It is that kind of struggle to balance your customer retention (internal marketing) and new sales (external marketing) efforts that is going to kick your businesses ass when it comes to your bottom line and customer reviews.

This is a scene I have seen far too often. Hell, I’m sure you know the type, even if you own your own business or work as a sole operator. We’ve all dealt with them before – the slick haired, coffee sipping, power tie wearing business development manager  Lumbergh. The type of person who will pull a valuable service member away from their responsibilities to work on a proposal for their hot new client at the detriment of the myriad of unhappy clients that are out there in the background.

It’s a great business strategy. No, really. It is… if you own shares in a competing company.

Who HASN’T worked with a Lumbergh before?

Sure thing smart ass. What do you suggest a BDM does instead?

It came to me in a dream… or a Dilbert strip. I can’t remember. All I know is the answer was right in front of my eyes and it didn’t take a dollar $ign cha$ing  $ale$ manager to point this out.

The one place few businesses fail to look at when they want to increase sales & revenue – is their very own offices! This is where internal marketing comes into play.

What is internal marketing?

Internal Marketing is a concept that was developed by Leonard L Berry, who developed concepts in business theory that dealt with retaining customers and making sure that it worked in harmony with external marketing

An example of how internal marketing works to influence external marketing – Get your account managers to go out and ask 5 of your clients what problems SEO has fixed for them. Then have them report to you what the results are.

Based on those results, work them into your services offerings & proposals which will push positives in the minds of new customers rather than triggering questions from them which can become embarrassing when you don’t know the answer. It’s shit like that which won’t win you clients.

A quote that springs to mind with the above is from John F Kennedy who said this on the 14th of September, 1960 at the Democratic Women’s Luncheon in New York

“A Democratic administration can never and will never negotiate with the Russians in a position of weakness.”

Of course there aren’t any Russians to worry about in your business (unless you’re competing with Kogan) so just take it to heart that when you reply back to a potential customer with a proposal or conversion that doesn’t cover any of their needs or addresses, you risk losing out on revenue due to a lack of faith in your authority.

This also works with your website as well as mentioned many times by Matt Cutts here, here and here. (Here also)

So what is external marketing?

I’m glad you asked! Or rather projected it through the thousands of conversions and content that have ever existed in the history of the internet.

External Marketing focuses on methods and strategies to gain the attention and convert anything that exists outside of your business, or in other words – selling.

In terms of SEO, this equals to the following.

• Drafting an page which discounts your product for a limited time
• Targeting “keyword +offer +discount +voucher +coupon” to cash in on people’s appeal to hip pocket factor
• Retargeting your home page to change your call to actions based on landing keyword

All in all, external marketing isn’t anything you don’t know already. It just has a fancier name to allow the “internal” differentiator to exist within the phrase “internal marketing”

Striking a balance

Whilst I hate to do this, stay tuned till tomorrow when I come back and cover the rest of this article!

This changes for, again, the majority of Australians as they grow older. Let’s not fool each other. This isn’t a perfect world, and it never will be. What you do in your life on this planet has numerous effects, in many different ways and vice versa. If you are a negative person, then you won’t have a good time or potentially do the things you like.

Of course, this is all pretty obvious, and I never wanted to be a person like this, but I’ve become one of ‘them’ which isn’t great and so needs to change if I am to do the things I want to do in life.

I wasn’t really comfortable enough to post this on a business blog because no one really wants clients or business partners etc to know about your most intimate details… but THAT in itself is an issue and must change!

I don’t want to separate work and personal time. I want to live and breathe all aspects of my life and merge them together. People should look at each other and not be afraid to say what they like in a business setting. Egos can and do get bruised, but the truth is what sets a person free – you just need charisma to get away with it

As a society, it’s an easy trap for any one of us to fall into by not making enough time to do the things that make us & others happy.

And so I’m redesigning my life, and by extension, my blog.

This is going to turn into a place where clients can read insights into online marketing, my friends can see the passions that fuel me, and a place to publish my thoughts & memories. A melting pot of my life, in a nutshell.

What the future holds, I don’t know. I do know that it will include my best self possible, and that change is inevitable from this point forward.

Join me on a fantastic journey to develop those passions again and rekindle my vest for life!

Much love,
Adam Marsh

Of this only 2 domains of note broke the $100AUD mark.

These were…

• Bluff.com.au – $223AUD
  • This had a big bidding war between Bidder 2 & 3 which jumped from $65 to $222, however bidder number 4 stole the show at $223. Definitely a great domain investment for anyone who is involved int he Poker industry.
• Stb.com.au – $156AUD 
  • This lapsed domain had some solid action for an LLL domain attracted 4 bidders. Bidder 1 stayed till the end from $10 to $139, but was pipped at the post by bidder 3 with $156AUD.
  • Not sure of the application, but it would be a good brand protection move by a company that has a name that could be abbreviated to STB.

In total, $3714 domains were sold within a 24 period on the Netfleet Snapper Auctions within Australia!

