The Elevator Pitch Challenge. Can You Say Yours In Two Floors (10 sec)?

Ah! The infamous "elevator pitch". How many of you have this refined in such a manner that you can actually give it in an elevator or any other setting for that manner?

Why is this even important?

Well here is a case where a strong elevator pitch can be valuable. At the start of nearly every Board of Advisory event at the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce the host would send a microphone around the entire room giving everyone an opportunity to stand up and state your name, your company name and "what it is you do". There are several ways the moderator would keep this from consuming the entire time allocated for the event itself. One way was to restrict the person to saying this in three breaths (three sentences). Another was to limit it to 10 seconds. In other words, an opportunity to give your elevator pitch but to an audience of 50 to 100 local business leaders. This kind of scenario is not uncommon. Are you prepared for it?

I use the following elevator scenario with my clients to hone their ability to clearly articulate what it is they do.

"You just walked into the 3rd floor elevator at a shopping mall and just before the door closes an important business acquaintance you haven't seen in a long while squeezes in the door at the last second. He/she recognizes you and says, "Mike! Good to see you again. What are you up to nowadays?" He presses the first floor button. The elevator starts to move. How will you reply?"

A typical elevator will cover two floors in 10 - 16 seconds. To allow for a response I suggest your pitch should last no more than 10 seconds.

So now that we know how long it should be, what are the ingredients to a good elevator pitch? When stating what you do it should be, (1) clear enough for your grandmother to understand, (2) be stated in a manner that clearly sets you apart from others in your sector, and (3) is intriguing enough to warrant the following sincere (versus the brush off) reply, "Wow, that's interesting. I'd like to hear more. Let's get together for coffee." Of course, if the person is not in the market for your services another good response could be, “Interesting, I might know someone who could use your services.”

The bottom line is be clear, be different, and be brief.

Here is how the elevator ride would be for me.

We see each other in the elevator and the business owner says, "Mike! Good to see you again. What are you up to nowadays?" He presses the first floor button. The elevator starts to move.

I reply, “Good to see you Tom. I’m with Allegro Consulting, a 12 year old firm working exclusively with private companies on matters related to growing a sound business like strategy and process definition."

In this 10 seconds I emphasized a key differentiator for my company, longevity, that we’ve been around longer than almost everyone of my competitors. I made it clear who I specialize in working with, “private(ly) (held) companies”. And, I gave two concrete examples of what I do for my clients. You noticed I didn’t say something vague like, “I help companies go to the next level.” even though this is the most common phrase I hear from potential new clients. The reason is this phrase can mean different things to different people. There is no doubt what strategy means and implied in that is, I help companies who are ready to grow based on a strategy.

Was this helpful?

Want to sharpen the elevator pitch for your metro Atlanta business?   Let's talk about it over a cup of coffee.  Contact me here.

About the author. Mike Gomez is President of Allegro Consulting, a growth specialty firm helping businesses plan and execute aggressive growth strategies. He grew his very first client’s business from $8M to $35M in just two years. Mike is a growth strategy, and sales process evangelist, prolific speaker, writer, three-time marathoner, a former military officer and pilot of both aircraft and helicopters. www.allegroconsultant.com

Is your business an orange among a lot of oranges?

I gave a talk to business owners about the importance of having a targeted marketing and sales strategy (#5 on my 10 Essential Elements to Long-Term Growth). In that talk I showed why companies who thrive are laser focused in defining to whom they want to sell their products or services. This is especially true with start-ups or small companies where a limited marketing budget and a small sales force is the norm. The analogy I use most often to stress this point is the game of darts. How silly would it be to play darts without a dartboard? Yet I routinely see owners liberally handing out darts to their sales team with no dartboard in sight - all the while still expecting them to regularly hit a bullseye (customer).

It was after this presentation that a question was posed, “How do I decide who to target?”

Bingo!  That is exactly the question I wanted these business owners to ponder.

I’m sorry to say that you won’t find the answer here in this blog. Why? Because the process to decide this requires an extensive internal company assessment and external market analysis.

