In business today it’s critical to generate measurable returns from your lead generation and customer retention efforts.

It’s quite trendy right now for marketers to talk about social media outlets like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and others as profit producing tools for business.

But do they really produce profits?  How do you know?  After all, social media is all about human interactions and conversations (kind of like a meeting at the Rotary Club).  How do you put numeric quantities around human interactions, something that is critical to determining profitability and ROI?

Here’s five ways we found as effective measurements of social media ROI for most companies:

#1 – Measure website traffic

It’s easy to find out how much website traffic you are receiving from social media outlets.  As long as your website conversion rates remain constant, increased traffic will result in more leads and sales.  You’ll probably notice higher conversion rates on traffic coming from social media sites, as these website visitors are often more engaged than others.

#2 – Measure search engine rankings

Google, Bing and other search engines are now showing social media results on search engine results pages (Google search your name and watch your LinkedIn profile come to the top).  Search engines are indexing and factoring Facebook and other social networks into search results…use social media the right way and you’ll see improvement in your organic search engine rankings.

#3 – Lower costs of marketing to existing customers and prospect base

You can interact directly with customers and prospects through social media channels like Facebook, forums, LinkedIn and others.  That means no direct marketing costs for things like direct mail, flyers, email and collateral to interact with your audiences.  Do it via your social media channels and save.

#4 – Count your inbound links

Inbound links are links from other relevant websites to your website.  Inbound links from relevant sources are the number one thing search engines like Google consider when determining search engine ranking results.  Social media, by getting your message out through multiple channels, allows you to increase the amount of relevant, inbound links to your website.  Count the inbound links to help determine social media marketing impacts.

#5 – Track the number of leads and sales

Everything surrounding your website can be measured, including how traffic comes your website.  Track the number of website visits from social media sources that result in leads and sales.  A free program like Google Analytics will do a great job in providing you this information.  It’s quite simple to calculate ROI when you know the sources responsible for generating leads and sales.

Many small businesses, especially local businesses, ask us if they can benefit from participating in social media networks.

We always answer with a hearty “YES” and advise most to start with LinkedIn.

There are LOTS of reasons for your small business to be on LinkedIn. The big reason I want to share with you now is how LinkedIn helps increase your natural (organic) search engine rankings.

Why LinkedIn

As a network of about 45 million business professionals, LinkedIn is viewed as an established authority site by Google and other search engines. This makes LinkedIn a powerful resource for you in your search engine marketing efforts.

What To Do

• Set your business profile to be public – this enables search engines to see your profile, index the information and return it within search results…this is a must starting point for higher search rankings.

• Customize your links – instead of using the default setting of “my website,” “my blog,” etc., customize them with carefully selected descriptive phrases used by people searching for what you sell…instead of “My Website” label it “Birmingham Security Services,” as an example.

• Use Your LinkedIn URL – your public LinkedIn URL must be optimized for search engines. LinkedIn allows you to specify what you want in your URL…it does not have to be your name or company name. Yep, that means I could make my URL www.LinkedIn.com/in/birminghamsecurityservices instead of www.LinkedIn.com/in/BrianOffenberger. See how I’ve got my key search phrase in the URL? That’s golden in helping you achieve higher search engine rankings for the search term in the URL. Make it a good one. You set this up at the “Your Public Profile URL” section within your LinkedIn profile.

• Employees – make sure your key employees have profiles within your company LinkedIn profile. These can be indexed by search engines as well to return further search results for your company.

There’s little doubt LinkedIn can help your company, even local companies, achieve higher natural search engine rankings. Apply these tips and let me know how they help you.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – July 14, 2009 – Security Selling today announced the debut of its free security industry specific internet marketing blog, The Security Marketing Blog.

The new security industry internet marketing blog contains free information, tips and resources to help security companies, integrators and life safety companies increase online lead generation and sales.  It is updated at least twice weekly.

“Security companies everywhere need to increase incoming sales leads and sales through online channels,” said Brian Offenberger, president and founder of Security Selling.  “Our blog is a resource center for companies to get tips and tactics to succeed with internet marketing.

The blog can be found online at www.SecuritySelling.com/blog/

About Security Selling

Security Selling helps security companies, life safety companies and integrators increase sales and grow lifetime customer value through internet marketing.  The company provides training, marketing audits and web development/web marketing services for security industry clients.  Learn more at the company website at http://www.SecuritySelling.com.

