My wife is an entrepreneur and we talk often about online marketing for her business.  (We also often talk about her favorite topic – food – and I am sure there will be many “foodie” posts on this site.)  Anita has become pretty knowledgeable when it come to search engine marketing and I wanted to point out some of the big discoveries she has made when it comes to search and running her business.  As a small business owner, one wears so many hats such as operations, sales, human resources, advertising, finance and more.  I hope these pointers can help you with this one small (but critical) part of your business… search engine marketing.

1. Make sure you get help from an expert.  This was the first realization.  Time is better spent running the business than dealing with keywords, bids and optimization across all the major search engines.

2. Tracking is key.  A good search engine marketing provider will show you more than clicks and impressions.  The number of “conversions” like phone calls and online inquiries are crucial and need to be measured.

3.  Know your Lifetime Customer Value.  Since search engine marketing (and online advertising in general) is trackable, you will be able to determine ROI.  But many businesses have never asked themselves about the real financial value of a customer.  Consider the amount of money your customers spend in your business over time.  Consider your profit margins, cost structures and capacity.  Since word-of-mouth referalls are key, how many people does each customer refer?   Most people severely underestimate the fiancial value of customers and what they should expect to spend to attract them.

4.  Respond quickly and effectively to prospective customers.  When valuable calls come in, are your phones being answered?  Are the inbound calls and emails being handled well?  Are you building a marketing database from the prospects who call your business?  Do calls come in after hours?  (Prospects usually will not leave messages when they get voicemail.)  These leads are valuable and need to be handled with care!

5.  Brand advertising can turbo charge search engine marketing.  When people know your business already from advertising (or your prime business location), they are more likely to click on your link on a search engine when faced with several choices.  Brand advertising can give your search engine marketing an edge and also helps your quality score.

6.  Your Reputation Matters.  When people do click on your search engine link, they many not call you immediately.  Many will research you first on key sites where they investigate businesses.  People “background check” your business on sites like Google Maps, Yahoo Local, Yelp, Citysearch, Angie’s List and more.  The sites they use depend on the type of business they are researching.   (My “foodie” wife researches all her favorite restaurants on Chowhound and Yelp.)  If customers like what they see about you on review sites, they will call.  If they see bad reviews, they call someone else for their needs.  Your happy customers can help you build a good reputation on key review sites if you ask them.  (And in foodie circles, they even take pictures of their meals and upload them to blogs and review sites!)

7.  Remarketing gives you a second, third, fourth chance and more.  There are many ways you can target banner ads online.  My wife uses remarketing which is a very targeted technique used primarily by big companies like major banks, airlines and auto companies.  When someone visits her website they are “tagged”, then shown banners as they surf the web.  This “reminds them” of her business at a later time in case they were not quite ready to buy.  Or maybe they were interrupted and never finished checking out her site.  (Since remarketing is a new concept to many, you can go to reachlocal.com to learn more.  When you leave, you will likely see some of our banner ads because we will start remarketing you as you surf the web!)

Bottom right: an example of a remarketing ad

As we are sitting here typing this, my wife is recounting even more search engine marketing revelations.   (She is also considering her menu selections for tomorrow night’s dinner at a spot we love.)  The big lesson is this.  Search engine marketing requires a holistic approach.  Running a good search marketing program is important, but is part of a bigger picture.  Understanding the financial value of customers, handling leads effectively, having a good reputation, having an established or well advertised business, using remarketing techniques and more can help you attain a strong ROI.

I think Anita has decided on the ribeye with a special Bearnaise for tomorrow night at Nana.  She thinks I will go for the duck, but I will decide tomorrow night when I get there.  Or maybe I’ll just check out some reviews and see what the foodies recommend…