Do you ever sit in front of Google searching for your website listing under your favorite keyterms?  Do you feel a sense of anxiety when you notice your competitor ranked ahead of you on those keyterms?  You do?  Great.  Now STOP doing that!

We have countless customers who create unending agnst by endulging in the competitive seo search.  Look there is nothing wonrg with being competitive as long as it makes sense.  The problem is the search “strategy” that results from the comepetitive search often doesn’t make sense.  Here is an example.  I recently had a customer come to me and tell me that Keyterm X was a term they needed to be found on because their competitor was on that page and that they knew, for a fact, that their customers search on this term.  Althoughboth of these assertions might partially be true, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you should do something about it.

Here are some questions one should ask themselves before that act on such an anecdotal theory:

• What does my Keyword Research tell me.  Is there high search engine traffic with low competition?
• Is the keyterm something I actually sell (i.e. “fringed tulip bulbs”) or is a broad term that has cross-industry meanings (i.e. “Bulbs”, flower or light?) that has a low probability of converting (sale)?
• Do I already have a good understanding of the keyterm traffic that is already coming to my site?  Am I doing everything I can to make sure that the content on my site helps that traffic convert or bounce (leave) off my site?  Most of my customer’s site generatoe over 3/4 of their traffic and online sales from Long-Tailed keyterms (i.e. “tulip flower bulbs”)
• If I do find a broad keyterm that is relevent to my business and I think I can compete for it do I really have an understanding of what my competition is doing to drive traffic and rank to their site?  (i.e. ad spend, direct mail, email markeint, etc.)  It may seem like you are comparing apples to apples but really you might be competiting with someone who may be outspending you 10:1.  That may be wy they have a crappy looking web site but get “good rank”.

What most don’t realize is that they already have a large amount of qualified traffic coming to their site but they do little to make sure it converts.  Some of the reasons visitors “bounce” off those page are:

• Not enough information to make a decision.
• No call to action.  “How to Buy”
• Price or Shipping is not competitive
• Content is not relevent to their search.  (I want light bulbs not flower bulbs)

So what have we learned today?  Go with what you know not what you think you know.  What are my web site analytics telling me?  If you follow the competitive SEO siren song thinking you can OPTIMIZE your site to get ahead of your competition on a couple keyterms, I can promise you, you will be disappointed.  Be smart about where you want to rank and be seen in the search engines, develop a plan, then execute it.

85% of shoppers looking for your goods and services will do so through search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. Optimizing your website pages will attract the search engine spiders and rank your site higher in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). The higher you rank the greater the traffic to your site and the possibility your targeted customers will make a purchase. That’s the purpose of SEO.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is involved, complex, evolving and at times confusing. There are many misconceptions about what exactly SEO does or does not do for your website. There are bad practices, illegal activity, content farms, link farms, spam and out of date information running rampant on the web, mostly from unscrupulous internet marketers promising misleading goals for cash. The misunderstanding of SEO for your small business can cause great harm to your sites’ ranking and bottom line. Here are five common misconceptions I often hear about SEO. Some are deceiving, some half truths and others just out dated practices. For the most part I am speaking about Google and it’s guidelines on SEO’s best practices, which is ever changing.

#1 Buying AdWords Will Help Ranking
PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising and SEO are two separate things. Google AdWords and Google’s free search results are entirely independent of one another. Spending money on AdWords won’t impact your ranking in Google’s free search results. Similarly, canceling your AdWords account won’t lead to your website being banned from Google’s search results. If buying advertisement manipulated organic search results the internet as we know it would be an entirely different animal soon to be extinct.

#2 Content Should be Written for Search Engines
To some extent this is true. The text on your site must contain the most important keywords – the words that potential customers will be typing into search engines to find your site. But if you are only concerned about keywords for search engine robots then your text will be a drab read indeed. Remember at the end of the day your customers are the ones that matter most. Write compelling content for human beings and edit for the search engines.

