Craig Rentmeester's Blog

Announcing Project LOO for Locally Owned and Operated Businesses

I wanted to let everyone know that I have created Project LOO, in conjunction with the launch of  Relevante Marketing, my newly formed internet marketing agency for SMBs.

What is Project LOO?

The goal of Project LOO is pretty straightforward. Build out Web sites and creating internet marketing systems for locally owned and operated businesses throughout the United States to make them more competitive.

Side note: LOO stands for Locally Owned and Operated.

Why is this Important?

While the recession may be over from a technical standpoint, independent businesses are still feeling the effects of high unemployment, translating into less sales than in year's past. 

Local search presents a huge opportunity for small businesses to grow their customer bases profitably, and be able to compete with national chains and franchises that have millions of dollars to spend on these services. In addition, studies have shown the decline of print directories and local newspaper as business information starting points, and the continued increase in local search.

Project LOO combines these data points into a call to action for locally owned and operated businesses; Your customers are acting differently, and you need to adapt your marketing to compete.

Project LOO by the Numbers

I want to work with 40 locally owned and operated businesses in 2010, in 40 different cities, to build 40 custom internet marketing systems. I plan to spend up to 40 weeks on-site (1 week per client).

Helping out the Local Community

I am willing to sacrifice my free time by traveling on site to each business to get each system off the ground. As such, I'll be spending money at local restaurants, coffee shops, bars, hotels, gas stations, etc.

I will hire local web designers, as needed, in each city to help me with each project.

The Offer

By working with 40 different businesses, I will be able to keep the price affordable for small businesses.

The cost for a primarily non-e-commerce related Web site will cost $4,000. This package will fit services-based businesses looking to increase leads, and retailers and restaurants looking to increase in-person traffic. The fee includes everything, including my time, freelance designers pay, travel, living, technology, 1 year of hosting, and 1 year of Web site maintenance.

The cost for a relatively small (~ 75 products) e-commerce site is $8,000. The higher fee is in place because I will need to hire more developers, at a higher rate, and there will be more prep work involved.There will also be more maintenance involved.

In addition, all 40 businesses will be promoted on the Project LOO web site, in any press releases, and via Project LOO's twitter account -- @ProjectLOO. 

Kickoff Contest

To kickoff Project LOO, I am giving away one Internet Marketing Package. All applications received by December 15, 2009, will be eligible.

I Need Your Help

With any new project or business, it's tough to get the word out. I have never asked for anything in return from my readers, but now I am. 

Think of your favorite local restaurants, dry cleaners, mechanics, etc. Do them a favor, tell them about Project LOO.

Tell a Small Business Owner

If you know of a small business in your city that doesn't have a presence online, tell them about Project LOO. It's an affordable and easy way for them to become competitive online. 

Promote Project LOO on Your Blog, Tweet about Project LOO, Post a Link, etc.

Visit the Support Page at ProjectLOO.com to learn more about what you can do to help me out. 

Sponsorship Opportunities

If you know of someone in charge of sponsorships at an airline, hotel or rental car company that might like to sponsor Project LOO, I can lower the costs  for each local business by partnering with these types of companies. I'd be willing to promote them on the Project LOO Web site, via Twitter and via any press releases or interviews related to Project LOO.

Thanks for reading, and helping me out. I truly appreciate it.

Thanks,
Craig Rentmeester

How to Handle Adversity

The Story

"AirAsia said 31-year-old passenger Liew Siaw Hsia went into labour on Wednesday's flight from the northern island of Penang to Kuching on Borneo island.

The aircraft made an emergency diversion to the Malaysian capital but the baby arrived just before landing, delivered by a doctor who was on board and who was assisted by the airline's flight attendants."

Article Credit

The Outcome

The Mom and her newborn son received a lifetime of Free Flights from AirAsia.

What a great move!

It allowed AirAsia to gain positive press. The story was also picked up by the AP, which also mentioned the lifetime of free flights, albeit less prominently. 

The story also got the number one spot on the Yahoo! homepage, which according to this article by Data Center Knowledge can drive upwards of one million pageviews.

The Takeaway

Handle adversity well, and make it a word of mouth opportunity.

The Simple Difference Between Web Designers and Internet Marketers

The simple difference between a web designer and an internet marketer is this:

A Web Designer cares about what the visitor encounters upon interaction.

An Internet Marketer cares about what the visitor does upon interaction.

