Business Industry Overview

Established in 1953, the SBA (Small Business Administration) reported in 2019 that 30.2 million small businesses are operating in this country, which comprise a massive 99.9% of all United States businesses. The SBA defines a small business as a firm with fewer than 500 employees. The majority of small business owners considered a lack of capital or cash flow one of their major challenges, followed closely by trouble with marketing and advertising. 

Small Business Failure Rate

“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail” (Benjamin Franklin). Careful, methodical, strategic planning -- and hard work – favor the success of any major event. The same can be said of most business accomplishments.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 20% of small businesses fail in their first year, 30% of small business fail in their second year, and 50% of small businesses fail after five years in business. Finally, 70% of small business owners fail in their 10th year in business.

It’s critical for all businesses to have a business plan. It must be realistic, based on accurate, current information and educated projections for the future. Components should include:

·       Description of the business, vision, goals, and keys to success

·       Financial: capital equipment and supply list, balance sheet, income statement, cash flow analysis, sales and expense forecast

·       Market analysis

·       Marketing, advertising, and promotional activities

·       Analysis of competition

·       Potential problems and solutions

·       Budgeting and managing company growths

Whether you have a business plan or not, our services identify many essential elements needed to grow your business that are included within a strong business plan.

Business Owners Need Help

Various studies show SMBs lack the time and knowledge to manage digital media effectively. Many small business owners acknowledge their shortcomings with more than 70% stating they wish they could take advantage of digital media to help expand their businesses and reach new customers. Most small business owners believe current marketing providers don’t have their best interest in mind. Owners often feel marketing providers push “flavor of the month” products on them and don’t bother to learn what they actually need.

300% - 500% Return on Investment

URWA Consulting has been providing digital marketing consulting services to hundreds of SMB clients since our inception in 2011. The success of our firm is directly attributed to our unique business model which enables us to work with businesses to identify, develop strategies and measure KPI’s (key performance indicators) that drive business growth goals and increase the probability of long-term success. Clients implementing our recommendations experience between 300% to 500% returns on investments.

Give us a call to schedule your complimentary consultation.

Maximizing Business Revenue from Every Marketing Dollar

By Warren Kolber

Are you generating new, repeat, and referral business from your marketing in a profitable way? That’s the question you need to ask yourself.

The ability to measure, communicate, and grow the contribution of marketing investments is a critical factor in your business success. With so many potential customers using the Internet to research, locate, educate, compare, and check everything from reviews to prices to products to location, the businesses that master digital marketing often find themselves with an advantage over their competitors. If you invest a $1 in a marketing activity do you know approximately how much to expect in return?  

Most marketing experts suggest that generating $5 in revenue for every $1 in cost is a good target; more on this later in the article. Once you know your target you can begin managing your business based on performance, customer, and financial data. The single most important task that you must accomplish to earn the highest returns on every dollar that you invest is to learn as much as possible about your ideal customer types. 

You need this information to be able to map their wants, needs, and behaviors throughout their entire buying journey. The type of information that you’re looking for includes; why they wanted or needed the product or service, how they began their search, what was important to them in making their decisions during their buying journey, how long did the entire buying cycle take, etc.  The best and least expensive way to do this is by connecting with your past customers. 

Also, very high on the list if you want to generate high returns on your marketing is building your email marketing list. On average, Email marketing generates $44 for every $1 spent. Even more important, research shows that email is consumers preferred channel for promotions, with almost one-third listing email as their top choice.

Today, most consumers start their search for a business, product, or service online. Many consumers use online research in place of the traditional buying cycle. In fact, 81% of people go online before visiting a store. For major purchases, people may spend as much as two to three months online. In many cases, by the time a customer contacts a salesperson, their deep into their buying journey. To ensure that consumers have a great experience you need to make it quick and easy for them to access whatever they want on your website. This means moving the content about you and your business to secondary pages so your website home page and its primary navigation can focus on helping people access what they want.  

Don’t forget that many people now go online using their mobile device. To give you a better idea of the power of mobile search, Fifty-five percent of mobile searches resulted in a conversion within one hour.  Your website needs to automatically detect what device someone is using and automatically create a mobile friendly version of your website in less than one second. The good news is that this is easy to do, and it should be included in most modern websites. 

Third person opinions about your business are more important than what you say. Investing a very small amount to generate new reviews, and implementing a system to uncover negative customer experiences before they’re posted online is a very low cost way not only to increase the conversion of website visitors to leads and customers, it also is very valuable in Google search rankings or search engine optimization (SEO).

