A short presentation delivered to a local Puget Sound Chamber of Commerce conference recently by Clay McDaniel of Spring Creek Group on the topic of "Making the Web Work for You". This presentation is high level but intended to spark ideas and encourage local and regional growing businesses to consider new potential strategies and tactics in online marketing.

1. Making The Web Work For You
5 key steps to grow your local business
through basic internet marketing
Mercer Island Chamber of Commerce: September 10, 2009

2. Today’s Session
• The Opportunity for Local Businesses Online
• Step 1 – Improving Your Website (if you need one…)
• Step 2 – Get Your Business and Site Discovered
• Step 3 – Help People Visit Your Site
• Step 4 – Get Site Visitors to Take Action
• Step 5 – Measure and Optimize
• Summary and Key Takeaways
© 2009 Spring Creek Group, Content Rights Reserved

3. Introductions…
• Session Presenters
▫ Clay McDaniel – Principal, Spring Creek Group
▫ Andy Boyer – Principal, Spring Creek Group
1700 Westlake Avenue North, Suite 410
Seattle, WA 98109
p: 206.453.1120 | w: www.SpringCreekGroup.com
… Join / Follow / Read at…
http://tinyurl.com/SCG-FB
http://www.twitter.com/SpringCreekGrp
http://www.SpringCreekGroup.com/blog
© 2009 Spring Creek Group, Content Rights Reserved

4. No Matter What You Are Doing Online
Today, There Is Likely Room To Improve…
No Website
Basic WebSite
(Contact info, address, etc.)
A Few Sales/Leads
from the Web
The Internet is a Substantial
Marketing and Sales Channel for You
You Are An Acknowledged Leader in
Online and Social Media Marketing
© 2009 Spring Creek Group, Content Rights Reserved

5. Online Marketing Myths
• The Internet is mainly for e-mailing customers and
listing my contact information
• Internet marketing is hard, expensive,
and only for big businesses with big budgets
• I’m not selling directly through the Internet,
so it is not worth my time to drive traffic to
my website or to list my business on others’ sites
© 2009 Spring Creek Group, Content Rights Reserved

6. The 5 Key Steps To Online Marketing Success
Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5
Improve Get Get Visitors Measure
Get People
Your Business to “Do and
to Visit
Website Discovered Something” Optimize
© 2009 Spring Creek Group, Content Rights Reserved

7. Step 1:
Improving your Website
• What Job (or Jobs) Does Your Website Need to Do for
Your Business?
• User Experience “Dos” and “Don’ts”
• How to Measure Success
• The Importance of a Qualified Website Development
Partner
© 2009 Spring Creek Group, Content Rights Reserved

8. Q: Where Do You Go to Get Answers to Your Questions
About Which Products and Services to Use? Hint: So do your customers…
© 2009 Spring Creek Group, Content Rights Reserved

9. Step 2a:
Get Your Business Discovered, or, The Importance
of Search Discoverability to Businesses Today…
• Somewhere, someone is searching for your business
• A well-done, easily discoverable website is the most cost-
effective way to communicate your business to the world
• Search is the second most commonly used application
on the Web, with 550 million searches daily in the U.S.1
• 80% of all web usage starts at a search engine2
1Piper Jaffray, “The User Revolution”
2Simultaneous Media Usage Survey V (SIMM V) by BigResearch
© 2009 Spring Creek Group, Content Rights Reserved

10. What Is Search Engine Marketing?
• Effective, low cost way to
find new customers online
• Also called “keyword advertising”
and “paid search”
• Think of it as the yellow
pages for the Internet
• Advertisements appear in special
sections of search results page
(the “right side” results)
• You bid on the amount you are
willing to pay for a keyword
• You pay only when your ad
is clicked
© 2009 Spring Creek Group, Content Rights Reserved

11. Why Should I Consider Search Engine Marketing?
• You’re reaching out to people when they’re researching your
business or products, where the increasingly do MOST of their
research…
• Local businesses can – and should – target local customers in
search engine results
• Two components to effective search
engine marketing
▫ Search Engine Optimization (2b)
 Making sure search engines crawl
your website
▫ Search Engine Advertising (2a)
 Paid advertising to appear
in a special section of search If you want to drive more
results; you only pay prospective customers to your website,
when your ad is clicked you should do both!
© 2009 Spring Creek Group, Content Rights Reserved

12. Example
We use our own site + other social media sites We pay to be listed in
and our blog to garner these results… these results…
© 2009 Spring Creek Group, Content Rights Reserved

13. Can I Afford Search Engine Marketing?
• Comparison of average new lead cost:
Direct Mail: $9.94 Yellow Pages: $1.18 Search Advertising: $.27
“Why search engine advertising?,” Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO),
http://www.sempo.org/learning_center/articles/why-sem
© 2009 Spring Creek Group, Content Rights Reserved