The biggest winners today are…

• Renewal.com.au -$755
  • Attracted 3 bidders of which the Bidder 1 had an undisclosed 1st day automatic bid that exceed the closing price. Someone really wanted this domain badly!
• Surveillance.com.au PD -$740
  • This domain was a pending deletion domain which attracted 5 bidders. The 3rd bidder went up to $739 that overrode the 2nd bidder who placed $56. Bidder 5 increased the auto bid to $306AUD, but ultimately Bidder 4 won it with $740 AUD.
• OfficeCoffeeMachines.com.au -$551 
  • This domain was extremely popular between 6 bidders, who placed 40 separate bids in order to get this domain. Bidder 1 started it all of and never came back from his $10 dollar initial. There was a lot of jumping around from bidder 3 who came in at $20 dollars, along with 2,5 & 4, but ultimately Bidder number 6 came out as the preferential bid at $551. Curiously, bidder number 3 placed a bid of $550 after the auction finished. Unlucky mate!

• Business-For-Sale.com.au -$458
• Tbo.com.au -$149
• Start.net.au -$136
• ColonHydrotherapy.com.au -$102

On the aftermarket auctions, there is a lot of action going around Boy.com.au (at $1000AUD now) as well as Jokes.com.au ($750AUD right now).

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s domains!

Ultimately, the MD of Google Australia – Nick Leeder has a large share of responsibility for all this.

Within the mainstream media, there is a lot of conjecture and focus on ‘big mining’ dodging its fair share of tax in Australia. Personally, I agree that mining needs to share the natural resources of our fair country with its citizens – after all, they are our birthright. This is a legitimate point that society must focus on, but why stop there?

There are many companies that seek to pay less than their fair share of tax and one of Australia’s biggest tax dodgers is none other than Google Australia.

Let’s not mince words here, they do dodge tax. Google are not a charity nor are they are white knight that contributes tirelessly to the community of Australia. They are a for profit organisation and live up to their aim – to produce profit by any means necessary. This is why Government legislation should tax place to curb such flouting of our tax system as Google are unable to conduct themselves fairly or professionally when it comes to tax time.

As a part of their business undertakings in Australia, I must stress the following points to you

• They have a large monopoly on the search engine & online advertising industry
• AdWords is their main revenue source within which their terms and conditions are designed to revolve around separate overseas entities for the purpose of legal jurisdiction and tax purposes.

Within the financial year ending December 2011, Google declared it had had losses of $3.9 million AUD, whilst declaring revenue of $1.1 billion AUD.

Sum total of tax paid by Google Australia? $74,176 AUD. 

Yes that’s right – $74,176 AUD. 

What a pittance. This is Hollywood accounting at its finest. There are many SEO companies that pay more in tax than their search of engine of choice. If there ever was an industry that needs some regulation and management, it would be online marketing. Google definitely are running wild within Australia when you have a look at how they are to be excluded from content standards and regulation guidelines as well.

In summary – For a more detailed look, have a read here. The one thing that is certain is that anything can fit inside the laws, but Google aren’t living up to their ‘do no evil’ motto when it comes to their tax dealings in Australia. This is a company that is flagrantly walking through loopholes with suitcases packed with profits and laughing whilst it’s doing it.

This is how I initially felt after seeing what Penguin did in the short term.

This is how I feel after

Never before have SEO been pushed to work within a companies overall marketing campaign than now. With unnatural link building being very easy to detect and penalties harsh & swift – there is an emphasis on now being able to leverage off line marketing for link building purposes which in turn increase rankings.

At the face of this situation, it is very easy to look at Google Penguin in a negative light (admittedly, I have too before I could reflect on the update), and while it is bug ridden and random in it’s intent, Google are pushing SEO consultants in an entirely different direction… but rightly so.

Instead of having to worry about client’s not being able to see our work, and struggling to communicate with them – post Penguin, the emphasis will be on working with them all the time in their own terms. We will need to evolve from code monkeys and switch to a traditional marketer mind set.

If you have no idea what traditional marketing is about, then I seriously suggest you reach out and find books & resources which can enable you to look at web content & sharing from a marketing perspective.

Use multiple thinking hats – what I would look at are…

• What demographics does this page target? Do the assigned keywords reach that demographic?
• Does the writing say enough in that article I just posted? Should I add an image with a call to action?
• Is that link I just made an extension of an offline partnership or honestly important to a user?
• Is there any video / audio / content established in an offline campaign that could be used for a page on my clients website?

Think differently whilst you do more actions than your competitors. Your online footprint matters more than now with regards to keeping hard earned rankings. Try your best from here on in to challenge the way you approach SEO.

Don’t cry to me, blame and message this guy

• Poor user navigation? Google cracked down on that.
• Overly optimised websites? Google cracked down on that.
• Link networks? Google cracked down on that.

