The Rico Group

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Beginning July 1, 2018, Google will be marking sites without an SSL certificate as NOT SECURE. This will affect your search rankings. Websites without SSL / HTTPS will be ranked below sites that have SSL certificates.

Here’s how SSL Certificates and website security will impact your website traffic.

An SSL Certificate or Secure Sockets Layer provides an extra layer of security when data is moved between your site and the viewer’s browser. When potential customers visit your site in search of products or services, the information that they send to you and the information that you send back to them is encrypted and therefore well protected by the HTTPS encryption algorithm. This is absolutely the best way to conduct your business. Not only does it provide your customers with a better, more secure experience, but it provides them with the assurance that they can trust you.

Google places so much value on HTTPS that it now uses it as a ranking signal which will be even more relevant after July 1, 2018, when it marks websites without SSL Certificates as NOT SECURE. 

Here are a few advantages you and your SEO work will gain when you switch to HTTPS:

Your Rankings Will Increase

According to Google, those that switch from HTTP sites to HTTPS sites will see an initial slight increase in their rankings. Data analysis tells us that HTTPS sites, on average, have higher rankings than HTTP-URL’s. Take note that, while you may find it difficult to quantify after you switch to HTTPS, the ranking of your website will likely continue to increase over time.

Referrer Data from Your Visitors is Preserved and Protected

Referrer data is the information where traffic originates when it passes through a site. The data is used by websites and web servers to determine where people are visiting them from, so they can either, tailor their advertising and promotions to them, or, record the data for statistical purposes. This data passes through HTTP sites and HTTPS sites differently. First, when visitors pass through an HTTP site, their referral information is sent directly and unencrypted. This is problematic for obvious reasons, but, not to worry because, as you may have already guessed, a switch to an HTTPS site will remedy this issue. HTTPS sites, like HTTP sites, provide referral data, but unlike HTTP sites, they do so while keeping it secure.

Better Privacy and Security

Beyond the basic idea of encryption, there are several ways HTTPS provides privacy and security for your website and SEO goals.

  • Stops third parties from tampering with data.
  • Authenticates the website, making sure it is the one the server is meant to be communicating with.
  • Encrypts ALL communication on your website, including URLs, thereby protecting information like credit card numbers and browsing history.
  • Makes your site more secure for your visitors.
  • Keeps your search rankings with Google

Want to stay relevant and well-ranked by Google and provide a safe and positive online experience for your users, then you really have no other option but to switch to HTTPS. One thing we do recommend is that, if and when you make the switch, you inform Google of the update. That way, they will begin boosting your rankings more quickly. So, don’t wait! Switch to HTTPS today.

To assist you with this issue we’ve put together 2 packages to get you secure and optimize your website and online presence – Click this link for more information

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We recently launched a new website for Saddle Peak Lodge, a Michelin star restaurant in Los Angeles CA, specializing in wild game.

We worked with the restaurant to come up with a photographically focused redesign of their website. In addition we gave them a responsive design to work across all platforms and integrated their Open Table reservation forms and social media feeds into the site. All the images on the website with the exception of the wedding and corporate event photos were created by Rico Mandel.

The restaurant has a long and interesting history dating back to the early 1900’s and has been used for many TV shows and movies.  This inspired us to capture the environment, food and UI for the site. We found stills from some of the shows they were in to bring the overall story of the restaurant to life. Our next task will be to create a series of videos of the restaurant for their website and social media.

We had a blast working with them on this project and producing a website that reflects the elegance and fine food that the Saddle Peak Lodge has been offering for so many years.

Here’s a link to see the site – Saddle Peak Lodge

Let me know what you think.

If you’d like to discuss your business click on the link and set up a time that works best for you – https://ricomandel.youcanbook.me

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I was speaking with a prospect today regarding their website. Their business is down since most of their revenue is tied up with 3 customers. We discussed the need for them to upgrade their website and create a marketing campaign to generate new customers. They were looking to save money and were thinking about taking their own photos instead of hiring a professional to do the job.

