Companies spend millions each year asking agencies and marketers to brand their companies in order to reach more prospects. But, how often do these same companies look carefully at the brand that is already built for them by their loyal, current customers? Like it or not, your “fan base” already has built your brand and holds your company’s reputation in the palms of their hands through an aggregate of blog posts, review sites, videos, and social media platforms stating what they love and hate about your brand. In the event that this is prominently positive, how do you get everyone to collectively support your brand as a community of evangelists for your company? The answer is to start loving your devotees, and to give them what they want, a place to network, talk, share advice and continue to preach about your brand. In end, this is what large corporations pay the big bucks for–reverse marketing by and for your already loyal customers, and it’s something you can do yourself.

Take for example a small company in a predicament. Company founders had built a tremendous brand and had a huge following, however, the brand was fragmented and un-controlled online. For years the owners had been known for their passion and love of their business, but they had struggled to produce a web site that would support their loyal fans as well as perpetuate a brand that would speak to new prospective customers. Their problems sat with an incomplete vision of their online audience & potential reach. Their website spoke to current brand enthusiasts, however could not provide enough of forum for their fans to express their devotion. As such, YouTube videos, blogs, un-official Facebook fanpages, etc., were appearing across the web and were, in many cases, pulling away from the core values and mission of their business. Additionally, unless a prospect knew to search for their specific company name or slogan they would not find any official webpages in search results.

How do you build and “feed” a community of loyal customers to continue to build your brand from the inside out, as well as open the market and build brand awareness to new, valuable prospects? Sometimes you need to go big or go home! So in an effort to establish your online brand, sometimes you have to decided to redesign your web site, rewrite all the content for SEO (search engine optimization) and start aggressively utilizing social media to congregate followers! It can be a big job with a big payoff.

Tip #1: Love Your Domain Name And Show the Search Engines You Care: Select A Domain Name For Findability – It Matters!

What is your current domain name? Does it reflect who you are and what you do? Does it reflect how your customers are trying to find you? Does it include any of your key words for SEO?

Tip #2: Build A New Web Site Look And Feel Consistent With Mission

Does your old site lacked focus with too much going on? The example company included over 60 “options” immediately of what the user could do–so essentially the clear action for a user to take was “do everything … now.” Also, their home page would be used as a clearinghouse for products on sale, giving them the image of being the Wal-Mart of their industry. People who came to the home page who needed help with a specific subject would have to search over several pages to find the answer. A very confusing messaging overall and not consistent with their message.

Their new site has cleared out the clutter and cuts to the chase. Four primary conversion opportunities are presented on EVERY page of the web site. Additionally, their background is consistent with their other product lines on the home page and every interior page. The goals is to present a cohesive user experience that appeals to both the long time devotee, as well as the first time visitor looking for guidance.

Tip #3: Set Up Social Media For A Huge Community Of Followers Waiting For Your Lead

Have you established a social media presence? Large communities of devoted followers are building their own Facebook pages and are looking for someone like your company who already has a presence. Establish “THE” credible, official place on social media sites your followers can trust.

Taking the dive and reinventing yourself or your business is scary, but even more scary is the inability to adapt and change over time. The Internet is a very fast paced environment and you must stay in touch with mistakes you may have made in your branding and be willing to make it right. Ultimately, you’ll see big payoffs and great findabilty for being bold and taking a stand for who you are as a company. JQ

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Heather Lutze has spent the last 10 years as CEO of The Findability Group, formerly Lutze Consulting, – a Search Engine Marketing firm that works with companies to attain maximum Internet exposure. A nationally recognized speaker, she is the author of, “The FindAbility Formula: The Simple and Non-Technical Approach To Search Engine Marketing” (Wiley and Sons). Heather is a lead speaker for Pay Per Click Summit, and previously spent two years speaking for Yahoo! Search Marketing. For more information, visit www.FindabilityGroup.com.

The Findability Group has been very busy optimizing its office for success. All computers and phone systems are on-line and ready to go. The final step is the most important one, our new Findability sign must be mounted on our office wall. The Findability group has partnered with Colorado Sign Works to create a perfect sign to match our company.  It took weeks of designing and direction, but the magnificent sign has been finished.  The sign is a characterization of our company and represents our name. Below is our journey through the sign process:

The technician from Colorado Sign Works carefully un-wraps the sign from its bubble-wrap packaging.

The frame of the Findability Sign is mounted on the wall, and all signs show it is working.

Our friendly technician at Colorado Sign Works finishes the final step, and celebration is at hand.

The sign is up and lit, this is a thing of beauty! Thank you Colorado Sign Works for your assistance. The Findability Group is now officially ready for world domination, one click at a time!

