Sales and marketing street fight for who generates the most income for the company

Sales and marketing street fight 

Can't we all just get along

Sales and marketing departments are usually at odds. One thinks it is them who brings in the income for business and sales thinks its them. The truth is its both that is nothing new what is new though sales has changed because of marketing and lead generation. If done right you practically don't need to sell anything the marketing can do it all. That is from once perspective but you do need both marketing gets them in the door and sales gets them out the door with a great product or service. The sales person really needs to know whats going on in marketing and vice versa.  Sales person can't go off all half cocked with some bogus story about how the widget will cure cancer and the marketer can't do it either. So how do they get along. They should be a meeting each week if possible giving and getting feedback from both sides. Sales should give marketing the objections they are getting in the field and marketing should be addressing that with sales copy and ads.

Sales need to realize that they are dealing with people that know just as much as they do if not more it is and will be the educated consumer. The information out there is enormous and as a salesperson you need to keep your product knowledge game up to par.

No one likes to go to a someone that knows less about the product than they do. People want a salesperson to help confirm what they already researched that they are making the right decision and by you helping them in that process they will come back and refer clients to you. If you are just an order taker then you will get the one off sale and you will never be able to make a decent living or at the very least you will struggle.

Marketing needs to help make the sales job easier. Your job is to write and create content that get customers through the door and ring the phone. How do you do that with all the noise out there as well. You got to be consistent you have to keep up with the new technology new platforms and top people in the fields. It is easy to get the customer once but you also have to help keep the customer there and coming back. 

Both departments need to measure and track. No time in history has there been better tools to track and measure. Sales you can even track keywords made during the call now so you know how to improve your scripts and presentation. Marketing there are heatmap software to track how content is being consumed so you can now write accordingly. 

Now with all the analytical tools out there the only reason both sales and marketing don't do a better job is pure laziness.The only cure for that is action.  Now get out there and make something happen.

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What is Needed for Local SEO in 2015?

What is Needed for Local SEO in 2015?

Local SEO has evolved over the last several years from a fairly simple proposition to one that is a little more involved. While that may look "harder" on the surface, what it actually represents is a lot of opportunity for those who are willing to do what's necessary to get their sites to rank well locally.
There are several best practices that can help with this, and we've endeavored to list a lot of them here. Above all, be consistent, and do not stop! Several of these you might be familiar with, but others may be new.

2015 Local SEO Best Practices

1. Site speed - Make your site a speed demon: it matters as a Google ranking signal.
2. Mobile - If you're wanting to lose out on half the traffic on the Web these days, go ahead and forget about making a responsive mobile design of your site.
3. Do you on-page SEO - While it can be dead boring and tedious to do this, your title tags, descriptions, internal links and website schema are vital cogs when it comes to ranking your pages.
4. Reviews and Citations - Still important for 2015, with solid reviews becoming more so.
5. Quality inbound links - Get more high quality links preferably on account of your content, and whatever you do don't buy links.
6. Give your content a local flavor - As much for visitors as for anything, making sure your content appeals to the local audience is a good idea.
7. Geotag your images - Geo-tagging your images with local geographic information tells Google what it needs to know, and greatly enhances your chances of showing up accurately in Maps.
8. Encourage social signals - Besides likely being a search engine signal, social media can become a far-reaching evangelist for your brand.
9. NAP data - As always, making sure your business information is consistent across ALL your platforms is critical. You should probably start right here!

Local SEO in 2015 may be a tad bit more involved than in years past, but the rewards for getting it right are also greater. Don't let it wait another day!

Need help with your SEO plan and implementation go here to get your free site evaluation. Awareness is the key to change and what you don't know can kill your chances for online success.

Check Out These 4 Productivity Tools to Free You Up

Check Out These 4 Productivity Tools to Free You Up

Most of us really enjoy tools, particularly when they save you a lot of time and money. That's the best and highest use of these tools, to give us the information we need to make changes that can have a real difference in our businesses.
There are a lot of great tools available, and it can a little overwhelming just figuring out what you need. Not only that, many are hard to use, and involve a huge learning curve.
Every year there are incredible tools that can save you a lot of heartache and time, and you would be wise to save as many hours of manual labor as possible with the use of a couple of them. Here are 4 tools that can help with productivity, in no special order of importance.

4 Tools to improve productivity in your business

Canva - Not quite the Photoshop expert you want to be and don't have the time or resources to learn it? Don't worry, there's a free solution you can make use of called Canva. Canva helps you create awesome graphics using a simple interface anyone can use. No learning curve, and like I said, it's free!
SproutSocial - If you've ever seen this site, you know what a analytics wonderland it is, and how much you can use the intelligence it gives you. Not just an analytics tool, you can also use SproutSocial to post and engage with your audience right from the platform. Very cool tool suite.
Moz - Long a favorite among people needing to learn more about their site's SEO, Moz continues to offer great tools to gather data about your site, keywords, you're your competition in a comprehensive fashion. There's not a whole lot this suite of tools can't do in this realm.
Mention - Would like to know what people are saying when it comes to you and your brand? You can track keywords, brand mentions and more from nearly any device, as well as discover the sentiment of the mention, so as to save you time and reputation.
This is just four of the many tools you can get to help with productivity. Employ these or others to help you get some of your time back, which I'm, positive you can find a use for!