Unfortunately I have heard this before. The last place you want to cut corners in online marketing is with your visual image and particularly photography. It’s what’s going to make the viewer stop and take notice of your website, ad or post. It’ll make them pause long enough to read your headline, look at your message and delve deeper into your content.

So why would you put an image on your website or social media that’s not going to cut through the online noise.

Having professional images created of your business, products, personnel and processes demonstrates to your prospects that you care about your presentation and take pride in what you offer to your customers. This translates to the same care you’ll give to them.

Professional photographers/video producers know how to make your business come to life, convey your story clearly, and compel your prospects to stop and take notice.

When using a professional photographer/video producer there are a few things you want to do before you hire them.

  • Look at their website to see if they have experience creating images/videos you are looking for. IE: If they shoot weddings and you need products photographed find someone else
  • See if their style matches your brand.
  • Make a list of the photos you want  – if you are working with a marketing company or coach have them help you create the list. If it’s a video know where it will be used and who the audience is.
  • Create a budget and be willing to modify it, if necessary, to get the results you are looking for. It’s not unusual for clients not to know what’s really involved in the production of photographs or video. I’ve often found that if the budget is the most important thing then there are things that can be modified to make it fit within the budget.
  • Once you’ve narrowed down the candidates have a conversation with each to see how they would approach your assignment.
  • Give the photographer/video producer as much information as you can about your business, your shot list and how the content will be used.
  • Pay attention to the personality of the photographer/video producer to make sure that it works with yours. Do they have a good understanding of what you are trying to accomplish? Are they offering you solutions to bring the project within budget? Are they willing to explain why something you are asking for won’t fit within your budget or timeframe?
  • Be willing to share your budget with the photographer/video producer. This will give them a parameter to work within. It will also open the discussion to see if what you are asking for is realistic or not. The photographer/video producer should be able to offer up suggestions to either bring the project within budget or let you know a more realistic budget to consider.
  • Most of all when speaking with a photographer/video producer it’s a discussion not a lecture from them. If you don’t have a good feeling about them when you get off the phone then move on. Creating your photographs or videos is a partnership between the two of you – if you can’t work together as a team then it’s only going to end badly.

Hiring the right professional photographer/video producer will make your job much easier and save you time and money. What they produce is the visual image of your business and that translates directly into more sales for you.

Let me know your thoughts.

Also, here’s a Free Ebook you can download that will help you: Discover The Secrets To Fast Track Your Online Marketin

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Competition for business is tougher than ever before. Many companies are vying for the same piece of the proverbial pie and finding it difficult to connect with their prospects. Search engines make product and service research very easy for consumers.

So, what can be done to get your company to stand out and have a more effective online presence?

The answer: Differentiate your company from your competitors by providing your prospects with solutions to their business issues and be there when they’re ready to buy.

Let’s be honest,  everybody says they have the best quality, outstanding customer service and/or most cost effective solution. This may be true for your business but that’s not what will get buyers to come to you. You need more to attract them

Perhaps it’s time to reclaim your mission for being in business. You need to dig deep to find your core reasons for being in business aside from making a profit.
Steve Jobs said,”Marketing is about values. Customers want to know who you are, what you stand for and how your business fits into the market”

Ask yourself and your team: How do we best serve our customers? What is our excellence? What is the problem we can solve?

Once you’re clear on your mission, it’s time to deliver that message to your prospects and attract the business that you are looking for.

Here’s some strategies that can Increase your effectiveness online:

  1. State a clear message on your home page that incites interest and has a call to action. Tell them what you’d like them to do, IE: Select your _________ and click here, register for our newsletter or free report, for business owners click here for consumers click here and so on.
  2. Create consistent content to assist and stay in touch with customers such as articles, blog posts, videos and case studies.
  3. Employ compelling copy that delivers vital information while giving your company a unique voice.  Whenever possible discuss how you can solve your customers problem.
  4. Create landing pages that are specific to your target markets.
  5. Catch more traffic with high-end photographs that capture the uniqueness of your operation and products.
  6. Share the human story of your company with its history, traditions, specialized employees and relationships.
  7. Educational Video makes your products and processes come to life. Approximately 70% to 80% of buying decisions are made after watching a video vs. reading text.

