As a marketer in Fargo I am pretty new to the game. My story begins in Dec of 2007 when I quit my full-time job to pursue Internet Marketing SEO in Fargo. It started out pretty rough and uneasy as I stumbled my way around the Internet landscape. Thankfully, I was able to find and mentor under a few people who are very good at what they do.

Through them I learned about SEO (search engine optimization) and Internet Marketing that not only paid the bills but put me in a better position to determine the path in which my life went. It is very rare that I go out and look for clients. In fact, I haven’t really at all. Usually people find me through my blog here or one of my other satellite sites. I primarily focus my attention on ranking web pages in the search engines so people will find them. But ranking pages isn’t all I do.

I also help businesses determine what results they want from an online marketing campaign and execute that for them. Their marketing needs and desires can vary greatly from wanting to start a comprehensive marketing campaigns including search engine ranking, social media marketing and other direct marketing approaches. I help them come up with different marketing ideas that fit their needs. For example, they might want a unique approach to solving their problems or to reduce their advertising costs.

Marketing Ideas learned in Fargo

1. It is always better when clients or potential clients find you.

Like I mentioned before, most my clients find me. I spend little time setting up processes for people to find me. Instead of me spending time finding clients, I can spend my time working. As clients and potential clients find you and explain their marketing problems, you are in a much better position to leverage because of the fact that they sought you out.

2. Don’t rely on one marketing approach.

It is easy to think that if something works well once it can always be replicated. The biggest advantage to online marketing is the ability to adapt and change when circumstances warrant it. It is very easy to fall into the trap that one shoe fits all and one client’s success will happen again. Change is good. Change happens all the time. Be prepared to change because it is inevitable.

3. Never put all your marketing eggs in one basket.

Much like the point above. Relying solely on Google for all your traffic and marketing is a scary proposition. What if Google changes and determines your system is flawed? What if Google doesn’t think you have its users’ best interests in mind? Google is a business and will do what is best for Google.

4. Google isn’t the only source of traffic online.

People are becoming connected online greater than ever before. I am seeing a trend that is increasing where people are relying more on each other for answers to questions than just Google. Now, with tools like Twitter and Facebook you can directly ask your questions to the people who can answer them. For example, you might post a question about Las Vegas hotels and what kind of deals they have. Many things take time to populate and be found online. The time people are willing to wait to find an answer is shrinking incredibly.

5. Match expectations with reality; anyone can promise the moon.

Sure, it is easy to say you can solve all of your client’s problems, but usually you cant. It is very important that you are real with your clients and what you can perform for them. Give realistic expectations of time frame and results. Fargo Internet marketing is easier than marketing in New York on a local level but nationally the game changes considerably.

6. Don’t except every job or opportunity that comes your way.

It is extremely easy to want to take every job that passes you by, but don’t. Taking the jobs that are smaller or easier usually turn out to be anything but. It is extremely rare for me to accept a proposal less than 5 figures. In fact, I avoid it. I look for clients who understand the potential power of Internet marketing and want to establish a long-lasting relationship with me. I am not looking to rank your web site for your business name. I am looking to establish a broader relationship that borders partnership.

7. Don’t work for a paycheck, work for people.

Working for a paycheck will only get you a paycheck. The funny thing about paychecks is the fact that they never refer business to you. If you genuinely care about your customers and want to see their problems solved, paychecks will come in abundance. But working for the Almighty $ is going to be a constant struggle.

8. Find an unique approach to solving a client’s problems.

Potential clients are looking for solutions for their problems. When you find those solutions you have earned a client for life. 99% of the time it is a matter of finding what other successful businesses are doing and approach that with an open mind. I am not saying to copy what others are doing because you cannot change the foundation of a business overnight. Rather, look at their approach to solving a problem and analyze the key characteristics they used to solve that problem. In between the lines you will find a solution that will work for your client the same if not better than what worked for them. Could be price, uniqueness, customer service, quality or any number of things.

9. Fire your clients.

Every now and then you need to fire a client. Either fire them or set a new guideline for interaction between you and them. If they don’t like the new terms they fired themselves. It is not worth the headache or dread of dealing with a client. Life is too short for dealing with crummy clients all the time. One client can cause 80% of your problems. If that is the case, dump the client. The same should be expected for you and your business. That’s life.

10. Know your own limitations.

Sometimes I can’t possibly take on a new client. If I did I would only diminish my relationship with my current clients. This isn’t always the case but sometimes I just have to say no. This is usually easy when the proposal is smaller than my baseline but unless I want to hire and train others, I can’t always take new clients. Thankfully we are in a growth and expansion phase that allows us to not only better serve our current customers but frees up space for more customers.

Conclusion

I feel that Internet marketing is the greatest job in the world for me. I love it and wouldn’t have it any other way. I adore my clients and enjoy working with them every day. I am sure the feelings are mutual. It is a pleasure to work with some of the brightest personalities in the business both here in Fargo and across the world. I hope you gained a bit of insight into my world as a Fargo Internet marketing agent and perhaps learned a little too. If you would like to contact me, please visit my contact page or media / consulting page.