#3 Any Inbound Link Will Do
Inbound links are links that are placed on other sites and point to yours. Relevant, reputable links to your site are extremely beneficial to your SEO. But on the other hand irrelevant and link spamming (e.g. paid links, blog spammers, guestbook spammers, etc.) can be very harmful to your site. For instance if you manufacture light bulbs and GE links to your site as a reference or partner, that inbound link would be beneficial to your sites optimization. On the other hand, your uncle Tony owns a pizzeria and links back and because of the lack of relevance to your business that link would hold less sway. To another extreme, if you set up fake sites just for links or engage in link farming and are caught by the search engines you could be penalized or banned. Just recently JC Penny and Overstock.com were found by Google to be doing just that, and dealt with accordingly.

#4 Search Engines Can’t Read Images
This can be filed under partly true statements. Search Engine spiders don’t read pictures or images well (although the technology behind this is getting better) but they do read the image’s Alt tag or alternative text. ALT tags are the little labels you see when you put your mouse over an image which is written in the back end of your website. Optimized Alt tags can make a big difference in your website’s page rank especially if images are a good way to convey your offerings. It is recommended that you use Alt tags on as many images as you can.

#5 Meta Tags are Essential
Back in the late 90’s early 2000’s yes Meta Tags were essential to a websites ranking, and because of its high value many webmasters stuffed the code with keywords in order to “game” the system. They were so successful Google decided not crawl Keyword Meta Tags at all, “not in the least bit” says Matt Cutts Google’s Search Engine Guru. But others like Yahoo and Bing may still see some worth. Google does look at meta descriptions to an extent but this is only a minuscule part of SEO. The Title tag does have some relevance but this is not by any means the priorities of search engines like so many people still believe. It’s worth adding them in the event that a search engine will use meta tags in their ranking formula but put this at the bottom of your SEO to do list.

Google uses over 200 indicators to qualify websites and their priorities are constantly in flux. This highly complicated mathematical computerized algorithm is not only a closely guarded secret but understood by very few people. We are always on the lookout for new information and are constantly sharing ideas about SEO with our clients and contemporaries. If you have any questions regarding SEO or would like to share your insights on this or any other matter please write in the comments section below or get in touch with us on our Facebook Page or through Twitter @Cazbah_net. We would love to hear your thoughts.

More and more as I speak to clients about social media they ask where they can find the material that will help them understand this medium. I find myself sending links and blog posts from the same social media champions time and again.  I thought it would be a good idea to list the top 7 resources in this blog because finding pertinent and timely information in the social media realm can be daunting to say the least. When you dive into these 7 websites you will get a comprehensive look at business and marketing resources that can help guide your small business through this vast maze of wonderfulness.

Mashable
Founded in 2005, Mashable is the top source for news in social and digital media, technology and web culture. With more than 40 million monthly pageviews, Mashable is the most prolific news site reporting breaking web news, providing analysis of trends, reviewing new websites and services, and offering social media resources and guides. Mashable’s audience includes early adopters, social media enthusiasts, entrepreneurs, influencers, brands and corporations, marketing, PR and advertising agencies, Web 2.0 aficionados and technology journalists. Mashable is also popular with bloggers, Twitter and Facebook users — an increasingly influential demographic.

Chris Brogan
Chris Brogan consults and speaks professionally with Fortune 100 and 500 companies on the future of business communications, and social software technologies. He is a featured monthly columnist at Entrepreneur Magazine. Chris’s blog is in the Top 5 of the Advertising Age Power150. He has over 11 years experience in online community, social media, and related technologies. Chris is involved in dozens of start-ups and non-profits. I met Chris while taking video at a social media seminar and he autographed his New York Times bestselling book Trust Agents for me. After reading it I went from an interested bystander in social media to changing my career to internet and social media marketing. It was that profound for me.

Brian Solis
Brian Solis is globally recognized as one of the most prominent thought leaders and published authors in new media. A digital analyst, sociologist, and futurist, Solis has influenced the effects of emerging media on the convergence of marketing, communications, and publishing. His blog, BrianSolis.com is among the world’s leading business and marketing online resources, ranking among the top 1% of all blogs tracked by Technorati. Solis is also ranked as one of the leading voices in the AdAge Power 150 index of worldwide marketing bloggers. He actively contributes to FastCompany, BusinessWeek, AdAge, Harvard Business Review, and Mashable.