If you are interested in Colorado Sign Works, please visit their website at: www.coloradosignworks.com

Social Media Marketing is one of our core competencies that we are excited to fully leverage for our clients. To highlight our of our best clients in social media for 2009, premier goal setting site Goalforit.com, is now dominating the search engines under their core keywords for their Chore Chart Goal Setting application.

So, now is the perfect opportunity to leverage social platforms, such as a blogs, to enhance a new campaign we created for Goalforit’s Habits and Daily goals chart.

A little Promotion for Goal For It:
As our client, we would be remiss to miss this opportunity to promote Goalforit’s Habits and Daily goal chart, which provides a simple way to create the positive habits and effective daily goals that brings greater success into everyday life. Visit their website at www.Goalforit.com to learn more about the new easy-to-use tool for goal setting.

After running a Pay Per Click account (in this case, Google Adwords), we now have a great idea of what keywords “work” for this goal setting tool online. By “work” we mean we have determined which keywords consumers search that typically result in a sale. Now with this information, we will take it to Google’s free keyword tool: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal, to run some options for blogs-

• Goal setting
• Goal setting tools
• Goal setting worksheet
• How to set goals
• Importance of goal setting
• Personal goal setting
• Process goal setting
• Setting goals
• Setting realistic goals

And the great thing about our blogging strategies are that they can really enhance the organic ranking of our client’s targeted keywords.  For example, we can create 9 separate blog posts with unique content to target all 9 of these keyword strings.

In essence, with successful blogging strategies, you can really maximize your SEO opportunities.

Staff Writer
Findability Group
Internet Marketing Denver, Social Media Marketing consulting

Verio offers a great tool on their website (www.Verio.com/whois)- a domain name whois search that gives users an excellent and easy-to-use online program for looking up vital information.

www.verio.com/whois is an excellent example of a conversion-rich webpage, and is critical for an Internet Marketing campaign. Conversion opportunity is absolutely crucial once you have gotten qualified leads to your website. It is important to engage users and make it easy for them to take as much action as they comfortably want to.

The Whois Domain name lookup feature is excellent, as it allows users to become engaged at a basic level- no personal information required. Once Verio.com has established trust with the user at the minimal level (by providing the relevant information with no downloading required and without re-directing the user offsite), the site also offers additional forms of contact. Call, Chat, Inquire- all different forms of taking an action that give users options for getting as in-depth or staying as casual as they desire.

A successful Internet marketing program not only brings qualified searcher s to a relevant page on your website, but also provides them an easy user experience that makes it easy to buy. Verio offering many conversion opportunities, starting with their use to use domain name whois search is giving their users a great online experience and really increasing the chance that they will convert to customers.

Looking at a blog  titled TaxMasters Scam brings to light an important element of Search Engine Marketing. One of the most important things you can do online is protect your brand.  As business owners, not every client is going to love us, and we all know there is always 1 or 2 that wouldn’t be satisfied, even if you gave them your services for free.  What business owners must know is if that 1 or 2 happen to be active bloggers, they can do a lot of damage to your brand online.

TaxMasters has proven time and time again that they can solve their clients’ tax problems and are ethical, certified tax consultants.  They help hundreds of satisfied client’s everyday, but unfortunately it makes sense that there’s at least one or two dissatisfied clients in the bunch. Unfortunately for TaxMasters, one of their dissatisfied clients is a blogger, blogging under TaxMasters Scam, TaxMaster Fraud, Complaints, Fraud, Scam etc. Unfortunately, none of it is illegal – a blogger can type what they want, and it ranks under TaxMasters scam.

My advice – watch your brand online and use social media to give consumers at least a second opinion regarding your company and brand. Also, sit on domains such as “yourbrandsucks.com, your brand scam.com, etc.”

All my dealings with TaxMasters have been absolutely superb, I have found them to be one of the most upfront and ethical companies I have ever worked with. It’s just a shame that one blogger writing “TaxMasters Scam” ranks in Google.

Heather Lutze is an Internet Marketing Consultant in Denver, CO. Her firm, The Findability Group, does Pay Per Click (PPC), Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and Social Media Marketing (SMM).

On August 26, 2009 The Cherry Creek Chamber of Commerce and The Findability Group proudly present a ½ day Marketing Seminar in Denver with Internet Marketing Expert Heather Lutze!

Mark your Calendar for August 26th, 2009 – 9:00 am in Denver, CO

• Are you responsible for Marketing for your company and are looking for new programs that will bring your company real business?

• Do you own a website and wish it would rank higher in Google or Yahoo?

• Would you like to Market your website better, but aren’t technically-minded?

• Do you want more leads, but really can’t afford a new marketing campaign?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, this internet marketing seminar is for you!

Fellow business owner Heather Lutze is going to give you a non-technical action plan for getting real business using FREE online tools. Millions of consumers are searching online everyday- it’s time to reel that market in!