At an absolute minimum, you need to cover your costs of any marketing campaign. Your costs include whatever you invest in the media you use, producing ads and content, fees you pay to others, and your cost of acquiring the product you sell. If you only generate twice the revenue as the cost of the actual marketing, it’s possible that your production and other costs would eat up any profit that you would have made. 

You do want to consider the Lifetime Value of each new customer when you calculate your return on any marketing investment. To do this you have to calculate all the revenue that customer will generate over their entire lifetime as a customer, and this should include any revenue generated by your business from new clients that a customer refers to your business.

  

There are numerous tools that you can use for very low cost to help you collect the data that you’ll need to make these calculations. Our top choice for small businesses is Marketo and Hubspot, and for larger businesses Pardot.      

I started this article by mentioning the importance of performance data. We see way too many expensive marketing agencies and experts design programs that do not generate the performance data that is needed for a business owner to evaluate and refine the programs they implement. URWAConsulting strongly recommends that you find a firm or professional who will help you deign marketing programs based on your ideal customer’s buying journey and measure everything.

We provide a FreeMarketing Analysis for businesses interested in learning how they can generate better returns on their marketing investments. We’re also happy to schedule one freeconsultation if you would like to speak with one of our Managing Partners; warren@urwaconsulting.com, or (303) 562-4744.

Remember, if you can’t measure it, you shouldn’t invest your money in it. 

6 Steps to Succesful Lead Generation 100% of the Time

Today's buying journey for almost any product or service now integrates online research and information gathering with traditional and online transactions. Any business or organization can influence prospective buyers throughout their buying journey to convert them from searchers to website visitors to qualified leads to buyers once they identify their best customer types, and map their buying behaviors. Read the full article by URWA Consulting on the 6 steps to successful lead generation by clicking here, and find links to free online tools for your business.

URWA Partner Program

URWA Consulting can now help print publishers develop a new, repeat revenue stream by helping their advertisers with their online marketing. Publishers simply identify advertisers who are struggling with their online marketing, At no cost to the advertiser, URWA Consulting will analyze their digital markting, and show them a step-by-step plan to accomplish their goals. Often, for a lower investment than they are currently making. Call us at (303) 223-4988 for additional information.

Start Your Website Redesign With Customer Mapping

If you take the time to understand how your prospective customer, client, or patient accesses information to make their decisions throughout their buying cycle, you will have more opportunities to build your website and web presence for both SEO and lead conversion.

You can get a free analysis of how your web presence is affecting your business, practice, or organization's success by going to http://www.urwaconsulting.com/contact-presence.asp

Think web presence, not SEO!

When the frustrations of dealing with online marketing companies that over promise and under deliver start setting in take a few moments to consider how your overall web presence is affecting your business, practice, or organization profit or loss.

We know beyond any doubt that prospects and customers are accessing information about the businesses they are considering buying from lots of different online sources. Those sources include online directories, online review sites like Yelp and Google+ Local, mobile apps., social profiles, the major search engines, coupon sites, video web sites, and industry blogs to name a few. We also know that people search by brand, name, and location for many products and services, and they make their decisions based on benefits, reputation, and other variables related to their specific needs.

To generate new leads online, every local business needs to be visible when ready to buy prospects are looking, get chosen, engage the prospect, and convert the prospect into a lead and a customer. Measuring the results throughout this simple process will provide data that can be used to optimize your online marketing, and improve your return on your marketing and advertising investment.

If you would like to know how your total web presence is affecting your business or practice profit or loss, send an email with your name and business name to info@urwaconsulting.com, and type "web presence P&L report" in the subject line, or call (303) 498-2233.

Businesses Need a Marketing Expert

There's no end to the list of online advertising companies, SEO firms, and website developers that want to sell online advertising to small business owners. What small business owners need are experts to ensure that their web presence supports their business or practice objectives for the lowest cost possible. All small business marketing should fall into one of the following buckets; attract prospects, engage prospects, convert prospects to leads & customers, measure outcomes, and optimize the business marketing. If that's not happening for you, call 303 223-4988 to discuss your situation, or go to URWA Consulting.

URWA welcomes the Silver Law Firm, Conscious Dental, Dry Creek Dental, and Homeguard Restoration as new clients.

Free Online Marketing Help for Denver Businesses

Any Denver business, medical practice, or organization can get free help with their digital marketing from experts by emailing their question(s) to URWA Consulting's digital marketing consultants at   info@urwaconsulting.com, or going to URWA Consulting website (www.urwaconsulting.com) and completing the "Contact Us" form. There is no cost for the service.

The most common help URWA Consulting provides is developing and implementing online marketing plans, updating websites, building mobile websites, optimizing websites, building online visibility across the Internet, online lead generation, lead management and conversion, website performance measurement, eMail marketing, text marketing, behavioral targeting, online directory optimizing, Google Plus Local setup, social media integration, and new content development. 

