But before you begin your pay-per-click (PPC) campaign as part of your search engine optimization (SEO) process, there are three main questions to ask yourself:

1.    Do you have SEO keywords?

By using the top keywords your audience is searching for in your PPC ad, you’ll attract more attention… so before you just start writing your ad, conduct some SEO research.

Use a free tool like Google Analytics, WordTracker.com, and others to see the keywords people are using to get to your site. Then, incorporate these words into your ad and think about what you are trying to accomplish.

2.    Do you have a landing page for each ad?

When people click on your PPC ad, where does the link take them? Before you post it, create a specific landing page for your ad that will help accomplish the goal for the campaign.

Your landing page should include the same phrase that’s in your PPC ad so that people know they are in the right place when they click on it.

Plus, rather than sending people to a generic Web page, you can send them to a unique page to sell your product or service with a specific call-to-action. Then, you can track activities and make changes to your landing page as needed to increase sales or clicks.

If you don’t have a landing page for your PPC ad, you won’t get the best results possible for your campaign.

3.    Test and monitor.

The great thing about SEO is that you can see what the results are, test different words and phrases and then use the words that provide the best results… immediately. If you are not checking your PPC campaign on a regular basis, you are missing out on a golden opportunity.

With this in mind, check the clicks on your PPC link and your landing page. Are you seeing the results you want to see? Are people clicking on your link and following the call-to-action on your landing page?

If not, test different variations of your landing page, try different keywords in your PPC ad and then check the results again. By monitoring and testing your ad campaign, you can “tweak” it until it provides the results you desire.

Save Time and Money.

Instead of jumping online with a PPC campaign to try to increase sales, take a few minutes to plan and think. Develop your goal, keywords and landing page first. Then, place your ad and monitor results.

If your campaign is not working, test different, SEO word-variances in your ad and on your landing page. Yes, this takes extra effort. But by paying attention to your PPC campaign and changing it for the best results, you’ll save time and money. Best of all, you’ll create a campaign that actually brings in new customers and sales.

For additional help with your SEO process, please write to me here or at www.rembrandtwrites.com.

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As if building one business was not enough, my own personal blog began to gain a rapid following and all of a sudden, I had 2 budding businesses on my hand.  I am so thrilled that I am able to continue to motivate and inspire moms in transition both through my blog and one-to-one.  Nothing more exciting than having a hand in helping others to gain clarity and success!

Being able to share with you all here on StartUpNation is the icing on the cake.  Engaging as a member here, asking and answering questions, and being able to connect through this blog with men and women in startup business remains a highlight of each week for me.

When I first signed up last year, I commented on a post by Rich Sloan, the chief startupologist here at StartUpNation.  The post was about an experience he had at a recent conference and a discussion on favorite companies and customer service.  Rich asked members to share their favorite companies and why?

I expect that this is a fabulous lesson for those of us who are/were new to small business and the seasoned veterans because we always can use greater focus on ‘WHO?’ we admire in business and ‘WHY?’

My answer a year ago was Apple Computer.  A year later my answer would still be Apple Computer.  There was no predicting that Steve Jobs would pass exactly one year after I made this comment.  In light of this terrible loss to the entrepreneurial community, how appropriate to make mention of this comment now.

I still love Apple Computer, and the brand is thoroughly infused in my daily life from my iPhone to my Macbook to the iTouches that my kids love.  It is not just the level of easiness that Apple Products give us, but also the level of customer service provided through Apple.  I am not going to go into the details, but just this past week, the Apple Team gave their ALL while dealing with my son’s iTouch (which met with an unfortunate incident).

This experience triggered in my memory the customer service discussion from a year ago, and a lightbulb went off in my mind.  The crucial aspect here is that this is the type of service that I receive each and every time I visit or call Apple.  That is Steve Job’s legacy, and a model for all of us companies, large and small.

In some cosmic way, last year’s comment on Rich’s post, my love of Apple, the untimely passing of Steve Jobs, my growing business(es), and all of our need for continued lessons in customer service merged together.