Regardless of your service or product in the end it’s all about what you can do to make it easy for your customer to get their products and services easily.

Get our Free Ebook – Attracting New Customers: The Essential 5 Steps For Online Success

To Schedule a Free 30 Minute Strategy Session Click Here

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One of the most important assets for your business.

Blogs are an excellent way for your business to help out your customers and prospects by creating content that will help your customers do their job better or solve a problem.

You may ask yourself why do I want to help my customers do their job better? The reason is simple – All companies, whether individuals or fortune 500, are in the business of solving problems or fulfilling a need for the customer. The better we are a fulfilling customer needs the more trust and loyalty our customers will have for our business.

A company blog is a powerful tool that establishes your expertise in a given field. The more answers your customers can find with your company the more likely they are to continue to come back and refer you to their friends, family and colleagues. .
Your blog is one of the most important tools in your marketing strategy.

Here’s 3 reasons your blog is a great asset:

SEO

Search engines love blogs. There’s lots of content for them to collect, so when someone is searching on a topic your business knows, your blog will show up higher in the search rankings. Why? It’s the way the algorithms are written. The search engines want to give the best match possible to what ever the searcher is looking for.

This will help drive more traffic to your site, the more visitors the more opportunity you have to get them to contact you or buy your products.

Education

Your blog is a primary source of customer education. It can help your customer to know more about your business, what services and products you offer and how they can benefit from them.

You can also use various media on your blog – photographs, video, charts and graphs audio content and so on to illustrate your particular point. How do I decide what topics to write on? I usually tell my clients to think of the top 5 to 10 questions they are asked most often then to turn each question into a topic for a blog post. Your post doesn’t have to be long. They can vary in length depending on the subject. I recommend mixing it up. Either way I also recommend an economy of words, if in doubt use someone else to edit your blog posts, read them out loud and see where you can trim the piece to keep it to the point.

Another thing to remember in your blog posts is to keep your reader in mind – it’s not about you it’s about them. Including links to supporting articles, videos, content on your website and blog also help enhance the reader experience and… help your SEO rankings.

Expertise

The articles on your blog establish your expertise. It’s where you get to share the knowledge of your business and build your brand.

Part of your brand is your personality. My wife’s writing teacher told her to “write like you talk” This is especially important to your blog since it gives your customers an opportunity get to know your personality allowing you to connect with your “tribe”. It’s human nature to want to hang out with people who are like us… who we resonate with. Your customers come to you because they like your message and the way that message is delivered.

Sharing your expertise on a variety of topics related to your business gives you more credibility in the marketplace and attracts more buyers to you. It’s pretty simple we all want to do business with the person or company that we see as the expert in the field. Your blog establishes your expertise.

Blogging is an integral part of your sales funnel. You can do it yourself or outsource it to a company that can help you with a strategy such as The Rico Group. Either way it’s time to share your expertise with your customers and prospects.

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I was recently discussing the changing tide in industrial marketing with a colleague. We talked about the different forms of advertising, how print was being usurped by digital media and that many industrial manufacturers are overlooking content creation and social media in their marketing strategy.

Social media is an extremely effective and viable form of marketing today. It’s a perfect extension of the sales process. Let’s face it sales is all about relationships. Business relationships are social interactions that enable people to get to know one another better, build trust and ultimately do business together.

Why do we do business with some people and not others? Most people will say because I like that person, I trust them and they take good care of me. How did they get to that place? Through social interaction. It’s the same with social media. Social media expands relationship building to the internet. For business it isn’t about posting the latest movie you went to or what you’re eating. It’s about exchanging ideas, getting to know people or a company and trusting their ability to do what you need.

So how does it work? In the industrial world social media works in the form of extending your reach through content creation. When a company creates content that helps their prospects do their job better, solve problems and exchange new ideas it builds brand awareness and a trusting relationship with your audience.

Here’s an overview of the top business social platforms you should consider in addition to a blog.

YouTube – The second largest search engine in the world – create your business page and start posting videos that will help your customers and prospects.