The difference is clear and increasingly important.

Both parties are useful, but I'd argue that the internet marketer is more important to generating measurable business results.

6 Things to Do Before Hiring an Internet Marketing Firm

People hire internet marketing firms and contractors for many different reasons. Some see competitors ranking highly and think they're doing a ton of business online because of it. Others
want more traffic. Others want to start selling products online.

The problem is that many companies don't do the leg work up front to help a specialist be successful quickly.

Below is my list of 6 Things to Do Before Hiring an Internet Marketing Firm.

If you take these steps, you're more likely to see success with the firm you choose.

1. Fire your Hit Counter & Install Google Analytics.

Sure there other analytics packages that more in depth. But, Google Analytics is free and will provide some much needed visitor data for your prospective vendors to analyze. It's also easy to install -- just copy and paste one line of pre-written code on each page.

2. Have a Ballpark Budget and Expected Results.

A good customer is forthcoming about how much they're comfortable spending and what they expect in return. 

It sets clear expectations for a proposal and allows an Internet Marketing Firm to provide a sound, reasonable action plan.

3. Figure out Your Break Even Point or Cost per Conversion Targets for Your Products.

If your products cost $50 and you make $25 per sale. Your break even point is $25. So, you can spend $25 per sale on marketing. Anything more, and you're losing money. Anything less and you're profiting.

This helps an internet marketer, such as myself, make accurate estimates about expected results by looking at industry data such as Cost Per Clicks and Conversion Rates. Also, it sets an reasonable benchmark for success.

4. Have Estimates on the Lifetime Values of Customers.

If your business is like most, a majority of your business comes from repeat customers, you should have an idea on how much a new customer is worth over the long run. Customer retention rates, average transaction sizes and purchase frequency rates work well for this type of pre-project analysis.

This data can help justify losing a bit of money on initial transactions to acquire new customers, if you know they'll be loyal and profitable in the future. I remember Robert Scoble saying a Kraft Foods executive spent about $40 per new customer.

5. Have a timeline.

Let the vendor know when you're going to make your decision and when you want to see a return. Again, this provides clear expectations.

6. Have Future Plans in Mind.

If you have a vision for how you want to scale your internet marketing or web site functionality, an internet marketing firm can write code with that in mind, saving you time and money in the future.

If you have these six things in line, a good internet marketing firm should be able to create a successful plan of action for your company.

Do You Need an Internet Marketer?

If you're interested in hiring an internet marketing firm, contact me to get an evaluation and proposal. I help small businesses get more traffic for leads, sales and customer loyalty.

How to Make a Twitter Background

Now that I'm on Twitter, I needed to make a background recently. You'll notice I tried to keep the same style as my personal site. 

Where I Started

Here is a link to helpful article from Croncast on how to make a Twitter Background. There is one misprint in the article. You have about 200 pixels  to work with for branding, rather 80 pixels as stated in the article.

I made mine in Adobe Photoshop (see below), and you can download the free trial here, after creating an account, if you don't have it already. 

Reference Files for You for Free

As a nice gesture, I've decided to upload my finished image in JPEG and PSD format so you can use mine as reference for creating your own background.

Click here to download the zipped folder containing my working files.

Looking for Feedback

What do you think of my background?

Follow me on Twitter: @CRentmeester

How do Americans Spend their Time?

If you're a marketer in the U.S., you should take a look this interesting report about how Americans spend their time put together by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

It has broad reports for everyone over 15, and is also segmented demographically by age groups, sex

When your product would be used and how much time and attention is devoted to that activity can help you better position your product.

How to Get Listed in Google Shopping Results?

This question has come up a lot lately.

Answer: Google Base

Steps to Take
Create a data feed in XML or TXT format.

Your product listings will remain active for up to 31 days. After that, just re-upload your feed and your products will be published again.

Hint: Click on the links above to learn more.

Customers Control the Message

In today's world of social and blended media (a mix of traditional and social), companies don't control the message.

In the past, companies could have a consistent voice.

A spokesperson.

A platform.

Today, smart companies have empowered employees that act as brand evangelists because they're compensated, and, more importantly, because they actually care about the products they're company markets.

The days of fluffy press releases, littered with disguised value propositions, getting front page coverage are gone.

Companies that embrace the change will grow quicker than before.

Companies that don't will not see a vocal backlash. 