ProBlogger
Australian Darren Rowse started ProBlogger in September of 2004. This site is dedicated to helping other bloggers learn the skills of blogging, share their own experiences and promote the blogging medium. This is a rich resource for all thing blogging whether it is for a small business, personal, or for your company. Explore the categories to find what type of blogging interests you the most. Be sure to sign up for Darren’s 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Project. Not for the light hearted but it will most assuredly get you started on the right blogging foot.

ReadWriteWeb
ReadWriteWeb was founded on April 20, 2003, by Richard MacManus and grew his blog about the changing Internet into an international team of journalists. ReadWriteWeb is now one of the most widely read and respected blogs in the world, known for offering insightful analysis about each day’s Internet industry news.

Social Media Examiner
Social Media Examiner is a free online magazine designed to help businesses discover how to best use social media tools like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to find leads, increase sales and generate more brand awareness.  Technorati and AdAge rank Social Media Examiner as one of the world’s Top 100 business blogs. Offering a unique single source of knowledge, the site contains comprehensive articles and videos on how to use the best social media tools, along with original case studies, reviews of the latest industry research and advice direct from the world’s leading experts.

Social Media Today
Launched in 2007 Social Media Today is a collaborative blog, publishing great posts from the web’s best thinkers on social technology. From networking & community building to marketing & trend analysis and help people understand what’s going on in social media. Because Social Media Today works in collaboration with many other social media devotees it offers some of most diverse content.

There are hundreds of websites, blogs and articles that can provide you with great information regarding social media for small business, but let’s start with these seven. There are sites concerning only Facebook marketing, Twitter marketing, LinkedIn marketing, YouTube, WordPress etc. The sites above will give a holistic view and then you can drill down to your specific niche of interest.

What are your favorite social media resources? Write back, we would love to know.

Videos are a great way to differentiate your business and YouTube is no longer regarded as just an entertainment site. It has grown into an invaluable business resource. With some time and creativity your videos can open new opportunities for your small business that would make a Fortune 500 company cringe with envy. Here are ten reasons why YouTube is a must for small businesses.

1.) It’s Free
Unlike television ads or radio spots YouTube and for the most part social media is free. To become a visible entity on the web it takes time and effort, not money and connections like in traditional media. This medium can be leveraged so a small start up has the same potential to go viral as a much more recognized brand and that can happen very quickly with videos. YouTube is the most watched website for videos and your YouTube channel is like having a second website without the cost of hosting and upkeep.

2.) Drive Sales
A video on YouTube is a great referral to your site. Your video can be seen by many people, optimized and shared through different social media tools like Facebook and Twitter. Because each video will have specific keywords or Tags associated with it. It will be found by the folks who are looking for you and your products via search engines like Google which owns YouTube and has about 70% of the search engine market. A powerful medium to showcase your products and build leads.

3.) SEO
As I mentioned, a YouTube Channel is like having a second site and lends room for you to describe your company and the products and services you provide. Along with the Channel you can describe each video individually with tags to help weed out the folks looking for cute kitty shenanigans. Tagging your video for SEO purposes will give you a great advantage of being found in general search. Each SERP page provides results for videos. For instance if you sell “baseball cards”, that key term in general search will have millions of results but, on video only thousands apply.  Because the SERP page prominently shows video results there is much less competition and therefore giving you a greater chance of being found on page uno. That will lead to much more exposure to your brand.

4.) Huge Audience
YouTube exceeds 2 billion views a day. More than 700 billion videos were examined in 2010. Users published more than 13 million hours of content and are the third most visited website in this known universe, bested only by Facebook and Google, respectively.

5.) Product Support
Provide your customers with useful videos on the most common problems and questions. This will reduce your company’s support costs. A video tutorial on the proper usages of your products beats a convoluted directions page on your website any time. They can watch and pause as they’re assembling as well — all with free YouTube videos.

6.) Training
Use YouTube for product training. If you have a sales force and distributers around the globe, a short series of training videos will save you a ton of money on traveling costs. Simply upload your training videos to YouTube and grant your salespeople access. This will also be useful to new in coming employees as the material is already archived and ready to go.

7.) Engagement
You have the option to let viewers comment on each video. This gives your small business a unique opportunity to correspond with potential customers directly on your channel. Also, sharing your video via social media gives it even more exposure and chance to communicate with folks on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.

