I’ve just subscribed to .Net magazine. For us web designers, it’s a great source of inspiration.

I had put off subscribing for a few months because I thought to myself “HOLD ON, all this information is available on the internet”.

However, each time I go into the newsagents, I pick it up and read it. There is still something really relaxing and inspiring about the printed word. Maybe it’s the tactile nature, maybe it’s because you can just take the magazine anywhere… I don’t know, I just know that people love to read magazines. (more…)

Now this doesn’t happen to me, but i’ve noticed that good looking men and women cause quite a reaction when they walk into a room. Like it or not and basic as it seems, attractive people ‘attract’.

On a slightly (only slightly) deeper level people are attracted to people like them. Could be similar tastes, characteristics, hobbies whatever…

Guess what… this very simple truth works with your marketing too.

Most successful businesses are aware of the power of attraction marketing to generate sales and increase their long term client base.

If this is so simple, why do so many companies get it wrong?

Well, most businesses get it the wrong way around. Through lack of a proper plan, they decide to pursue new clients. A bit like the guys you see in the pub that hassle the pretty women after they’ve had a load of beers.

Even when no-one responds to their letters, emails or phone calls; they carry on regardless blaming the recession for the lack of sales.

Here’s an example of a better way…

We are obviously a web development and SEO company. People find our blog and newsletter reasonably funny, informative and useful. So that could be described as ‘attractive‘. Many people have downloaded our free guide to SEO, which in many cases has helped people generate more sales for free.

SEO is a market full of scamsters. By being open, honest and giving away solid free information, we set ourselves apart. People then link to our site and tell others about downloading our material and joining our newsletter.

When we send out details about SEO seminars we host, people respond well and we fill them because people trust us.

So, without spending anything on ANY traditional forms of advertising, there’s tonnes of people who know all about Calloway Green and our ability to help companies rank high on Google and produce great sales results.

THEN whenever someone who follows us decides they want to embark on a full blown SEO campaign, hopefully they come to us.

Now, does this take more time and effort? Yes.

Does it work better than banging out crappy flyers and emails in a shotgun approach, hoping someone will use your product or service? Yes.

So think about your strategy to become more attractive to your potential customers. Remember, people don’t like to be sold to, but they do like to buy. As I found out today when my wife came home with a new pair of shoes!

If it wasn’t for the Internet, last week’s controversy over the plans to give free health services to Americans would never have happened. It just goes to show, the Internet can be both a force for good and completely banal at exactly the same time.

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It’s hard to keep track of everything going on here and our portfolio is sadly lacking our latest success stories (must update it soon!), however, we have this here blog thing and as quite a few people read it (honestly, they do!), I’ll keep you up to date with happenings right here.

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I just read something that made me stop and think about everything I say to people about promoting their business. I’m a great advocate of social media and good optimisation, but it just dawned on me – if you don’t have anything to say, it’s completely pointless.

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Over the past month I’ve been taking part in the Hub Challenge where a bunch of us are trying to write a crazy amount of articles in a month. I’m up to 36 now and as it’s sometimes late at night when I write them, I do try to spice them up a bit with a ‘different’ title.

Didn’t think anything of it; thought it might add a bit of humour to the proceedings to. One of them was ‘The mailto: command, a great way to harvest email addresses”.

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Creating content for your website is one thing to boost SEO, however there’s also a lot to be said in creating content for use outside your own site. By doing this you can get lots of good quality links.

Trouble is, writing them can be a pain in the backside. You’ve got to sit down and think of a subject before typing away and creating a work of art that people will want to read. It’s hard writing one, how about writing one hundred?

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In an attempt to make sure this blog doesn’t get too ‘SEO centric’, here’s a little bit of light relief, a website you can amaze your friends with and have a bit of fun in the office to-boot.

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