Green Apple Sales Blog

How should you advertise your business, using Print Media or Online Advertising?

That depends a great deal on your business, what you’re trying to achieve, and what your service area is.

With offline advertising, the reach of your ad (who will see it) is very limited. Not only that, but the people that will see the ads themselves are typical completely non-targeted.

And, perhaps biggest of all, is the fact that it’s enormously expensive for these print ads. In some cases, you’re paying thousands of dollars for a full-page spread, even more if you want them in color (which is the only way people are going to even think about calling you), and that’s not to mention the fact that you may not even get any calls from the ad.

That’s because the people that see your ad may not be looking for the products and/or services you provide at that time. If someone opens up a paper that you pay to put an ad into, it doesn’t mean they’re looking for what you have. They may be looking for the Dog Grooming Service on the page next to yours.

You don’t know and you can’t control it. And that’s how online advertising differs from print advertising.

When someone looks for something online, they’re usually interested in whatever that is RIGHT NOW. They wouldn’t search for “plumbing repair in Joliet IL” if they weren’t in need of a plumber right then. So, if you’re a plumber in Joliet and you come up first in that search, you’re getting found by people that want what you have right when they search for it. And chances are they’re in Joliet, too.

So, the first major difference is that online advertising is incredibly targeted.

And let’s say you find that there are 200 people searching for that keyword phrase every month. You can track that, by the way, and see exactly how many people are searching for that phrase (you knew that, right?). That’s SO powerful, to be able to not only see what people are typing into the search engines, but how many are searching for that.

As you can see, the second major difference is that you can track everything online. You can track anything and everything from:

• how many people are looking for what you have via the internet
• what keywords people search for when they want to buy what you have
• how many people even saw your online ad

That’s some pretty impressive information. Best of all, it’s much more cost effective to advertise online since you completely bypass printing, production, fees, and/or mailing costs of print ads. Like I said before, it can cost thousands of dollars for a print ad, and you don’t even know who’s going to see it. Or, if they’re going to need your services when that ad gets published.

It’s therefore much more cost effect for online advertising, since you CAN control all of that. With online advertising, in order for people to find you they need to be looking for you. That means the customers are coming to YOU.

I’m sure you’ve seen that almost everyone is online now. Even major companies like Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, CNN News, and every other one. The entire marketplace, including the consumers and YOUR future customers, is shifting to the digital world, so it’s your top priority to capitalize on this RIGHT NOW.

You need a presence on the internet if you’re to grow or thrive. That’s what we do at Green Apple Sales: we bring your business into the digital world and use the internet to put more customers into your business.

We’re here to help you. If you want to see what you can do for your business, just give us a call at 312-569-9420. Even if you just want some information to see what your options are, it’s best to see how we can help you. Don’t miss out on this, as it’s the single thing that’s going to help your business.

Talk to you soon,

312-569-9420
Green Apple Sales

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Small businesses need more than just a flashy website and a search engine ranking to generate sustainable, long-term results. Granted, both of those elements are essential to your web presence and netting sales from the internet, but there’s more to it than that, which is what I’m going to cover in this article.

The thing most people don’t understand is that a website and search engine rankings – while both are key components to a successful online campaign – are only parts in a system, not the entire system itself.

Imagine a machine. There are numerous cogs in the machine that allow it to work, and each cog has a distinct purpose in relation to the whole. Without a single cog, the machine won’t function.

Your marketing and sales system needs specific cogs to function properly and run on autopilot, generating leads for you non-stop (even if it’s at 2:00 in the morning).

Also, the entire system that results in more leads and more sales needs to incorporate both online AND offline strategies, with an emphasis on getting as many customers onto your email list as possible.

To do this, you first need what’s called an autoresponder. This is a service that allows you to keep track of all the emails you have in your database, and send them all an email simultaneously. You can even automate when your pre-written messages go out (for instance: an email can be automated to go out 1 day after they “opt in” to your list, then another can go out 4 days after they opt in, and so on).

