"Mr. Mauch, now please click the ‘upgrade account’ button on the left side of your account page ", the polite gal says in a slight Indian accent.

"Well… I truly wish I could but it’s not there… but I do know where it is. Let me go there and click it ", I said in a mildly perturbed tone.

"Okay Mr. Mauch, please do. Then, click the ‘upgrade my account to a business account’ link on the right side and complete the short form and click ’submit ‘", explained Remzi who is very good at doing exactly what she was trained to do as a Paypal customer service rep.

"Alrighty, I’ve done this same thing about 16 times in the last 24 hours and it takes me to an error page (actually a ‘Page Not Found’ page) every time… I’ve followed the 4 responses from email support with no success… changed computers… changed internet networks… but I’ll try it again for one last college try ", I said in a quasi-sarcastic way that I tend to do.

As I filled out the form once again as I had already done 16 times, I got to the bottom of the page and that corny movie suspense filled music crept into my mind as I hovered my mouse pointer over the "submit" button praying that this ordeal would finally be over.

Click…

"Yep, same thing. Big fat error. Is there anyway you can upgrade me over the phone rather than me wasting another 2 hours of my time trying to do a 5 minute task on your website? ", I pleaded to Remzi.

"No Mr. Mauch, that is ALL I can do for you from here… that sounds like a technical problem to me. Here’s the technical support number… they SHOULD be able to help you. "

And the saga continues…

Customer Service Isn’t Customer Service… It’s Marketing In Disguise

As I type this, the ordeal I just played out (by the way, that is a real situation) is still in mid plot.

• My problem hasn’t been solved
• I’ve already wasted more than 2 hours on this stupid little task hoping the solution would be one click away
• I’ve now worked with no less than 4 different customer service people
• Now instead of "putting up" with this company’s lackluster customer service in the past… I’m actively searching for another option that isn’t such a pain in the ass

I’m not going to spend a ton more time on this issue… but in the time I’ve spent with these very nice and polite… and well scripted outsourced customer "service" reps from Paypal… I’ve really been reminded of a very important fact that many companies completely forget about.

Customer service = Marketing

Customer service isn’t a task that should be put off as merely a "support" task. Customer service truly plays an active role in retaining current customers… and attracting new ones.

Sounds like marketing to me… how about you?

Take my situation for instance, I’ve never really regarded Paypal as a company who has award winning customer service… but the products/services Paypal offers are pretty darn good and really the best option for many situations. So, I’ve happily used them.

However, this is the first time I’ve had an issue with Paypal… and it’s not even a very complicated or all that important issue when you really get down to it. It’s an issue with a link not taking me to the page I need to go to… should be simple huh?

So, Here’s My Question…

What would be easier (for me and them), save more time (for me and them), save more money (for me and them), and result in an all around positive experience for both me and Paypal?

Simple really.

When a current customer calls in to support after dealing with email support (multiple times) with no avail… why can’t customer support act like a marketer and take care of the problem FOR ME over the phone… instead of walking me through the SAME steps I’ve already taken (that didn’t work)… then asking me to call another department (not even forwarding the call for me)??

Not sure. Pretty simple business answer to me… and I’m sure Ebay’s(owns Paypal) shareholders would be asking the same question.

Customer Service = Marketing

Bad customer service (this company had great reps, responded quickly, but has never solved the problem) can harm your business… and provide negative PR like this article.

Why not turn that into a positive experience and create a raving fan… which can actually attract new clients?

Last Thought…

Too many companies out there focus so much on getting customer service reps technically proficient and polished rather than empowering them to solve the customers problem at all reasonable cost .

What’s reasonable? That’s for the company to decide.

But, I’m pretty sure Paypal (Ebay) can agree that allowing a customer service rep to upgrade my personal account to a business account (when their website isn’t working) on the phone for me is not unreasonable… therefore making that an excellent opportunity to further "market" their great company to me to solidify it’s already strong position in my mind.

In all reality… the internet is still a pretty new marketing channel (less than 15 years old) and most small businesses haven’t quite mastered (or even tried) the art of marketing their business on the internet.

I hear it all of the time from small business owners (businesses from $250k to $5 million) that they don’t know "how to market a business on the internet ". The answer I give time and time again is that marketing your small business on the internet is NO DIFFERENT than marketing your business offline… you are just using the same marketing techniques on a new medium.