Founded in 2011, URWA Consulting works on a month-to-month basis with fees starting as low as $194 a month. The firm has helped more than 150 Denver area businesses and organizations take control of their online marketing, and ensure that their online marketing investments are aligned with their organization's short and long-term goals.   

Free Website and Online Marketing Advice

It is relatively common knowledge that most small businesses fail because they are not able to connect with new customers, clients, or patients. Online consulting firm URWA Consulting is now offering a free service to help businesses from Denver to Fort Collins understand how to use their websites and the Internet to connect to new customers. Common areas evaluated include website performance, website lead generation, search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (PPC), online display advertising, existing marketing contracts, Internet yellow pages, video marketing, mobile marketing, eMail marketing, and more.Call 303 217-3993 to schedule a consultation.

New URWA Consulting Clients

URWA Consulting welcomes Thrive Colorado, TwinPeaks Dental, Flatirons Dental, HappyCat Pilates, Lookout Renovation, Salon Tres Ci, and Colorado Deck and Landscape as new clients in October. Most URWA Consulting clients are trying to get better retunrs from their websites and/or their online advertising. If you would like to discuss your situation contact URWA Consulting at 303 217-3993, or learn about URWA Consulting at www.urwaconsulting.com.

Website Lead Generation and Internet Advertising

Many of the business owners that URWA Consulting meets with in Denver and throughout Colorado find themselves disappointed with the results of their online advertising. They wonder why their websites do not generate more leads from local searches. Often, they feel like their online advertising is not working.

Part of the problem is that most business owners hear what sounds like a great pitch from an Internet advertising company. Some Denver Internet marketing companies even show reports from Internet marketing clients. Yet, the majority of business owners in Denver, Colorado Springs, Boulder, and Fort Collins do not know the difference between SEO, a title tag, pay-per-click, and Google+. This makes it more likely that will fall for a good Internet advertising sales pitch, sign up for online marketing services that they do not need, and make a bad online marketing decision.

To avoid making bad decisions on your company's online advertising and marketing business owners need to speak with current and past clients of the Internet advertising company who are in the same type of business. Another option, is to hire an experienced Internet marketing agency or an Internet consulting firm.

Take Care When Hiring an SEO Company

It is a big red flag when a SEO company tells you that they have a set fee to optimize your website for a specific number of keywords. Why? Good optimization takes into consideration how competitive the vertical your business is in, and the geographic area that you need to be optimized for. For example, to optimize the website of a attorney in Denver, Colorado is much more difficult and competitive than optimizing a machine grinder in Highlands Ranch, CO.

To ensure high visibility for the attorney you would ant to optimize and maesure an entire category of keywords that could number into the hundreds. Whereas the machine giender could probably optimize around a handful of key words with search volume be quite visibe on the results page of the major search engines.

If you have hired a SEO company that does not take the time to understand your business, industry, and market consider looking for other options. If you don't know where to turn, and you need expert advice at a very reasonable cost, call URWA Consulting at 303 562-4744 and ask for Jeff.

Google's Authorship Program Boosts Search Engine Rankings

Please use the link below to read about how Google's Authorship program can boost your search engine rankings.

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2170855/6-Ways-to-Boost-Your-Rankings-Using-Google-Authorship

If you want to set up a meeting to discuss this further contact your URWA Consulting Media Consultant, call 303 562-4744, or go to the company website at www.urwaconsulting.com and request a meeting.

Building Your Facebook Likes

Many business want to build their Facebook likes so they can engage with their "A" customers, and find new ones. The best way to accomplish this is to provide your Facebook followers with offers, special promotions, and engaging content. Once you establish a reason for your "A" followers to read your posts they are much more likely to recommend you to their friends and followers. Make sure that you ask your new customers to "Like You" on Facebook with in-store signs, on your business cards, of course on your website, and on your offline marketing material. Keep your expectations conservative for the first six to twelve months as you continue to post engaging content. Don't be disappointed if your followers don't grow as fast as you would like.  Eventually, you're going to see your audience grow, and all the while you will have been posting new content to help your SEO. Find more online marketing, SEO, PPC, and social media tips at www.urwaconsulting.com.

Google+ SEO Benefits

Results from Google+ will now be pushed up the results rankings. The key to this change is that Google will be indexing more of its own content and less of its rivals Twitter and Facebook.To take advantage of this changes URWA clients should complete their Google+ profiles with keyword rich content that their customers might find usefull.URWA clients can find instructions at http://www.urwaconsulting.com/.