GOOD BYE BRAND

As a professional seo and internet marketing company in Lincolnshire we are appalled to see some of our customers literally draining their money down the drain. These businesses have invested a lot of money and time in optimising their website for search engines, they hired us a local internet marketing agency to help them achieve the goal.

The ultimate goal of internet marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, local internet marketing and any other marketing and publicity stunt is to generate sales, generate qualified leads to follow. When so many businesses are failing because they are unsuccessful in generating a good flow of customers, it is most tragic to see customers of various seo consultancies ignoring sales leads.

They are ranking very well (within top 3 ) in search engine results pages,yet all our work and their money amounts to naught, zilch, and nothing. A lot of business customers seem to spend money as if there is no tomorrow on various seo companies, content writing company, and social media marketing company and even ppc management.

Yet their “last mile” problem means that these customers utterly and tragically fail to make any money for their business, of course they make money for us and other internet marketing companies just like us. We are happy to take the money, we are more than happy to work hard for our money, but we are not happy to see our customers not making money, we are not happy to see the competitor’s of our customers beat our customers because of the sheer ineptitude of our customers.

Case study of a last mile problem:

Purpose: The purpose of the case study is to demonstrate via an example of what I am talking about.

The website concerns a second hand car sales website in the UK. Website is very well optimised for search engines, attractive layout. They have engaged a professional internet marketing agency to help them with their text and image optimisation. Customer’s website is ranking top 1 for the keywords it has been optimised for.

Let’s say I am a potential customer, right now I am looking for a specific make and model of 2nd hand car. I’ve searched for this vehicle on google and other search engines, your website has ranked number 1 for these keywords, I have clicked on the result and now I am on your website.

As a potential customer I’ve found a car that I really really want and I am on your website. I clicked on a link that says “contact the salesperson”, this link opened up a mini contact form with details such as telephone number, email address, and obviously name. I provided the details on the contact form.

Then I waited, I waited for 48 hours for a email response from you. Having spent a lot of time looking for second hand cars on the internet and having found what I was looking for on your website I am frustrated because of lack of response from you. This is the “last mile problem”

Because of my experience with your second hand cars website I’ve wasted my time, I suppose I could have found another company that sells second hand cars,but, that’s the point of this article.

The point is why would any website or business owner spend money on web design and search engine optimisation (seo), why would any business spend money on internet marketing and local business optimisation when they they are least bothered to respond to potential customer’s questions or a request for an appointment (to view the car) in this case.

2 tips to business website owners:

1.Don’t bother putting your email address or contact form on your company’s website if you cannot be bothered or inclined to respond to your customer’s enquiries.

2.If you prefer that your prospects get in touch with you over the phone be crystal clear about it.

Thomas Gray is a seo consultant and founder of Lincs internet marketing agency. Visit his website for more interesting articles with a funny twist like this at his website http://www.internetmarketinglincolnshire.co.uk. Unique version for reprint here: 2 Internet Marketing Tips for Website Owners – Make Your Website Contact Form Work Harder.