Spiders and Webs

The guy who decided to use that metaphor for the web is (was?) a genius! (No, I don't think it was Al Gore.) Little did he know how much affect it would have on a marketing guy like me. So, without further editorializing, here's a little spider and web tour as I SEE IT!

First of all, we are not thinking of one of those little weenie webs you find between a couple of flowers. This web is a monster like the webs you find out on the farm that you can easily mistake for a hammock if you stood it on its end.

There are over 43 million web pages according to various sources and that number is growing faster than bellies at fast food joints. (On second thought, maybe it was Al Gore.)

If each one of those "spokes" going out from the center is considered a "link," then there are three trillion of those links according to Google. I guess that would be like fast-food dirty straws, huh. Marketing guys like to get an idea what the competition is like.

Good Lord. That's a bunch.

If the web just stayed like that, with spokes out from your page, that would be one thing. But there is something else to consider-those rings that go around and create the circle of our giant farm web. Let's call those distractions.

You are the "searcher" out there next to one of the anchor hay bales. You start your search and find a link that is going to take you to the center of that monster web, right to the heart of my craftily designed web site. No problem. It's just a sticky little road trip.

But suddenly, your eyes catch a nifty looking ad on the side of that link. You click on the nifty ad. You are now going around and not down at the heart of the web. That damn spoke corrupted my link. (Those are distractive little spokes to your immediate left!) Hell, you may never reach my website now. Pass the Rolaids Mr. Marketing Man.

Another Marketing Person has just won the game and distracted you (prospect) enough to get to you to start going around the web instead of taking a shot right at the heart of my message. That guy or gal did it with better creative or paid for the chance to put that distractive message right in your face. I and my client will lose unless the searcher (you) is determined to find my client's page for some specific reason

Dammit! Why did my prospect take a left (or right) turn when I had him focused in the first place? In the old days, we would throw up or hands and wonder. But today, we have some tools that can help tell us why turns get made. The prospect will even tell us what they were looking for in the first place. The key to that is, oddly enough, "keywords."  That is what the prospect typed into the search engine to find your "spoke" in the first place.  Google keeps track of those keyword in a program you can sign up for called Google Analytics,

Go ahead. Sign up. I'll wait.

Here's what you do. Type in some terms that you think your prospect will type in. (That's the Prospect's Problem in Mr. Mitchell's questions. God would he be smiling right now.) Google will then do a search of all kinds of synonyms for your keywords; provide a report of those words; and give you an idea of how much interest there is in those words. Now you know why so many former research company owners go by the new title, "hey waiter."

Remember our crafty marketing person who picked off your prospect and got them going around you instead of straight at you? They may have used keywords in their effort to do it.  Bastards!  Let the battle be joined!

You can have those keywords, too. In fact, you can out compete that sneak for them. All it takes is a little money or, maybe a lot of money. Enter Google Adwords

Go ahead, sign up.  I'll wait.

That's how you make a couple of billion dollars. Who would have thought there would be money in one word headlines!

Now play with those gizzies for a while. Next up, where does all of this stuff show up in my web site?

The BEST form of advertising

Is it the Internet? Is it PRWeb? Is it old fashioned radio on the Glenn Beck show? It's not newspapers anymore. The local newspaper fits inside of the ad supplements these days. What is it?

It's the same as it was 40 years ago at Remington and longer than that.  It's Word-of-Mouth. Do a good job with your idea and people will tell other people and those people will show up, too.

So, right after the pondering over the four questions there is something else for you to do.  Go shopping at your competitors if you have any or go shopping at places people tell you are "awesome."

Become a student of awesome. Carry a little notebook with you and make notes about what you notice in "awesome" places. Is it decor? Is it something to do there? Is it the helpful friendly help? Is it the product or service? Is it the price?

Success isn't usually found in just one thing. Success is found in doing a lot of  things very well. What are you going to do very well that will be part of your new business foundation?

Make a plan to make sure that happens and you will have some control of Word-of-Mouth and when that happens, business magic happens.

Magic and Mitchell

Jack Mitchell was my boss at the great and or glorious Remington Arms Company. In hindsight, I probally should have stayed there and retired but I didn't and here I am. Lucky you! :o)

There were a lot of ideas floating around Remington all of the time. Granted, most of the product line was sold out the first week of the first quarter but there were other things that needed attention. Here's an example.

We wanted to make sure that Boy Scouts kept shooting in their life. Most of them learned how to shoot a .22 rifle at camp and we wanted to encourage them to keep it up. Here's an idea one of the ammo product managers brought to us. Put 500 rounds into a big tin can with lots of pro scouting picture on the can.

Dandy. Only one little problem. Not many Boy Scouts were willing to pay $99 for a can of .22 shells. The package that needed to change was the cardboard one that he carried in his pocket until it got wet and fell apart. Ask any scout mom if she found any live .22 rounds in a jean pocket just before she tossed the jeans into the dryer!

Jack stopped that idea right in it's tracks. He had four questions that he applied to Remington marketing ideas:

1.  Who's the prospect?
2.  What is the prospect's problem?
3.  What is the product (service)?
4.  How do we break the "boredom barrier?"

As you might guess, the problem was not the quantity available. It was the price of the quantity. Plus, the idea already assumed we had an avid shooter and were needed to develop the habit. We had a problem with questions 2 and 3. No go.

Those questions are almost as old as I am. Well, 40 years anyway. They are as true now as they were then and are questions any web marketer should carefully consider and address in the communications section of a business plan.

Everyone thinks the web is pure magic. In some cases, it was and still is. In the early cases, it wasn't. Remember the dot com  disaster a few years back? You could go back to any one of those failures and apply Jack Mitchell's questions and really wonder what and who those folks were after other than someone to buy them out before the dot com became the dot bomb.

So step one in web success is DO YOUR HOMEWORK!!! The web is hard work for most folks. Think first. Write it down. Leave it alone for a few days. Read it again. Think. Think. Think! Do field research. Do web research. Type the idea into Google search. See who and what comes back. Take your time and get it right.

Nothing is more common than a good ideas that can't reach the buyers for it. Answer Mr. Mitchell's questions about your products and services, think and do research, and stay tuned.

Hello Small Business Fans!

When you are in the idea business for as long as I have been in it, people start to ask you questions. Lot's of questions. Now, I can offer to answer them for a small fee or just answer them. Quite frankly, the answer is not always the solution so I will get along just fine.

But for some folks, they want to dive into every aspect of their small business. So, I am willing to share what I know for free and you can take it or leave it. Fair deal?

Shortly, I will share what I know about web marketing. That includes lots of things that most folk don't think about and don't know how to do. Google recently said there are over one trillion links out there so the competition is certainly sporty to say the least.

Creating a web presence is pretty easy but with those odds, finding you is hard unless the finder knows your site by some of its name.

Those are the type of things you can expect me to discuss. So, add a link, grab a cup of coffee, and come back. Leave comments if you would like me to look into something. 

To quote a famous person from the future...Live long and Prosper! (Spock of course.)