This marketing seminar is great for Denver business owners and their staff. Only $69 buys you a brand new marketing program you can do yourself!

Also, for a limited time, we are offering a VIP upgrade package including $129 worth of products, a free report on your website, lunch with Heather and many more exciting resources. Visit http://www.chambermaster.com/directory/jsp/events/EventPage.jsp?ccid=281&eventid=373  for more information on this Marketing Seminar Denver and to Register!

Marketing Seminar Denver!

Social Media Marketing is fast becoming a successful and essential weapon in our Internet Marketing arsenal. Once our clients have really mastered their Pay Per Click and SEO accounts, it’s time to really get to work to make sure they are (1) dominating the Search Engine under their core keywords and (2) using platforms such as a blog to continually target new keywords.

For example, take Ace Kids Chore Chart Company Goalforit!. Goalforit has revolutionized creating a Daily Chore Chart for kids and adults alike, making it fun to set goals and check off lists. Visit their website at www.Goalforit.com. After running a Pay Per Click account, we have a great idea of what keywords work for this company online. Once we have this information, we take it to our keyword tool to run some options for blogs-

Here are some keywords we found (including the number of searches per month):

-Kids Chore Chart (4,400)

-Kids Chore Chart template (58)

-Kids Daily Chore Chart (73)

-Kids incentive chart (91)

-Chore Chart Software (58)

As an Internet Marketing company, it’s tempting to look at that 4,400 searches a month for Kids Chore Chart and strategically optimize for that word- that gets more searches than the other 4 words combined! However, because the other search terms are searched less each month, competition for those spots is not as fierce, which makes it easier for us to come in and really dominate those words.  As such, we strategically optimize a post with a word like “Kids Daily Chore Chart” to get in the first few pages of the search engine.

And the great thing about blogging? We don’t actually have to chose, we can create 5 separate blog posts with unique content to target all 5 of these keyword strings. With SEO your website is tied to the core keywords you are optimizing for, but with a blog the sky is the limit!

By Heather Lutze
Internet Marketing Consultant, Speaker, Trainer
Lutze Consulting

We are about to meet with Richmond Amercian Homes to dicuss their overall Internet Stratedgy and how we can help them gain for “Findability” on search engine marketing. We are blogging to prove a point that if you use strategic keywords like New Homes in Parker CO or New home builder in Parker can mean that you “own” one of the coveted positions under  a keyword that is being highly searched. Stay tuned for more updates here. Visit http://www.RichmondAmerican.com for more information on this company.

As a professional speaker I am always looking for new ways to make my presentations more successful. Although I never stop learning and applying new tips to my presentations, I have found one strategy that continually works well.

One of the top tips for a successful presentation I have found is to show a movie clip. Showing clips, especially humorous ones, always adds a lot of interest and fun. For example, I love including clips from Office Space, specifically when the main character knocks down his cubicle to get a better view of the outdoors. Clips can help keep your audience engaged while not over-straining them, which is essential in any professional presentation. More importantly, when applied to sales, it could make or break a deal.

Of course, it is extremely important to ensure you have rights to the movies you are showing. I have found that the Motion Picture Licensing Corporation has the best value for a license, as well as covers an enormous number of poplar movies. You can contact Vice President of Key Accounts, Erica Haupert at 800-462-8855, ext 3010 or at ehaupert@mplc.org, or you  can visit their site at http://www.mplc.com

In a recession economy, it is extremely important to think outside of the box and continually give presentations which impress your audiences. Getting the rights to show a video and starting to implement them in your pitch is a tip that I wholly recommend to take your presentations to the next level.

Feel free to leave comments on additional tips for a successful presentation you have found!

I am really looking forward to giving an Internet Marketing Seminar in Denver next week for the Cherry Creek Chamber of Commerce. I am going to be speaking on Tuesday, April 28^th at 8:00am for the Business Success Series.

I am not giving a typical marketing seminar where business owners are subjected to hours of strategies and tips on how to spend money and outsource marketing efforts. Instead, in one hour I will be giving tips and strategies to empower business owners to optimize social media marketing themselves, as well as give them the tools they need to get going immediately. For example, I have optimized this post for Marketing Seminar Denver to promote the event.

It’s time to harness the potential of YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace and Blogging to start getting real leads off of these free platforms, and this Denver Marketing Seminar will help you do that.

This Marketing Seminar is FREE to Cherry Creek Chamber of Commerce members, and only $20 to nonmembers. For Registration information, visit http://www.cherrycreekchamber.org/EVENTSbss.html

If you are looking for a great Marketing Seminar in Denver for yourself or staff, this session is a Must Attend. My Marketing Seminar will help you start dominating the first page of Google and other Search Engines and getting your website to work for you!

Heather Lutze gives short synopsis of upcoming Marketing Seminar Denver