How To Create A Post On Google My Business

Here are the Step By Step instructions to create a post on your

Google My Business Page.

Login to your Google My Business page.

Once you have logged in Click the Blue Business icon next to the three dots on the far right.

After you click the blue icon you will see a menu like the one below.

Click Posts.

Then click the little camera to start your post.

  

Depending on the size of your image you may see a box covering part of your image. You can slide the box to position your image.

 If you are not happy with the appearance of your image after sliding the box around then we recommend you upload a 400 x 300 image. This size will fit completely in the box.

Once you are satisfied with your image then click - Write your post.

Now tell the world all the great things you want them to know about your business. You can use between 100-300 words.

Remember your audience.

← You can make this an event.

← You can create a button as your Call To Action.

Be conscious of mobile users. 

 You probably don't need 300 words to get your message across effectively.

Your post should look like this.

When you click the Add a Button you will have several Call To Action choices.

Simply insert your specific webpage in place of "example.com" and you are almost done.

Now click the preview button to see how your post will appear to the world.

Now simply hit Publish and the world will see your post!

Don't worry if you find a mistake.

You can delete or edit the post on your Google My Business page after it is published.

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3 Things Business Owners Need to Know About Click Bait

We have all done it. You see a catchy graphic and click it. Then you land on a website that has absolutely nothing to do with what you clicked. This is click bait.

What is the difference between Click Bait and catchy marketing?

Click Bait is designed to get you to click on the hopes that once you arrive on the website the "serious" content will make you stay. Catchy Marketing has compelling copy and/or graphics that grab your attention and create interest in a particular product or service.

You would only click the image below if you were interested in the download(Sorry no kittens on this one).

Does it really matter as long as you get more website traffic?

We were working with a home improvement contractor and this very discussion came up. They had been approached by a company that had a "new" way to build his audience.  As I listened to the business owner explain the process as described to him, it was click bait. Despite our best efforts the owner wanted to proceed in that direction. No problem. We had Google Analytics implemented to measure conversions. Specifically, how many people started on a form and how many completed the form to request a quote. He ran the click bait program for 2 months. Website traffic to their site increased 1000%. Fantastic! This had to mean more sales. NO.

Looking at Source/Medium in Google Analytics:

All completed forms came from Organic-we had compelling Copy on every page, Direct-most likely people that had bookmarked the website, Google Adwords-CPC-we had created compelling copy based on the benefits of their product/service. Not a single completed form came from the Click Bait.

Click Bait will increase website traffic, but does it increase sales?

The Click Bait program had dramatically increased traffic to the website, but it was the WRONG traffic. Their particular  service had a very specific market niche and the click bait did not attract that niche. If you want to see some shaming and naming check out this article from Hootsuite. You may want to read Does Increasing Website  Traffic Increase sales ? for a detailed discussion on measuring conversion rate.

The 3 Basic Rules of Marketing:

Right Message

Right Audience

Right Time

Never go for quantity over quality.

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3 Overlooked Techniques For Small Business

OK. I will be honest. This article is written out of frustration and anger about SEO for small business. A friend recently got a new job as marketing manager for a small business. They were paying a substantial monthly fee for "SEO" and website hosting. They just were not sure what they were getting for their money and asked if we would take a look.

As we analyzed their website it was clear that the "SEO" company had taken great effort to place as many keywords as possible on every page. This is a really bad idea! Why?

 Search Engines like Google and Yahoo work in a very simple manner.

What do you say the page is about (meta description) and what is the page about (keywords on page). When you try to shove as many keywords on a page as possible this creates a real disconnect when you try to write a compelling meta description that will attract searchers to click your page. In WordPress the meta description is called the snippet. Here is an example of a typical meta description:

 Your space is limited in a meta description. Use it wisely. A best practice is to focus on 1 or 2 keywords per page. This allows you to write a concise and compelling meta description/snippet. Click here for some tips from Google on how to write good snippets for search results. A highly focused website page with  1 or 2 keywords per page is step 1 to laying the foundation for SEO for small business. The company they were using did not understand SEO 101. I was confident they had not used the 3 overlooked SEO techniques for small business.

What are the 3 overlooked SEO techniques for small business?

• H1 tag- Think of this as chapter titles in a book. A properly structured H1 tag with the page keyword makes itsimple for search engines to figure out what your page is about. In WordPress you simply click the drop down and select Heading 1.                                                     In HubSpot you click Style⇒Formats⇒Headings⇒Heading 1.

• Image Alt text- You have seen it. You hover over a picture and a bunch of numbers and gibberish shows up. Image Alt text was not used. Whenever appropriate you should use the keyword in the image alt text. A quick test is to enter your topic/brand in a search engine and click images. Do you show up?
• Sitemap- The easiest way for people to find you is to give them a map. A search engine is no different. Upload your sitemap to every major search engine. For a more detailed discussion you might want to read Why is nobody visiting my website?

