So there I am sitting in the airport bar waiting for my flight after a few jammed filled days of appointments and sales calls. I am surrounded by various other people in the same situation and the last thing I want to do is disturb any of these business professionals in their last few hours of “down time” prior to getting back to their office and families.

But then it happens….I pull out my iPad and almost like a switch heads pop up and necks begin to turn towards me as if they are on some country road and pass a herd of deer. I am the deer!

Most people go back to their cocktail and chicken wings as they rumble under their breath…..I gotta get one of those. However, there seems to always be a bold few that venture towards the deer for a better look. Typical questions are, is that the 3G version and how do you like it? After I respond my natural instincts take over and I ask….”so, what do you do” and after they respond I tell them what I do and how I  use the iPad for my business. This usually turns into further dialogue about our respective businesses, a couple more comments about the iPad and typically ends with the exchanging of business cards and all of a sudden…..BAM, a new prospect added to my pipeline that I can stay in touch with to see when they finally take the plunge and get an iPad.

Aside from the traditional value props of owning an iPad….the contacts I have made by having an iPad have more than paid for the product.

If you have not seen one of the newest Nike commercials that is often running on ESPN… please make a point to watch it (see below).

The background song “Ali in The Jungle” by The Hours is the most crucial part. The primary lyrics to the song is that “Everybody gets knocked down….how quick are you gonna get up?” And of course being Nike it has highlights of some knocked down athletes such as LaDainian Tomlinson and Maria Sharapova.

As I am watching the commercial and then putting the song on my Iphone I am quickly reminded of how practical this song applies to businesses… especially now. Often I am talking to businesses who state “We are waiting for the Economy to turn around” or “times are really bad, right now” and just about every time my response is…

What the hell are you waiting for?

Your competition to keep outranking you? The Government to give you a personal “bail out”? Stop waiting and start doing!

Bottom line is if you are planning to stay in business and increase your cash flow now is the time to put a plan together and immediately act upon that plan. Seriously, every business got Knocked Down in the last couple years… the question truly is, how quick are you gonna get up?

Dear CEO:

I want to thank you for the opportunity to reach out to you today, I know that you are busy…..so I will try and keep this brief.

Your web presence is poor, non-existent, incognito, losing you money and quite honestly….sucks! It lacks the true meaning behind having a website and that is to increase your profits, yes that is correct….increase your profits! Now you are asking how do I know this?? Well, it is quite simple…..your potential buyers (prospects) cannot find you, which means you do not exist in their eyes, which means they will never have the opportunity to buy from you, which means you are losing money.  Feel free to continue to spend your hundreds of thousands of dollars on trade shows, trade journals, print advertising, TV commercials, Radio Spots, direct mail and the many other traditional forms of marketing available. Meanwhile, realize that 90% of all buying research and decisions takes place through the internet.

I know what you are saying, we are doing SEO, SEM, Social Media and some other forms of Internet Marketing Services and I have to stand right up and tell you…..you are not! You might be dabbling in it, playing around with it, testing things, increasing traffic and perhaps feel that your outsource firm or internal efforts are maximizing your potential, when the truth is due to their uneducated, lack of knowledge….you are losing money. Your Internet Marketing campaign must be conversion and profit focused and most external and internal teams do not have the experience or knowledge to make that happen……so you keep losing money.

You see I have been through this with your marketing department, sales manager, IT department and various other executives within your company and they seem to have this fear that you will deny this need even though it is a MUST HAVE. I have strongly demanded that I cannot believe you would take this approach since this is such a missing link to your overall marketing strategy and one that cannot be ignored any longer. Perhaps, you should re-engage your marketing department and various other execs showing them your support of such an initiative.

See my job is to take your online presence to a whole new level that you cannot even comprehend and I know that sometimes there is not even a budget established. Not having a budget is truly not a good enough reason to lose an enormous amount of potential income especially for a strategy that is so precisely trackable. Go find out how many people viewed that TV Commercial you ran or saw the full page magazine ad you placed in that trade journal…..not gonna happen, is it?

Well I have taken up enough of your time today and I will follow this letter up with repeated phone calls and contact points until you see the error of your ways and want to start making a difference and increase your companies profits. After all, you would not want me to start reaching out to the owner and/or board of directors…now would you?

Make it a great day!

Sincerely,

Your Best Shot At Internet Immortality

For many of us that get bombarded on an annual basis with the typical 6 inch, thick, yellow paged book from yester-year and do not feel comfortable with tossing it in the trash for fear getting attacked by many trees.