Thanks for letting me share my thoughts and my adventure with you, and mostly, thanks to the ‘Nation’ for being my sounding board.

I would love to hear from you which companies you admire?

Rachel

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Hold on!

You need a call-to-action for your SEO copy first!

Before you start writing, you should know exactly what you want site visitors to do on that page of your Website.

Do you want them to register for your free newsletter?

Do you want them to buy your new widget?

Do you want them to watch your video?

Whatever it is, decide what action you want your site visitors to take. Then, write all of your copy based on this single action.

Not only will this process help you focus your efforts on a single message, but it will make it easier for you to write simple copy that gets to the point.

To help you get started, answer these questions:

• What do I want site visitors to do on this page of my site?
• Why will they want to do this particular action?
• What kind of benefits can I offer them so that they take this action?

And don’t forget to focus on my favorite, SEO writing tip…

Provide value to your customers!

Obviously, you want to use your SEO keywords while getting your message across. But don’t forget to think about your customers’ needs and what’s in it for them. Help answer their questions while guiding them through the process you want them to take.

Test The Results.

When you are finished writing, have an outsider read your copy to see if it is engaging and causes him or her to do your particular action. If not, you have some changes to make.

And once your Web copy is ready and goes live, check to see how many people click on your link or take the action you want them to take. Make changes to your copy, and see if that increases the results.

You’ll want to monitor your call-to-action clicks on a regular basis and update your copy to see what works best.

Just as you monitor your keywords, you need to look at the actions your site visitors are taking. After all, if you can guide potential customers through your site, taking the actions you want them to take, you’ll win new customers and see sales skyrocket.

Do you need help writing SEO copy for your site that sells? Please contact me here or at www.rembrandtwrites.com.

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I’ve been working with the creators of StartUpNation since 2001 when I was hired to shoot Rich Sloan doing yoga on the conference room table in the Birmingham Michigan office of the up and coming StartUpNation.  I was recently offered the opportunity to blog about photography if I thought I could contribute to entrepreneurs and start ups. I think I can so I’ll give it a shot.  I’ll be talking about all things photography, from how to do a shoot in the office, to what’s the best stock agency for what your needs are, to rights and usage contracts.  I’ll be answering questions about any thing relating to the business of photography and photography in your business. If I don’t know the answers I’ll look to the vast knowledge base of my peers and will share what I learn with you, so post your questions and comments about you’re photographic quandaries here, and I’ll help you along the image driven super highway of successful businesses.

I should tell you a bit about me.
I began my career as a photographer early in life.  My brother had a darkroom in a closet at our house when I was a sixth grader.  It didn’t take long for my teachers at school to see an opportunity to recruit the next news paper and yearbook photographer.  That’s when I learned that you can have fun and provide a needed service at the same time.  I could get credits for graduation if I work on the year book and news paper staff!  Life was good.  Then one day I was handed a press pass to cover the cheerleaders for a story for the news paper, that was all the motivation I ever needed to pursue my career.  When I was a senior in High School I was introduced to an advertising photographer in my home town of Detroit named Ameen Howrani.  He let me watch him work one day, he was shooting a news crew for the local ABC affiliate.  It was very glamorous, they had food there!  I was face to face with the local anchor man!  That’s when I decided that advertising was where it’s at.  Fast forward 25 years.  I have photographed some really great people, some incredibly beautiful places, and some of the most interesting stuff you’ll ever see.  I picked up a few professional sports teams along the way as well.  Namely the Detroit Red Wings, Detroit Tigers, Detroit Lions, and currently Tampa Bay Ray’s as well as the NHL, NFL, MLB and other editorial venues related to sports. I’ve had unprecedented access to closed door behind the scenes events in the NFL, NHL, and MLB to name just a few. I was given the opportunity to shoot a book for the Detroit Red Wings called “48 Hours with the Detroit Red Wings”. Its a chronological documentation of what happens in forty eight hours in the world of the Red Wings Hockey team.  I was able to travel with the team to photograph players, coaches, and staff. We took two days to shoot the book so we could show the travel aspect of how the team lives on the road (and above the clouds).  During that shoot I was given access to coaches meetings that had never been photographed before.  One of the best experiences I had with the Red  Wings was Flying on the team jet to Washington DC to the White House to meet President George W Bush.   I was given an assignment by the Detroit Tigers Baseball team to shoot an eighteen page photo essay of Tiger Stadium during the final home stand ever to be played there.  The parting shot was Al Kaline in his nineteen sixty eight world series uniform (it still fit), pondering his days playing in that historic stadium.  The cover shot was of the stadium from the corner of Michigan and Trumble on a Friday night with fireworks lighting the sky.  I was able to get images never before captured, such as the neon Tiger Stadium sign from the roof of the press elevator.  I’m currently team photographer for the Tampa Bay Ray’s Baseball team, and have a nice client list of local and national companies and agencies as well.  I live in the St Petersburg area of Florida where I’ve lived for the past six years.  Before that I lived mostly in the suburbs of Detroit with a few years in New York city.  Please feel free to see some of the photographs I mention here at www.kovich.com

