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Saturday, February 19, 2011

Do You Want Customers?

Undeniably YES, right? Right!

Okay, then lets get back-to-the-basics of when you first started your business. Because we all know how important the basics are in everything we are set out to do and achieve. And since we are in the heat of the basketball season, and March Madness is around the corner, just how important is it to 'make a layup' or 'make a free throw' during a game? VERY, and this is why before every game all players practice both techniques more than shooting around the floor.

Here is a great quote from many successful entrepreneurs: "If you take a different mindset, you may get a different outcome."

So lets begin with the 5 Top Tips for getting back-to-the-basics for the sole purpose of retaining existing customers and generating new customers.

1. Get clear about where you want to focus your time.

  • Know first of all what you want - what you really want - to achieve with your business strategy this month, this quarter, this year and beyond. In these times, like we never experienced before, you must have a solid frame of reference to make good decisions.
2. Be open to all options.
  • Sometimes assumptions and past experiences create a wall thus getting in the way of new thinking and objectivity. Be completely honest with yourself about whether you are limiting your range of solutions to how can you can achieve better results at your company, or with your staff, or most importantly, with your customer and/or shopper.
3. Create space to think.
  • Establish a time and place to evaluate and analyze all your business options. Ask yourself the who, what, when, and how questions to support your new thinking structure. Write your thoughts down to create an approach to find solutions that may have stumped you in the past. The fact is, time will not change, so you will have to.
4. Take ownership for the outcome.
  • As it should, the buck stops with you. Only you can manage your time and only you can therefore choose what and how you spend your time. You are the only one who ultimately chooses what you do and when you do it. Yes, there may be consequences beyond your control, but only you can decide the impact of those consequences.
5. Ask for help.

  • You do not always have to do everything yourself, especially in these evolutionary times. There are always people around you who can help you with achieving your objectives. Again, think about that first day with your business - most likely, you were a sponge for information and were willing to do whatever it took to build your business.
In looking at prospecting for new customers, we know that this is never easy. In even the best economy, it takes creativity, perseverance and determination to successfully drive new customers into your business. But when the economy struggles, small businesses are better positioned to grow their brand by offering more services - personalized services.

THINK HARD ABOUT MONTHLY EMAIL BLASTS: Click here to learn more about Email Marketing.

And here are a few marketing ideas to get you thinking:
  • Spring Breakers - Reserve Now and save big from airport parking prices.
  • Traveling over St. Paddy's Day, park your car with us and St. Paddy's day will be complimentary along with a car wash. Reserve Now for our lowest prices.
  • Happy Easter from ________ Parking. Park your car with us and ________.

To summarize, it is all about fundamentals. It is important to realize that travelers - families, associations and business owners - have become more focused on their personal and corporate finances to circumvent cutbacks of any kind. So, if you really think about it, off-airport parking companies have a great opportunity to take market share simply because of the mindset of most American's - and today, it is about saving money!

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Understanding SEO Importance for Your Website Productivity

Usage Stats
The percentage of Internet users who use a search engine varies by study, so it’s difficult to define the exact percentage. However, a 2008 report released by TNS Global Market Research titled “Digital World, Digital Life” stated 81 percent of Internet surfers used search engines to find a brand, product or service.

There were 1.73 billion Internet users worldwide as of September 2009, according to Internet World Stats. When doing the math, it equates to approximately 1.4 billion people using search engines to find what they're looking for. Compare this to the world population of around 6.7 billion, and that means nearly 21 percent of the Earth’s inhabitants use online search engines. Keep in mind this number reflects the entire population of the world, including impoverished and underprivileged nations with little or no Internet activity. North America, with approximately 252,908,000 Internet users, is near the top of the scale, coming in third after Asia (738,257,230) and Europe (418,029,796).

Considering these hefty numbers, maintaining an optimized online presence has never been more important for small to mid-size companies, allowing them to reach Internet users who are searching for a reputable parking company serving their airport.

SEO by Google Webmaster Central

Impressing Visitors
Consider your parking website a full-page color spread in a phone book. Your business has one shot to impress shoppers and convince them to choose your company over the competition before clicking elsewhere. This should be kept in mind when allocating your website development and search-engine optimization (SEO) budget. If shoppers do not like what they see or experience online, they likely won’t even bother checking your prices before moving on to the next search result.

It’s inevitable that you’re competing for search-engine ranking with many other parking websites. Aside from ranking well in the search engines, having a website that’s both visually appealing and user-friendly can often be the determining factor in whether shoppers will choose your business over the competition. Having a disorganized or difficult-to-navigate website will often drive users away, no matter where your business ranks in the search engines or how low your prices are.

