With sales declines ranging from 20% to 40% (and more), ISA members are truly open to new ideas and straight-talk. Conservatism is out and traditional fixes, such as loading distributor shelves with products or running sales spiffs, are considered ineffective. That was an important lesson for some excellent companies to learn.
Our sales strategy to confront ISA members was driven by our belief that (1) communication to external and internal customers is average at best and (2) websites that don’t generate new business, that are just an expense, need immediate attention. I admit, we’re biased on this issue since communication and technology is what we do.
Many of the people we met with have built good websites but virtually none of them have done much with search engine optimization (SEO). In our view, it doesn’t do a company much good to have a super website if their customers and potential customers can’t find it. Many people were surprised when we showed them our small company was listed #1 on page-1 of Google.
Similarly, everyone expressed a need for new customers but only a few knew that 70% of all new product and services searches begin online and that 65%+ of those searches begin on Google. Further, 91% of searches are abandoned if the person doesn’t find what they’re looking for on page one or two of their search results. Everyone needs a Page-1 Google Strategy.
Most members said SEO and video technology is expensive, it’s not. If you’re NASCAR you can spend $50,000 (whatever you want) on a 60 second video starring Jimmie Johnson. We’ve created high quality videos for under 5% of that number. In today’s market, technology is affordable for any size company.
Best of all, it is always a wonderful experience to re-connect with old friends and make new ones. It was a great conference for Aligned Marketing and me personally. I truly feel blessed.
Steve
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