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HubSpot strives to have every major marketing feature that small and medium-sized businesses need - Search Engine Optimization (SEO); lead generation, nurturing and tracking; blogging and social media management; and email marketing. Additionally, it has the analytics and reports to help companies figure out what’s working and what’s not.

Thousands of companies can’t be wrong. In fact, our user base confirms that HubSpot hits the mark. Not only does HubSpot do a good job of SEO for search engines, but it delves deeper to grade keywords on social media sites and press releases. HubSpot also provides comprehensive lead tracking and nurturing tools and incorporates timed emails to prospective leads to increase the chances of conversion.

This solution is geared to the SMB in two ways. First of all, although the price may seem high (from $250 to $1500 per month, depending on quantity of users and campaigns), it’s much cheaper than buying tools separately or hiring a consultant. All the tools come integrated - a huge added bonus. HubSpot’s value-add is really in the additional help (okay, sometimes hand-holding) that smaller companies sometimes need, especially when getting started. It ranges from the very simple (online training or webinars, for example) to the more complex (group training classes, 1:1 coaching, customized marketing plans).

HubSpot isn’t the only game in town - far from it. It’s got several worthy competitors that are well worth checking out. But so far, HubSpot is winning the game, one customer at a time.

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1. You want a system from a trusted company with many satisfied users. Salesforce has the largest market share of users in the CRM space.  There are many satisfied customers and a wealth of user forums for your reference. Salesforce is a trusted company with many satisfied clients.

2.  You want a reliable, hosted CRM solution. You may be realizing that its time to move to the Web. Salesforce is a hosted solution and with it come all of the benefits of utilizing a system in the cloud.  You won’t have to worry about hardware or hardware upgrades, data backup and releasing new software versions to your company.  All you need to access your Salesforce system is Internet access. It is also accessible through mobile apps.

3. You expect your CRM solution to expand and grow over time. With Salesforce you can start out small and even customize the solution for your company early on and then have it grow over time by moving to a more advanced edition (there are 5 Editions).

4. You want the flexibility of wide and varied customizations. Salesforce has multiple custom modules to choose from depending on your business needs. The number of customizations and custom functionality grows daily, and you are sure to find the customizations out there without having to write the code yourself.

5. You want access to consultants to aid you in your implementation. There are many independent Salesforce consultants out there ready to help with analyzing your needs and determining your solution. In addition, they will consult on customization tasks and implementing your solution. These consultants can also aid you in growing your system over time.

If most, or all of these statements ring true for you, consider yourself clued in that you should investigate Salesforce for your CRM needs.  And if these statements are way beyond your needs, then check out many of the simpler, cheaper solutions out here: http://www.comparz.com/reviews/crm.

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With this in mind, it can be more difficult to get to customers  to use your products and services.

