Marketing Consulting Blog

Hey Everyone--just a quick update on things going on at this end. The radio contract is signed, sealed, and delivered so that will officially begin Thursday, October 4, 2007 at 2 PM ET (11 AM PT) on VoiceAmerica.com's Business Channel. Eight guests have confirmed already for the show, and it should be a power packed marketing hour. In fact, the name we've been kicking around is: "The Bauer Pauer Hauer." Let me know your thoughts on that especially if you have a better idea for a name although that one is kind of catchy.

I plan to add video to the mix rather shortly as I just purchased the first video camera for the firm last week and have been working on getting more comfortable in front of the lens. Needless to say the first few cracks at video leave a lot to be desired so I'm hopeful that when something gets published online, it's at worst decent. I see tremendous value in online video and believe that is a prime way to differentiate one's self from the competition, and that is the direction everything is headed. I can envision a day where the leading businesses have their own little production studio complete with a daily show. While that won't happen tomorrow, it's not as far off as it once was for certain.

Production is slated to get underway this week on the SEO Videos to accompany the SEO training manual (Cost Effective SEO: Better Attract Your Target Audience via Online Search). The videos will follow the general layout of the book but will give several examples for each exercise much like we do in the training seminars. It's truly a hands-on endeavor so please take a peek at the samples once we prop them up online by the end of the month.

These are exciting times around the SMB complex, and I hope to return to article writing, press releases, and updating the blog a little more frequently once things calm just a bit. There simply aren't enough hours in the day to knock everything out at this point, but everything will settle in time.

Thanks for sticking with us through this time, and please feel free to share any feedback or suggestions you may have.

As some of you know, and just as many may not, I have been asked to host a weekly one hour marketing radio show on Voice America's business channel starting in early October. As of this e-mail, I am 99.9% sure this will happen, and I already have six guests that have agreed to do the show. Among the guests:

Marcia Yudkin
John Jantsch
Tom Antion
Michael Nick
Michael Boylan
Debbie Allen

Some of the folks I have requests out to include:
Mike Filsaime
Rand Fishkin
Andy Sernovitz
Joe Vitale
Danny Sullivan
Stephen Pierce

I'm not listing the ones I have requests submitted to put any pressure on them, but I'm very hopeful each one agrees to do a show as I believe they have great stories and information to share that would benefit the audience. Same with the ones that have agreed to do the show--a star studded guest list to be sure.

If you have any questions you'd like to have asked to any of my future guests, please e-mail radio@smbconsultinginc.com. The show doesn't start for a couple months, but it's never too early to start planning great shows. If you have connections to a potential guest, please share them as well. Anyone who helps me land a great guest will receive a complimentary copy of my first book "Cost Effective SEO: Attract Your Target Audience Through Online Search" (a $67 value).

Speaking of the book, I am working on the companion videos that should be completed no later than month's end, but I may introduce the book for purchase online very soon as a separate product. Once the videos are done, they will be packaged with the book and several bonuses. Stay tuned for more details on that.

I also have additional product development plans in the works which I'll definitely keep everyone posted right here on the blog. It's an exciting time, and I'm very encouraged about the direction of SMB Consulting as we're moving forward very quickly.

To learn more about Voice America and their show lineup, visit http://voiceamerica.com.

During my solo afternoon bike ride before the rain hit, I was doing some thinking about the core competencies of my firm and what I could boil it down to in the simplest of terms. After some internal back and forth, I came up with "lead generation" is what everything falls back to. Search optimization is beneficial only when it generates more qualified leads. Same with advertising and marketing efforts--quality lead generation is the ultimate goal when a company engages in those activities. So that got me to thinking about some of the services we currently offer that don't relate to that core of lead generation.

Technology consulting doesn't really fit into the "new" mission of the business. Neither does strategic planning although there are strategic elements involved when trying to generate leads through marketing or advertising so it's more of a complimentary aspect than part of the core. Same goes for business planning--it's not critical to the core of lead generation although marketing planning is so I foresee a shift in approach coming there. Web design/redesign, however, is a precursor to lead generation because the web is a critical tool to utilize when trying to attract potential customers and generate leads so that is something to be more focal for us moving forward.

What all is really involved in lead generation?
Website Design/Re-Design
Copywriting (falls under website design & SEO if you break it down)
SEO
Marketing (SEO falls under marketing if you really break it down)
Advertising
Sales Training/Development

I'm sure I'm leaving some things out, but that's a pretty good core list of services which doesn't look all that related to the initial core list of services I envisioned when starting the firm two years ago. For some strange reason, I feel a sense of clarity after mulling through that during my ride today. I feel like the sense of purpose has now been defined and all future activities will have a greater meaning. Straying will be much more difficult, and it will be easier to make decisions about whether to take on a certain client, form a joint venture, partner, or offer another service.

In watching the first couple of DVDs of Mike Filsaime's The 7 Figure Code, it talks about the "hedgehog concept" that is broached in Jim Collins' bestselling Good to Great classic. I've read Good to Great, but I hadn't revisited it in, well, two years so I was happy to have that topic come up again. My first "to do" after watching the first couple of DVDs was to figure out what I think this firm can become truly great at doing, and lead generation consulting is what I kept coming back to. Every business transaction starts with some sort of lead, and leads will never go out of "style" so this newly redefined mission could fuel the company for decades.

Moving forward, look for a shift in focus and offerings from our firm along with content that directly relates to the newly found focus.