Or, you can simply create an email and choose to send it to “all contacts in your list”.

This is the perfect tool to use if you want to run a promotion or special offer. People can “opt in” to join your email list in exchange for a coupon or promotional code for a discount on your products/services, which will allow you to get onto the job site. From there you can upsell them on other services, which is more revenue and future services to be rendered.

This is incredible since it means that you can offer your initial service for a steep discount or a break-even price (or even take a slight loss), as it could lead to more business in the future. Hey, it’s another lead in your system, only more than that because they’re already pre-qualified and have bought from you before.

After you do, you can implement offline strategies such as yard signs for all the customers you’ve done services for, which will provide visual marketing and spread the word to local prospects. Word of mouth marketing is arguably the best form of marketing in the world, and this small strategy capitalizes on that.

But, the key idea is to provide a URL (which is a website address) for a prospect to go to so they can get a coupon for your services at a discounted price.

From there, to capitalize more on the leads already in your system, you can implement a referral program to turn your current clients/customers into lead-generating powerhouses.

So to summarize, some cogs in your marketing machine include:

• your website and search engine ranking for exposure (and email captures) from the internet
• your email list for automated sales generation
• yard signs to hurl your name out there and collect more emails
• a referral program to turn your current leads into even more sales

All of these cogs function best when combined into the overall system; the marketing system, that is.  Independently, they are only as powerful as the next one, but when you integrate them into a cohesive unit, they will provide you with more business than you may be able to handle.

Hopefully this article has helped open your eyes to a successful business strategy. If you need help or ideas on how to implement it into your business, feel free to give us a call at 312-569-9420. We’ll be happy to sit down (or converse via phone) with you and figure out how this will explode your business.

Talk soon,

312-569-9420

Digital Marketing Firm

Right now, even at this very moment, Small Businesses are experiencing a economic climate where they need to adapt in order to thrive. Or, more appropriately, to even keep their doors open.

If you’re one of those business owners that think:

• “My business won’t benefit from being online.”
• “I need to be online, but I don’t know how and I don’t have the time.”
• “These new trends (like Twitter and Facebook) aren’t here to stay; I won’t worry about them.”
• “Who cares about Google? I don’t need to be listed and ranked in there.”
• and so many more…

…Then you need to read every word on this page.

The business environment has shifted and to reach your customers and target audience, you now need to go to where they are: online.

This scares most business owners since they have no idea how that’s done. And that’s what I’d like to talk to you about today.

At Green Apple Sales, we KNOW how it’s done and have helped numerous businesses capitalize on this potentially exponential growth by tapping into the digital marketing strategies that are making and breaking businesses right now.

I’m going to be breaking down several different strategies in the next few posts, so you’re going to want to revisit this very frequently (or, to make it easier, just subscribe to my RSS Feed). But, the first digital marketing strategy I need to tell you about is your web presence.

Solid Web Presence

You know how in a mall, for example, people come there to walk around and look at stores and if they like the look of one they stop in? The idea behind this is that stores in malls are positioning themselves to be exposed to all that “mall traffic”… They’re putting themselves in front of people who may be interested in what they have. Sure, not everyone that goes to the mall stops at every store, but each store will attract a target crowd.

Essentially, that hasn’t changed with the rise of the digital business marketplace; however, how you position yourself to your target crowd has become more difficult.

To have an effective web presence, you first need to optimize your site so it’s one of the first sites that’s displayed when your customers search for you in Google (or the other major search engines). This is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which I’ll be covering very in-depth in a later post.

Digital Marketing Strategy

After you’ve established your site and have it ranked in the search engines using SEO, you then need to focus on other methods of driving visitors to your site.

There are so many ways to do this, and each one strategy – if applied correctly – can be a lead-generating powerhouse for your business. You can get a glimpse of some of the methods on the main page of our site. I’ll be expanding on each of these in the upcoming posts as well.