I can, however, give you one step in that process. Answer this question, "How are you different from competitors in your industry or sector?" Figuring out what’s different about your business will then lead to identifying companies who value that difference - and thus whom you should consider targeting.

Unfortunately, most of us are in “commodity” businesses. In other words, within our industry sector we are simply an orange sitting on a stack of oranges. Unless you've intentionally done something to separate yourself, this is likely true whether you are a marketing firm, lawyer, dentist, any broker, web designer, staffing company, accounting firm, bank, dry cleaners, insurance company, real estate agent, etc ... Are you getting the picture? Even a company like Boeing is an orange. The difference for them is the stack of competing oranges is rather small (only four commercial aircraft builders in the world). If we could all be so lucky to compete against just four rivals.

The challenge for every business owner is to decide (1) do I simply compete as an orange - knowing I will have to out-market (advertise, SEO, etc...) all the other oranges in my sector and accept that price will drive most decisions or (2) narrow the competing field by specializing - become unique - a blood orange, naval orange, or clementine for example. There is no right or wrong answer here. The downfall comes by being unaware, in denial, or worse yet, think you have something unique when in fact you don't.

Here is a quick example. Cordell and Cordell is a law firm. I think we all know how many law firms there are in this world (that stack of oranges is a mile high). Recognizing this, Cordell and Cordell chose to specialize - they became a domestic litigation firm further specializing in men’s divorce - a blood orange (no pun). In doing so, they reduced the size of the competition significantly. And by fully embracing this strategy they know clearly who they want to serve (target) as a customer. They have even gone so far as to own and manage the content of mensdivorce.com and mensrights.com. Brilliant!

I have a friend who once defined his firm as a marketing company. He eventually recognized he was in a very crowded market (lots of oranges (marketing firms) here in Atlanta). Every engagement became a competitive race to the bottom in price. He decided to change course, to specialize in just one aspect of the marketing spectrum - marketing communications, even further specializing in presentations. He created a brand called Presentation Tune-ups and is now much clearer about who specifically he is targeting for his specialized service. And much like the lawyer example above his relationships, first built around presentations, eventually encompasses other marketing related services.

So ask yourself, are you an orange competing against other oranges? If so, how will your customer choose your orange from the rest on the stack? What does your dartboard look like? Or, have you made yourself a unique enough orange to warrant being placed in a different bin, with the ability to command a higher price, and a much clearer understanding of the bullseye your marketing and sales force are aiming at.

Tired of being an orange among all the other oranges?  Let's talk over a cup of coffee how we can define a way to make your metro Atlanta business unique.  Contact me here.

About the author. Mike Gomez is President of Allegro Consulting, a growth specialty firm helping Georgia business owners take their company "to the next level". He grew his very first client’s business from $8M to $35M in just two years. Mike is a sales process evangelist, prolific speaker, writer, three-time marathoner, a former military officer and pilot of both aircraft and helicopters. www.allegroconsultant.com

5 Lessons Building My New Fully Responsive Website

Every three years or so my company website starts to look and feels stale and dated. I don’t know if there is a study out there to back this up but this is what my 12 years of consulting experience (8 years with a website) has taught me. It has become clear that people’s expectations for a website “experience” are constantly evolving. Social platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram, and YouTube have influenced the web audience to desire bite sized pieces of information preferably through media such as videos and telling photos. On line stores like Amazon too have influenced expectations along these lines.

I am a consultant. I help businesses who are struggling for one reason or another. My clients are serious people burdened and kept awake by serious challenges. If things have gotten to a point where they need an outsider to help you can bet they are prepared to research options. My old website was tailored to that research. It provided the client some things to think about in the way of solutions and why I was the best guy who could help. But now even this audience wants the same type of information presented differently - in meaningful bite sized nuggets.

Oh, and one other observation. Two years ago less that 1% of my web traffic came from devices other than a desktop. Today 21% of my traffic is from mobile or tablets.

My old content ladened, static website had run its course. (Good bye old friend - you served us well).

So you might be asking, because of the title of this article, why I took on the challenge of designing and building a website myself rather than contract the project to a web developer or marketing firm. I have three reasons for doing this. First reason, given the importance a website is to any business I feel as a consultant I must know enough about the process to credibly advise my clients through it.

