I love this ad not just because of how Google search has been responsble for the ‘democratisation’ of the internet (so even the little guys can win)…

But also because of the way that the ad gets to the very heart of what they do: SEARCH.  And what makes them the masters of the universe.

Getting your message out so that visitors to your website immediately understand what it is that you do is overlooked more than you might think!  Check out the video below.

Google and Your Internet Marketing Strategy

We know that Google search is king the number one most visited website in New Zealand.  According to Hitwise, 7.75% of all internet traffic heads to Google.

We also know that Google is becoming an interwoven part of people’s lives.  Like in the video it can influence what we do and how we do it…in very profound ways.

But What Does That Mean if You’re A Business Owner?

If you’re a business owner then it’s easy to just imagine that getting to the top of Google will solve all your problems.  We face this all the time with our clients.  High Google rankings aint the goal!  The goal is an increase in enquiries that leads to an increase in sales – right?

So to achieve that it takes what most web designers can’t provide…Online Strategy.

What is Online Strategy?

Online or Internet Marketing Strategy is the online battleplan or blueprint that takes into account how you will compete with and win against your competitors.

There are a lot of factors that need to be thought about when it comes to internet marketing strategy.  They include:

• What are your overall business goals?
• What are your potential customers looking for online and in what numbers?
• What are your competitors doing online and how can we defeat them?
• How can we improve traffic (visitors) and not just rankings?
• How can we improve ‘conversion’ on the website so that we can measure the return on investment?
• How can we achieve your goals in the best way without wasting time and money?

Plus more.

Winning online is not about SEO, it’s about strategy.  It’s about planning the right things and executing that plan in the right way to achieve your goals so that you can SELL MORE STUFF.

I hope this makes sense.  If you would like to know more about how we can develop an internet marketing strategy for you so you can get your business in front of hungry customers who are using Google and looking for what you can sell, please contact us for a confidential discussion.

Thank you for reading this.

Regards,

Rhys Coffin
Internet Marketing Strategist
CEO, Internet New Zealand Ltd

E: rhys@internetnewzealand.com
M: 021 33 5586

Internet Marketing

And no-one else.

My name is Rhys Coffin.  I’ve been involved successfully in internet marketing strategy and lead generation for nearly a decade.

I know,…big deal.

But what you should know is that I’m not a geek or an IT Guru [although we employ some of the best!].   Rather, I am regarded as a street-smart entrepreneur and internet marketing strategy specialist. I’m a business owner and have been since I was 12 years old when my Mum used to wait in the car while I sold kiwifruit door-to-door.

I have a passion for Internet Marketing strategy that borders on the unhealthy.  Just like how some alcoholics dribble on about how red wine is good for you because it has heaps of anti-oxidoodads (or whatever), and then in the next 30 minutes proceed to get sh**-faced; I’m a bit like that with the ’net.

I find new developments in Internet Marketing trends fascinating and compelling.  Yes, I know it’s all a bit sad really.  In 2007, I stopped ’sharing’ these incredibly compelling internet developments with my wife, after doing so resulted in a stint in the spare room.

While you may not share my passion either,  it is a fact that I understand the utter joy and puke-inducing pain of growing a company from scratch, because I’ve done it numerous times.

You should also know that some of these enterprises (two of them) have ended up losing me many hundreds of thousands of my own dollars.  Don’t worry, I’m OK.  I don’t need a hug anymore.  But I do like telling people at parties that both of these businesses were not-for-profit organisations…That wasn’t the intention when we started out, but that’s what happened in the end!

And so you might be asking why I would want to share this morsel of information about these ‘failures’ when the thought of sharing it would scare the bejesus out of most people if it were them?

Good question, Here’s why:

I share it because as a business owner who regularly seeks guidance from other successful business owners, I will always try to listen to those who have made mistakes, and who have moved on to greater achievements.  Kudos to them I reckon.

And perhaps by reading on, you may feel the same way.