8.) Customer Testimonials
A video testimonial from an excited loyal customer can go a long way. Simply having written testimonials on your website leads to the question  of who actually wrote it. Anybody can write, but with video, perspective clients can see and hear the real deal with their own eyes and ears. The trust value and authenticity of your customer recommendations sky rocket. And you’ll have them forever and use them for specific market strategies. You cannot put a price tag on this, it’s that valuable.

9.) Insight
For every video you upload, YouTube offers free analytics data via the Insight feature where you can see statistics on views, demographics, community and subscribers. Most importantly, there’s discovery data that shows you how people are finding your videos, including the links they followed to get there. In addition, you can see how many views you are getting through the YouTube player page, embed player and mobile devices.

10.) Fun
Putting together a company video whether it be a holiday message or a just for the hell of it lip dub video can be loads of fun and boost company moral. We are seeing more and more small businesses having a blast with video and their company brand. These entertaining videos are conveying an important message that they are fun to work for, buy from and do business with. This highlights the social human nature behind the logo and gives a welcoming feel to any future business relationship.

There could be a blog post written for each reason above, probably a whole book. The website for your business is just part of the entire online opportunity. With YouTube videos you can give a no doubt message to your audience. Please don’t have your site built, fold your arms and wait. Take your HD video camera out and start recording the amazing things that are going on in your company right now. Be proactive in your small business marketing.

Net Neutrality aka Network Neutrality or Internet Neutrality is meant to be a neutral internet, unbiased, and equal to all. On Dec 21 2010 the FCC made three rulings regarding this very idea. The tight voting, which will also need congressional approval are:

1) Internet-service providers will not be able to block legal applications or services
2) Providers will have to disclose their network management techniques in a push for transparency
3) Providers will not be able to “unfairly discriminate” against content

The rulings were cut along party lines and with a Democratic President in office and a Republican Congress, the spin and swagger from the politicos is in full swing. Considering the billions involved in internet control (or lack thereof) it’s a red hot issue and ambitious politicians and lobbyists are eager to be heard. But let’s stay away from their tussle for this post and look at what it actually means to folks who rely on the web for their income and information.

This ruling has no bearing on mobile phones as the FCC declared cell phone networks to be a separate issue. With the tremendous growth rate of mobile internet users, separating the two seems short sighted and counterproductive.  Along with leaving out the mobile market the rulings are ambiguous.

The order prohibits network providers from charging application and content providers for access to the network’s Internet service customers. However, it does provide the possibility of “paid prioritization” with a very high hurdle.

So, the FCC has laid out the hoops for the poodle show, only the next act involves lions. Broad band providers like Verizon and Time Warner have indicated a tier pricing system that could become a pay to play structure. They say if they pay for and maintain the lines, which costs billions, they should be able to charge what they like. That sounds fair in a free economy right? Google says Internet regulations will hinder if not halt innovation. They say whatever they touch on the internet they make better anyway, and they specifically point to YouTube. Who wants to stop innovation? Not me that’s for sure!

Then there’s the proverbial writing on the wall. Can we rely on the network providers to do the right thing? Would they see a problem with disallowing competition to even come through? Can we depend on them not to extort the mom and pop shops to financially compete with the fortune 500 for page rank?

That’s the conundrum, when you listen to the network providers you hear the word “free” and when you hear the government they heed the word “regulation”.  I don’t know about you, but I pay for my internet as is and don’t really want to pay more especially for a censored version. And when the government uses the word “regulation” I hear taxation.

I don’t know, I can’t make up my mind. Should the government oversee the internet or should we let the providers call the shots?

One of the things I hear most often from clients when we discuss further developing content for their website is something along the lines of, “I’m not really sure what to write” or “there is not much to say about X, Y, or Z”. Many of our customers, already busy with the other responsibilities of running a small business are not sure where to begin in developing additional content for their website. Bottom line is that quality content is important for your website because it helps to sell your product or service. Here are five questions to get the ideas flowing:

1.) Do your product descriptions provide enough information?
Often times, business owners are too close to their products to realize that they may not be giving website visitors enough information to make an informed buying decision. Product descriptions need to be detailed and descriptive. Take a step back, put yourself in your customers’ shoes and take a look at your product descriptions to see if they offer enough detail to encourage a visitor to take the next step and purchase the product. Even if you do not sell your products online or instead offer a service, visitors need enough information to take the next step to contact you, whether by phone, email, or request form.

