Just about everyone is. But what can you do that works and won’t cost an arm and a leg? The answer – Focus online. You may not believe that simply because your website is doing precious little for you now. Yet 93% of businesses search online before they buy and 64% go on to buy. I bet money you search online before you buy for your business and you are not alone as there are 17 billion searches every month in the US. The customers are out there…you just aren’t getting your share. What would your business look like with 1, 2, 3 or even 10 new customers every month?
You may be thinking “this won’t work for me as we have really specialized technical products or components”. Well you could not be more wrong. Let me prove my case. I took a sample of companies on the MassMEP case study page and visited their websites looking for the important terms that related to what they were selling. I then researched how many times a month people searched using that exact term in the US. And remember each search made is a potential customer. Here are my results:
Company Important Search Term searches/ month
ETM Manufacturing “sheet metal fabrication” 12,100
Accutech Packaging “blister packaging” 6,600
Davico “direct fit catalytic converter” 3,600
Diamond Antenna “rotary joint” 1,900
Stoughton Steel “tractor stabilizer” 390
Lots of searches but the real problem is that these companies aren’t being found for these important search terms which relate directly to what they sell. Someone else is getting the leads and the business.
Yet do you see the potential here? Imagine if ETM manufacturing could attract a mere 1% of those 12,100 searches per month for “sheet metal fabrication”. That could yield 121 potential customers…every month. Even Stoughton Steel with just 390 monthly searches for “tractor stabilizer” at 1% could get 4 new leads per month. And remember that’s for just ONE important product related search term, there will be others that these companies should be found for that relate to their products.
So how do you do it? Search results are not random but few people realize you can influence where you show up. Your job is to give the search engines reasons to put you at the top of their results.
The very first and critical step is to use the “Google Keyword Tool” to make sure the words on your site match what people are searching for when they are looking for your kind of product or service. Google it. It’s free and gives you invaluable information. Once you have a good list of appropriate and relevant keywords start rewriting your most important pages. No need to rush just do it steadily but do it as it forms the foundation for online success.
More help to come in the next newsletter. Email John a marketing question and he will address it in future articles.