Secondly, so I know what kind of effort and skills are involved and thus the value attached to such a project. And the third reason is to fully understand what a business owner must know about his/her business and customer BEFORE he/she begins this undertaking.

That said here are the top five lessons I learned from this one-month project:

1. Know everything about your business - your growth plan and your target customers. This is not something you casually hand off to a marketing firm or web developer to figure out. You should be able to articulate your 3-year strategy (your web presence is but a tool to help get you there), details about current state (customer/product mix etc...), your target customers, your competitors, and the landscape in which you compete. With regard to your customers, you should know how they shop, what they value about your company, what products and services they favor, and what their expectations are when they land on your site. (By the way, this is by far the most requested service of  Allegro Consulting - growth strategy development.)

2. Know the difference between the skillsets of a web developer versus a marketing firm. Web developers are best equipped to bring functionality to your website whereas marketing firms bring creativity and design. Asking a web developer about layout, colors or the appropriateness of artwork would be like asking the carpenter to design your house. Likewise, expecting a marketing firm to efficiently create the coding for a web form or transaction integration would be equally outlandish. To get the most out of this important marketing spend, task the experts to do only what they are most trained for.

3. Don’t outsource the content. Once again if you know your business and you know your customer then you know best how to connect with them. Sure it is ok to have a third party edit your writing but you have to take charge of the messaging. This is not something you outsource.

4. Web audiences will scroll. It used to be that you had to worry about putting the most important content “above the fold”.  This is no longer the case. Thanks to Facebook and Twitter people are now use to scrolling and will automatically do this when on a website. Here is a great article on this subject.

5. Preserve your URLs. If you have a strong Google ranking be careful about how you introduce change to your website - especially the URLs I learned it is very important that you do whatever you can to preserve your old URLs (exactly) even if they are not an ideal name for your pages. Don’t throw them away as there is valuable Google history there. If you can’t use them in your new rebuilt site use a 301 redirect rather than discard. Here is an article about that.
Let me know what you think of my new website. BTW - I used a pretty impressive tool to build it - a company called Webflow.

Remember, your website is a marketing tool and the role of marketing is to attract "qualified" prospects. It is incumbent on you to understand what is a "qualified" prospect and how they go about researching then buying your type of product or service. It is also your job to know what differentiates you from alternative choices. Don't spend the time or money creating a new website until you know this information cold. These are the topics covered in a well run strategic planning engagement. And this is what Allegro has been doing for metro Atlanta businesses for over 14 years.

Let's talk about your business over a cup of coffee.  The first cup is on me.  Contact me here.

About the author. Mike Gomez is President of Allegro Consulting, a growth specialty firm helping businesses plan and execute aggressive growth strategies. He grew his very first client’s business from $8M to $35M in just two years. Mike is a growth strategy and sales process evangelist, prolific speaker, writer, three-time marathoner, a former military officer and pilot of both aircraft and helicopters. www.allegroconsultant.com

The Worst Sales Direction EVER! “Treat it like it’s your own business.”

I've just heard this story too many times not to share it as a learning moment.
I received a call from a salesperson asking for advice as he struggled to meet his quarterly sales quota. I assumed he was calling looking for new sales techniques or particular guidance on moving a client to close. But this was not the case at all. Here is how the dialogue went:
Salesperson says, “I’m selling a product in a market where I have a competitor selling the exact same thing.”
I replied, “Same thing? You mean same features, same everything?”
“Yes”
“Are you more price competitive?”
“No, not really. We offer trade in of older equipment to bring the price down but so does our competitor”
“What about service?”

