Green Apple Sales Blog

If you’ve read this blog before, you may have seen the post I made about Video Marketing.

Video marketing is completely under-utilized by local/small businesses, so I’m going to attempt to de-mystify how you can harness the power of video in your own marketing.

Here’s the one principle thing you should understand: humans, by nature, are all voyeurs. We like to know what’s going on. We like to SEE it, not just read about it. (Why do you think YouTube – the video-sharing site – is the 3^rd most visited site on the internet?)

When a customer lands on your website, no matter where they come from, what do you think they’d like to see more: a page of solid words for them to read or a short video they can watch of you telling them about your business and showing them around your shop or office?

Of course they’d like to see INTO your business, see who you are and about what you do. We’re voyeurs, remember? If you want to make an impression on your visitors, show them around your business. Talk about who you are and why you’re the person they need.

I’ll use a car repair shop as an example. Go to Google and look around at the various car repair shops in a given area. How many of them are using video on their website? Probably not many are (if any). That essentially means that no “one” website or business will captivate you over the others.

Now imagine about this…

You go to a website looking for somewhere to take your car. You land on a website, but instead of a wall of words describing how their business has been around for 15 years and is family-owned and operated since 1998, you see a simple video.

You click “Play” and immediately the owner of the shop comes on – let’s say his name is Jim – and Jim welcomes you to his site. Then he proceeds to show you around his shop, showing you what kind of work he does and takes you for a quick tour. He ends the short video with mentioning how you can even get a coupon for half off your first visit to the shop.

Now think about how much MORE LIKELY you are to go to this shop over the others. You’ve already met the owner and seen what kind of person he is. His video casted his shop in a friendly light; you’ve seen the kind of work he does and how the shop operates. Where so many other auto body shops are more secretive and rumored to be untrustworthy, Jim here is open and inviting.

He even offers you coffee in the waiting room if you decide to stick around waiting for your car to get done.

You’re sold before you finish watching the video. And because his website has a built-in Google map (something we always provide for websites we make at Green Apple Sales), you can instantly get complete directions to the shop.

Yeah, that happens all the time. And it’s so easy to do. All you need is a $120 Flip camera or camcorder and an extra 10 minutes to shoot the video.

So to recap, here are the top 2 ways to use video in your marketing if you’re a small/local business:

1. As a welcome to your site for visitors (just welcoming them to your site and thanking them for stopping by)
2. As a product or service demo (showing them your shop/office or simply telling them about what you do)

Now, the other main thing to keep in mind is that if you use video in combination with a lead capture form, as I talk about in this article, then you have a recipe for online success!

And as always, I’m here if you need anything or just want to go over ideas that will help you bring more sales into your business. Just call us at 312-569-9420 and we’ll set aside a time to talk!

Talk to you soon,

312-569-9420

Digital Marketing Firm

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

In this article, I’d like to take a break from the content we normally put out and tell you about the recent goings-on at Green Apple Sales!

Just this past week, our team had the honor and pleasure of attending the special, invite-only Corporate Sponsor Dinner hosted by the Share Your Soles organization. This organization is responsible for donating shoes to impoverished, shoe-less people literally around the world.

All the major sponsors of the organization – those who have financially contributed to it the most and helped make it the success that it is today – were invited to join Mona Purdy, the founder of Share Your Soles, for a private dinner at the Chicago Yacht Club.

It was such a blast! (We have pictures to prove it!)

This was a huge deal for us, after our direct involvement with the organization over the last several months. We’ve been working very closely with Mona to build a website for the organization that would give it a professional yet personal feel, which I think we’ve accomplished. (You can check out the website here).

We’re very excited to have been able to work with Mona and fully support everything that she’s done (and continues to do!). This woman works her tail off and it’s great to see such a noble cause accelerated by the support of both the sponsors and volunteers dedicated to helping her in her mission. We’re extremely glad to have been able to build the website that serves as the central hub of her online efforts.

In addition to the corporate sponsor dinner from Share Your Soles, Dan O’Callaghan announced that Green Apple Sales will be the Title Sponsor of the 18th Annual Herb Didier Memorial Golf Outing. This outing is being hosted by the Lincolnshire Morning Star Rotary Club and Share Your Soles in order to raise money for their charitable organizations.

I don’t know how we’ll shoot on the course, but I do know that we’re grateful to be able to help the cause of these 2 organizations, and will continue to do so in the future.

Green Apple Sales

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