This month “google,” the verb, (not Google, the company) was chosen as Word of the Decade by the American Dialect Society. Not surprising when you consider that more than 90% of all buyers start the process by “googling” their object of desire–even if they use Yahoo or Bing to search for it.

One of the final frontiers in search engine optimization (SEO) is local search. That’s how retailers, service businesses, local consultants and sales teams can level the playing field with everyone else on the planet who sells what they do by mastering local search, “even if they don’t have a website,” says Will Hanke. Will is a local SEO practitioner and founder of MarketSTL, a local conference designed specifically for teaching local businesses the fundamentals of managing their own SEO.

Will started MarketSTL after teaching SEO repeatedly to overflow crowds of small business owners at the local public library. Not every business wants to hire out their SEO because they don’t understand it well enough to know what they’re paying for. But to take on SEO duties themselves, businesses must commit to the process and have the time to do it right, Will says.  Here’s Will’s top 8 SEO tips:

1. Post new pages regularly. Will recommends posting at least 1-2 articles each week. “Companies often don’t connect the dots as to why fresh content is necessary,” he says. But search engines love quality and quantity. Warning: SEO is kind of like dieting. Once you start, you can’t stop. Your site will go back to where it was before all the activity.

2. List your site on the major search engines. Will especially recommends getting listed on Google Maps and Yahoo Local if your company relies on the metropolitan area for business. In fact, Google just released its smart phone option for “Near Me Now,” a new feature that shows local listings in every mobile search.

3. Blog. But set up your blog on your own domain, not Blogger.com or a hosted WordPress account. Build your own brand, not that of your host’s.

4. Track your results. Read your website metrics or set up a free Google Analytics account to find out where your traffic is coming from, which posts are most popular and where you’re losing visitors.

5. Twitter with a strategy. “I take the approach of, “‘How can I help?’” Will says. “Many companies blast their specials. This is a big no-no and a way to kill your community. I just picked up a new client on Twitter by answering a question.” (FYI from me: The American Dialect Society also named “tweet” as 2009′s Word of the Year, and Twitter is my #3 traffic source!)

6. Get a Facebook Fan Page. More than 300,000 people a day are starting fan pages, so it’s getting impossible not to have one for your business, Will says.

7. Email marketing. Will reminded me about this one. I suppose I no longer look at email marketing as an SEO tip…it’s just part of my overall marketing strategy. But I do get a definite spike in website traffic each week when my newsletter is published.

8. Be patient. “Allow at least 6 months to see the results from your SEO efforts,” Will says, “but it depends on what you’re trying to rank for. I’ve seen a lot of fly-by-night SEO companies promise front-page search results for obscure, no-traffic terms. That’s not hard. Most companies rank on page one naturally for their own company name, for example, but that doesn’t mean anyone’s searching for them.”

MarketSTL  will be held on April 1, 2010. Conference presentations will focus on generating visitors to your website, increasing online revenue and mastering search engine optimization. There will also be sessions on what SEO is, how to teach the search engines about your business, and how to utilize Twitter and Facebook to keep those customers coming back. Oh, and, of course, how to keep your customers coming back to your website with email marketing, taught by moi. Tickets are on sale now, and Will expects a sell-out. Hope to see you there.

“Lori has a knack for finding solutions for communicating with new potential customers. She is a good listener and a source of solutions.” – Gary Zide, HBA

“The Database Diva is a marketing idea machine. Lori’s enthusiasm for helping us effectively market our business is contagious and has made s a significant difference in how we reach our customers. Every seminar, every email, every consulting session has the potential to ramp up your business!” – Tom Petrie, Bad Dog Pictures

I am known as The Database Diva because I do one thing and one thing only: I work with business owners, sales executives and solo professionals to squeeze every drop of profit out of their customer database.

My approach is based on the concept of nurturing existing business relationships using database marketing. That term may sound intimidating and highly technical, but it’s really not.

Database marketing is simply a common-sense business tool that uses customer data to shift your company’s emphasis from selling products and services to the person you’re selling them to. By listening to customers and giving them what they want (not what you think they need) you achieve the ultimate business purpose: To grow your customer base.

Everyone conceptually understands why nurturing existing customer relationsips is important. But most organizations do not consistently execute ROI-based relationship-building strategies. They treat business development as an offensive game, focusing mainly on getting “the next customer.” Or worse: They treat customers and prospects alike.

Consequently, the company’s number one asset, its customer list, is constantly under siege from competitor poaching, a loss of potential new business due to poor follow up, and customers who seek alternative providers because they feel underappreciated.

Actions speak louder than words.

It’s at least 7 times easier to sell to an existing customer than find a new one. Yet companies often expend 7 times the investment in time and talent prospecting and ignoring their #1 capital asset. Money doesn’t buy access to customers anymore. “Social CRM” is the currency of the day.

Social CRM means you must develop an active policy of listening to the marketplace, listening to customers and opening a feedback loop for clients and potential clients to tell you what they want. You and your organization no longer control these customer conversations–your customers do–but you can influence them.

Therefore, your actions speak volumes about your intent. Are you filling your communication channels with desperate “buy it from me now” messaging? Or are you joining in the conversation already taking place in your clients’ minds using influence language via thought leadership?