“Yeah, we do support the customer better than they do.”
”That’s good. But will your customer pay more for this better service?”
“No.”
“Interesting, so tell me what kind of direction have you received from the owner of the business you work for?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, given the market realities you’ve outlined, how does your owner expect you to win new business? Is he doing things to separate you from this competitor? For example, specializing in a certain niche (becoming experts and thus the preferred vendor) or using marketing and strong advertising techniques to build brand preference (aka, Colgate vs Crest toothpaste)?”
“No, the only guidance I was given was, “Treat it like it’s your business.”
Even the best salesperson will under-perform or fail under these conditions. It is not the salesperson's job to identify target customers and invent ways to differentiate. The role of the owner, President and/or CEO of a business is to equip your sales team with the tools to be successful. At a minimum this includes the following:

• A list of “target customers” 
• those inline with the customer mix outlined in your short and long-range growth plan
• who match the profile of those who will value your product, expertise and/or differentiators
• The compelling story to support why clients should buy your product over competitors
• Who are the competitors the sales team can expect to face and what differentiates us from each
• A supportive marketing (lead generating, branding, demo tools, social media, samples, brochures, etc...) strategy
• The right sales tools and support (travel budget, conference attendance, CRM, bid and proposal, quoting, etc...) - tools that actually help the sales team do their job versus those that help the owner monitor the sales force.

Given that only 28% of a salesperson’s time is spent in front of the customer and about 50% of that time is actually selling (the rest is prospecting (35%), relationship building (10%), and training (5%)), it is imperative, you the owner, equip him/her with the tools to ensure it is the right prospect and that he maximizes the productivity of that time.

In my 12 years of consulting "under-performing sales" has been by far the number one pain point with the blame typically placed squarely on the salesperson or VP of Sales. It is not long into the engagement when humility kicks in as the owner discovers it is their lack of a long-range plan, a clear understanding of what makes them different, a detailed knowledge of their competitors, and an ineffective or non-existent marketing strategy that are the real culprits.

Want to grow your metro Atlanta business?  Let's talk over a cup of coffee about what we can do to give your sales team the right tools for success? Contact me here.

About the author. Mike Gomez is President of Allegro Consulting, a growth specialty firm helping businesses plan and execute aggressive growth strategies. He grew his very first client’s business from $8M to $35M in just two years. Mike is a sales process evangelist, prolific speaker, writer, three-time marathoner, a former military officer and pilot of both aircraft and helicopters. www.allegroconsultant.com

8 Growth Tools Every Business Owner Should Know, Have and Use

You need a good nail-gun, a saw and more to be a carpenter. To be a car mechanic you need a wrench, a computer code reader and a good socket-set to name a few of the essential tools. If you are a regular mountain climber then you likely have good rope, and plenty of high quality caribiners in your tool chest.  So, what are some of the important tools required if you are the CEO of your start-up or established business. 

#1 Business Plan (for start-ups): An exercise and accompanying document you complete PRIOR to launching a new business. Properly done it will force you to be clear on what your business is all about, the product or service you deliver, how you plan to deliver it, and supporting evidence for why customers will buy from you over competing alternatives. It will also tell you how much money you need to keep the business operating effectively before you are producing sufficient cash flow to cover operating expenses. Experience says you will find this document will be obsolete in the first six months of operations as real life will be surprisingly different than your assumptions. Regardless, this step is critical to success.

 #2 Strategic Plan (for established businesses): An exercise and accompanying document that combines your future vision of the business and real life market realities to define in a measurable way what your company will look like 2 to 3 years from now. It is the spot on the map you select before getting into your car for a road trip. Customer mix, revenue, market penetration, operations and people are all addressed in this document. A well done strategic plan will leverage you current strengths, acknowledge and address weaknesses, exploit market opportunities, and counter external threats. Everyone in your company should know your strategic plan - this is how you create an “aligned” workforce.

 #3 Tactical Plan: An annual document that defines specific actions (beyond day to day operations) to be taken by specific individuals in a specific time-frame (usually quarterly) that will incrementally move your company one step closer to the Strategic Plan goals. If you were to envision your business as a movie, this would be the “script”. You are the director and your employees, the actors. You are tasked with completing this movie on time and with no overruns.

 #4 Targeted Customer: Exactly who did you design your product/service for? It is not “everyone”. Your target customer is the bullseye of your sales dart board. The better you are able to describe the critical attributes (job, race, gender, age, income, business, hobby, etc...) the better and more efficient your marketing and sales force will be in finding and winning them.