Not sure if your website has these 3 overlooked SEO techniques for small business?

P.S.- they were not using these 3 overlooked SEO techniques. 

The Home Run In Small Business Marketing

I am very fortunate to attend many gatherings with small business owners and when it comes to internet marketing it seems many are looking for the home run.

If you have ever been to a baseball game, you know how exciting it is to see a home run. The anticipation as it reaches the fence. I have actually yelled at a baseball to go over the fence. It is exhilarating. Marketing can be the same way. You want your investment in marketing to knock it out of the park. You want a home run.

Baseball is overflowing with data and statistical analysis.

Home runs are not a clear indicator of winning percentage in baseball.

Source: https://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2016/9/9/12842846/home-runs-wins-correlation-2016

Baseball games are won with singles, not home runs.

The same is true with small business marketing. Seeing a huge increase in website visitors, email subscriptions, form submissions is exciting. Then you analyze the data.

• How many became customers?
• What is their Life Time Value?
• What is the ROI on marketing spend?

A huge leap in one metric causes momentary exhilaration. Don't misunderstand me. If you see a micro success, analyze it and find out why and duplicate it. You may want to read Are You Using Data To make Marketing Decisions? for a more detailed discussion.

While it is more exciting to get a home run, the reality is incremental success-singles-are a much better indicator of the effectiveness of your marketing.

We say it on almost all of our web pages:

We don't play the feel good game and tell you about Impressions, Likes and Clicks.

IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR MORE THAN A ONE TIME FIX, THEN WE'RE A GOOD FIT. www.analyticsthatprofit.com

Customer Lifetime Value: Is That Customer Really Worth It?

Customer Lifetime Value is a metric that is crucial in determining the ROI of marketing costs. 

There is a finite amount of cash for small business marketing and you really need to know if there is a payback on marketing.

In simplest terms, if you spend $3,000 on marketing/sales and get 10 new customers it costs $300 to acquire each new customer. This is the customer acquisition cost.

Customer Acquisition Cost without any context is not a useful metric for small business marketing. It is like confusing Cash Flow with Revenue or Profit. Determining Customer Lifetime Value allows you to place context around acquisition costs.

Customer Lifetime Value = (Revenue - Gross margin).

For detailed instructions, you may want to download our FREE Ebook Marketing Metrics Every Business Owner Needs To Understand.

The determination of Customer Lifetime Value provides clarity past the initial sale. You spend $1,000 on Google AdWords and you generate $2,000 in revenue. This looks like a great ROI on ad spend. It may appear that you simply subtract Ad spend from Revenue and you made $1,000.

Customer Lifetime Value takes you past this simple calculation and forces you to look at Gross Margin. This will include overhead expenses. It is also beneficial to break down Customer Lifetime Value into the various acquisition channels. Not every customer behaves the same. Look at Organic vs Paid channels and customer lifetime value. Is a specific channel bringing you once and done customers?

Do organic customers have a better lifetime value than customers from paid advertising?

What organic content provides the best customer lifetime value? Which paid channel provides the best value?

This can all seem a bit overwhelming so we created an Ebook that will step you through this process.

Download our FREE Ebook

SSL: This Could Kill Your Lead Generation!

Google has started to send out this warning:

Search Console

"Chrome will show security warnings on http://yourwebsite.com

To owner of http://yourwebsite.com.com,

Starting October 2017, Chrome (version 62) will show a “NOT SECURE” warning when users enter text in a form on an HTTP page, and for all HTTP pages in Incognito mode.

The following URLs on your site include text input fields (such as < input type="text" > or < input type="email" >) that will trigger the new Chrome warning."

Plain and simple- Your Lead generation forms will be flagged!

From Google:

"Review these examples to see where these warnings will appear, so that you can take action to help protect users’ data. This list is not exhaustive.

 http://yourwebsite.com/

The new warning is part of a long term plan to mark all pages served over HTTP as “not secure”.

Here’s how to fix this problem:

 Migrate to HTTPS

To prevent the “Not Secure” notification from appearing when Chrome users visit your site, only collect user input data on pages served using HTTPS."

Learn About HTTPS

In a previous article I discussed SSL and SEO and all things being equal SSL would not improve SEO. While that is still true, not having an SSL certificate will kill your lead generation!

In these days of ransomware and malware a warning on a form will scare visitors off your page for fear of being hacked.

Not sure what that looks like? You want to see this:

Peace of mind and trust are critical pieces of the customer experience.

A SSL certificate is a modest investment to promote trust and confidence so visitors will enter your website and learn about your products and services.

Once you have decided to move forward with a SSL certificate, don't forget to let Google Analytics know you did this through the search console. It is really simple. Click here for step by step instructions.

Still have Questions? Schedule A Time To Talk.