Yes, competition may be tough, but if you know how to sell your services accordingly, you can stand out and win new business.

Here are three questions to ask in order to prepare for your sales pitch:

1.      What can you offer no one else can?

Before contacting a potential customer, you need to figure out what makes you unique.

• How can you specifically help this person solve his or her problems with your products or services?
• What do you offer the competition can’t?

To discover what makes you unique, review your skills and get a clear picture of everything you have to offer. You’ll probably find what makes you different by looking at your experiences, skills and background.

2.      What does this customer need?

When you prepare to talk to potential customers, find out as much as possible about them in advance.

• What are their problems?
• Who is their competition?
• What kind of products and services are they using now?

Take notes, and when you give your sales pitch, use this information. The potential client will appreciate the fact that you did your homework and understand their business needs.

3.      What do you need to do to close the deal?

If you’ve conducted the appropriate amount of research and asked your potential customers about their major pain-points, you are ready to close the deal.

Stress how you can help them solve their problems, and provide specifics on how you are going to do just that. Givetimeframes, strategies, potential results, costs, guarantees, and other, important data. After all, you want the customer to feel comfortable hiring you.

Is this process a lot of work?

Yes, this takes time and effort. But there is a lot of competition out there today. If you want to grow your business, it’s essential to hone in on your unique skills, discover what your customers need and let them know how you can help them succeed.

Do you need help updating your Website to woo new customers with SEO copywriting? Please write to me here, or at www.rembrandtwrites.com, and I’ll try to help you out!

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You have a thought…. No, that’s not good enough… more staring at the screen…

Ugh… writer’s block!

Well, most of us have been there at one time or another. The important thing is to just start writing… about anything. Eventually, your thoughts will circle around to something pertinent to write about.

Or, you can start writing in a different way so that you can take full advantage of search engine optimization (SEO) copywriting and give customers what they want.

What is SEO anyway?

There is a lot of buzz about SEO, and many entrepreneurs ask me what it is and why they need it.

Well, basically, SEO is the process of using the right keywords in the right places in your Website copy so that your business shows up in search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo! and others.

For example, if you provide carpet-cleaning services, you want your business to appear at the top of the list when people type “carpet cleaning services” into Google or one of the other search engines.

If your business name isn’t there, most people will click on the names listed first. In other words, if your site doesn’t have search engine optimization with the right keywords, you lose business to the competition.

Now, this may seem technical, but it really isn’t.

If you are doing your own writing, start with research and figure out which keywords you want to use and make a list. For help, check out the Google Keyword Tool, Keyword Discovery, Wordtracker, and other, free services. Next, follow these:

3 Key Items to Include in Your SEO Copy

1. Provide Benefits.

Write about all of the benefits your business offers customers.

How will they feel and what will they get from using your products and/or services?

To begin any piece of copywriting, make a list of all your benefits and go from there. It will help you start writing and stress what is important to the customer.

2. Be Unique.

Once you know the benefits you have to offer, write down why you are unique.

Why should a customer go to you instead of the competition?

Maybe you have extensive experience in a particular area, excellent personal service, special discounts, etc.

Once you discover what makes you unique and how this uniqueness benefits customers, be sure to mention it in your copy.

3. Offer Value.

When you sit down to write, think about your customers…

What keeps them up at night?

How can you solve their problems in your own, unique way?

What’s in it for them?

By thinking about your customers and fulfilling their needs, you will be able to write copy that they want to read. And if you really focus on fulfilling their desires, you will write copy that sells too.

Profits Await!

With these three, quick tips, you will be able to write better copy for your business that will get noticed by the search engines.

Now, if you really want to take advantage of search engine optimization copywriting and significantly increase site visitors, online awareness and sales, hire a professional, SEO writer. Your ROI will be well worth it, and you can concentrate on your core responsibilities running your business!

