just any ad will convert… you will need to know how to write a compelling “story” in limited characters. This is a skill that has taken me years to “somewhat master”. But, once you have your ad in place, the results are easily tracked and measured using your favorite service providers metrics platform. If using Google, you would see your results in your Google Analytics or Adwords account.

Let’s look at SEO though…

SEO can give you everything that PPC can and more! Take a look at this heat map…

The click through hotspots are pretty easy to see, eh?

The “red stuff” is telling us where the activity is… Notice that its concentrated on the organic results and not the right hash where the PPC ads typically run.

This is the result of a common phenomenon called “banner blindness” or “ad blindness”. This occurs when your prospect is accustomed to seeing an area on the page that is consistently laden with ads, and thus begins to ignore them. The prospect assumes that there is no value in the ad itself and goes straight for the organic search results.

This heat map of clicks is telling us that the organic search results are the most preferable results on the page! (Look where the red stuff is located)

So how do you get the most preferable results to work for you? You begin an SEO campaign with an honest SEO provider. (More on that later)

With SEO, you get proper click tracking, you get a definite result in that you rank or you don’t, and you get the most desirable screen real estate in the eyes of your prospect.

But here’s the real kicker.

You also get MARKET SHARE!

Let me explain… At any given time there are only 10 spots on page 1 in Google. Every spot you occupy is a spot that your competition can NOT occupy! And, if you push them off page 1 to page 2 or 3, you can effectively ensure traffic for you niche will come to you. This is because very few people will go past page 1 when doing an organic keyword search!

Ideally, you want to rank for as many existing keyword niches as possible that relate to your niche. Emphasis on existing… Some dishonest service providers will rank you for keywords that actually have no search volume and then claim that they did what they said they would.  Well, maybe they did… But SEO should come with traffic! Traffic that is related to your niche. If you rank for a term, yet your traffic does not change, then you probably have been sold a line of bull.

You can check up on niche based terms using the Google Keyword Tool External. I’m going to show you this tool in a coming post…

But in the meantime remember this:

SEO is a zero sum game… There are only 10 spots on page 1! Do you occupy one of them or not?

Recently, I stumbled across a video that really reiterates the power of words.

As most of you know, to be successful in any venture and to truly have business partners, clients, or customers really buy into what it is you are creating, your messaging must speak to what THEY want. So what do they want? What do they want to avoid or attain?

The video below can be construed a couple different ways, but its power comes through. And, the net effect of everything we communicate from a personal or business standpoint is constantly either attracting or repelling the outcome we desire.

Give This One A Watch!

What do the people in the video who choose to give money want? Why do you think they decided to give money? Let me know with a comment below.

Watch as we take you through a simple website evaluation looking for strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities to improve the sites ROI… You may pick up a few ideas that you can use and implement going forward! There are 3 videos in total covering look and feel, marketing value, and lead generation strategies.

Be sure and watch all three and give us your opinion on what you see or on other opportunities to improve by commenting below. See you on the other side…

Enter Your Name And Email Now To Watch!

I once heard somewhere that a satisfied customer will tell 3 people and a dissatisfied customer will tell 11! We’ll I don’t’ know if I agree with the numbers, yet the ratio seems about right. With the internet and social media, I bet those numbers are exponentially larger.

This has tremendous gravity when it comes to marketing for 2 reasons… First, because happy customers talk you up less, you must maximize your opportunity to get good usable testimonials for your print or electronic media. And secondly, because of the leverage aspect of social media you have less control. The 2 things business owners hate more than anything: less opportunity, and a lack of control! Yikes..

What is the point of testimonials anyway? Are they really important? Yes.

A testimonial is “social proof”. We humans as a species are programed to believe what we see (even thought the opposite is true). And, when we see that another human has gotten a result, there is a mechanism in our brain that allows us to believe we can get a similar result. And, if the social proof is given by someone we respect or admire, then we associate the result we can get with the status we can attain by using [insert your favorite product or service] promoted by [insert your favorite person here].

So if a human can associate getting what he wants and/or gaining status with your product or service… It becomes irresistible to other humans.