While my internet background may not qualify me to be an analyst or a software developer, what it does qualify me for is to help.  All you need to do is get in touch.

Geek-free, strategic and holistic help to be successful online is what’s missing today for business owners.

Of course, that’s what we do…But more about that later.

My Web Designer Will Look After Me

Is it me, or does it seem that every web designer who gets spat out of Polytech with a Diploma these days is setting themselves up to be an Internet Marketing or SEO Expert?

Paah-leese. Give me a break.

You’ve probably already got a ‘web guy’ or a web-design company who built your site .  They’ve possibly done a good job of  ‘looking after you’ for I don’t know how long.

If you’re serious about ramping up your business growth, you will already know this:  That the internet – especially search,  social networking and online reputation management – will be an increasingly important part of your success…or failure if you chose to ignore it.  If you agree with this then trying to win without getting strategic help (no, not from your geek) is like trying to fish for marlin at the viaduct without leaving the jetty.  It’s doomed before you start, no matter how many blogs you read or how cool you think Twitter is!

Look, I have nothing against web designers or web developers.  How does that saying go? …Every home should have one, and some of my best friends are web designers (LOL).

While some of them have nice hair and are great executors of strategy, I wouldn’t get one to tell me HOW TO MAKE MONEY.  That would be like getting Michael Laws to  do a Power Point presentation explaining the benefits of Tino Rangatiratanga to the Business Round Table or the Sensible Sentencing Trust.  Even if it happened, it just wouldn’t work.

Yet that’s what we business owners do, eh?  Anything to do with the internet and we immediately get onto the web guy!  Yep, that probably worked OK 5 or 10 years ago.  Back then, lots of business owners thought the interweb thing was a bloody waste of time anyway and besides the whole bloody thing would blow over any bloody minute…

But it bloody didn’t.

Instead, it took off faster than it takes to admit that you slept with Tiger Woods.

Success online is not just about IT.  It’s about strategy, technology, marketing, communication and old fashioned selling skills.

Mainly though, success is about strategy and the execution of that strategy.  It’s not about shortcuts or the latest WordPress Plugin or CMS Platform or whatever…

What is Internet Marketing Strategy?

To me, strategy is about the holistic analysis and examination of important success factors that when executed, will result in business objectives being met.  It’s about principles that were true B.G. (Before Google) and are still true today.  And they’ll be just as relevant into the future, too.

Sadly, I see too many fellow business owners being romanced by (mostly) well-intentioned web designers, web developers and SEO consultants who make dumb recommendations without any application of important strategic principles.

I like this definition of strategy… In their book Exploring Corporate Strategy, Johnson and Scholes define strategy as follows:

“Strategy is the direction and scope of an organisation over the long-term: which achieves advantage for the organisation through its configuration of resources within a challenging environment, to meet the needs of markets and to fulfil stakeholder expectations.”

I’ll keep it brief because sometimes this stuff can make even my eyes glaze over; but in a nutshell, strategy (including Internet Marketing Strategy)  is about these six things:

• Where is your business trying to get to in the long-term (direction) and what part does the internet play in that?
• Which markets - both online and offline - should a business compete in, and what kind of activities are involved in such markets? (markets, online analysis & scope)
• Online, how can the business perform better than the competition in those markets? (analysis & advantage)?
• What resources (skills, assets, finance, relationships, technical competence, facilities) are required in order to be able to compete online? (resources).  And what methodologies and technologies need to be applied (e-commerce, seo, lead generation, online convesion, web platforms)
• What external, environmental factors affect the businesses’ ability to compete? (environment)?
• What are the values and expectations of those who have power in and around the business? (stakeholders, owners)

I could go on about Internet Marketing Strategy, but I won’t.  You will find lots of other articles on this site if you want to want to learn more about this subject.

But Here’s My Point…

Who do you have on your team who has built businesses online and offfline, who understands and lives for the net, who isn’t a ‘technician’ or a Geek, who can prove the claims they make (and not just regurgitate buzz-words or popular thinking)?