At this point, what I’d like to do is talk to you about your business; see where you’re at and what you’re doing with your digital marketing strategy. I’d like to schedule a free, no-strings-attached 1-hour phone consultation to blueprint exactly what you need to do to get from where you are to where you need to be.

Please, don’t hesitate to call me. My number is 312-569-9420. I’d love to talk to you and see how we can help. It will be more than worth your time.

Thanks and talk soon,

312-569-9420

Digital Marketing Firm

PS- Don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS Feed so you don’t miss any of the upcoming posts! And I’m serious… Call me if you have any questions on any of the content or would like to see how we can rock your business. We’re here to help.

The #1 thing small businesses struggle with is Search Engine Optimization. That is, having your website show up at the top of Google whenever someone searches for your business, or is looking for a business in your industry.

You NEED to be at the top, there’s no doubt about it. The businesses that are there right now, if they’re ranking for the right keyword, are crushing it right now. As a trained SEO expert (in addition to having an even better one at Green Apple Sales), I’m going to share a few of the top strategies small businesses can use to get to the top of Google. But first…

These some interesting items to note:

• For any search, on average, the #2 result gets about 40% less views than the #1 result
• The #5 result gets an average of 60% less views than the #1 result
• Each result after the #5 result gets an average of 20% less views than the one before it

What does this tell you?

1. If you’re not #1, you’re missing the boat and your traffic is suffering because of it.
2. If you’re not #1, then one of your competitors IS. And they’re probably taking the majority of your internet-driven business
3. If you get to the #1 position, you’re going to see a very positive increase in traffic, leads, business, sales, etc.

I hope those are good enough reasons for you. More business and more sales? Of course that’s a good deal!

So now the big question… How do you climb to the top of the search engines? How does the mysterious “Search Engine Optimization for Small Businesses” really work?

Here are some tips for you that you need to be implementing yesterday:

1. Target the Right Keywords!

So many times business owners can’t seem to rank because they are targeting the totally wrong keywords.You need to choose the keywords that are:

1. Less popular (less searched-for)
2. Local-related

Here’s an example: let’s say you have an auto repair shop in Joliet, IL. If you tried to rank for “Auto Repair” or “Auto Repair Shop” in Google, not only is there ridiculous competition for it that would take tons of money and time to rank for, but it’s completely untargeted!

That’s a general, nation-wide search we’re talking about, so yeah you might be at the top of Google for “Auto Repair Shop”, but what if 60% of the searches came from Orange County, CA? What if only a handful of people that searched for that phrase were even in Illinois? You wouldn’t be able to service those customers and you’d have wasted tons of time and money!

So instead of going “wide” as they call it, you want to target keywords that are highly relevant to your business. Instead of choosing “Auto Repair Shop”, you’d want to target “Auto Repair Shop in Joliet IL” or “Auto Repair Joliet IL”. Those searches only get a fraction of what a general search gets, but it’s infinitely more targeted. If someone searched for Auto Repair Shop Joliet IL, you know 3 things:

1. The person is most likely in Joliet, IL.
2. They have an automobile that they need to repair.
3. They’re looking for a local business that can do it.

See how that’s so much better? Sure, “Auto Repair Joliet IL” may only get 100 searches a month, as opposed to the 800,000/month searches “Auto Repair Shop” gets, but if none of the people searching for that are anywhere near Joliet, IL, it doesn’t matter.

Final note on this: choose the right keywords. Target the keywords that highly correlate to your business, and preferably use a local keyword (such as Joliet, Plainfield, or whatever town/city you’re in).

2. Get Relevant, One-Way Links Back To Your Site

I wanted to mention this simply because there’s so much information out there, in addition to expensive services based around that information, that just isn’t accurate.

One very popular way to get backlinks in the past (as in the last 4-5 years) was to enter your website in tons of different directories and participate in link exchanges.

Newsflash: link directories and link exchanges are almost useless anymore.

There are still services out there that actually charge upwards of $300 to “enter” your website in thousands of directories, but these links mean next to nothing to the search engines.