I am going to give you 2 ideas to help you get client testimonials that trigger new prospects to respond; but first lets talk about the structure of a good testimonial; Its a simple equation: Problem + Your Widget = Desired Result. Here are a few examples:

• “We had the toughest time selling our home until we used Ron Brown’s team. They sold it in 60 days!” – J.Q. Customer
• “I wanted to increase my web traffic and was lost… But, after talking to Jason and learning about SEO, I now have 250+ more visits to my site each month!” – J.Q. Customer
• “Sometimes in my business I need to turn a print project fast… And, because I have a good working relationship with inventiveWebs, they just do what I need on short notice. I can call them up and not worry about getting a lecture on scheduling, they just make it happen.” – J.Q. Customer

The first way is simply to use the formula to ask your client a very specific question like, ” J.Q., remember when we first teamed up on your issue of web traffic? I am building a sequence of testimonials for my business and I would like your help. Will you write a sentence or two that outlined your problem and then what the specific, measurable result was that we helped you achieve?”

This approach is very different from the usual testimonials provided in generic institutional marketing. You want to avoid generic at all costs. Testimonials like, “Ron is the best REALTOR we have ever used” or “Thanks for providing such a valuable service”. These are not offering social proof… These are offering a judgement. And, judgement is subjective. Avoid subjective imagery and connotation at all costs because you will have no control over how your fellow human interprets the judgement.

The second way is more complex… It is more like Jedi mind control and explaining how it works is a book in and of itself. Yet, conceptually it is constantly “telling” or “showing” your client what to think of you. Some big brands do this well. Coca Cola comes to mind. Coke is constantly associating their product with a happy human lifestyle. And, they have done such a good job that many consider the brand of Coke to be part of the fabric of their lives.

Years ago when Coke came up with New Coke… You may remember the response from the public and how quickly Coke got rid of New Coke. Now if Coke was just syrup and soda to the public, would they have reacted that way? Doubtful…

Coke accomplished this a myriad of ways. They constantly tell you “what to think of the brand” through commercials, print, song, and story. But, the point is to weave in what you want people to think into all your marketing. Constantly tell them… Eventually, whether they prefer Coke over Pepsi or your product over another becomes more than about them than you. This is because they make up a story about why your product is better. They lie to themselves and believe the lie.

Blind taste tests show that many Coke drinkers actually prefer the taste of Pepsi! But, if they know the packaging and are able to associate the packaging with the story they made up about themselves, they will choose Coke every time. They literally have no choice because the idea is now part of their chemical memory.

The same is true Republicans v. Democrats, Catholics v. Protestants, Apple v. Microsoft, and SEO v. PPC.

Now in truth… I could go on and on with how you can weave what you want your customers to say about you in this piece… But, it is easier to show you an example of how it works. Watch this video piece by Darren Brown for a very concise explanation of how and why this is effective.

And remember, your prospects will only respond to specific, measurable, external, tangible, results that they desire for themselves deemed attainable because someone else already did it!

Building your website or your business or your information product is as easy and as inexpensive as its ever going to be. Why? Because markets grow and become more complex over time. Barriers to entry creep in. Expenses increase as competition grows. This is the nature of growing industries.

The web and Internet marketing is no different.

Whether you realize it or not, someone somewhere is registering a domain name right now and planning to build a website that could be in direct competition with yours! And why wouldn’t they?

Today you can register a domain name for 10 bucks a year, you can write ebooks, make blog posts, upload images, shoot video, and create complete sales and marketing funnels which use all these types of content with a $500 laptop computer from any coffee shop with WiFi in the world!

You have an opportunity here at the infancy of the web to create a brand or business or website that can last into perpetuity for just a few thousand bucks… Never before has this been possible for so little. And, as with all opportunities, the clock is ticking.

Coming soon…

When it comes to the web and internet marketing you will find a tremendous variety of sites, graphics, and purposes for having an online presence.

However, the purpose that is most appealing to me is a concept that I call “The Internet Land Rush”. Imagine if you will that you can travel back through time 100 years. How many industries were in their infancy then? How many of those industries grew to attract hundreds of thousands or even millions of customers? Finally, how much of your time or money would you invest to position yourself at the forefront of future growth for some of these industries?

The industrial revolution, which began in northern Europe about 200 years ago, brought us industries that we now take for granted: iron making, machine manufacturing, textiles, the internal combustion engine, autos, radio, television, aviation, and computing. Even the name brand alone of some of the early iconic companies is worth millions. Names like GE, Ford, Bell, and IBM all come to mind and all have default “mental jewelry” associated with them.

When you think “Ford”, what image do you see in your mind? Now, imagine how many people see the same thing you do when they here mention of the name “Ford”. Ford’s first 2 companies failed, but when he left to start the third company, which was called The Ford Motor Company; he took $900.00 and the rights to his name!

Why would Ford want rights to his name? It was simple really… First off, it was his name and secondly he knew that his name at this point already had been associated with the idea of manufacturing vehicles in the minds of investors and potential consumers.