14. Step 2b:
An Alternative to Search Engine Advertising
(“Right side”)
• Improving Your Website (and Business)
Discoverability in Organic Search Results (“left side”)
• Key tactics:
▫ Listing your business accurately and comprehensively
in all relevant local online directories
▫ Encouraging customers to “link” to your website
▫ Ensuring your business name and a few “keywords”
related to your business are in HTML text on home
page of your website
© 2009 Spring Creek Group, Content Rights Reserved

15. Local Business Listing Directory Sites
• Google Business Listings
• Bing Business Listings
• Yahoo! Local
• Yelp
• CitySearch
• Biznik
• LinkedIn (for businesses and key owners / managers)
• Judy’s Book / Angie’s List / similar…
© 2009 Spring Creek Group, Content Rights Reserved

16. How Can Social Media and Local Business Directory
Listings Affect SEO / Site Discoverability?
Organic Search Results Page…
•Mysite.com
•Facebook.com/MySiteBrand
•Yelp.com/MySiteBrand
•Mysite.com/blog
Answers
© 2009 Spring Creek Group, Content Rights Reserved Page 16

17. Step 3:
Helping People Find Your Website
• Think about how you would search Picking Keywords is Key
for your business on the Internet
• Write a short list of words and
phrases that describe your product
or service
• Refine your list – Make sure you
only choose relevant words for
your business
• Optimize your list over time –
improve your keyword list by
removing words that do not
resonate and testing new words
© 2009 Spring Creek Group, Content Rights Reserved

18. Helping People Find Your Site (or Just Your Business!)
By proactively adding – and managing – our own business listings on
collaborative sites such as directories, social networks, and blogs, we ensure
that our brand and business shows presence and stature through our search
engine results….
© 2009 Spring Creek Group, Content Rights Reserved

19. Step 4:
Getting People to Take Action…
• Motivating and Enabling Customer Action
▫ What’s The Offer?
▫ Is it Appropriate to Have E-commerce Enabled
for Your Business on Your Website?
▫ Does Your Website Motivate Them to Take Action?
▫ Do You Ask / Encourage / Motivate Your Customers to Link to Your Website and
Promote it To Their Friends?
▫ Do You Reference Your Website – or Ask People to Promote Your Business With
Yelp / CitySearch Reviews on Your Collateral and Info?
• Focus Your Website 100% on What You Want Your Customers to DO There
▫ Design
▫ Language
▫ Experience
© 2009 Spring Creek Group, Content Rights Reserved

20. Step 5:
Measuring and Optimizing for Success
• Measure, Test, Repeat – A Basic Marketing Model
▫ What is Your Average Cost of Sale Online?
▫ What Is Your Average Unit Contribution per Sale?
 Is Customer Lifetime Value Relevant?
 If Yes, Then Estimate Average Lifetime Value of a Customer
▫ Best Practice: Apply a standard marketing Return-on-Investment metric to
every marketing dollar you spend
• Optimization and Improvement
▫ Focus on ROI
▫ Do More of What Works, and Less of What Doesn’t
▫ Experiment – Take Calculated Risks, and Learn from Them
© 2009 Spring Creek Group, Content Rights Reserved

21. And Finally, A Few Quick Words on “The
Social Media Marketing Phenomenon”…

22. Fact:
• Social media is changing the way people interact
with each other…
• … and the way customers interact with companies.
• And therefore the way companies can interact with
their customers. If they want to spend a little time
on it.
© 2009 Spring Creek Group, Content Rights Reserved Page 22

23. Fallacies, Falsehoods and Fiction:
• Social media marketing is…
▫ A panacea (i.e. “magical solution to all problems”)
▫ A great performance marketing (i.e. direct response)
channel
▫ “Free”
▫ A replacement for good PR
▫ Easy
▫ Able to create nearly immediate 20% site traffic lift
▫ “…the next big thing…”
© 2009 Spring Creek Group, Content Rights Reserved Page 23

24. The reality…
Horsepuckey.
These Are The
Same Thing…
[Truism: Happy
Customers Never
“Engage”…]
© 2009 Spring Creek Group, Content Rights Reserved Page 24

25. Summary

26. Summary Take-Aways
• Small, local, and growing businesses can – and should –
investigate and seize today’s Internet marketing opportunities
• Utilizing the Web for Marketing and Sales can create
a substantial business advantage for you
• You can do it! Effectively marketing via the Web
isn’t as complicated, or expensive, as you might think
• Take a structured approach. Follow these 5 Key Steps, and use
Return-on-Investment principles to guide your efforts
© 2009 Spring Creek Group, Content Rights Reserved

27. Questions For Us

28. Thank You.
1700 Westlake Avenue North, Suite 410
Seattle, WA 98109
206.453.1120 | www.SpringCreekGroup.com
… Join / Follow / Read at…
http://tinyurl.com/SCG-FB
http://www.twitter.com/SpringCreekGrp
http://www.SpringCreekGroup.com/blog
© 2009 Spring Creek Group, Content Rights Reserved