 #5 Sales Strategy: A process where you analyze the depth and breadth of your market opportunities, the intensity of the competition you expect to face, and given resources you possess to devise a sales plan of attack. Similar to war planning you may choose a broad strategy that secures a large number of small victories or concentrate your resources to score a big impactful strategic win. It defines how and where you will deploy your limited resources as well as the weaknesses of you competition you plan to exploit to win new business.

 #6 Marketing Strategy: Marketing is all about generating qualified leads for your sales team to close on. Developing a marketing strategy is a left brain activity as it involves analysis and critical thinking. A well done marketing strategy involves analyzing your customers (who they are and how they buy) then exploring and selecting the most effective tools (web, social media, billboard, collateral, TV commercials, car wrap) within given financial constraints to garner their interest. You compete and hire marketing experts and service providers for their right brain creative skills to implement your strategy.

 #7 Sales Process: A replicable and thus written method for how you take a warm lead and turn him/her into a happy customer. As you might expect this is one of the most important steps in your business processes and should not be relegated to the personal techniques of any given salesperson. In addition to more consistent win rates, a defined sales process will allow you the owner to engage in a conversation with any of your sales team and know exactly who is in the funnel and where they are in the sales cycle.

 #8 Critical Processes: Those unique, replicable steps your company completes to generate leads, win business, deliver a consistent product or service and collect financial compensation. Documenting these steps provides two major benefits, (1) reduces risk by creating a back-up should you be unfortunate to lose a critical employee with all of the corporate memory due to a job change or accident and, (2) it establishes a baseline upon which to develop improvements. Say your company name is XYZ then what makes your product an XYZ product or service performed and delivered the XYZ way?  

Are you a metro Atlanta business who may need to 'borrow' some of these tools to help your business grow? Let's talk over a cup of coffee.  Contact me here.


About the author. Mike Gomez is President of Allegro Consulting, a growth specialty firm helping startups and establish businesses plan and execute aggressive growth strategies. He grew his very first client’s business from $8M to $35M in just two years. Mike is a growth strategy and complex sales expert, prolific speaker, writer, three-time marathoner, a former military officer and pilot of both aircraft and helicopters. www.allegroconsultant.com

Why 'AboutUs' Matters?

So how much thought did you put into the "About Us" tab on your website?

A new client called to tell me they were having problems getting any traction with their new start-up. They are a tech company specializing in a certain field.  They acquired a list of qualified prospects and proceeded on a phone and email campaign to try to garner interest and an invitation for a more formal presentation. Though feedback to the email and phone inquiries was positive they were only able to secure a handful of appointments and those meetings produced no tangible results.    

Before meeting the two principals I pretended as if I received one of their calls or emails and began doing some relatively light due diligence about their company - something you should expect any prospect to do before you meet.  I looked up their Linkin profiles. Scanned their Facebook page. Read some of their Tweets. I then perused their website to learn about their product and services paying particular attention to the "About Us" page.  In this case it explained their brief history and offered links to the leadership biographies.  It was here where I became puzzled.

Let's say, for example they are a company who specialized in selling back-up generators for skyscrapers.  Let's say they not only supplied these generators but they also installed and integrated them into the building's electrical system by providing project management services. In this case one might expect to see something in the 'About Us' tab that tells me not only when the company was formed but also the depth of experience they have in this field.  One might also expect to see this case further reinforced by notable accomplishments/experience in project management and/or expertise in large generators when reading their leadership biographies. 

What if you don't see any of these attributes?  How would you react?

I imagine this is what happened in their case as well. There was nothing in their bios or in the company story that showed me they deserved some of my attention - that I could learn something or benefit from their expertise. Nothing!

I have this simple phrase I use when coaching salespersons, "Keep them nodding up and down, because the second their head goes side to side your work just grew substantially."

Anytime you cause a potential customer to pause the selling process because something is "just not right" with your story you make his work substantially harder as well.  But in the case of the customer he will more than likely abandon further interest than put the effort into uncovering why there was a disconnect.