What do you think of this approach? Good, bad, or indifferent--let me hear from you. I value all of the feedback I receive.


PS--So far, The 7 Figure Code has already stoked my internal coals to rethink everything from a more simplified place so it has proven invaluable after just 2 DVDs (16 total). If the next 14 provide as much thought provoking material, unbelievably great things are going to happen! I'll post a more complete review of the package once I dig deeper into it--it just arrived yesterday (Thursday, 7/26/07).

On Thursday, SMB Consulting hosted a SEO Training Seminar/Bootcamp at the McConnell Technology Training Center off of Industry Blvd. here in Louisville. We had six attendees that seemed to really enjoy the class especially the hands on nature of it. Analyzing keywords seemed to generate the biggest "ah-ha" type of moments, and spying on competitors provided some eye opening information that is sure to help with the optimization efforts moving forward for everyone. One area that didn't seem to matter as much is the history of search engines (beginning of the class) so less time will be spent on that as things progress.

One thing I personally learned is to combine the workbook with the textbook I generated for the class. I apologize to those that attended this particular class for the confusion the two books seemed to cause. I thought it might be better to have a separate workbook in order to go back and perform some of the tasks without having to weed through a larger book, but I was wrong and the updated book has the contents of both. The new book has been e-mailed out to everyone in the class so please contact me if you did not receive one.

We're having another SEO Class on June 14, 2007 at the same location (visit http://mttc.org for more information and a map) from 9 AM to around 4 PM. There are a few spots open if you (or someone you know) might be interested in attending. Get more information about the class by visiting the SEO training section of our website (http://smbconsultinginc.com/seo-training.html). We're also planning SEO Training in Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Nashville, and St. Louis should you live in one of those locales and have an interest in learning how to optimize your website for the search engines.

We've changed our web address to tie in with our business website to make things a little more cohesive. The new address for the SMB Consulting Blog is: http://blog.smbconsultinginc.com although the old address (smbconsulting.blogspot.com) will still get you to the same spot via a redirect.

Hopefully this will encourage more people to visit our primary website from the blog and vice versa.

Today, Bill Wolfe of the Louisville Courier Journal did a wonderful piece on me and SMB Consulting, Inc. Read a copy of the article by clicking on the link below:

SMB Consulting Featured in CJ

Please share your thoughts.

Consulting Firm Obtains Rights to Resell Popular Search Engine Optimization E-Book. Now Anyone Can Obtain High Rankings in the Major Search Engines by Downloading the Book for Free.


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


Louisville, KY, 11/29/2006—SMB Consulting, Inc. of Louisville, Kentucky has obtained reseller rights to the popular Search Engine Optimization (SEO) E-book “SEO Made Easy” by Brad Callen. The firm initially intends to give the book away for free until the end of the year (12/31/2006), and the book will help anyone with a website obtain higher rankings in the major search engines including Google, Yahoo, and MSN.

According to the Georgia Institute of Technology, 85% of qualified internet traffic is driven through search engines, however 75% of search engine users never scroll past the first page of results. “What good is a website if no one can find you?” asks SMB Consulting, Inc.’s Founder/CEO Roger Bauer. “Often times, people prop up a website and think their job is done, but the reality is things are only just beginning if your site’s objective is to bring in visitors or generate new business leads. Brad Callen has been kind enough to grant us rights to resell his fantastic book, and we want to help our customers by giving them an early Christmas gift for the holidays. We believe this will result in a win-win outcome.” Bauer continued.

In order to download the free e-book, interested parties can visit http://smbconsultinginc.com/freebook.html and click on the SEO Made Easy link. This e-book will guide anyone with a website through a basic search engine optimization process step-by-step.

ABOUT SMB CONSULTING, INC.
SMB Consulting, Inc. is a nationally recognized leader in the field of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and has helped their clients achieve top rankings in the major search engines along with substantial increases in search engine related traffic. To learn more about Search Engine Optimization please visit http://smbconsultinginc.com/seo_main.html or contact the company by e-mailing info@smbconsultinginc.com.

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I received an e-mail today from Business First stating they may publish a couple of my articles. This is big news for me and my firm as I've been trying to get published in print for a little while now in order to market the consultancy to a broader, yet localized, audience.

One of the things I try to weave into website owners' heads is offline marketing is still important when it comes to your business. We're still a society that reads print publications even though the subscriber numbers are coming down for almost all print media. That doesn't mean it's not a viable medium for marketing a business especially if you can get something published for free like an article. Technically, the article isn't free as time is money, but your time is hopefully rewarded with an increase in business. Even if you only capture "bathroom impressions" from print media, those are still valuable hits you wouldn't get otherwise.

It's still more cost effective to market online since you can reach a seemingly endless prospect base, it's real time, and you can achieve a quantifiable ROI from online marketing unlike that of television or print. Who is to say that your television commercial or print ad gets viewed as often as suggested? Since the marketing firms are against Nielsen releasing television commercial statistics (I'd love to see those numbers!), it'll be awhile until we can put a definitive number on viewership, but we can regularly get that data online. Same with print media--how can one be sure if their article or ad receives the "impressions" or "eyeballs" the publisher suggests? It's hard to accurately quantify those numbers, but I will gladly take the exposure print media can provide.

I'll report back once one of my articles gets published and share the online traffic numbers after publication. It should produce a noticable spike, but there's no way to tell until it actually happens. We'll monitor this "campaign" just like we would an online effort.