Many, if not most, parking companies have websites that aren’t optimized or properly maintained. This is partially due to operators underestimating the importance of this component as part of a good overall marketing strategy.

A high-quality website should consist of a well-designed structure that is easy-to-navigate internal-link architecture, with easily accessible and quality original content. A basic rule of thumb is all content should be accessible within no more than four clicks. This makes website navigation easy for users, which mitigates the risk of them getting frustrated with your site and moving on to the next website.

Building On-Page Optimization
Once your business has a website that’s visually appealing with a user-friendly interface, on-page optimization is the next step to gaining visibility in search engines. Titles, descriptions, keyword targeting, internal anchor text and other on-page attributes must be optimized for search-engine crawlers, commonly called spiders. This requires keyword research and term/phrase selection that will help your business rank well for your targeted key terms.

An SEO consultant can help you’re company determine the best titles, keywords, descriptions and more for your website to get you the top search-engine result placement. Once you’re finished with the development and optimization of your website, link building, content creation, social media and viral marketing are the next actions to reach page-one ranking on the search engines.

Having followed the aforementioned suggestions, your final result should be an impressive-looking and fully functional website that satisfies visitors and search engines. When consumers use a search engine to find parking at your airport, your business must be among the top results with a simple, friendly and fast website. This will give consumers the good first impression that’s necessary to convert them from website visitors to paying customers.

Take The Shot
In the fast-paced, ever-changing world, business owners must observe and adapt to the way consumers behave to most effectively market their services. With more people using search engines than ever before, having an optimized website is more of a necessity than an extravagance.

Search engines currently are at the top of how people find what they need, and there’s never been a more opportune time for parking companies to use the Internet as a targeted and cost-effective marketing tool. Why wait for your competitors or third-party aggregator's to take advantage of SEO before you do? "Take the shot now and make it" (your online presence) known with a fully optimized website designed to showcase your parking operation and draw in the potential customers your business may be missing.

New Ticketing Management System for Parking

SMC Software Unveils Intuitive Ticketing Management System (TMS).

News Announcement.

Friday, February 4, 2011

Doing business as SMC Software

Smart Marketing Concepts, Inc. is now doing business as

Aggregators in Space

In our first posting last month, we provided a brief definition of third-party marketing websites, known as Aggregators. We thought is was important to share the number of Aggregators in the market place, and to make you aware that new parking domains appear to be popping up every month on a search engine near you.

In addition, please note there are "alert messages" found on Aggregator websites that deliver misleading information to online shoppers in search of a discounted parking space. Here are two we found:

"Sorry there are no parking spots available for those dates!"
"May Be Sold Out & Rate Not Guaranteed"

Having found this, we encourage you to take the time and visit the websites below to validate any and all information pertaining to your brand; pricing, availability, and services. For your information, one Aggregator owns over 20 websites.

www.airportparkingreservations.com
www.airportparking.com
www.parkingaccess.com
www.flightstats.com
www.discountairportparking.com
www.gonomad.com
www.airportparkinglots.com
www.1888airportparking.com
www.priorityairportparking.com
www.airportparkingusa.net
www.bootsnall.com
www.simplyparking.com
www.parkinglinks.com
www.parking4less.com
www.parkingoffairport.com
www.johnnyjet.com
www.airportpark.org http://travel.flightexplorer.com/airportParking.aspx
http://airgorilla.com/services/airport-parking.html
www.retailmenot.com/view/airportparkingreservations.com
www.parknjet.org
www.cityparkingusa.com
www.parkingbookings.com
www.airport-parking-deals.com
http://laxparkingonline.com
www.discountairportparking.net
www.globalairportparking.com
www.airportparkinginc.com
www.parkrideflyusa.com
www.paylessparking.com
www.longtermparking.com
www.aboutairportparking.com
www.pnfnetwork.com
www.parknflynetwork.com
www.airportparking.com
www.airportparkfly.com
www.parkingaccess.com
www.cheapairportparking.org
www.airportparkingconnection.com
www.letstalkairportparking.com
www.unitedairportparking.com
www.airportparkingnet.com
www.jetway.com
www.ifly.com
www.netparkfly.com
www.parkingwhiz.com
www.bestparking.com
www.budgetairportparking.org
www.airportmonkey.com
www.parkingcarma.com
www.letsgoparking.com