After successfully taking over the internet marketing (in other words, direct response marketing on the internet) strategies for many small businesses I’ve come to realize that really there are just a few simple steps that all small businesses need to take to get the most bang for their buck on the internet.

And yes, ALL small businesses can benefit from the right internet marketing and brand building strategy if done correctly… which I’m about to show you how. This article is the first of 3 articles in this series where I will walk you through the process of getting more traffic to your website and converting the traffic better into customers.

Keep in mind, some of these steps seem kind of in-depth and cumbersome… but in reality… when you dig into it and create systems to support each step… it’s much easier than it looks.

Step #1: Figure Out What You Want Out Of Your Web Presence… and Why

The first step small businesses (or any business for that matter) need to take before you dump too much money into your website and internet marketing strategy is to figure out what the heck you really want your website to do for you.

Websites can serve all kinds of functions including:

• To act as a simple business card (not recommended)
• To actually make the sale of your product to your customer (also called e-commerce) – Think Amazon.com here
• To generate leads for your business
• To act as a brochure for your business/product
• To be the communication channel between you and your customer

… and on and on. You get the idea. Different businesses have different needs for a website… but ALL businesses SHOULD have a website of some sort.

Retail Businesses -

If you are a retail business and want to extend your sales funnel to include online sales… you’ll of course need to center your website and internet marketing strategy around getting people to your site to purchase products right then and there. This includes having a shopping cart and ecommerce platform to take orders, show your products, etc.

Your goal is to make direct sales online and every aspect of your website should be geared toward educating prospects on the benefits they’ll receive from your products and converting them into buyers both now and later.

Service Businesses -

If you have a service business such as a consulting practice, professional practice (dentist, attorney, insurance, doctor, CPA, etc.), hard service (carpet cleaner, maid, plumber, etc.), or any other type of service business… you really need to have your website and internet marketing strategy focus on educating your target market on the benefits they’ll receive from your services… and converting them to take an action such as calling you, giving you their contact info/email address, requesting a white paper, etc.

Your goal is to gain new clients and your website should be geared toward educating prospects on the benefits your service will provide them and converting them into somehow giving you their information or making a direct contact with you.

Too many small businesses throw up a website that is a glorified business card and expect people to just start calling. Odds are, you won’t get any calls no matter how nice your site looks or how much you paid the web designer to build it. Figure out what you want your site to do for your business and make sure your site follows through with that goal.

Really get down to the core of what your business does and think of how you want your website to fit into your overall marketing strategy. Your website should be an extension of your offline marketing efforts… not in addition to.

Step #2: Create and Optimize Your Website and Integrate It With Your Offline Marketing

All websites are NOT created equal… and are often 180 degrees from what you would expect.

The most visually appealing website in the world that cost $9,000 for a graphic artist to create may result in ZERO sales (which is what happened with one of my clients)… while an "ugly" website that has the right focus and sales copy might be a profit machine. Your goal is to get a good balance of visual appeal and great salesmanship.

Create Your Website -

A website doesn’t need to be elaborate or filled with great graphics… it just needs to get your message across in a way that converts the site visitor to take the desired action.

If you want to tackle the website yourself there are some simple programs that will enable you to make a great website like:

• Microsoft Frontpage (not my favorite, but it’s the easiest to use)
• Adobe Dreamweaver (expensive, not all that easy to learn, but very very powerful… I use it for some projects)
• Wordpress (what I use for this site. Free, great templates available, easy to use once you get the design finished, difficult to make design changes if you don’t know php)

There are more but those three are my favorite. I prefer Wordpress and use it for most of my own websites and my clients websites because it is so flexible, search engine friendly, and has a great community of developers who do great work.

Or, you can hire out the web work to a web design firm who knows how to create a search engine optimized website (WARNING: most will tell you they do… but really have no clue).

Whichever way you go, you can expect between $500 and $7,000 for a decent website. Finding great web guys is very difficult… so if you need a web designer shoot me an email and I can refer you to great companies I have worked with in the past (FYI, I’m not a web designer… I’m a marketer).

Optimize Your Website -

SEO

Part of the process of creating your website is optimizing it for the search engines and for better conversion. I won’t go into depth too much in this article about how to optimize your website for the search engines (I could write a whole book on just that topic) but I’ll go over the very basics.

