Episode 54: Martin Shervington
In this show I talk to Martin Shervington, who is an author, speaker and marketing consultant at PlusYourBusiness.com. He coaches on marketing, specialising in things to do with Google.
Why is it important for people to think about Google when doing any kind of online business?
Martin is a blogger and uses Google every day. He starts off with the example of just using Google Drive as a storage mechanism. He uses this for his writing on his blog. His point is that there are ways to use Google in all parts of your business.
When people talk about SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), what is this and why does it matter?
If you are posting a blog post, for example, Google indexes that content. If you have the most relevant answer on a topic, and the article has been shared then it has a chance of rating. He suggests using the Google Adwords Keyword Planner tool (which you can use without paying for advertising, but you do need to sign up) to look for relevant keywords around what your book is about and write blog articles focused around them. Martin has a course about Adwords on Lynda.com.
How could someone hoping to promote a book use services like Google Collections to build up an audience?
Right now there is an opportunity in setting up Google Collections about a topic. Google have a scheme called Google+ Create where Google will promote Collections to a wider audience within Google. Martin has a free course on YouTube about Google Collections. You can watch it here:
You can subscribe to Martin Shervington’s YouTube channel here.
In terms of advertising on Google, what are your best tips for small self-publishers considering this?
Martin is honest and says don’t start with advertising on Google. Start by building a community rather than worrying about advertising. With his experience with book promotion, Adwords isn’t the place to start. You need to understand your audience before you can make best use of Adwords. There isn’t yet a model that Martin Shervington has seen for the publishing industry for promoting on Adwords. Professionals should be able to do it for you but are probably way too expensive for most self-publishers.
How do people go about building community?
You build relationships on any appropriate platforms, not necessarily Google+, depending on where your audience is. You don’t want a sales-based community, but on based on interests.
What do you find the most exciting thing in the world of Google at the moment?
Martin is excited about Mobile optimisation on Google. They have recently started to allow web sites to be optimised for appearing on mobile phones. Martin mentions a new tool that Google have created to help see how your web site performs on a mobile phone.
I was expecting you to mention VR?
While Martin is excited by virtual reality, in his opinion it isn’t yet really relevant to people trying to sell things. To him it is a distraction rather than something that people should yet be looking into. While it may well be significant in 5-10 years at the moment not that many people are using any of these platforms.
In terms of Google+ in general, are there any subject areas where Google+ is particularly strong?
There are huge communities, generally more focused on the more geeky areas. Try searching for your area + “google plus community” and see what you get. You can then join those communities and start interacting. It is all about finding common groups. Don’t just post on your own profile but go and reach out to people.
How can people find out about Martin Shervington?
His website is https://www.plusyourbusiness.com/ . You can email Martin Shervington at martin@plusyourbusiness.com if you want to get in contact with him. You can also check his YouTube channel out, which has lots and lots of tutorials about Google and Google+.
If you liked this show then you might like Marketing Using Pinterest With Jeff Sieh and Crowdfunding with Ryan Hanley (Episode 14)