Learn What Social Proof is and How It Can Best Be Used

Learn What Social Proof is and How It Can Best Be Used

Once social media became the immense resource it is now, it was simply a matter of time before the concept of social proof, which is the tacit approval and conformation to a particular point of view or taste because many of their compatriots do, became an important commodity.
The ability to influence large groups of people with a notion totally supported by the crowd is a heady idea. There are many types of social proof out there, and they can bet put to use in the form of testimonials, expert endorsements, sheer numbers and more.
There are lots of ways to use social proof, for the time being let's consider 5 different types, and let you begin to grasp how you might use them in your business.

5 Powerful types of social proof

1. Celebrity social proof - You've seen this one a million times, as the latest, hottest celebrities tout products they like. Now I'm sure Peyton Manning eats pizza, but that's not why it works. It works because people LIKE Peyton, and trust him. Papa John is smiling all the way to the bank.
2. Scarcity ploy - In this consumer-driven society we live in we all live with the fear of missing out. This is because you or someone else has just informed them that they really need this right now, just like dozens others just like them have gone for this limited time, one-time only offer.
3. Expert social proof - There's something about placing your trust in someone who has been there, or is viewed as an authority or expert on the subject that conveys just enough trust to get people to buy into the offer. This is where the term "influencer" comes from, and is a powerful technique in sales these days.
4. User generated - Having your customers provide unsolicited reviews is something that happens often. (And much more often if you encourage the practice!) It's what you do with these that counts. Visitors to your page often see this as the tipping point because these unbidden "testimonials" carry an air of authenticity that a paid endorsement and other social proof only wish it had.
5. Peer pressure - The power of social media can extend into the personal lives of users, when they are recommending things to their friends. There is an unwritten obligation to take this more seriously, and maybe give it a chance, based solely on their friends recommendation. I guess the lesson here is be careful who your friends are!

Are You Making Any of These SEO Blunders?

Are You Making Any of These SEO Blunders?

Getting ranked well in the search engines is not an easy task, so to shoot yourself in the foot by making costly SEO mistakes is, well; not advised.
Many times it's unintentional, and other times it merely misguided. However it occurs you can be sure the results are the same: lost rankings, penalties and lost revenue.
So in the spirit of helping you avoid these expensive and foolish mistakes, let's take a peek at 5 common SEO goofs that can cost you big!

5 SEO Blunders to avoid at all costs!

Poor On-Page SEO - Simply put, Google has more than 200 ranking factors that it uses to properly categorize and rank your website. Much of this can be found in the on-page SEO that is done, not done, or done badly. Make sure each page has a proper title tag and description, images are properly tagged, and make sure page load times are good.
Not diversifying your keywords - The days of stuffing your pages with the keyword you wished to rank for are gone. You still need keywords, but make an effort not to hit visitors over the head with them, and be sure to include relevant verbiage throughout the page as well.
Duplicate content pages on your site - An easy way to get penalized by Google is having duplicate content on your site. It appears to them as though you are trying to get more pages ranked for the same keywords by using the same content. Whether or not it's your intention, it will cost you. Try looking in your Google Webmaster Tools account to tell if they find any issues with this.
Bad link profile - If you are in the practice of buying links for your sites, your days are numbered as far as rankings in Google are concerned. The algorithm is getting better and better at ferreting out bad links and imposing penalties on the sites that are using them. A word to the wise…
Indexability issues - If Google can't find or read your pages, you might have a problem. (You WILL have a problem!) There are a number of ways this can happen, from broken links to faulty redirects, too much flash and even blocking the search engines entirely. Hopefully this one you'll not fall victim too!

5 E-Commerce Solutions You May Want to Look Into

5 E-Commerce Solutions You May Want to Look Into

How many of us are born knowing how to setup and implement an e-Commerce system? I thought so. But really, choosing and setting up an e-Commerce solution for your small business doesn't need to be such a challenging endeavor. All it takes is finding the right system, and we're going to take a look at several of those right here, right now.
When comparing solutions make sure you keep your own needs front of mind, as it is super easy to opt for a solution that is a lot more than you really need. That said, let's look at 5 e-Commerce solutions that are excellent for startups.

5 Terrific E-Commerce Solutions for startups

Volusion - Volusion is a good spot to get your feet wet. Very economical at just $15 a month and no transaction fees, they have lots of of templates, a powerful website builder, along with numerous other features including SEO built right in, and a shopping cart, as well as 24/7 support.
Square Market - This choice provides you with a way to get your storefront up in minutes, with a wealth of features including personalized store logo and images, flexible promotional codes, adjustable tax rates, size and color options, social media links, online marketing tools, mobile-ready storefronts and more. There's also no monthly fees, and merchants are charged 2.75% per sale.
Shopify - Another entry-level solution that gives a 14-day free trial, and charges $14 a month with no transaction fees. With more than 100 templates to choose from, Shopify is drop-dead easy to set up, and Shopify Mobile (Shopify's own mobile credit card reader) and Shopify POS (Shopify's iPad point-of-sale system) can make selling anywhere a reality.
WooCommerce - For the WordPress users among us, and there are many, WooCommerce is a top choice. Seamless integration into your existing WordPress install, and the additional benefits of the countless plugins WordPress has to offer.
BigCommerce - One of the first and now serving the mid-level market and over 55,000 websites, BigCommerce has a whole lot more features, but can also be a tad more complex. Primarily intended for mid to high volume businesses. Prices start at $29.95 with a 1.5% transaction fee.