LinkedIn – Your direct line to the business community worldwide. Create a page for your business. If you don’t have one for yourself create one as well. Post original content and repost interesting content you come across. Google indexes content from Linkedin.

Google+ – A Google+ page for your business will help you rank higher in Google searches by using the business tools such as Hangouts, Communities, YouTube, Google Maps and others. Getting reviews on your Google + page will increase the importance of your page and rank you higher in local searches.

Facebook – Create a business page. Post content about your company, the industry, your people and items of interest to your prospects. Facebook also has powerful marketing tools that can help you specifically target your audience.

The key to an effective social media strategy is to post content at least several times per month and interact with your audience. You can do it in-house or use outside vendors. The important thing to remember is that this type of interaction leads to building trust in the market, improving your search rankings and ultimately drives new business to you.

Explore how the Rico Group can help your manufacturing business increase your sales volume through the use of content creation-video-websites-ads-tradeshow displays and more.  Call us at 805-368-6653 or shoot us an email.

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Competition for business is tougher than ever before. Most engineers and buyers narrow the field by 70% to 80% through online research before making contact with suppliers they are considering for an RFQ.

The number one concern of my clients is: How can we create a more effective online presence?

The answer: Differentiate your company from your competitors by providing your prospects with solutions to their manufacturing issues and be there when they’re ready to send the RFQ.

Let’s be honest.  Everybody says they have great quality. Many of you have AS, ISO and ITAR certifications and equipment just like the next guy.

Perhaps it’s time to reclaim your mission for being in business. You need to dig deep to find your core reasons for being in business aside from making a profit.
Steve Jobs said,”Marketing is about values. Customers want to know who you are, what you stand for and how your business fits into the market”

Ask yourself and your team: How do we best serve our customers? What is our excellence? What is the problem we can solve?

Once you’re clear on your mission, it’s time to deliver that message to your prospects and attract the business that you are looking for.
Here’s some strategies that can Increase your effectiveness online:

  • State a clear message on your home page that incites interest.
  • Create content to assist and stay in touch with customers such as articles, blog posts, videos and case studies.
  • Employ compelling copy that delivers vital information while giving your company a unique voice.
  • Create landing pages that are specific to your target markets.
  • Catch more traffic with high-end photographs that capture the uniqueness of your operation.
  • Share the human story of your company with its history, traditions, specialized employees and relationships.
  • Educational Video makes your products and processes come to life. Our experience has proven that over 80% of industrial decisions are made after watching a video vs. reading text.

Regardless of your service or product in the end it’s all about what you can do to make it easy for your customer to get their parts or products manufactured.

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Today 80% of the B2B industrial sourcing process is done online before an engineer or buyer ever contacts you. Their research is performed online through a variety of channels to narrow down the field before they contact you. The more of those channels you appear under the higher the chance is that you’ll be contacted.

Time limitations and short attention spans make the use of videos the perfect vehicle to get your message across quickly and attract interest from your target prospects. No other media can convey your message as clearly and concisely as video. The right video can speak volumes about your company in the following ways:

  • Shows the passion and personality of your company.
  • Demonstrates your capabilities and your expertise.
  • Establishes your as a solution provider for your prospects.
  • Tells your unique story like nothing else can do online.

We are seeing an increase in the use of videos in industrial manufacturers to promote new capabilities, address design and engineering concerns and educate prospects about the things that make your company unique.

Here are some of the examples of videos that Industrial Manufacturers are successfully using in their marketing –

New Capabilities • Corporate Video • Case Study Video • How To Video • Education

Some of the advantages that video gives you are:

  • Generate 4 to 7 times more engagement and response rates for your website (SearchEngineWatch)
  • 53 times more likely to rank higher on Google than your website (Forrester Research)
  • 41% higher click through rate than plain text (ReelSEO)
  • YouTube is the #2 Search engine and optimized video will give you a strong YouTube Presence

For more information about using video in your marketing give us a call at 805-497-7401 to discuss your requirements.

805-497-7401

432 N. Ventura Ave., Studio 99 Ventura, CA 93001