There is a clear pattern here, and with any pattern you can get a glimpse of what will come up next. Here’s my take on this…

Google are sticking to their word with regard to ranking pages that give the best user experience possible. Don’t think you’re the only one who are questioning this, Google are tracking everything. They now have access to more pieces of data than they ever have had at any point – their recent privacy updates show this.

Is this page an official, affiliate website or a fan site?
Do you have multiple accounts with many IP’s that you do SEO & rank checks on?
Are you using the same C Class for your websites?
Are you relevant seasonally or is your information steady year round?
Are you a blog or wiki?

It is happening – but let me show you what I think one of their upcoming major updates will be.

Web 2.0 back link profiles

This has been the safe haven for black hat SEO’s all over the world.

“Why poison your money site when you can let the social media profiles take the risk instead!”

The team at Google obviously knows this and it is only a matter of time before they can track metrics in Facebook & Twitter with regards to user interactions without having to partner with either site. The message is clear to me with this.

If there isn’t enough user interaction to warrant the excessive number of links that exists, then you’re likely to trigger an unnatural link code in the algorithm.

Update – 27/04/2012 – Well you wouldn’t believe but Google has basically cracked down hard on link spam! Told you so!

Online Marketing can be a case of the blind leading the blind. Unfortunately whilst online market is very transparent, a lot of online marketing companies take advantage of their clients lack of understanding around the digital space and personally I have had enough!

If you feel that your online marketing efforts in search engine optimisation, pay per click or reputation management are quite lacklustre, then I can help shed some light on how your campaign is going.

I am offering online marketing audits for SEO, PPC, Reputation Management and other online marketing methods to Australian and Melbourne businesses.

Ask yourself the following…

Lets face it – for someone new to internet marketing, it can be daunting to understand what is going on. Even if you do have a working knowledge of internet marketing, the company you contract it out to can take advantage of you. A lot of the time, they are only ones making money from it!

Online Marketing has the potential to make up a large percentage of revenue for your business. So why would you risk allowing your online marketing company to get away with everything willy nilly?

It is hard and distracting to verify what your contractors are doing when you are busy running and maintaining your business. In a perfect world, your SEO, PPC or Reputation Management  company wouldn’t need auditing to see what they are doing.

However this isn’t a perfect world – It’s a sad fact but the sooner you take it in, the more leads you’ll make. some online marketing businesses and consultants just aren’t transparent at all.

I offer the following auditing services revolving around…

• Online Marketing Auditing
• Internet Marketing Auditing
• SEO Auditing
• PPC Auditing
• Reputation Management Auditing
• Social Media Marketing Auditing
• Google Places Auditing

They lurk within the darkest recesses of the internet. They are plotting to get your business. They are the feared disgruntled customer! What will you do when they come for you?

Ok enough with the dramatics. Now onto the facts. It is impossible to please everyone. Doing business with the public means you open yourself up to the possibility of attracting customers who just can’t be satisfied. This is why reputation management is important.

Prepare, response, perception & concealment of negative material.

A big part of reputation management is to prepare for this, by seeking to control listings in the search result page for as many brand-related keywords as possible. This is to control the real estate and make sure no one is slandering your company.

When a reputation management campaign is set up for the long run, it changes the PR game. Everything is now proactive rather than reactive – so you aren’t on the back foot.

Ultimately the biggest factor you can control is your response, and failing to do this correctly will damage your business more than a negative review will. So before you engage in reputation management, seek to remedy the situation. It can not only save you money by not having to engage in reputation management, but it also puts the microscope on the other person by at least having tried all available courses of action.

Having said that, perception of your response is also critical. The more custom, straightforward and heartfelt the message – the more people will look at your company in a good light. This is essential to take in as a business since dry corporate-think is a thing of the past.

Adaption is key to any evolved organisms survival, so failure to adapt to this bare standard can be disastrous.

Now onto the nitty gritty of reputation management. When a negative review is posted, it only gains power by attracting visitors to read it. The easiest way for them to do so is via Google’s Search Result Page. This is where the threat takes place!

A listing isn’t dangerous by itself. The only people you need to worry about reading RipOffReport are new potential customers who have no understanding of your business or are deciding where to utilise your business. Getting the post taken down is meaningless with this regard and furthermore, the chances of you being able to take down that post are squat. Those websites make their money that way.

To truly take away the power that a bad, negative review has – one must minimise its visibility on Google for your brand related keywords.

With the preparation, response and perception signals set up, the real task of concealing the negative review by decreasing its search engine visibility & conversely mitigating damage come into play.

At this stage, seek the advice and counsel of reputation management consultant like myself.

Jump forward to 2007 when I came into the online marketing industry. Google switched things up even more – not all links were treated equally, nofollow started being implemented, Google started being more transparent & helpful with their technology being put to use with Web Master Tools & Analytics in an effort to improve websites across the board, but ultimately one thing rang true – content was king.
Since that time, I have witnessed the meteoric rise of social media which happily co-exists with search, rather than directly competiting with it. Yin and Yang.