Internet marketing is not just a numbers game!

I was speaking with somebody recently about their Internet marketing, and he said something like, "But I don't want to get 10,000 visitors a month to our site. We just want a few clients every month, and we'll be happy".

Exactly! He was rejecting Internet marketing ideas because he thought they were all about numbers. But they're not - especially now. It's all about getting the right sort of people to visit your Web site. Who cares if you only get, say, 10 site visitors a week, provided they're the right visitors to do business with you!

This is why it's so important to be marketing in places other than Google. Google will get you the numbers, but it won't directly get you the site visitor who saw you mentioned in somebody else's newsletter. Or who heard you interviewed on somebody else's podcast. Or is a friend of a friend on Facebook. Or who had your tweet re-tweeted to them by somebody in their network. Or - best of all - who got an e-mail from a friend who recommended you.

How to get more visitors to your blog

One of my colleagues recently asked me:

"I am getting into my blog. I need assistance in ways I can really "make this fly" as I am realising that it is a great way for me to put my IP into practical use for people. So, I'd like you to visit the blog and then help me find ways to drive people to it."

I replied with a series of suggestions, which I'll share here with some minor editing to preserve confidentiality:

• Every time you write a blog post, tweet it.
• Subscribe to other blogs about [your topic area] and comment on them whenever they mention your topic.
• Find and participate in on-line communities on these topic areas.
• Add the blog address (INSTEAD of your Web site address) to the bottom of your one-page "tip sheets".
• Give these tip sheets away to selected colleagues for them to distribute.
• Link to it from your Web site.
• Make it appear automatically in your Facebook profile.
• Make it appear automatically in your Thought Leaders Central profile.
• Make it appear automatically on your First Step Community profile.
• Add a link to it in your LinkedIn profile.
• Start a group in Thought Leaders Central.
• Incorporate it into some interesting group activity for [a regular networking group he facilitates] (e.g. Print 10 blog posts and use them as starting points for ... ???)
• Go back to recent clients and offer them something similar (probably online).
• Find/start a group about [your topic area] at SpeakerSite.com.

The point is, it's not just one thing. It's about being passionate about your area of expertise, and then you'll naturally find ways to promote your blog.

What are your customers really searching for?

When promoting something on the Internet, are you doing it in the way your customers expect it (good) or the way that only suits you (not so good)? I've talked about this before, but it bears repeating because it's a common mistake people make.

Here's a simple and dramatic example: If you teach people how to speak in public, you're more likely to call it "presentation skills" than "public speaking", right? Yet if you compare the two phrases, "public speaking" gets way more searches:



So even if you think "public speaking" sounds too amateurish, swallow your pride and use it - at least in your initial contact with customers. This doesn't apply only to Google searching; it's also the phrase to use on your YouTube videos, your blog posts, your podcast episodes, your Slideshare presentations, and so on.

More importantly, do the research first.

How do you choose a SEO company?

One of my clients, a professional speaker, asked me this question recently:

"I have been emailed by this company [url here] re their services. What's your view on these types of companies? What questions would you recommend I ask to ascertain whether these sorts of services are worth the money?"

I reckon SEO is still worthwhile, though it's just one of the things to do, and becoming less and less important.

I reckon you should ask these questions:

1. What other professional speakers [insert your own industry here] have you worked with?
2. Are clients really looking for speakers using Google?
3. What is the best kind of qualified traffic you’ll get me?
4. What conversion metrics do you use to measure success?

And ... most importantly ... What about the fact that people are using Google less to search by topics?

The person I refer clients to when it comes to SEO is Ed Keay-Smith of www.adwordsmarketing.com.