You need relevant, one-way links; that’s the key. If you “exchange” links with another site or company, you’re essentially just zeroing out that link, so that’s useless. As an SEO specialist, I’ll dominate any site that does link exchanges or only has links from directories. Hands down, every time.

The interesting thing is that most small business owners, those trying to rank for keywords on a local level and small-scale, don’t know how to get the quantity of relevant, one-way backlinks to their site, so when I step in there I can make sure your site gets to the #1 position.

And finally, the last tip I want to share with you:

3. Do Your Research; Keep Up-To-Date on the Search Engines!

The best thing you can ever do to compete in the search engines is to do your own research! I can’t stress this enough. The search engines are always changing, always updating to make damn sure they provide people with the most relevant search results.

By the time any given book makes it to publication, there’s usually things in it that are either different or entirely obsolete. Often times, the internet changes so quickly that even former “specialists” or “experts” are out-dated.

At Green Apple Sales, we have people dedicated researching, testing, and tweaking SEO concepts on a daily basis, so we’re always up to date with how the search engines are ranking websites. It’s that kind of knowledge and power we bring to the plate when we rank YOUR website at the top of Google.

But it all starts with doing your own research, discovering things for yourself that others might charge you hundreds for that don’t even work any more.

That concludes today’s article on SEO For Small Businesses. I hope you learned something. If you have ANY questions at all, DO NOT hesitate to call us at 312-569-9420. I’d be more than happy to go over anything and help in any way I can.

See you in the next post!

312-569-9420

Digital Marketing Firm

As of right now, YouTube is the 2nd most visited website on the internet.

That’s some serious traffic! It also means that video is a HUGE deal. Translated to your business, it means that you need to be capitalizing on using video to connect with your target market.

The key phrase here is “dynamic marketing”. The revolutionary concept behind video marketing is that it lets you connect to your market and future clients/customers in a totally new and personal way.

Sure, you can write professional articles, record audios for podcasts or syndicate press releases for online publicity. But, those aren’t really dynamic marketing strategies. What video does is put a face behind the words or behind the voice.

When you use video , people watch it and see you and your business. They see your face and establishment and associate both with being real, not some random author of an article or business behind a static website.

You’re a person, and expert. Your business is established and an authority.

Now imagine how this can effect your brand and your sales. Go to Google right now and search for keywords that YOU would want to be found by. If you’re not ranking in the search engines, then your competition is. I hope you find them, because now I’d like you to visit their websites. See if they’re using video.

They most likely are NOT. That’s a huge thing, since when you implement video into your marketing, which in turn creates a dynamic marketing campaign, you’re differentiating yourself from everyone else.

Now let’s dig into a couple selling points of small business video marketing…

1. Instant Credibility

When you see people on TV or watch a video of them or their business online, you tend to associate them with being an expert in that particular industry.

That’s what video marketing does; it gives you and your business that expert status.

2. Stand Out From the Crowd

Because your competitors probably aren’t using video in their marketing, it instantly makes you stand out! A person searches for a business in your industry or field, comes to your site, sees your video of YOU or your business, and visually connects you as being THE expert. Even if they leave your site and go to your competitor’s sites, just by using that medium to connect with them you’ve already separated yourself and are ahead of them by miles.

3. It Pre-Sells Your Customer

This is the best point of all. Using videos in your marketing and on your website lets you actually show people what you and your business is about. It pre-sells them on your products or services. By the time they take action and call you, chances are they’re already sold on what you have to offer because they’ve seen it in the video.

How powerful do you think this is in your marketing campaigns?

Hopefully now you see the potential of small business video marketing. At Green Apple Sales, we can help you utilize video in your marketing to connect with your customers on that next level.

Call us today at 312-569-9420 for a free, no-strings-attached consultation on how we can rock your sales using video and the internet. It’s going to be more than worth your time.

312-569-9420

Digital Marketing Firm