Global Marketing Plus

Last week I met with a SCORE client and counseled him with his business.  (SCORE is the Service Corps of Retired Executives and offers free counseling to small businesses).  As I was telling this client about my background, he was impressed that I had taken 18 companies from near bankruptcy to profitability in a relatively short amount of time.

He asked me all sorts of questions, like: Did you spend a lot of money on marketing to make them successful?  Did you have to hire experts to help you?  How did you cut costs and build sales to make them profitable?  And this last question I have thought about all week:  How can I do the same thing?

I spent over 4 hours with this new business owner.  I answered most of his questions and I have another appointment with him to answer more questions and to help him on the road to business success.  I regret that I can’t spend that much time with every business owner that needs help!

So over the next few weeks, in this blog, I will answer most of the questions that I usually get asked about how to get more customers come to you and your business.

I hope you join me and that I can help you some way.  If you have questions that I have not answered plain enough, feel free to email me at ron@globalmarketingplus.com.

Yesterday I had the opportunity of meeting with Stan Nakano who is the District Director of the Small Business Administration.

We spent most of the time talking about the stimulus package, at least the portion that the SBA is receiving.

Nationwide the SBA is receiving $730 million dollars to help businesses grow and expand.  It will be used as follows:

$375 million will be used to offset fees for borrowers and lenders to make loans for expansion more affordable. 

On 504 loans (this is the loan for buildings, etc), the 1-1/2% origination fee will be waived.  For the first time, some of the funds from this loan can be used for refinancing other debt, but some must still be used for building.

7A loans the guarantee for the lender is increased to 90%.  This means that if a lender finances a 7A SBA loan to a business, and that business fails, the most the lender will be out will be 10%.  The 90% is up from 75% on loans over $750,000 and up from 85% on loans up to $750,000.

$255 million will be for a newly created form of loan by the SBA that they will make available up to $35,000 to help small business who are delinquent in other loans.  This is 100% guaranteed to the lender and includes:

• No payments for one year
• No interest
• 5 Year loan
• Borrower must prove his business is viable
• Must be secured by collateral
• Cannot be used to catch up payments on other SBA loans

Since they are still creating this loan and writing the rules, it will not be available for a little while, yet.

I also learned that unlike many other areas of the U.S. that are way down on lending, the Utah District has lent more SBA dollars over the past 8 months than any other district in the nation.  (Even though by size the Utah District is 45th if you consider population)!

Also, Zion’s bank is the number one SBA lender for volume in the Utah District!

So in a nutshell, that is most of what we talked about.  Hope it helps you!

Even though I posted this last summer, as I listen to people complain about our “depressed economy”, I thought it might be appropriate again.  So read on…

 A man lived by the side of the road and sold hot dogs. He was hard of hearing so he had no radio. He had trouble with his eyes so he read no newspapers.

But he sold good hot dogs.

He put up signs on the highway telling how good they were.

He stood by the side of the road and cried: “Buy a hot dog, Mister!” And people bought.

He increased his meat and bun orders. He bought a bigger stove to take care of his trade. He got his son home from college to help him.

But then something happened…

His son said, “Father, haven’t you been listening to the radio? There is a terrible depression on. The European situation is terrible. The Domestic situation is worse.”

Whereupon the father thought, “Well, my son’s been to college, he reads the papers and he listens to the radio, and he ought to know.”

So the father cut down on his meat and bun orders, took down his advertising signs, and no longer bothered to stand out on the highway to sell hot dogs.

And his hot dog sales fell almost overnight. “You’re right son,” the father said to the boy, “We certainly are in the middle of a great depression.”.”

I have found a blog to be much easier than a newsletter or any other way to keep customers informed.  To me a newsletter is so formal and so time consuming that I really have to force myself to sit dowm and write one. 

And with a newsletter, one paragraph is never enough!

But with a blog, in five minutes or less I can whip out a paragraph or two and it is done.  As soon as I click “Publish” all my customers can see it at any time. 

Hopefully customers come back often enough they will see it. 

Of course that is wishful thinking… so I use Global Marketing Plus’s email program and write a short paragraph announcing I have added some information to my blog with a link taking them directly to the blog.  Once I hit send, everyone gets the email.

So why don’t I just send the email with the information in the blog and forget about a blog?  What I am doing just double work for someone as lazy about it as me, right?

NO!  You are forgetting about all the other benefits of a blog to your website and how Google and other search engines see your site!  If push comes to shove, write the blog and forget the email! 

But since doing both is so simple, why not do both?

More blogging tomorrow!

Just as a follow up on Friday’s blog….

One of the big benefits I have found for having a blog is the new content added to your website on a regular basis.  If your blog is on another site (i.e. Wordpress, etc), there will be no new content added to your site.

Because my blog is on my website (www.GlobalMarketingPlus.com/blog) Google visits my website more often because it sees new content added on a regular basis!

The biggest mistake I see website owners make is to use the free services to host your blog offered by many blog software companies.

The best way to get the full benefits of your blog is to include the blog on your own website!

Read the rest of this entry →

I have had many ask me: “A blog is a lot of work.  Does it really help my website?  Even if nobody reads it?”

I recently received proof that a blog does help… 

Read the rest of this entry →

For many websites, Search Engine Optimization is one of those “good things to do.” Kind of like running, or eating a healthy diet. But how do you know it’s working?

How do you know if your search engine optimization is working?

Read the rest of this entry →

One of the biggest mistakes companies make when writing copy for a site is using industry terms that normal customers don’t think to use.

Read the rest of this entry →

Archeology, of course, is the systematic method to uncover artifacts from the past that have been buried or forgotten.

What archeologists do is examine artifacts that were lost and buried, and draw conclusions about how life was lived hundreds or thousands of years ago.

When people search online, it’s a lot like sifting through thousands of years of junk and broken pieces of pottery in order to find the one intact tablet that solves your mystery.

If you’re like me, you often see a lot of non-relevant results returned when you do a web search. Google, as good as it is, isn’t perfect. You scan down the page, looking for the answer to your question. And then you suddenly see a link to a site that matches exactly what you’re looking for.

Reverse archeology, applied to the Web, is a process that allows you to plant key information for people to find and discover.

How does the process of reverse archeology work? Essentially you come up with keywords that your target audience is likely to use in a keyword search, and then you create relevant content on your site. When prospective customers “digs” through the mass of web pages in a Web search, they can find your site quickly and easily.

Reverse archeology is a different type of mindset for generating website content, but one that can be extremely successful.

Next week, we’ll discuss a unique new way to optimize your site when you have visitors coming in from a search engine.