They'll just be irrelevant.

Link: 2008 Ad Age Search Marketing Fact Pack

Here is a link to the 2008 Ad Age Search Marketing Fact Pack.

Here are some of the key things I noticed when looking through the data.

Keyword Data

As the Internet continues to gain content, search queries continue to get more and more specific.

See slide 14 for the percentage data breakdown of search queries by word count. 

Growth in Revenue at the 25 Largest Search Marketing Companies

SEM services continue to show growth. The five largest SEM service companies were up an average of 21.6 percent.

See slide 32.

Budget Shifts from Print to Web

32% of respondents of a SEMPO survey said they were shifting marketing dollars from print magazine advertising to SEM.

See slide 26.

No Surprise, Google Still Dominates

Google grew market share yet again. It now has 63% market share for search (up 6.5% YOY using August 07-08 data).   (63.1% market share in October 2008 according to ComScore)

See slide 11.

When Investing in Online Marketing in 2009

It's annual planning season. The hot topic in a lot of companies right now is sure to be 'How can we reduce or maintain our marketing budget in 2009 while still achieving sales growth".

The conversation then turns to the Internet. Let's redesign our web site to be more user friendly, ramp up search marketing, pay hourly for a freelance SEO specialist to get us the top spot on Google for a generic term for a product we sell, and decrease our print advertising spending.

Not all bad ideas.

I'd say most companies could see a descent return on investment from any one of those things.

The big thing to take to allocate toward any one of those items listed above is not money.

It's time.

SEO consultants provide great foundations for success. Typically, they analyze the most immediate areas of concern and address them.

• Site architecture. 
• Keyword-focused content.
• Title tags.
• Page descriptions.
• Alt tags.
• Geographic targeting.

But, the thing they have that you can't afford is time.

• Time to build links to important pages.
• Time to test new content, and analyze results. 
• Time to create link-worthy content.

Before you start throwing additional money at online marketing in 2009, realize that you should consider training, hiring or assigning someone at your company to handle the responsibility that comes with online marketing.

It's not as easy as hiring a graphic designer to lay out a new brochure.

The flexibility that makes the internet a great place for marketing also makes it a time-consuming venture.

But, for those with the time, it can be worth it.

Befriending a Blogger -- For PR Pros

Apparently Chris Anderson, had no effect, because for the past few months I have been getting news releases from PR professionals.

At first, I would open and quickly scan them to see if they had any useful ideas to write about. (Hey, it gets tough to keep coming up with great stuff). However, I never actually wrote about any of them because nine times out of ten the business wasn't original, and the spin factor was riding high. The other times there would be no relevance to the topics I write about.

It seems to me that the same people sending out e-mail news releases blindly to bloggers don't blog themselves, which puts them at a disadvantage.

How to be more successful when trying to get mentioned by a blogger
Below are some ways to become friends with a blogger, and will help you get your sh*t mentioned.

Don't Just (First) Name Drop. Mention more than the person's first name, such as a related post, or overriding theme you've noticed about the blogger.

Brag Them Up. Bloggers generally have egos. Butter them up by mentioning their book, e-book, videos, web site design, award(s), or work you've seen outside their blog. 

Comment First. Send Second. Bloggers have opinions. That's why they have a blog. Agree or disagree with them. Expand on their posts. Join the conversation first, before sending one-sided communication.

Provide exclusive information or media. Invite them on a private tour of the factory where you divulge secrets about the company.

Create something exclusive for the blogger. If they have a sense of humor, put their face on something goofy. Feature them in a video. Most bloggers won't get uptight.

How I Quickly Built an e-commerce Site

As I mentioned in my previous post, the goal of this post is to inspire you to take a calculated risk and build a Web site you've thought about, but ‘haven’t found the time to build’. This post is describing a recent project I took on with my Dad.

Background

We needed a quick and dirty e-commerce site to showcase 50-60 scooter parts that my Dad has available for sale that fit various brands of scooters, primarily made by Dayang, Honda and Yamaha. 

Below you’ll learn about how I got started, the tools I used, and how I influenced search engine rankings by implementing proper on-page SEO items.

Please forgive my grammar, as I am writing this piece for speed as well. I'm hoping to edit it later on.

 

Built for Speed

Since this project wasn’t billable, and it’s not planned to be a long-term business, I tried to cut corners when possible. Also, scooters and mopeds are seasonal by nature, so finishing the site to allow for earlier rankings eased my fears about using shortcuts.

