As you may or may not know, Google now shows the date you visited a webpage in the SERP (Search Engine Return Page) listing, just below the individual listing. You can see it highlighted in the image below. As with most things with Google, it flirts with the line between convenient and creepy. What are [...]
Is Rapport Building/Investigation The Most Important Step in the Sales Process? "Her" my client said. "She is my ideal customer, and I need to find the right way to start the conversation with her to show her my services". I was sitting in a popular Austin restaurant with one of my clients, and he [...]
You've Tried it ALL with Online Marketing: Why Doesn't Your Website Work? Are you one of the thousands of Austin business owners who are frustrated because your website doesn't produce? I know how you feel. Even though I "know what I'm doing", I still experience frustration when pages, funnels, etc... don't produce like I [...]
An Austin Business Networking Story... I want to tell you a story; a networking story. Perhaps more importantly, an Austin Networking story. It's mine, but I think it applies to many of us (if it's not you, don't hate). In 2009, I started networking heavily. I went to breakfast groups, lunch groups, happy hours, every kind [...]
Business Consulting Question: Is It Worth Getting Sales if you Have To Lie? I'll make it easy: Don't lie! Most Recent Example: Alignable Many of you have seen the regular emails that you get from this company. It seems like they are trying to be another version of LinkedIn, but I have not seen [...]
You hear it all the time from the myriad of SEO companies in Austin, including us: "Combine your SEO efforts with Social Media Marketing in Austin--and do it now!". Since the big seismic Google updates of the last few years (Panda in 2011, Penguin in 2012, and Hummingbird in 2013) , social media marketing [...]
Always know your core keywords. Cold. Why? Keywords are what your customer searches to solve their problem. What do your customers search in your demo? What are the internal keywords you use to describe your products and services, and what is the gap between what those are and what your customers use? [...]
Men's Wearhouse fired a hero of mine, George Zimmer. If you don't live under anything igneous or sedimentary, you already know this. If you're like me, you thought George still owned the company outright (not for any real reason based on logic, just because I see his bearded mug guaranteeing me that I'll like [...]
Value Propositions and Branding: What's the Link? In this Mashable article, Dani Fankhauser asks the one question most small business owners forget to ask themselves: "Does MY brand offer a Value Proposition?" I really love the term Value Proposition for marketing, sales process and really all things digital marketing. The reason is simple: it proposes [...]
What Are The Risks in Saying "No" in Your Brand Messaging? You've heard it said over and over about advertising online, that you shouldn't be too broad with your brand messaging. "Be specific", they say. "Don't try to reach everyone, just your target audience", they say. Of course, that's the easiest part; saying it. [...]