Media Contact:

Dale Knauss

Online Marketing with RSS Ray

(602) 412-3426

It usually doesn’t take monumental efforts to accomplish great things. Often all you need is an extra degree. Watch the quick video on the link below to find out what I mean.

http://www.212movie.com/

Wow! What a turnout for the ISC Education webinar I conducted today. Over 500 people! The webinar was titled “Right On – No Bull” Lead Generation in a Tough Economy. The webinar was packed with put-to-work now tips to generate more leads through internet marketing.

See the presentation slide set here

We’re often asked about our core beliefs relating to security and life safety marketing and advertising.  Here are our answers:

• Your only objective in marketing or advertising is to sell something at a profit or to lower costs. You should consider “brand awareness,” if it happens, to be a lucky byproduct of the marketing/advertising.
• Marketing or advertising should always contain a specific offer (s).
• You must focus on solving customer problems or needs. They don’t care about your company or products until they feel you can help them.
• Ad and marketing creative must be presented from the customer’s point of view.
• You must always give the customer a reason to respond NOW.
• Your offers and marketing will always include clear instructions to the customer about how to respond.
• You only ask prospects and customers for the MINIMUM amount of information necessary to complete the transaction.
• Always protect the customer with a published policy concerning your use of their personal information.
• ALWAYS track and measure the impact of your advertising/marketing.
• You continue to communicate with prospects and customers using PROFIT PATH PLANNING PRINCIPLES.

There you have it. Those are our core foundational beliefs about marketing and advertising for security and life safety companies. Now you have our opinion…leave us yours in the comments section for this posting!

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – April 8, 2009 – Security industry veteran and internet marketing expert Brian Offenberger today announced the opening of Security Selling – a web marketing agency helping security companies, life safety companies and integrators increase online sales.

The inspiration for Security Selling came from a security dealer complaining about the poor quality of web companies able to understand his business, recalled Offenberger, president and founder of Security Selling.  “The dealer complained that his website never produced leads and how hard it was getting to find new customers via traditional marketing methods,” said Offenberger.  “And on top of it all, he couldn’t find a web company that understood the industry, its customers or its products.”

The idea that there could be a better way to increase online sales for security companies, life safety companies and integrators caught the attention of Offenberger, a 20+ year management veteran of the industry and a certified internet marketing expert.  Pounds of almond M & M’s later, Security Selling was born.

“If the dealer wants to learn about internet marketing, we have free and low-cost training to teach them to do-it-themselves or how to better interact with their web company,” said Security Selling Member Director Caryl Carpenter.  “We can also do the website marketing work and reporting for them to ease the burdens and maximize their marketing results.”

Unlike other web marketing companies, Security Selling is built with certified web marketing experts that also have industry experience – lots of it.  Offenberger has more than 20 years senior management experience in the security and life safety industries, being part of the management team of an SDM Magazine Dealer of the Year and as Director of the Western U.S. for the fire and life safety division of Siemens.  He’s also a certified web marketing specialist by the eMarketing Association, Google, Yahoo and others.

Key services offered by Security Selling include:

Club Memberships: Members get special monthly training and twice weekly updates about online marketing best practices important to security companies, life safety providers and integrators.  Members also receive private consultations with marketing experts and access to the Security Selling Member’s Only website, packed full of put-to-work now web marketing information.

Training and Coaching: Security Selling is re-engineering the sales and marketing process with practical, effective training about marketing and selling in the internet era.  An array of programs for teaching industry specific online marketing best practices is available, as well as an innovative program for teaching salespeople how to use the internet to sell more at higher margins.

Web Development and Web Marketing: Security Selling builds custom websites and web marketing solutions, all designed to increase website traffic while converting that traffic into leads and sales.  Security Selling helps with things like search engine optimization (SEO), paid search advertising (PPC), website conversions, web effectiveness analytics, email and rss marketing, social media marketing, social networking and other business performance issues.

Those interested in learning more about Security Selling can visit http://www.SecuritySelling.com.  Security Selling is a division of Right On – No Bull Marketing, LLC.

About Right On – No Bull Marketing, LLC.

Right On – No Bull Marketing’s effective web marketing strategies and tactics produce profits for service and retail companies every day.  Originally formed in 2005 as BizGrowth Consulting Solutions, the company changed its name to Right On – No Bull Marketing in late 2008 to coincide with a book written by the company founder under the same name (book release in Fall 2009).  Right On – No Bull Marketing websites and web marketing programs provide businesses of all sizes measurable results while increasing sales, profits and lifetime customer value.  Right On – No Bull Marketing is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona and is also the producer of the radio show, Online Marketing with RSS Ray, heard weekly on wsRadio.com, the internet’s leading talk radio station reaching more than 3.5 million listeners.