The "About Us" tab is a sales tool.  It should complete the story of your website by answering the question "why shop here?"   If you specialize in a certain field, here is where you show your credentials.  If your company holds patents or retains a renowned expert, brag about it here.  This is not the page to be humble.  This is the page to boast and make a compelling case for why a potential customer should want to do business with you and your firm.

Was this helpful?  Want to see what else you can do to improve your metro Atlanta sales win-rate? Let talk over a cup of coffee.  Contact me here.

About the author.  Mike Gomez is President of Allegro Consulting, a growth specialty firm helping to turnaround privately-held businesses wrestling with stagnant/slow growth. He grew his very first client’s business from $8M to $35M in just two years.  Prior to Allegro, Mike sold military fighter aircrafts to foreign allies for aerospace giants, Boeing and Lockheed.  He is a prolific speaker, writer, three-time marathoner, a former USAF officer and pilot of both aircraft and helicopters.  www.allegroconsultant.com

Networking - Your Responsibilities

I had one of those "ah ha" moments recently about networking. In a nutshell here it is, it is my responsibility to equip those in my network who want to promote my business with a way to do it within their comfort zone.

Here's the rest of the story.

I was asked to present a business "challenge" to my bi-weekly networking group of 23 people. Here is the email I sent with the challenge:

My challenge centers on networking. Specifically I am looking for suggestions on how I can better improve my networking effectiveness. I know what you are thinking - not another networking question! But please read on to see why this is unique. 

It is fairly common to hear a business person state he/she needs a good real estate agent, or a payroll expert, credit card processor, lawyer, promotions guy, website, marketing,  insurance provide, or even someone to help sell or buy a business. After all there is no stigma associated when asking for any of these services. Thus, in each of the above cases we can offer up the network of experts we know and trust who can fulfill their needs. 

But how often will you hear a business owner state he/she is struggling with running their business; that he/she is overwhelmed, working ridiculously long hours, or that sales are sinking and they don’t know how to turn things around? The fact is ego, and a multitude of other forces will prevent a business owner from ever admitting they need help let alone solicit openly for a solution. They won't even tell their wives or husbands when there is a lingering problem.  The business graveyard is overflowing with businesses whose leaders were pulled down into the death whirlpool despite being thrown one ring buoy after the next. Though I know each of you (in my networking group) can spot a company in need of my business consulting services, I also know it is unrealistic for me to expect you will ever say anything to that owner or even suggest a counseling coffee meeting with me. It is sort of like telling a psych patient he is psychotic. Nobody wins. So given this reality, how should I network? What should I ask of those I meet in networking meetings who are sincere about finding ways to connect me with potential clients? I haven't figured this out which is why I now only ask for speaking referrals. That seems to be something most are more comfortable taking about.

This response from one of my strongest advocates (Daniel Mastrodonato of Payroll1) is a reinforcement that I had failed in fulfilling my responsibilities as a good networker - to make it easy for those in my group to connect me with others.

"That is a tough one because I have been pondering over that since I met you! I want to refer business to you, as you have done to me, but I fall over my words when I want to say to some of my business owners……… You need HELP and I have just the guy that can HELP!"

We all know that a personal referral is one of the most powerful marketing tools for any business.  Getting that referral requires more than just being great at what you do.  To truly leverage your network you must equip them with a script that is natural to them, that won't be awkward, or make them come across as inappropriately nosy.

Have you equipped your network with a script for how to promote your business? Are they comfortable with using it? Have they tried it in a business networking environment?  What kind of response does it generate?

Marketing Basics - the Internet - Being 1st with Google (Part 2 of 2)

In Part 1 of this 4 part article I talked about the importance of being purposeful about your web/social media presence and the first step in that process is understanding who you are targeting.  I shared that the more you know about the person (demographics) sitting behind the computer you want to target the more success you will have attracting that person through your internet strategy.

I then wrote about the importance of knowing what’s going on in the head of the person about to do a web search – at that exact moment in time.  Is he searching to make a purchase or is he doing research or could it be both?

Today I will share with you why you should care.

First and foremost you should care because you want your website to be a valued resource to potential customers.  Why? Simply put, because this translates to qualified leads.

