Jim Huebner Hmmm V62

YOU ASKED FOR IT

“Some people see the glass half full. Others see it half empty.I see a glass that’s twice as big as it needs to be.”

—George Carlin

February 18, 2015FAST FOOD, GLORIOUS FAST FOOD

BRAND OBSERVATIONS OF THE DAYFrom my random collection of info sources, here are some highlights related to the brands of our times...

• McDonald’s was in the news last week for missing their sales and earnings numbers. Marketers across America have chimed in with their “fixes” to the fast food behemoth’s problems. I look at the masses waiting in line at the McDonald’s in DIA and figure they must be doing something right. So here’s my suggested tweak in a nutshell...Subway owns healthy food and has almost double the locations that McDonald’s has. So don’t go down that path. Just focus on fast. OWN fast. After all, you’re the original “fast food” joint. Absolutely offer healthy options as long as you can do it fast...but make it all about speed. No one will ever complain about getting their food too fast—and when it’s fast, price and taste become a bit less of an issue. Maybe Rocky Balboa’s trainer, “Mickey” (ironic, huh), had it right...“Speed’s what we need. We need greasy, fast SPEED!”

• Speaking of fast food...According to industry trade magazine QSR, Chick-fil-A tops the list of all fast food chains when it comes to sales per store. The most recent report shows an

impressive $3.157 million in annual sales per store. Rounding out the top five behind the chicken king are McDonald’s, Jason’s Deli, Krispy Kreme and Panera Bread. What’s truly amazing about this statistic? Chick-fil-A is CLOSED ON SUNDAYS! Talk about a “halo effect”!

• And while we’re lovin’ on Chick-fil-A, here are two factoids to share that will help you stand out at your next dinner party... - Chick-fil-A sauce packets used annually: 84 million. - # of Fudge Nut Brownies sold annually: 13.6 million (You may stand out like Cliff from Cheers, but you WILL stand out nonetheless.)

JIM HUEBNERj i m h @ h u e b n e r p e t e r s e n . c o m

C E L L U L A RT E L E P H O N E970-420-3382

Hmmm.

Brought to you by popular demand of a client, my mom, and some folks I met at a church potluck

From the remaining gray matter of Jim Huebner

Information that will make you smile, groan or think...

Darn, I already ordered the chicken sandwich,but maybe next time...

© 2015 Hmmm by Jim Huebner

Using the right key words to “float the boat”

...and on its way to the HuebnerPetersen blog...! PAGE2

I’ve attended a number of creative workshops, sales seminars, what’s-coming-down-the-pike-next-type conferences, and how-to-improve-this-or-that webinars over the years. And I must admit—often times, much of the information presented at these sessions isn’t necessarily new. It may be a good reminder, it might prompt me to take action—and either of those results can certainly make it valuable. It’s just not always new.

So when I attended a search engine optimization (SEO) seminar with a staff member a few weeks ago in Orlando, I assumed we’d rehash a few things (and we did). But as Google algorithms and technology itself seem to change on a daily basis, I was also hopeful that it would shed some new light on the subject. And in a word, it “delivered”.

In fact, the SEO system they presented is so predictable, it gives us the ability to offer a MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE for clients on their SEO investment. Not bad in a world where CFOs AND marketing people want to know what ROI they can expect before they invest.

But it wasn’t just the money-back guarantee provision that made this particular seminar worth the price of admission. It was also this important reminder about SEO...

Let data drive your keyword and content decisions, and NOT your gut, experience, insights, anecdotal research or feelings.

All too often, marketers are “certain” they know exactly how their customers search for their products online....and are completely wrong. How do we know? Because when we compare the

keywords in title tags and meta tags to what is actually searched for—as reported to us by our keyword data tracking tools—they can be as far off as the North and South Poles.

Here’s a good example...

We’re in talks with a company that manufactures pontoon boats. We’ll call the brand “Bubbly Pontoons” for the sake of anonymity. With the intent to provide a few SEO recommendations, we took a quick look at their source code and it showed “Bubbly Boats” as their title tag. Now keep in mind, nailing the title tag is key to SEO.

Other than the actual content on the page, it’s probably the most

important on-page SEO component.

So we ran “Bubbly Boats” through our keyword

tracking tool to see just how relevant these keywords were to what was actually searched for

during a specific time period. It showed that “Bubbly Boats” was searched for zero times. The entire time period—ZERO searches! Compare that to the exact and exclusive keyword combination of “pontoon boats” (searched 1,142 times) or “pontoon boat” (searched 906 times), and I’m afraid to say Bubbly was more than likely NOT “breaking out the bubbly” over their SEO success.

The reality is that they are a formidable competitor in the market, but when “pontoon boats” is searched, they don’t show up until page 4 on one search engine and page 13 on another. How unfortunate. Particularly when 75% of all click-throughs occur on the top five results, and 92% on the top ten results.That means Bubbly saw ZERO click throughs when people searched “pontoon boats”. And all because some

starry-eyed programmer thought, “Title Tag? I got it! How about Bubbly Boats!? That’s what we WANT people to search for, right?!”

BOTTOM LINE: If your company is planning to re-optimize your website for search, do NOT depend on your “gut” and pick keywords that you WANT consumers to use in searches. Use the data and pick words they DO use... because that’s what “floats the boat”. Jim Huebner is President of HuebnerPetersen Marketing Communications and author of the eBook “7 Keys To A Happy Distribution Channel.” His firm was established in 1989 and specializes in making companies heroes to their sales channels via strategic brand positioning, integrated marketing, and front lines marketing services. You can reach Jim at [email protected] or on LinkedIn. For “Hmmm” archives, CLICK HERE

WORDS TO

LIVE BY

“Do nothing out of

selfish ambition or

vain conceit. Rather,

in humility, value

others above

yourselves...”

–Philippians 2:3 (NASB)

Image courtesy of Forbes.com