Buying a Good Domain

I bought the domain at the end of March for this site. Before buying it, I used five tools to help me compare search data. 

The five tools I used were:

1. Google’s Traffic Estimator

2. Adwords Keyword Tool

3. Free Keyword Research from Trellian

4. Keyword Difficulty from SEOChat

5. Keyword Difficulty Tool from seologs

To be able to compare the data quick and effectively, I set up an Excel spreadsheet with search data in columns and the corresponding search term in rows from the five data sources. I recommend this for both SEO research and keyword-based campaign research. It allows me to scan quickly for keyword opportunities. 

Using this data, and keeping in mind commonalities of the Web site content I was going to publish, I decided on MopedandScooterParts.com, which I was surprised was available.

Creating Content

To start, I got pictures of each part using a digital camera, with each part featured on a white bed sheet for easy editing in Photoshop. 

With the images, I also received corresponding descriptions and prices for each part.

Once I had this information, I had 80-90 percent of the Web site content. Now, it just need to be coded.

 

Payments

To save time, I decided to use PayPal for the shopping cart function. For this site, the transaction fees are reasonable (1.9% of the sale price + .20 cents per transaction).

 

Hosting

I already had Web hosting through Dreamhost, which is cheap, at $97 per year. (dreamhost affiliate link). Also, since I had the hosting package, Dreamhost allowed me to purchase a domain for free for the first year ($10 savings).

 

Software Used

I used Photoshop for deleting background noise from images of the parts for sale, and Dreamweaver for HTML/CSS coding.

I also used Dreamhost’s built-in HTML editor for minor HTML tweaks along the way.

 

Web site Building tools Used

I used CSSEZ to help me create a base model for the CSS stylesheet. It was tweaked slightly, but about 80% of the work creating the CSS was done in a WYSIWYG environment versus a coding environment, which allowed me to work much faster. (see CSSEZ version and the final version).Contrary to what this site states, these CSS you create can be used without WordPress or MoveableType.

I used HTML Playground for a reference when I forgot some HTML/CSS lingo. 

I used XML Sitemaps to help me create a quick and dirty sitemap in HTML and XML. It took some minor tweaking to the code to make the HTML Sitemap respectable. This tool saved me a ton of time, though.

I used FormLogix web forms since I don’t know MySQL, but wanted to grow an e-mail newsletter subscription list. Now, it seems that FormLogix puts Google Ads on pages where its forms are used, which is lame and a deterrent. When I created mine, they didn't do this.
 

How the site ranks

Right now, the site ranks in positions 1-3 on both Yahoo! and Google for phrases including the word Dayang and the name of a specific part we have for sale, which is roughly 60-70 percent of the content. (sample search 1, sample search 2, sample search 3).

 

How Did I Achieve Strong Search Rankings?

Right now, the site doesn’t have many in-bound links, which certainly is not helping it for difficult keyword phrases. However, one thing working in my favor on this project is that there aren’t many online content providers for after-market Dayang Scooter Parts.
 

Also, each page of the site has a strong focus on targeted keywords. Keywords for each page are included in the: 

• Page Title
• Directory Name (so they appear in the URL)
• Header Tags
• The site description and Domain contain targeted keywords
• Meta Data (descriptions and keywords)
• Anchor Text
• Image File Names, Alternate Tags and Titles

 

Other Tools

Google Analytics – monitor site traffic, usage, referring sites, etc.

Google Webmaster – monitor search rankings, inbound links found by Google, upload a sitemap, etc.

Yahoo! Site Explorer – to check competitor’s links and my links.

 

Some More Things to Consider when Building or Redesigning a Web site

1. Information Architecture – This didn’t really apply for this site because there was only going to be around 60 pages. However, breaking content into clear classifications that allow for search engine indexability and navigation is critically important with larger sites (250+ pages).
2. Link structure – This also wasn’t that important due to the limited number of pages. Since no one item is extremely preferable to sell than another, I tried to keep the link architecture as evenly weighted as possible. However, if you want to rank in a competitive market and you don’t emphasize the pages you’re hoping to rank via extra internal links, you’ll have trouble.
3. CSS vs. tables. – If you use a Web design firm and they build your site using nested tables, you’ll have bigger maintenance bills, more search engine concerns and slower load times.  
   