Here is a list of the Top 10 uses for the books:

10. Use many of them together as building blocks to for an incredible play house;

9.   Ideal book to place on top of head and walking for practicing balance and poise;

8.   Door Stop;

7.   Conduct annual Yellow Page Book throwing contest;

6.   Excellent mini step ladders for the hard to reach places around your house or business;

5.   Ideal for making several hundred paper airplanes;

4.   Excellent seat for those who are vertically challenged;

3.   Use as cones for out of bounds and the end zone during your next pick up game of football;

2.   Great wheel/tire chuck for under vehicles and trailers to prevent movement while parked;

1.   Perfect stand to place your desktop or notebook on for the correct height to conduct your Google searches.

Not to mention if the Google Gods caught you using such an antiquated instrument of Search….. you may have an algorithm change done to you

I have had several conversations with clients and most recently a very good friend of mine about why they are not using Google Mail for everything. My good friend still has an AOL account that he has had since the time it took 7 days to connect….crazy! I have explained to him and have shown him the greatness of emailing, archiving, SPAM ELIMINATING, scheduling, chatting, document and spreadsheet creating/sharing, customizing and organizing found when you have a Gmail account. He/They simply say I have had my email address for years and I tell them there are tons of ways around that after a few weeks with Gmail, you will kick yourself for not making the switch sooner.

Now this is not a “Plug” for Google or maybe it is…..however, I would love to hear more excuses of why you would use a very limited system for email when there is such an amazing product available. Please tell me what you are thinking?!

I can see if you are concerned about Google going out of business before your existing provider

For those of you that can remember this ballad from famed rockers Cinderella, there has never been a moment in my recent memory that this rings truer…..especially when it comes to the job market.

As I am searching for several available positions within ProspectMX and GetMyHomesValue.com it brings reality into the fact that there are tons of good people looking for a career and would be happy with a job. Skilled people are working at places they would not have even dreamed of stepping into as a customer over a year ago. That person bagging your groceries could very well be someone with a Doctorate in Electrical Engineering. Now speaking to all of you with a job, position, career…..these out of work skilled individuals are waiting for you to “screw up” so they can slide right into your position. They are not intentionally stalking you and your position however, employers are realizing the overwhelming amount of talent that is available in the current market and will not be tolerating employees that give a sub par performance as they would have in the past.

So if any of you employed individuals are thinking the “grass may be greener” on the other side and you are not giving your position 150% you may want to consider all of the unemployed individuals waiting for that opporunity you may give them. After all, it may take many of you to realize what you had…..after you lose it?!

Although not as lengthy of a trip as the Tommy Boy venture (but very close to as much fun), yesterday Mark Fischer and I did some old fashioned door-to-door, pounding the pavement sales calls to businesses throughout the greater Philadelphia area.

We want to express much admiration to the many security guards we encountered that did their jobs and would not permit us to pass through to any possible decision makers. Also, we want to apologize to the young lady at the one business that opened the door for us but then took a “tongue lashing” from one of her bosses for letting us through. Thank you!

As Mark and I were venturing through one of the business parks we became curious as to how many other internet marketing/SEO companies send their sales force out cold calling on businesses in this manner. Further more, how many SEO firms have a sales department and do any type of prospecting?

We have been very successful with generating leads online (obviously), but we like to be more aggressive with introducing our services to others. It is still surprising how many businesses do not understand what we do and that a website automatically gets ranked.

I would love to hear any practices or structures that other SEO firms have for their sales and customer service departments. Please include funny stories. Of course, we would love to offer advice on those tough situations.

Coming from Lancaster, PA and heading to York last evening (New Year’s Eve), my family and I noticed a very bright non-moving object in the sky below the Crescent Moon. My hopes of it being a true UFO or even better yet a “Space Station” were quickly dismissed.

When reality set in, further investigation indicates that it was the planet Venus. It was truly a very cool sight to see.

Did anyone else notice Venus last evening under the moon?

You simply just have to accept it!! Getting it is what we do!

Internet marketing is an absolutely essential piece of your overall marketing plan, regardless of your business model. It is easier to track ROI than most other marketing efforts. Some businesses need to do a lot and some may just need to do a little. Some companies may just need a strong link building campaign. Other companies may need to combine link building with social media and a strong lead generation campaign to find their success.

Even if you are starting out and the first step is simply getting indexed by Google, or your keyword phrase is number two in the organics and you want to be number one, you simply have to accept that an internet marketing company with talent and experience is going to help make a difference.

It is not about having too much or too little SEO. It is truly about having the right amount to meet and exceed your goals and expectations.

So I was making a sales call the other day to an individual who filled out one of our online forms interested in some more information about ProspectMX.  I called the number and a guy answered and I asked for the person that was on the form and he proceeded to explain there is nobody here by that name. Then I asked if this was so and so business and he said no and then I obviously read back the number on the form and he said that is my number, actually my cell number. At that point there was no more need for pointless questions and my sales mind simply overlooked wrong guy right number and proceeded to the obvious next question. However, before a hint of air could pass through my lips the guy on the other end asked “So, what is it that you do?” I kindly went into detail about our services and that lead into a 20 minute pitch which proceeded into a scheduled appointment for next week.

Now one obvious conclusion is that this person is actually the person that did indeed fill out our form and is caught up in it so much at this point, there is no turning back. Whatever the case, I want to thank either my new prospect or Mr. Smith for filling out our form and putting in this other persons phone number. And Mr. Smith please call me anytime with your needs and feel free to leave a wrong name with the right phone number.