Just like one shoe doesn’t fit all, the same applies to Internet marketing. I wrote a post the other day targeting keywords like Internet marketing Fargo and SEO Fargo for the sole purpose of ranking in the SERPS (search engine results pages) for those keywords. I wanted to spend a little time in an effort to rank and hold a ranking for those keywords. I view that type of Internet marketing as the equivalent of buying a house vs renting one. The easy way to rank for keywords is to buy ad placements from Google, MSN and Yahoo. By doing so you are guaranteed to rank on the first page for those words and generate the visitors you are requesting.

The flip side to the paid-for model of Internet marketing happens when you quit paying for those ads and disappear from not only the first page, but all pages. Instead, if you invest a little time and effort into promoting your site/business online, your site can be found by many people searching the same things. You will only invest time, not money. My site and sites like mine sit at the top of the results pages for a variety of keywords. When I go to sleep or leave on vacation, my site still sits there. Every once in a while I will add some fuel to the fire ensuring I stay above the competition.

I am #2 and #3 for the search term Internet Marketing Fargo just by writing one blog post. That puts me just behind all of the paid placements on Google. It won’t be long, and I will be ahead of the directory listing at the top of the page for my selected field. This is done by building more support to my pages than the yellow page generated results. I will also be doing the same for other keywords related to my local niche as I mentioned on my recent Fargo Internet Marketing and SEO post.

A funny thing happened the other day when talking with a client about my Fargo Internet Marketing post and targeting those keywords. The client asked me if my competition knew I was targeting those words. What I didn’t mention is that I already have other sites ranking in the top for those keywords. Those sites have been generating leads for the last 5 months. It’s just another way to capture as much of the local market as possible.

You have many different choices as far as Internet marketing goes, but I view SEO as a more viable promotion option than ad buying. But SEO takes time and effort and involves a longer ramp-up period. If what you are doing needs more of an instant promotion model, then you should buy ads from the major search engines. At the same time, start working your way to the top of the SERPS for relevant keywords through SEO. Eventually, you will either capture a lot more market share and customers from other keywords you don’t rank for or you can swap one model of promotion for the other.

All of these ideas and tactics lead to a very important discussion when starting Internet marketing and web promotion of your product or service. Don’t leave out questions like “Where do we want our traffic to come from?” “How much are we willing to pay in advertising?” “What is the percentage of fraud associated with paid advertisement?” and many more questions. Of course if you are interested is talking with me, I encourage comments or emails.

Well it has been a long time coming. I have finally gotten off of my duff and am going to start targeting keywords in my local niche. What I mean by this is to rank #1 or thereabouts for keywords in my surrounding area. Part of what I do is to help local businesses rank for keywords in their respective niches. Say a brick company in Fargo wants to rank for Fargo Brick, I would help that to happen. In the process of ranking others for more niche keywords, I haven’t been working on my own niche as much as I should. So words like SEO Fargo and Marketing Fargo have been neglected by me. So, don’t be surprised if over the next few months I drop a few of these words into my posts from time to time.

Now, just because I have decided to start conquering my own local niche more doesn’t mean I will stop working larger keyword terms. I am calling this my Fargo Marketing campaign. The goal is to dominate my local niche and expand from there.

In case you are wondering, there is a huge void in the middle of our country for people who know search engine marketing or comprehend how to rank sites to #1 in the respective niches. I am going to try my best to take as much of that market as I can while the gettin is still good.

Of course, all of this takes time and I am not expecting to rank for Marketing Fargo the very first week I try, but you never know in a month or two. Along with ranking for keyword terms I am increasing my public exposure to local business people. This week I will be speaking at the Fargo Moorhead Lodging Association meeting on the topic of Embracing Technology. Boy do I have a surprise for them. That is if I can get it put together in time for the meeting . If not I will still be talking about increasing their exposure to the digital world and different ways to embrace it. I hope to record the speaking and post it here so you can critique it for me. I hope to not disappoint.

If you are interested in having me speak to your company, group or organization, visit my media page for more information. I am willing to travel out of the Fargo area.

Another thing I will be helping to increase is local blogger / twitter interaction. Last Saturday we had the first blogger meetup and the second tweetup (the day before) in Fargo / Moorhead. I will post the video below of some of the people saying hi. Hopefully next time the tweeters and bloggers can coordinate the next meeting. We had a few people travel about 150 miles to Fargo (really cool of them). Also here was the list of those in attendance. If you are in the Fargo / Moorhead area you should definitely add them to whatever communication medium you prefer.

Blogger / Twitter Meetup Attendees:

@therealjosh
@bonnyface
@cbensen
@fmsphotography
@magicderivative
@kalyke
@epizoic
@mpool
@jeffspad