Also, if possible, make sure your product has a (good) picture! No matter what the item for sale, a good picture of your product will only increase your chances of making the sale – people want to see what they’re buying.

2.) Are there other ways to shop your products?
Websites often present their products in one, singular way, with a list of major product categories available for sale. Ask yourself if there is another way that visitors might want to shop your products. For example, if you sell Widgets, you might display the categories on your site as: Red Widgets, Blue Widgets, and Green Widgets. Well, what if someone did not want to shop by the type of Widget, but rather what the Widget can do. You may then want to develop a page for your website that outlines some of the more common uses for your product and then list the various product options you have available that would fulfill those needs. A simple place to start would be to look at the markets you serve and determine which of your products meet the needs of that market.

3.) What questions do your customers ask on a regular basis?
Another easy place to start in developing content for your website is to take a look at the types of questions you get asked by your customers most often and begin to develop a list of frequently asked questions. Not only will developing this list of questions help you develop more content for the website, but you will hopefully mitigate some of the extraneous phone calls and emails you receive by answering a customer’s question through a list of frequently asked questions. Start with a couple and then add to this list as you begin to take note of what customers ask you most often.

4.) What are your customers saying about you?
What better way to sell your product than to have other people do it for you! Testimonials from satisfied customers are a great way to communicate the benefits of your products in a non-biased way. Testimonials can be a powerful tool in helping to make a sale; especially when the customer may not be able to physically see a product or if you are selling a service. Just as with the frequently asked questions, start with one or two and grow your number from there as more opportunities arise. Another, even more impactful method in gathering testimonials is to create customer video testimonials.

5.) What other information can you provide your customers to help you sell your product or service?
Think about the following questions: What are the best applications for your product? Is installation necessary and how is this done? How does your product compare to others? What are other ways to use your product other than the obvious features?  Anything that is related to your product or service can potentially help to sell it if positioned the right way. As when developing your product descriptions, try to put yourself in the shoes of your customers and determine what additional information might help them to make the purchase.

Keep in mind that in developing your content, keep it brief and succinct! You only have a few seconds to grab and keep a reader’s attention. Tips include:

-          Use bulleted/numbered lists or brief statements – not long paragraphs

-          Get to the point quickly – let readers know what’s in it for them

-          Have a clear call to action – tell your readers what you want them to do

What other questions can you ask yourself that will help you generate more content and increase sales?

Although CPR/AED Awareness Week is the first week of June, Cazbah in conjunction with its customer, Cardiac Life Products, is training and certifying its employees on CPR and AED.  Why have we decided to do this at Cazbah?  In October 2010 I participated in the Black Diamond Duathlon in Victor NY.  The Duathlon is a challenging race that requires participants to run 2 miles, bike 10 miles, and run 2 miles most of which is off road.  The events of this race led me on a path to seek training for CPR and to see how many others I could get to participate.  Here is my story:

On the day of this event I was standing at the starting line where the event coordinator announced that none of the participants were to have cell phones, ipods, or anything with headphones.  I quickly ripped off my headphones but decided to keep my iPhone with me.  I started the race strong with the two mile run but once I got on my bike things started to slow down for me.  I was not having a good ride.  It seemed like everyone was passing me.  Finally I got to the transition area for my final two mile run.  My legs felt like stone but I trudged on.  The last two miles took me down a narrow trail through some woods.  At this point there were runners passing me in the other direction on their way to the finish line.  About a ½ mile into my final two miles another runner and I came across a middle-aged man lying in the middle of the trail unconscious.

After failing to get a response from the fallen man I handed my iPhone to the other runner and told him to call 911.  While 911 was triangulating our position through my phone a wave of despair hit me.  I was pretty sure this man had gone into Cardiac Arrest but I could do nothing about it because I had not been trained in CPR.  I could feel him fading and it seemed like he was about to die in my arms.  Then after what seemed like an eternity a cardiac nurse, who was running in the race, came upon us and immediately started CPR.  While she was administering CPR an Ontario County Sherriff who was directing traffic for the event showed up at the scene with an AED  (Automated External Defibrillator) and attached it to the victim.  The AED shocked the man and the AED unit told the nurse and two other runners, who were trained in CPR and had shown up on the scene, to continue administering CPR.  Shortly after this we were able to get the victim off the trail to an ambulance that was waiting to take the victim to the hospital.

