Nov. 9th, 2012 Networking Event in Livonia!

Cocktails and Connections!

@ Woodland Lanes

33775 Plymouth Rd., Livonia, Michigan 48150

Cost $0.00

Come join us on Friday, November 9th at 5:00 pm for some food and drinks, while we mix in some business networking fun! 

Be sure to bring plenty of business cards / materials to hand out and your smile. 

What to expect: A fun social event with the ability to make some fantastic new connections or socialize with some current ones.

What NOT to expect: A stiff, boring, and uncomfortable atmosphere with a hard closing sales pitch, or to be sold to.

A few more simple steps to improve your online presence!

By Tracy Congdon

Once the keyword research and competitive analysis are done (since these are your very first steps in creating or improving your online presence or to “getting found online”), we can move on to a couple more.

Creating your citation, or how your company name, address, phone number, and website appear, is another overlooked step. You want it uniform across the entire web. Each correctly created listing gives you and your website more authority on the internet, increasing your placement.

For example your phone number could appear 734-252-9014 or 734.252.9014 or the more traditional (734) 252-9014. It doesn’t really matter how it appears as long as all of your business listings are identical, down to the placement of a period. Business listing websites like Merchant Circle, Yelp, and Citysearch will pull from Google, Yahoo, Bing or other reputable sites and create their own business listings for you. Their goal is to drive web traffic to them when a search is performed. These listings are not always identical, creating erroneous citations. These should be claimed and corrected as soon as possible. I created a tool to check your listings along with your online presence and posted it here http://goo.gl/8fQE2 (this link was created with Google’s URL shortener.) This link will open an application I have placed inside of my Facebook business page.

When you create certain business listings you must also claim them to make them effective. Feel free to email me for a complete listing of these sites or for additional help.

According to NYTimes.Com, 68 percent of consumers look for a company’s Facebook business page before they choose to do business with them. If you are not found there, those Facebook users will find your competitor and give them a call instead. Creating a correct Facebook business page, NOT a personal page, for your business will only benefit you. If you are not on Facebook, at least make sure your business is. There are companies, like us, that will create and monitor your Facebook page for you. We monitor over 35 pages and see to it they are up to date along with being found and generating positive traffic.

Tracy Congdon, president of Get Found on Google, has 15 years of business-to-business sales experience and over 5 years in business development. During that time, Tracy has extensively studied internet marketing, picture and video marketing along with consistently staying on top of Google’s numerous trends and changes in the way they rank websites. Combining these techniques gives him many powerful tools to place companies on the first page of a Google search for their industry and area in an organic (not paid advertising) search.

You can contact him at Tracy@GetFound-on-Google.Com; call (734) 252-9014; or visit the website atwww.GetFound-on-Google.Com.

How Email Marketing Can Fill Your Pipeline!

Having used numerous email campaign services, in my opinion, none compare to Jeffery Gitomer’s “Ace of Sales” when it comes to relationship building.  Why does this work so well? Visit Ace of Sales and use promo code “Congdon30” for a 30 day trial and see. During which you can send out as many emails as you like and send 1 postcard and 1 greeting card at no cost.

Email Has A Huge Audience. Despite the popularity of social media the fact remains that 72% of people check their email more than 6 times a day. This means email is a reliable way to get and stay in touch. It’s also very inexpensive. People Prefer Email. Research also shows that 77% of people prefer to opt in to permission based marketing via email. 

Email Marketing IS Effective. 67% of people surveyed have made a purchase based on getting a promotional email. Email Helps Launch Social, Local and SEO Campaigns. For example launching a new social media campaign or reputation management initiative is much easier with a large email list of interested participants.

What Small Businesses Need To Do

1. Start The Lists: Most businesses do not even have an email list. Those that do are usually not updated or organized.
2. Existing Customers, who you email weekly a short email offering some value.
3. Prospects / Potential Customers  (see 48-Hour follow up below)
4. Build A Newsletter or ezine (electronic magazine) for weekly mailings to your lists.
5. Build Nurture Emails, after setting up your ezine format, create a series of emails for your new prospects that you can set-up and schedule for future delivery. Automating this part of your campaign. 
6. Track Results, as with any marketing efforts, in-depth tracking is required to know if it’s working.

Always Use The 48-Hour Follow Up. Whether you just attended an expo or a trade show (which you can locate through www.meetup.com) or met a few prospects at a local mixer. Use the following steps to ensure your success. Always make notes on the back of the business cards you’ve collected so you can accurately recall topics of conversation. Using your laptop/mobile device login to your email marketing account and enter these new leads, as completely as possible. Send them a branded email thanking the prospect and touching on the topic of your conversation. Track the responses to these emails and use your CRM to set reminders for future actions. Repeat these steps each time you collect a business card and soon your pipeline will be flowing over with qualified leads. For additional videos, tips and techniques on email marketing visit www.Facebook.Com/AceOfSalesTrial

Get Found on Google | Tracy Congdon | ABEC's Small Business Review

Get Found on Google | Tracy Congdon | ABEC's Small Business Review

Happy hour just increased your online presence

By Kristy Erdodi

Tracy Congdon

Entrepreneurs find inspiration in all types of places. Tracy Congdon found his at happy hour. As a self-employed credit card processing professional, Tracy was talking business with friends at a bar. His industry was becoming increasingly challenging, thanks to cost-free processing apps on mobile phones. He mentioned his online marketing campaign, developed to fight these obstacles. A local landscaper who couldn’t establish an online presence overheard. “A guy to my left said, ‘I could pay you X amount of dollars to do that for me right now,’ ” Tracy remembers. Get Found on Google had its first client.

The landscaper’s success was almost immediate. “He called me one day and said, ‘I have to hire somebody to answer my phones,’ ” Tracy said. “As I kept putting the pieces in place, he called me and said, ‘I have to get another crew together.’ ” Needless to say, the landscaper spread the word, and Get Found on Google got more clients. And the landscaper’s online presence remains: “He’s still on the first page of Google search and still has about 318 phone calls going in on a monthly basis,” Tracy said.

Although Get Found on Google launched in Belleville, Michigan a little over a year ago, Tracy has been in the business for himself for several years. “In the credit card processing industry, I had to find new ways to get my name out there,” he said. He has since also taken courses on Internet marketing.

In short, Tracy uses multiple avenues to direct traffic to a company’s website. This includes creating business listings, clearing up erroneous listings, putting picture and video marketing in place and maximizing on social media opportunities. “Facebook and Foursquare and Twitter are absolutely mandatory for certain businesses,” Tracy said. “A brick and mortar business can skyrocket their foot traffic and their cash sales by using these three tools.”

Video marketing is another of Tracy’s specialties. “At any given time, for your big key words, there’s probably 4.5 million websites competing for those words nationally and about 10 to16 thousand videos,” he said. So he creates videos, equipping them with careful titles, tags and key words, to enhance search engine optimization. He then tracks his success.

Get Found on Google’s costs typically break down to $15 an hour, which is extremely reasonable for Internet marketing services. Aside from affordability, Tracy also comes with an understanding of his clients’ struggles. After all, it took years of trying to establish an online presence during his credit card processing days for him to “Get Found on Google” today.

If you have found this story to be interesting, informative or inspiring, please let Tracy know! You can contact him at 734-252-9014; visit him at 49575 Bog Rd. #2, Belleville, Michigan; email him at tracy@getfound-on-google.com; or visit the website at www.Facebook.com/GetFoundOnGoogle.