This was important… There was great competition in the late 1800′s to build a marketable gas powered vehicle. And, Ford was not the first. But, he may have been the most persistent. By keeping his name as a viable marketing option, he automatically brought all the marketing or branding he did in the past to any company he started in the future related to auto manufacture. The goodwill of his name followed him at no cost.

The idea of associating “name” with “idea” helped build a shield around the young company and what it was about. It aided Ford as competition burst onto the scene. The newcomers had to now compete for the mind share that Ford already had! It was literally Ford’s industry to lose.

The same thing is now happening today… And, those who understand what a website is and how it can be associated with an idea stand to do quite well as they build it out. Even now in the youthful internet industry, iconic names are being associated with iconic ideas. What do you think of when you hear “Google”, “Facebook”, or “WordPress”? Chances are you think the same thing millions or billions of others do!

Welcome to The Internet Land Rush! The companies listed above have protected their names and the ideas with which they are associated. Hell, “Google” is now a verb in the English language!

The same can be true for your name, domain name, and idea. The internet is still young enough for you to make a splash. And, it doesn’t have to be a big splash… Pick your niche and go for it! If you are a REALTOR serving Red Mountain community, then you had best register “redmountain.com”. If that is taken you had better offer to buy it from the owner or you should look into getting “redmountainhomes.com”. If that is taken keep looking for a suitable domain.

Note: There is a reason that I want “red mountain” in the domain name if I know that people are using that term to search for what it is I am offering or associating myself with. This is why all websites begin with first choosing your niche and then choosing a domain name that has your search or niche terms in it!

Lets say you can register “redmountainhomes.com” and you build a site on that domain that offers tremendous value to your prospect. I mean you really give them every thing you have on the topic and make it difficult for anyone looking to compete with you to take their mind share… After all, if you are giving them everything they need why would they look elsewhere? They won’t. And, an interesting thing occurs… because you are the one providing so much value to them, they see you as an authority and are drawn to you. This is the best case of positioning you can be in because now you will be sought out by your prospects! Imagine that… they will want to reach out to you!

Now, notice that in my above example I talked at length about providing value or giving… And, I will elaborate on this idea in future posts, but for now we must focus on the core idea of “Why The Web Will Pay Huge Dividends”

Once your site is this point where its getting traffic and people are visiting to consume your content and information and interesting thing happens… You get more leads. You make more sales. Your position in the market is that of an authority. Your intent is focused. You can now build your business around the core idea of your site: “redmountainhomes.com = The best online resource for community and market information on Red Mountain homes”.

The number one objection at this point is always, “I don’t want to limit myself to just Red Mountain”… You think that because your purpose is focused on one area that your income won’t be there. That you will lose out on other business, but that is simply not true. My mentors first teach this in marketing: “Marketing to everyone is marketing to no one.” Generic, emotionless, and trite marketing copy will not sell anyone anything. A targeted market who wants what you have is predisposed to buying from you before you ever even meet them. If you only market to people who want a Red Mountain home, and you sell Red Mountain homes… wouldn’t it stand to reason that they might want your help? Its when you try to be all things to all people that you become nothing to everyone. Know your purpose focus on it, then expand if necessary.

You now have a quality site, your getting good traffic, you are learning to convert that traffic and your business grows. Now wouldn’t that be a valuable asset as it continues to grow? Wouldn’t others have trouble competing in that market because you have the mind share and are providing value? The market is now yours to lose. Just like Ford’s was.

Even cooler is that you can monetize your site in multiple ways. Re-read that sentence for understanding. You can now sell advertising on your site to businesses who want to be in front of your demographic! But think of this: 20 years from now when the web is more mature and all the best domain names are gone and you want to retire from real estate; you can sell or lease your site to someone else who wants to work that niche! For example: Lets say you build a 100k/year business in Red Mountain homes based on you web generated leads. And you can now prove your traffic and conversion rates to a potential buyer. Because businesses are bought and sold on a multiple of revenue, you could ask whatever the going rate is for real estate businesses. If its 5 times revenue, then you could sell out for a half million! Not a bad retirement booster…

The point is all this is possible and happening now all around you. “Web properties” are bought and sold everyday on a multiple of revenues and those with the foresight clean up, those who don’t get cleaned out. If you build a quality site, and invest in it over time it is possible for you to get paid many times over. And that, my friend, is my wish for you and “Why The Web Will Pay Huge Dividends!” for those who capitalize on The Internet Land Rush.

