Unfortunately, yes, I am a smoker. It stinks, it’s expensive, and it kills you. I understand all of this and yet I still continue to smoke. Addicted? Absolutely. I will quit one of these days… a typical smoker’s response, I know.

With smoking, come smoke breaks and quite a few of them. But fortunately for me, we are in an ideal location for our industry. Even though I am technically on break, my eyes are still open and my mind is still at work. Within the 4 minutes or so it takes to have a cigarette, I am able to generate anywhere from 1-7 sales leads. I haven’t been able to get more than 7 in one break yet but I’m hopeful that I will eventually break that record.

If you are unfamiliar with what we do here, or what this industry is that I speak of, or how I could possibly generate so many leads during a cigarette break… I’m getting to that. I just wanted to post a blog about this because I think it’s pretty funny that I am able to light a fire under our prospecting by doing something that is generally thought of as completely unproductive.

We are a supplier to the transportation industry and are located on a main road across from the Toronto airport, where hundreds of trucks pass by every day. We are a marketing agency and I can instantly see how well their logo and tagline are crafted and how memorable their marketing message is.

After my cigarette is done, I head back to my computer to do some more in depth research to see if these companies can benefit from our services. If I believe they can, I get their contact information and send off an email, or make a phone call. This way of prospecting is by no means standard but it is an easy way, for me anyways, to keep the leads coming, no matter how busy we are. It is very easy to put prospecting on the back burner. You always need to be laying tracks for future sales.

I am completely surprised by how many transportation companies there actually are. No matter how many hundreds I have looked at, through groups, directories, online searches or by other means, I still seem to see a few every day that I never have before. When the time comes that I recognize every truck I see, is a good time for me to quit smoking. 

CEO’s and other top management, need to understand that a website is an integral part of their company’s marketing efforts on the internet, and in addition, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is needed to further increase your visibility on the web. Optimizing your website for search engines should be your number one priority after launching or completely redesigning the company site. A well optimized site will allow you to achieve higher positioning in all the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo or Bing. When users search for content using one of those search engines, they will typically only skim through several pages of search results. If your listing doesn’t show up within those pages, you’ll miss out on an opportunity to connect with your target audience.

For example, let’s say you have a potential customer in Ottawa, who sells computer equipment, and needs to ship out a skid load (Less than Truckload or LTL) of computer parts to Toronto. The web savvy customer will type in “LTL Ottawa Toronto” in the search engine, and a bunch of results related to LTL shipping throughout Ontario will show up. Will your company be among them? This is where SEO comes into play. Through the use of strategically placed keywords, well written original copy and other optimizations, your company can achieve a better search result on the web.

Here are some of our Top 10 tips for a successful website, both from a Marketing and a SEO perspective:

1. Strike the right balance between loading speed and visual impact of your home page.
2. Capture your visitors’ interest immediately.
3. Deliver a clear and direct message.
4. Ensure your navigation is easy to use, well organized, and draws on current techniques.
5. Enhance your message with complementary fonts, captions, and headlines.
6. Increase return visits by posting regular updates.
7. Make sure your logo and tagline are well crafted and consistent.
8. Provide immediate access to customer login, language selection, and other popular features.
9. Utilize SEO.
   - Use proper keywords and descriptions on each page.
   - Make navigation elements easily recognized by search engines.
   - Optimize headings and alternate text for images.
   - Ensure your URLs are search engine friendly and anchor texts are descriptive.
10. Gain insight on your web traffic with Google Analytics (or equivalent).
    - Visits – Monitor the number of repeat and new visitors to your website.
    - Bounce Rate – Know how many visitors leave immediately after the first page is viewed.
    - Time – See the average time visitors spend on your website.
    - Traffic – Learn where your top 25 sources of visitors are coming from.
    - Keywords – Recognize the top 25 words searched on Google to get to your website.

Because of the large amount of websites that exist on the Internet, in the past few years many SEO Marketing companies have popped up on the web. A lot of them will claim that they can offer a number one ranking for your website in Google or other search engines. According to Google, this is simply not the case. You cannot buy your way into getting a better search result on Google, but you can however optimize your site so that it has a better chance of showing up near the top of your search results. You can pay to run advertisements on Google through a program called AdWords, but we’ll explore that in a future SEO article.

We’re in the business of creating websites and marketing campaigns that communicate your unique story. Contact us, so that your CEO will get SEO, and that your CFO can LOL.