Future Plans

In case you’re interested with how I plan to proceed going forward, I listed a few measures I plan to take below.

I plan to build a Squidoo page about Dayang scooters, because there is not a lot information about them. Squidoo has a high PageRank, and providing relevant content will help us pick up some link juice. Hopefully the lens will pickup and refer some traffic as well.

I hope that we can post PDF versions of various scooter owners’ manuals.

I will be analyzing existing competitors Web sites for opportunities to pick up links from the same sources. 

Depending on the time it takes to implement, I may add a Google Checkout option in combination with an AdWords account. For now, we’ll see how PayPal works out.

If you have any questions about something I left out, please e-mail me.  

For additional site-building and SEO Help

Download my on-page SEO e-book to help you improve your Web site’s rankings.

5 Ways to Reward Good Profitable Behavior

It amazes me when companies reach out more to new customers, with special perks and discounts, than their best existing customers.

As such, I thought I'd pass along some ways, in both the online and offline worlds of business, to reward your customers for good profitable behavior.

Here are five things I came up with.

Online

• Free shipping for a year for ordering more than X amount of  dollars the previous year.
• Develop a points-based rewards program in an industry that doesn't normally have one.
  
  • Example - Hallmark Gold Crown Points

Offline

• Special shopping hours. Imagine walking into an uncrowded store on Black Friday evening, after all the smoke has cleared, with all of  your targeted merchandise on hand.

• A convenience-based, headache releiving reward that doesn't exist for first-timers.

• Advance rain checks for your best customers on Black Friday merchandise. Tee times outside the normal range, reservations at restaurant that doesn't take them.

Both Online and Offline

• Exclusive benefits for purchasing X amount of goods or paying a membership fee.
  

• Advance downloads, access to limited edition products, signed memorabilia, etc.
• Example - Dave Matthews' Warehouse membership

The key with these types of rewards is to make them great so that your best customers tell their friends, and low frequency customers start buying more often because of the rewards for doing so are so enticing.

Ideas for Changing the Rules

I realized that my last post doesn't provide any ideas for changing the rules in your favor and improving your business.

Here are some ideas that you can build off of. They're broken up into categories and aim to look at every step in the sales process.

Phone Systems

• No more automated answering machine messages (think: please listen closely as our menu has changed).
• Put your number on your contact page, preferably one that is answered within three or less rings.

Testimonials and Case Studies

• Gather testimonials from your customers and use them in pre-sales collateral.
• Record testimonials from your customers and put them on your Web site.
• Create video testimonials with your customers.
• Create case studies of successful past customers in different situations that your customers are often in when they're considering.

Web Site

• Offer content online that you normally wouldn't (prices, price ranges, videos, photo galleries, employee biographies, employee testimonials.
• Start planing an SEO overhaul of your Web site.

PR

• Apply for industry awards that can be leveraged.
• Have your best employees apply to write articles for trade magazines.

Sales Reps

• Have your sales team attach their vCard to every e-mail.
• Have your sales team add upcoming events to their e-mail signatures. 
• Have sales reps add testimonials to their quotes.
• No more text-based, customer-facing PowerPoints.

Increase Customer Loyalty

• Put together a customer satisfaction event that people will have to talk about.
  
  • Top of the line. Exclusive. One awesome prize instead of 50 giveaways.
    
• Reward great customers with exclusive benefits.
• Let customers take an item for free at the checkout if the purchase over a certain amount. 
  
  • Don't advertise it. It will spoil it.

Product Development

• Customizable products.

Product Delivery

• Free, unexpected items in the shipping container that are useful.

Change the Rules

A problem that some companies face is that the way they've always attracted customers and made sales changes.

Here are some examples you can probably relate to:

• Sales numbers are down.
• Customer retention rates are down.
• Customer service calls are up.
• Direct mail begins yielding lower and lower, or dare I say, negative returns on investment.
• A ground swell of customer service mistakes leads to anti-company forums, blogs and web sites.
• The seminars and conferences you used to host and fill with eager bodies are being canceled or filled with people there solely for the free lunch.
• Newspapers aren't bringing qualified job candidates to your HR department.
• E-mail blasts have a click-through rate lower than five percent.

The question is, how do you market to people who have less and less time to take in your message?

How do you grow your sales ten percent in a market that's growing less than three percent per year?

Today is the best day to start changing the rules.