1. Determine which search phrases your target market likely types into the search engines and create content around those phrases
2. Edit your "title tags" so they include the target phrase for that page. i.e. – If you are a personal injury attorney in San Diego… the title tag for your home page might be something like "San diego injury attorney" or for the page on brain injuries it could be something like "San diego brain injury attorney". Those are just quick examples… but you get the idea.
3. Include information, links (internal and external), headings, etc. that are related to your business and phrases that your market is likely to type into search engines.
4. Gather links from related websites that point back to your website. The best way to do this is to just create valuable, usable, and great content that people will want to link to anyway.

Really, there’s so much more to SEO… but that’s enough to get you started. If you don’t want to mess with doing the SEO yourself, shoot me an email and I’d be glad to do a free review of your website (as time permits).

In basic terms, create great content that will truly help your target market solve whatever problems you will help them solve. If the content is valuable, people will link to it and search engines will see that and reward you with better search rankings.

Conversion

As far as optimizing your website for conversion , it’s pretty simple (simple sounding… sometimes a bit more difficult in practice).

Make sure your website guides the prospect along in the "sales" process in a logical flow to compel them to do what you want them to do. If you are a retail business, Amazon.com has the conversion thing down. Study their website and their sales process to see what is working great (study everything about it… it converts at something like 12% which is crazy).

If you are in a service business, make it easy for people find the information they are looking for ("how to" information is great), create benefit oriented copy, have "calls to action" that request the reader to take a specific action, and gather leads. That’s pretty simplified but gives you a great idea of what your website should do.

Integrate Your Website and Internet Marketing With Your Offline Strategy -

Too often small businesses think that the internet is an "addition" to their offline marketing… when in actuality it should be treated as an extension of your offline marketing strategy.

Be sure to align your offline and online marketing message so your prospect finds a congruent message across all mediums and is guided along in the sales process seamlessly from offline to online and vice versa.

Here are some ways to integrate your website with your offiline marketing strategy:

• At the least, place your website on your business cards … preferably place a call to action on your business cards such as, "Download Your Free 60 Minute Audio ‘7 Costly Mistakes To Avoid When Planning Your Next Vacation’ at www.yourtravelsitehere.com". This drives offline people online and further qualifies them as an interested prospect.
• Include your website on all marketing materials (a printed book, banners, brochures, letterhead, yellow page ads, handouts at networking meetings, etc.)
• Ask offline customers to go online to take a survey in exchange for something of value
• Create contests, giveaways, etc. that require people to go to your website to participate
• Sign customers and prospects up for a free newsletter which gives them great information, discounts, etc.

There are a ton of ways to integrate your online presence with your offline presence… but virtually all businesses should at least include their website on your offline marketing materials in some way shape or form. The more you can get people to engage in your marketing message the more apt they are to use you for solutions to their problem.

The Business Card Syndrome -

Most small businesses still have what I like to call the "business card syndrome ". This is where small businesses fall in the trap of putting up a website that is just a glorified business card. You know what I mean… the site tells about you and what you do, has your contact info, and that’s about it. A glorified business card.

We all get so used to handing out business cards to hopefully evoke an action from a prospect (the action is to get them to call me back). So, many people think that doing the same thing with their website will be a good idea.

WRONG.

Your website should act as a salesman that never sleeps and should educate your prospect, show your credibility, provide value to them before they ever buy, help them to realize their problem, and compel them to contact you for the solution. A simple business card approach just leaves too many potential customers on the table and does not provide your company with a very good ROI.

Large corporate companies with many representatives are famous for the business card syndrome . They provide their reps with their own "website" which amounts to little more than a business card… and most reps think this is the only "website" they need.

Your small business website should educate your target market on solutions to their problems… the solutions that you can help them achieve.

(This is Part 1 in a 3 Part Series Called "Marketing Your Small Business On The Internet – 6 Easy Steps". Subscribe to my RSS feed to be notified when Parts 2 and 3 are posted)

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Up Next:

Part 2:

• Step #3: Research Your Market and Create A Content Plan That Gives HUGE Value
• Step #4 : Create Solid Search Engine Marketing and Social Media Strategies and Implement Them Faithfully

Part 3:

• Step #5 : Get Consistently and Persistently Active In The Conversation With Your Target Market… and Become The Expert
• Step #6: Continue To Look For New Opportunities To Reach Your Target Market