Inside Entrepreneurship: Ads, shmads -- you need to turn up on Google

It's understandable, too, because entrepreneurs devote most of their startup energy to designing innovative products and services. Although most don't believe that their idea will "just sell itself," not enough attention is ever paid to the tedious details of securing enough paying customers.

In last week's column, I addressed the inclination of ambitious entrepreneurs to get ahead of themselves and hire big-name, big-budget advertising advisers. These firms are not usually accustomed to serving customers who could easily go out of business if a marketing campaign fails to attract customers. While the ad firm might lose a customer, the entrepreneur loses a business.

Remember the dot-com hype? Well, I believe part of the feeding frenzy was created by ad firms that were more than happy to spend an unconscionably high proportion of a startup's working capital on unproven media campaigns.

So, how can a local reader who is starting up a trendy retail store create enough customer traffic to qualify for a venture capital-backed national rollout? What types of advisers can help him achieve his goals?

Clearly this reader has to demonstrate local success before moving on to bigger challenges. For ideas on how to find first customers using Internet search tactics, I called Larry Sivitz, a direct marketing expert and the president of SearchWrite.

Sivitz confirmed that local search technologies have become more advanced and cost effective for small-business owners who serve local communities. "Google, Yahoo and many other sites have new tools in place for local retailers to generate new customer momentum. It's worth it for business owners to spend some time learning about each search engine's resources because they keep getting better every day."

Here are a few SearchWrite recommendations:

Optimize Web sites for local search engine visibility by including address information on a Web site's "title tag" to help search engines pick up retail store information.

Register the company's profile information with Google, Yahoo, SuperPages, Local.com, InsidePages, TrueLocal and Judy's Book.com, among others.

Conduct several small tests of pay-per-click advertising at sites that can narrow the campaign territory by ZIP code. Compare results and keep track of this information to determine a company's estimated "cost of customer acquisition." (Note: Venture capitalists are impressed when a CEO knows this measure of business.)

Pay attention to customer ranking services offered by Judy's Book and Yahoo. Businesses with customer comments will rank higher in search results than businesses with no customer feedback.

Upgrade the content quality of a Web site's primary "landing" pages. Google has adjusted its scoring system to favor more relevant content over sites with lower content quality. Updating Web-site content frequently also increases Google search results.

Sivitz acknowledges that the average business owner doesn't have the time to test and tweak search advertising campaigns. For that reason, marketing firms such as SearchWrite are introducing new timesaving advisory packages to help business owners keep pace.

Finding first customers usually requires startup entrepreneurs to find great advisers. Interview at least three candidates and compare each firm's experience serving similar clients. If a search optimization firm is not certified by, at a minimum, Google and Yahoo, assume the firm is not going to be your most knowledgeable, professional resource.

Susan Schreter writes about startup planning and small-business financing for the Seattle P-I. She has an investment banking and buyout background and serves as a coach to entrepreneurs and consultant to corporations. Find more Inside Entrepreneurship columns at seattlepi.com/venture. Send questions about small-business management or raising money for your business to susan@insideentrepreneurship.com or by mail to Inside Entrepreneurship, c/o Seattle Post-Intelligencer Business Section, 101 Elliott Ave. W., Seattle, WA 98119.

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