This gentleman spent a couple days in a medical induced coma and had a couple stents put in to his arteries.  After being brought out of his coma he has made a slow but steady recovery.  More details about this victim and this story can be found on The Messenger Post Newspaper website.

After participating in this intense experience I decided that I never wanted to have that awful feeling of helplessness again.  I told my story to one of my customers, Cardiac Life Products, who told me they would be happy to train me on CPR.  In fact they would be willing to train anyone at Cazbah who is interested.  The Cazbah Management team quickly embraced the idea and encouraged me to tell my story on the company blog and to set aside some time in our busy work day to get certified in CPR / AED.  When completed there will be 10 Cazbah employees who will be trained and certified in CPR and on AED operation.

I hope this story moves you to get trained in CPR and even on an AED.  Chances are you will get to use that training at least once in your life.  Please don’t be a helpless bystander.  I can tell you that it is not a good feeling.

Cardiac Life Products Training Resources

• Web Site – Cardiac Life Products
• Email – cardiaclife@nysaed.com
• Phone – 866-710-1970

Cardiac Life Products
Bob Wynne describing the CPR and AED products and services
from Cardiac Life Products and why they are so important.

We’ve heard them all. Excuses that is. We’ve been at this Internet Marketing game for almost 10 years now. In that time we’ve seen a lot of things change with respect to the Internet, our industry, the economy, politics, etc. But, one thing hasn’t seemed to change much. That’s the excuses and objections that we hear from small businesses about why they aren’t using the Internet to market their businesses.

I thought I would catalog 4 of the most common objections that we’ve heard from people over the years. I’ll also share a few comments from those same people after allowing us to help market their small businesses on the internet.

1.) We really don’t get a lot of business from our Website
This is probably the most common objection that we hear from people about doing business on the Web. Generally, this objection comes from a person whose Website has little or no hope of generating any business to begin with because it’s completely static and has been neglected for years.

I’m never surprised, albeit disappointed, when I hear an objection like this. What’s really at the heart of this comment is the disbelief that the Web can actually provide any real monetary value for their business. Like I said, we hear this one a lot. Fortunately, after they become Cazbah customers, we hear this quite a bit too:

“The Internet sales have been tremendous…much better than I had hoped for! During our first busy season, it was the max that I could possibly handle. We are also seeing an increase in our order size of about 40% over our walk-in trade. Our return on investment has been better than we ever anticipated.”
Diane Cappel, Owner – Cappels, Inc.
WATCH VIDEO

2.) Our Website is really like an electronic brochure
Meaning? It’s doing nothing for us. The people who respond with this objection are typically rooted in some pretty basic and traditional marketing practices and haven’t yet embraced the Internet as the most effective marketing tool for their businesses.Once they step over their own objection, this is what we hear:

“Before Cazbah our Website was just an electronic brochure. With Cazbah, it’s an active part of our business that brings (sales) inquiries in that we can filter through.” “I would say on average, we’re talking about five to ten inquiries a day.”
Andy Severson, VP/GM – Armstrong Brands.
WATCH VIDEO

3.) My customer’s aren’t on the Internet, or don’t use the Internet
Generally, we hear this excuse from traditional businesses, manufacturers or distributors, that have been doing business a certain way for a very long time. In most cases, these folks have restricted themselves to a particular territory or region and haven’t considered how the Web could change their business by opening up new markets or opportunities for them. Once we show them how much more efficient and effective (i.e., profitable) it is to do business on the Web we hear:

“We get more than 5 phone calls from the website each day. When somebody calls us from the Website they’re usually very interested in buying something. If we have it (in stock) we’ve got the sale. At least 60% of our sales are attributable to the Website and plenty of the rest of the sales are helped by the Website because we can refer people to it…”
Don Welch, Owner – Cylinder Services.
WATCH VIDEO