According to the Netcraft Web Server Survey, the web is now home to more than 266 million websites. However, it is estimated that very few of these websites offer any real value to their owners.  Based solely on my personal customer data here at inventiveWebs.com, I know this to be true.

You are probably wondering why this is. You may even be one of the many who have experienced disappointment and frustration with your personal or business web presence. If so, the good news is… no matter where you are, you can change course for the better. In most cases, its a matter of having the right guidance.

“Creating websites that perform is not rocket science, but it is a science nonetheless.” – Jason

Your website is just one part of your marketing system. And, if you set it up right from the start, it can be a big part. It will create leverage, leads, and allow you to communicate your core values to your target market in a way that addresses their primary fears and motivations for following or buying from you.

There are very specific concepts you must understand. Included below is a the top 5 concepts to consider when creating a website in order to save time, make money, or create a web project that will accomplish your goals:

1: You must know your purpose for creating your website! This seems like such a simple idea… However, in my personal experience, there seems to be a lack of good quality information on what a website is and how internet marketing can best be leveraged to generate leads, advertise your brand, or sell digial & physical products.

Ask yourself “What is the value of a website to me or my business?” and “How will a website best serve me?” Be specific and honest. If you want your website to generate leads, then a reasonable statement of purpose might be, “I want to leverage my website to create 10 new leads per week”. Again… Specific. Measurable. You will be able to use this knowledge to communicate better with your web developer.

2: Your website is just a tool! That is to say your website is only one part of a cohesive marketing plan. You can not realistically expect to have your website built and taken live… Then suddenly, magically, you are now receiving vast amounts of web traffic. Yet, many that I speak to believe that this is so. You will have to promote your site. Think of it this way… You wouldn’t open a brick and mortar office or storefront and expect that people would automatically find you. To be found, you must consider ways to get in front of people who will be predisposed to consume whatever it is you are offering. You must drive prospective customers to your storefront to make sales. The same is true online.

3: How do you want to promote your website? You will want to consider how you will drive traffic or promote your website based on your business or site purpose using one of four primary methods:

• PPC (Pay Per Click): This is a method of bidding on keyword search terms in a search engine like Google.
• SEO (Search Engine Optimization): This is a method of setting up your site to organically rank in a search engine for a particular search term. For example you can SEO your site to show up on page 1 in Google when someone searches “Organic Bread” or “Jeep Exhaust”.
• Social Media (Facebook, Twitter): This method is probably least understood by the masses, and what is does is allow you to build relationships in a social setting which can lead to people visiting your blog, website, or capture pages.
• Print Media (Doesn’t Sound Sexy): This can be a super powerful point of leverage in your business when done scientifically.

None of these methods have to be scary. We are happy to help you understand each in better detail… In fact, we have plans to write more information on each topic specifically in future posts.

4: Understand “The New Coke Phenomenon”! Sometimes a client will come to me and say that they are no longer happy with the way their site looks. And, then proceed to tell me that they want to change it for that reason alone. This is a mistake. The fact is that there is only one reason to change your website or any of your marketing: It is no longer performing.

In fact, one of my mentors talks about how he has seen many multi-million dollar companies change their marketing because the CEO or the owner no longer likes it! They give no regard to the numbers. For example, lets say you have a site that generates 10 leads per week and you decide that you don’t like the way it looks and have your designer change it. Then after a few weeks you look at your numbers and discover that the new site only generates 5 leads, but you like the way it looks. Would you change it back or continue to give your prospects what you prefer over what the numbers say they prefer?

Coka Cola did this with New Coke… They wisely changed it back. What they had was working already.

5:You must understand targeting your market! This is the biggest mistake made in marketing. If you plan to develop a following, build a customer list, sell a product, or allow interested parties to visit your website, you must know how to target them and you must know how to feed them what they want to be fed in the manner that they want to eat it!

An example might be: You are a REALTOR and you serve the Las Sendas community in east Mesa, AZ. To properly target people looking to buy or sell in Las Sendas, you will need to know the search terms they use to find Las Sendas information online. You then need to be able to have your website be the one they find either by using a PPC ad or a website which has been properly SEO’d to show up on page 1 of Google for their search terms. Their search terms might be “Las Sendas Community”, “Las Sendas House For Sale”, or “Las Sendas”. If your marketing is centered around the wrond search term, guess what happens… Nothing. Well, that’s not true. Something happens. And, what happens is someone else’s phone rings and they get the business.

If you understand these 5 concepts, you will undoubtedly be on the right path toward creating a profitable or purposeful web presence using internet marketing. If you would like to talk to a real live person and get up to 30 minutes of free advice, just contact Jason Archer.