If that alone isn’t motivation enough then do it because Google and Bing (Microsoft) care.  After all it is their mission to interpret what the customer has entered into their search window and send him to a site that best addresses those needs. You want Google to like your site because if they like you they move you to the front of the line.

Why is that important?

Here are some facts about what it means to be the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd site on a Google search page:

• Websites ranked number one received an average click-through rate (CTR) of 36.4 percent; 
• Number two had a CTR of 12.5 percent
• Number three had a CTR of 9.5 percent. 
• Being number one in Google, according to Optify, is the equivalent of all the traffic going to the sites appearing in the second through fifth positions.   

I am not qualified to tell you all the algorithms Google uses to evaluate your website and rank you but what I can tell you from personal experience (Allegro is the first site for “Atlanta Business Consultants”) is if your are genuine and sincere about being a valued resource for your target audience Google will reward you with higher ranking/placement.

So how do you determine the content you should include in your website and what other social media outlets your company should spend time working on?  I will answer that in Part 3 of this series on internet marketing basics.

About the author. Mike Gomez is President of Allegro Consulting, a growth specialty firm helping turnaround businesses wrestling with stagnant growth. He grew his very first client’s business from $8M to $35M in just two years. Mike is also a prolific speaker, writer, three-time marathoner, a former military officer and pilot of both aircraft and helicopters. www.allegroconsultant.com

Marketing Basics - the Internet (Part 1 of 2) - Know your target

Print, billboards, TV ads, car-wraps are all tools used to build a brand, generate quality leads or both.  The internet should be viewed as another tool in your marketing tool chest. And just as you would target a TV ad to a specific demographic (based on what time and what channel it airs) your collective internet presence should also be targeted.

Who are you targeting with your internet investment? Here are some good questions to ask and answer  (ideally BEFORE) you spend money and resources on a web/social media presence.

What does that potential customer who is sitting behind the computer about to do a search for your product/service look like? Culture, race, age, background, experiences, and job shape the way we think, act and talk.  It also affects how we search the web. Thus, the best way to connect with a potential client on the web is to first know them.

Think about the customer you'd ideally like to sell to or design your website for.

• How old is he/she?
• Position in a company?
• Who does he/she work for?
• Race?
• Gender?
• Head of household?
• Working mom? 
• With or without kids?
• Retiree?
• Ex-military? 
• Business owner?
• Athletic?
• Outdoor enthusiast?
• Income?

With these type of questions answered you've painted a vivid picture of the person sitting at the computer.  The next challenge is to understand their frame of mind at the time they start searching. For example, if you are an online retail company, what stage of the buying decision are they likely to be in when they start a search on the web?

Is it, “I have decided to buy, here is my credit card”?  

Or, “I have decided to buy and want to know my choices”?

Or, “I am contemplating the idea of buying and only doing research at this time”?

Knowing the type of person and their mindset at the time their journey on the web begins is crucial for any successful web marketing strategy. Why? Because with this knowledge you are better equipped to understand (a) what that person will type into a search engine and (b) what questions will be foremost in his/her mind when they first land on your site.

Already spending money on a website, twitter account, company Facebook page?  Then try this simple test. Pretend you are that customer and search like he or she would search.  Did you find your company? Is it on page one, two, three, or fifteen of the Google search page(s)?  Now go to your website and company Facebook page and experience your web presence as if you are the customer. 

Are you happy with the results?

As I said in the beginning of this article, your web presence should be part of an overall marketing campaign . That campaign should be supporting a comprehensive long-term growth plan, it should be targeted and tailored.  Sadly, I have seen way too many business owners burn money to create a web presence only to discover later that simply a presence is all they received for their investment.

Marketing Basics - the Internet - Being 1st with Google (Part 2 of 4)

About the author. Mike Gomez is President of Allegro Consulting, a growth specialty firm helping turnaround businesses wrestling with stagnant growth. He grew his very first client’s business from $8M to $35M in just two years. Mike is also a prolific speaker, writer, three-time marathoner, a former military officer and pilot of both aircraft and helicopters. www.allegroconsultant.com