4.) We don’t sell our products online
This objection comes from people who don’t yet understand the power of the Internet to reach new customers, regardless of the type of products they are selling. In most cases, they don’t believe that anyone would spend the kind of money that it takes to buy their products on the Internet. There are still quite a few people that we run into who have the incorrect assumption that the Web is only good for consumer products that will easily fit into a shipping box. Fortunately, we know otherwise and so do all of our customers:

“Before Cazbah we had no ability to sell online. Since our relationship with Cazbah (our business) has probably doubled. We ship nationwide every week, almost every day, whether it’s small sales UPS or common carrier tractor trailer. The volume and the ticket sales are just tremendous. We are now getting three to five to 10 thousand dollar sales.”
Joe Jackson, Owner – Bristol Valley Hardwoods.
WATCH VIDEO

What are some of the objections you have to expanding your business online? What are some of the successes you’ve had through your website? Write back we would love know and help if we can.

Customer testimonials are a great selling tool and have been used in marketing and selling circles for a very long time. Frankly, there’s no better way to communicate the value that you provide to your customers than through a testimonial from an existing satisfied customer. Your prospects are much more likely to take their word for it, than yours.

There are several types of customer testimonials and they include: The official customer endorsement letter, where your customer writes a brief albeit thorough letter on her company letterhead endorsing your product or service; The customer interview, where you interview your  customer and document her responses; The testimonial video, where you conduct an interview with your customer and capture it on video.

All of these forms are useful but, there’s no better way of communicating your unique value to your prospects than through a streaming customer video testimonial on your website. The power of video in this context cannot be overstated.

Gone are the days of Advertising Agencies, expensive video shoots, film crews and hired talent. All you really need is a reasonable and relatively inexpensive digital video camera (or video capture device i.e., a smart phone), the ability to transfer the video file to your computer, some editing software, the talent to use it and a willing customer or two.

There are 5 things that you need to keep in mind when creating customer video testimonials:

First, what is the goal of the video testimonial? Well, as with all of your marketing and selling activities, it should be to get more of the right customers to do business with you. Having customers is mandatory for any business. Having the ‘right’ customers is optional and is something that successful businesses learn to distinguish sooner or later. That being said, this should impact your choice of which customers you want to get a video testimonial from. Pick the ones that you would like to duplicate. Don’t choose the ones who cause you fits and sleepless nights. They probably won’t give you a good testimonial anyway.

Second, the idea is to have the people viewing the video testimonial to identify and associate with the person speaking on the video. Therefore, it’s important to consider where your prospects are in their lives and in their businesses at the time that they are viewing the video. Having the person on the video talk about what their situation was like when they were at that point is very important. Ask your existing customer to talk about the problem that you solved or the pain that you eliminated. Chances are the person viewing the video has a similar problem or pain.

Third, everyone is concerned about results and return on investment. Your prospects are no exception. Make sure that the person that you are interviewing on video talks about the results related to your product or service in as specific terms as possible. Some examples of these results include, increased sales revenues, reduced costs, increased income, reduced cycle times, etc. The more concretely she describes the results that you have achieved for her, the better.

Fourth, your interviewee should give a very clear and articulate expression of her satisfaction with the service that she has received from your company. One of the things that I like to include here is to have her talk about how long she has been your customer and how that relationship has continued to grow and improve over that time. This builds credibility and communicates the legitimacy of your business due to the longevity of your customer relationships. On the other hand, if you have customers who have had significant results in a short period of time, this is another great message that can be communicated through your video testimonial.

Fifth and finally, keep it real and don’t be phony! Nobody likes phony people. Actually, only phony people like phony people. In this socially conscious day and age phoniness will not be tolerated, especially as it relates to customer video testimonials. The more candid you can be and the more realistic the expression of your existing customer’s satisfaction on video, the better. Keep in mind that these testimonials are not an advertisement for your company. They are the next best thing to a first person referral, from one trusted friend to another.

“Cazbah had definitely made an investment in understanding every aspect of my business and they have definitely helped us to grow our business.

What’s most notable about that growth is that we had what we thought was a very limited geography within which we could operate because of the types of products that we manufacture and distribute.

Inquiries through the Web have proven to me that there are opportunities that are many miles away that I never would have even considered calling on until the Web.”

Andy Severson, Vice President & General Manager, Armstrong Brands