For more information about SEO, please contact me below or see:

How to Avoid SEO Rip-Offs
http://www.startupnation.com/business-blogs/index.php/2011/03/16/avoid-seo-rip-offs/

Your Site Isn’t Optimized, Why Not?

http://www.startupnation.com/business-blogs/index.php/2011/01/18/seo-2/

Simple Publicity
http://www.rembrandtwrites.com/simple-publicity/

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No matter if you are a retailer, or prospective entrepreneur looking for the newest concepts, or interested in starting  or growing a specialty retail business, or just an exhibitor seeking new sales opportunities, SPREE is designed with you in mind!

Come for the new products showcased in the exhibit hall, the educational seminar program, the opportunity to conduct business and develop ongoing relationships, the fun and entertaining social events
and all of the excitement of Las Vegas. SPREE offers all this and more!

Who should attend the show?  Inventors with “retail ready” products interested in…

1. Exhibiting their inventions / products for opportunities to sell in carts, kiosks and gift shops. (Reserve your booth in the Inventors Zone by calling Debbie Lahti at (800) 936-6297 x 20)

2. Educational sessions and networking events to learn more about the $12 billion specialty retail industry.

Exhibiting in the Inventors Zone-

Entrepreneurs ready to take orders for their products should consider exhibiting. Your product may be good for the specialty retail market if it a) requires an explanation and is easily demonstrated, or b) is a product that is already understood, like a t-shirt or food item.

Learn all about this exciting industry-

Time: April 12, 2011 to April 14, 2011
Location: The Sands Expo Center at the Venetian
City/Town: Las Vegas, NV
Website or Map: http://spreeshow.com/
Phone: 800.936.6297 x 20
Event Type: expo
Organized By: Pinnacle Publishing Group

See you all there….

Always DREAM BIG!

Kim Babjak

Kim Babjak, and her team at KimCo LLC, are a multi-faceted product development company that offers a wide range of consulting in the areas of  “Mind 2 Market” product & business development. We help companies with product development, prototyping, and manufacturing overseas. With our vast retail buyer relationships, we can then assist with the product being placed into electronic retail (QVC), and big box retail outlets like Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot and many others.With over 10+ years of retail experience and sourcing overseas, Kim Babjak and her team of professionals can help create successful product creation and placement.

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Well, I just heard from another entrepreneur who hired a big, SEO research firm. Unfortunately, things did not go well, and this new business owner needed some help.

With this in mind, I thought it was time for a quick review so here are:

The Top 3 Ways to Get the Best Results from your Search Engine Optimization Copywriter:

1. Research.

When hiring a new SEO copywriter, have an extended conversation with that person and get all of your questions answered. (Ask about costs, expected results, timeframes, what is involved in reaching your
specific goals, etc.)

Also, call references, review work-samples and check for a good rating with the Better Business Bureau. This way, you’ll have some confidence starting your work relationship and know what to expect.

2. Communicate.

Once you start working together, keep in touch with your SEO copywriter on a weekly basis. You should know the status of all current and pending activities at all times.

And when you start a Pay-Per-Click campaign, launch a new Website, send out an e-mail auto-responder series or have another SEO project in place, ask for a report.

Since it is SEO, you can track clicks, top keywords, open rates, and other data to see what is working and what isn’t.

3. Review.

When you have some data for your SEO projects, review them with your SEO professional.

Stop the campaigns that are not getting results. Change keywords, overall copywriting, e-mail distribution times, subject lines, and more.

Then, test the variances to see what works best. Your SEO copywriter should keep track of the changes and keywords in a main database (note that you should own this database and all materials your SEO person creates for your business).

Communication is Key.

SEO is an ongoing process of research, tracking and changing so it’s essential to talk to your SEO copywriter on a regular basis and have a good, working relationship.

By monitoring activities and knowing which keywords and processes provide the best results, you can make the appropriate changes quickly.

This way, you save time and money while reaching your goals faster. More importantly, you will know what is going on and avoid being ripped off!

Do you have questions about SEO copywriting and how it can help your business increase sales and awareness fast? Please write to me here or at www.rembrandtwrites.com.

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