In an extremely competitive environment, marketing pet care products and differentiating yourself is a bit of a challenge. That being said I am preparing to unveil some amazing partnerships I have been working on, that will effectively take this company to a whole new level. Keep an eye on the MedicAnimal site for things to come.

UI, PPC, Strategy, Partnerships and more … All in a days work and lately my days keep getting longer. If you happen to know a Internet Marketing Ninja let me know, the person should be based in London and needs to be a thinker and a doer (not just a doer).

So enough on that… No one wants to hear about Frontline, Hills Dog Food or Hamburger shaped beds (yes a Hamburger shaped bed).

In the six weeks that I have been here in London, living and working … I have been re energized. The business climate, the people and the lifestyle have caused me great enjoyment. The only problem … My wife is in Canada and I will not see her until I head back to Canada in December for Christmas. Short term issues that have to be dealt with I guess.

Oh and back to what I had originally titled the blog post “Social Media, Strategy, Cats and Dogs ….”. Actually when I originally thought of the title I didn’t take into consideration that I would become so easily distracted and stray from the original. This blog post has now turned into a Business/Random Rambling blog post. Guess I’ll have to do a Part 2 and actually focus on the subject … Till next time, which will be soon, a Social Media post!

So what has become of the SEO/SEM industry? Largely, it has become a commodity. Two or three years ago, an SEO firm might charge a small fortune to optimize a site or microsite. Some technical work was done, careful crafting of words and off you went. Today, almost all CMS (Content Management Systems) solutions, including free blogging solutions, include SEO tools. Some better than others. There are hundreds of courses and entire conferences dedicated to SEO and SEM strategies and services. Dozens of companies in India offer SEO and link building services for small fees. Web designers and interactive agencies hang the SEO shingle on their offerings as well and the prices have fallen.

The upside is that the “education phase” of educating businesses on the inherent and critical value of SEO has all but passed and most marketers know that optimizing their site for search results in the major engines is just part of their mix.

So in part, SEO as a service offering has become commoditized. There is a downside here though, and that is at the cost of the clients who buy these services. Enough companies and consultants have hit the SEO gold rush that many of the lower-end services are lower end for a reason – they tend to be “one-off” services that neglect to inform the client of the need to manage their SEO efforts over time with the critical value of “organic SEO” that takes longer but is often more rewarding.

It falls now to that old saying “buyer beware.” So while much of SEO can be bought cheap, it usually ends up costing the client more when they do. Inevitably, search results fall off fairly quickly after a campaign has ended or a competitor pushes you down the results pages. Some ad agencies and consultants have built very strong practices around high-value SEO services. Good traditional agencies have acquired the talent and learned to incorporate it into their offering, and good consultants are found organically.

After all, if an SEO service provider has to advertise yet doesn’t appear in the top organic search results, something has to be funny. Kind of like an electrician showing up in a plumbers van. SEO services have become a commodity; that’s not necessarily a good thing in this case.

Every week I get requests from companies who want to launch PPC campaigns or work to make their site more search engine friendly and really they are not ready. Companies sell PPC and SEO services all the time to companies that just are not ready to be investing in getting more traffic to their website.

What do you need to do?

• Branding – You really need a presence online that will give consumers confidence. Doing your branding in Microsoft Word is not the way to go. There are so many options on the internet branding should not be a failed component of any business. Look at www.prizelogos.com, for $400 you can get a professional brand for your business. Remember the first impression someone is going to get is from your look, keep it sharp and professional. Your brand should represent the business you are in.
• Content – Don’t over do it people are probably not in the mood to read a novel before they select your service or make a purchase. Make your content effective and don’t cause the user to become bored and leave. Inspire the potential customer to buy or call you.
• Positioning – If you’re selling a product, promoting a service, that is what a potential customer should see first. You don’t have long to make a good impression so overwhelming the potential customer with information at first could cost you the sale.
• Process – Keep the clicks to a minimum. If you need that potential customer to call, then make the contact info readily available. Burying that info in the site and making them click 10 times to get to it probably will cost you. Selling a product online? Again keep the clicks to a minimum. There is nothing more annoying than trying to buy something and it takes you 20 minutes to complete your purchase.
• Security – I have noticed that businesses have been using shared SSL certificates and this probably won’t help you seal the deal in some cases. As we become more and more concerned with security and browsers attempt to thwart fraudulent activity, a change in domain could cost you a sale. Pay the $40 get your own SSL and keep the user on your site.
• Last, If your selling, promoting or giving info on something … Don’t hide it. Hoping someone stumbles across your message is not the best strategy.

Anyways a quick blog entry on some issues I have been encountering lately. Make sure you have your web presence right especially before you invest in bringing people to your website, no one likes throwing away money.

Its not just as easy as tossing a website up and selling, some thought is required. If you have any questions let me know. If you have further recommendations post them.

Looking at organizations around here (Halifax, Nova Scotia) and the general opinion is no. There seems to be limited understanding in this space with a lot of companies learning about social media, testing the waters and learning from their mistakes (well, one hopes they learn anyways). Like Internet Marketing in this region companies are flocking to Social Media and adding it to their stable of offerings, it is the new bandwagon for the next few months and more jump on every day. 

How do you find a company or consultant that can effectivly lead you into the world of social media? Well there is nothing like seeing how these companies operate in the space, get the potential provider to go through their plan of action for their own business. If they can’t do it for their own business then they probably can’t do it for you.

Some areas of interest, targets and outcomes or really just something to think about. 

Community Outreach- Putting your business out there and talking with the Social media community to build awareness of your message through communities, bloggers and create relationships with the influencers in related social networks. Think about it, everyone online is involved in social media in one way or another.

Content optimization – Optimize existing web-pages and content-including video, press releases, inter-actives and web content- to maximize re-distribution and discussion. Keep people up to date, notified and give them the chance to be involved. An involved community could lead to product or service improvement, leading to increased revenue.

Monitoring and Reporting- Managing all campaigns takes diligent monitoring to maintain the quality of information and effectiveness. Its all about listening and reacting. One misstep could be costly, listening could be the difference in a good year and an amazing year!

What are the advantages?

Increased Revenue- The more eyeballs that see your message and the more often they see it, the more opportunity there is for them to hear you and get engaged. 

People are listening- Focused interest and increased user engagement returns in user loyalty and higher traffic as well as increased revenue.

This is just a basic overview, it gives a rough idea of the pitfalls and the benefits to social media if executed properly. Find a professional that can design and execute an effective social media strategy that works and will provide measurable benefit to your business.

For more info on what I do and the Social Media Consulting we offer visit our website.

So today was the first chance I’ve had to do any sightseeing, shopping and photography. I wandered all over covering approximatly 7 miles today and intend on doing the same again tomorrow (not exactly the same, I intend on heading East tomorrow).

To give you an idea of what I saw today here is a map with my route marked:

Roughly 7 miles and damn my legs are sore. Anyways here in London for one more week helping a company sort out their Search Engine Marketing issues. Lots of fun and lots of work.

Tomorrow I will make my way to the Brick Lane area of London, also where I am working right now and explore the area further. Although London is insanely busy, it is a nice large city. Essentially it doesn’t look like an eye sore, Great Modern and Historic architecture throughout the city. Photos are coming soon, I’ll publish them on Flickr.

And completely off topic after reading the comments submitted on my blog, I would like to take this time and congratulate Limitbreaker (one of my mindless stalkers) for being such a twat. If you would like your comments posted moron keep them somewhat free of foul language and possibly useful you dribbling idiot.

See, I haven’t used any foul language… Mind you I am not being polite.

Back to enjoying all that London has to offer! Sushi for supper at Samurai!