If you have no-one, or the person you have isn’t driving a constantly growing stream of funds into your operating account…then call me.

Planning your online strategy is just as important as planning your offline strategy.  It may be even more important depending on your business.

Your online success requires serious online strategic thinking.

While your IT guy or web designer play critical roles in the execution of strategy, there could be serious risks and implications if you don’t treat your internet marketing strategy in a holistic way, and with the importance it deserves.

Some of these implications might be:

• Engaging an SEO consultant to get you ranked higher in search engines only to find that the extra visitors to your site don’t translate into extra turnover or adequate ROI
• Going along with your web company or advertising agency who build you an overpriced website that has all the bells and whistles that you’ll never need,  that looks pretty but makes no money…and then having to pay the price of a new Aston Martin every time you want to make a tweak
• Entering into an arrangement where you are locked into your web company’s proprietary CMS or CRM system that you have to pay for every month…without the perceived extra value

And others…

These implications lead to one thing.  Wasted time and wasted money.

Free Online Strategy Meeting

We have limited resources (my time) to make the following offer, but for now anyway, I’d like to offer you a Free Strategy Meeting.  It’s up to 1 hr of my time and includes some research, ideas and concepts that will give you valueable options for business growth.

Go ahead and click the button below or else call or txt me directly on (021) 024 86566. My promise: no hard-sell, just information you can use.

Thank you for reading this.

Rhys Coffin
Internet Marketing  Specialist
CEO, Internet New Zealand Ltd

E: rhys@internetnewzealand.com
M: 021 33 5586

P.S.  My special offer is valid only while time-resources permit, and I reserve the right to end it at any time.

Internet Marketing Strategy

Dear Business Owner or Manager,

You might have seen the following formula floating around this website:  Online Success = R + (T x C).

It’s not meant to be rocket surgery.  It’s easy to understand and makes complete sense once you understand it.  It’s short for: Online Success = Rankings + (Traffic x Conversion)

Let me explain what it means:

For a website to achieve high Rankings in search engines in your chosen category or niche must have the right architecture.  It needs to be built in a certain way that sends a clear message to the web crawlers about exactly what your site is about.  We call this concept ‘relevance’ and it’s one of the most important aspects of achieving good SEO rankings.

As well as this there are other important factors like back-linking (getting other sites to link to you) and other off and on-page SEO factors, but we know now that relevance and what we call ‘theming’ are critical factors that are affected by how your site is built.

Traffic is simply the volume of visitors that come to your website over a peiod of time.  Good SEO rankings affect traffic because there is a link between your top 10 ranking and the number of clicks to your site.  But good SEO rankings are not the only way to increase traffic.  There are other strategies like dealing with returning visitors, permission (email) marketing, microsites, integration of  social networks (like twitter) and lots more.

The measurement of how many site visitors actually take some action that you desire is called Conversion.  Success with conversion is dependent on many factors.  Some of the main ones include site aesthetics (how pretty the site is), the use of compelling words and copy, the proper placement of the site’s key features like calls-to-action, newsletter sign up, the inclusion of list-building tactics such as whitepapers or mini email courses, the placement of different elements and lots more.

How Well Do You Stack Up?

How well is your website performing right now?  If you could double or triple the number of qualified enquiries you get over a month, and it continued without rest way into the future, would that be worth contacting us for a free strategy meeting to learn more?

Remember to achieve online success, there are a number of important factors involved, and each one needs to be handled correctly, and handled well.  That’s what we do.

If you’d like to get a written report outlining some genuinely practical ideas (assuming you have a site) that you can implement immediately, as well as some strategy and options for the future, please click on the button below.

We’ll send you a short questionairre to complete and within a day or two we’ll email our findings and suggestions – without any hard-sell or obligation.

I hope this information has been useful, and look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you for reading this.

Rhys Coffin
Director
Strategic SEO Specialist
Internet New Zealand Ltd

E: rhys@internetnewzealand.com