My role is to assess how your business can flip this 7:1 ratio back to cementing customer conversations first. The goal: To insure you’re in the running for and closing 100% of the available potential business from your customer base–e.g., the “easy” sale.

I start with my trademarked 15-point database diagnostic which identifies and benchmarks where you are now vs. where you want to be.

4 Kinds of Database Marketing Services

Then we select a project or series of projects to build a database marketing system that puts you on track for more referrals, more leads and more meaningful conversations. These projects can be done in one of 4 ways:

1. “Done for You” Consulting. For well-established solo professionals or business owners who are experts in their field, see the value in pursuing a database marketing strategy, but simply don’t have the time or interest to do it themselves.
2. “Hands On” Consulting. For business owners, sales professionals or solo practitioners who know what they want to accomplish and want me to “look over their shoulder” and coach them while they do the work themselves.
3. Critique Session. You’re in the process of executing database marketing strategies to achieve company goals, but you’d like an expert to give you a thumbs up or thumbs down on various parts of your plan.
4. 15-Point Database Diagnostic. You’re just starting to wrap your arms around the concept of relationship marketing and social networking, and you’d like a check-list diagnostic on your customer database, website or social networking plans as a first step in your thought process so you don’t make any mistakes or carry any misconceptions. The diagnostic includes an assessment of where you are now, plus actionable recommendations.

Here is a sampling of projects I work with clients on:

• Setting up a contact management or CRM system
• Database segmentation to find “riches in niches”
• Profiling existing quality clients to find more like them
• Identifying and acquiring lists and databases that encompass your customer universe
• Capturing your company’s core message and creating a branding platform and distribution methodology for it
• Setting up a follow-up drip marketing program
• Launching a responsive e-newsletter
• Writing and executing customer surveys, then telling you what the results mean to your business
• Leveraging social networking platforms (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) to generate leads, word of mouth recommendations and visibility
• Integrating offline database marketing with your online initiatives via modifications to your website or recommending corporate blogging strategies

Not sure where to begin?

Click here or call to schedule a free 15-minute consult: 1+314-485-4350. Or use the Live Help box to the right and instant message me.

Learning new social media skills makes my head hurt. Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, yada, yada, etc., who has time?

For me, it’s like going to the gym: just one more job. Plus, everytime you add something to your plate, you must eliminate something else, right? And if it’s not sleep, then…what?

Unfortunately, I am very curious about all this new stuff. So learning the *why* of social media has become a compulsion for me. And even though I read about it, try it out and sign up for teleseminars that promise to “explain everything in 3 simple steps” so I can “make $13,000 by tomorrow morning (in my underwear),” I’m still very slow on the uptake.

So I was intrigued to discover St. Louis’ first BarCamp. It looked like bloggers, developers and social media types were gathering for an informal, unscripted meetup. In fact, the name BarCamp is a derivative of FUBAR, a well known military expression (look it up yourself).

The event was billed as, “Let’s get a bunch of St. Louis geeks and friends together and do something.” I wasn’t quite sure how I would contribute anything of value to these early adopters. Alas, I thought, I’m only a B.I.T. (blogger in training) and not technical. And there were “rules”, which, frankly had me pretty intimidated: “No spectators, only participants.”

But after tweeting facilitators @ryankeeter and @tojosan and receiving their encouragent, I went (and dragged my completely clueless sister with me so I would be only the second-most clueless person in the room).

#BarCampSTL, as it’s now commemorated on Twitter for those who want to follow the stream of conversation about this event (I now know how to do this!!), was held at City Museum in the Cabin Inn bar. I’m almost certain there’s no rule commanding that a BarCamp must be held in a bar, but it was a cozy venue and quite ironic to be discussing new media in Daniel Boone’s son’s log cabin. But, I digress.

This is how speakers presented: You added your presentation topic to the whiteboard whereever there was an opening. The clock strikes the time, you speak. Your time’s up, the next person gets up to present.

After introducing myself around, I figured out what I could talk about, and decided to go for it. I would be the bridge between the technology and the business opportunity. Read a recap of my presentation. I got the only presentation slot left–the first one of the morning.

BarCampSTL was fascinating. I met @lolololori who blogs about everything St. Louis (even knowing where to go on Hampton Ave. for a drive-thru doggie washer); Jim Durbin @smheadhunter, the world’s only recruiter for social networking; @whereisciau who drove in from Kansas City to attend and gave an amazing introduction to e-textiles (picture the back of your jacket signaling a left turn with a blinking light as you get in the left lane on your bike) and Karen Goodman (@karenstl) who’s one of the new frontier of blogging real estate agents.

There were high-intensity presentations (the event was sponsored by Network Solutions) and we also learned about Fedora Linux (no clue but got a great button) and OAuth by @Mike_Austin. But there was also plenty of schmooze time where I got to chat with Aravind Kannan @netcitizen from Madras, who’s currently working for Maritz.

Twitter, which launched not even 2 years ago, already has more than 2 million subscribers to its free service. They’re anticipating 9 million in 2009. When Barack Obama, the first Twitterer to reach 100,000 followers (I have 91 today), gets elected using social media and actually says the word “website” in his first press conference, you can take it to the bank that new media is the future of business marketing.

Time we all lost our virginity to social media marketing technology tools.