Local Search Listing Continues to Grow in Importance

You are busy. You are a Real Business with a Store Front. Why should you care about this Internet Stuff? Simply, it is the most effective way in 2009 to bring more customers to your store.

In the U.S. at the end of 2007 there are well over 10 billion unique searches done each month. Of those searches 4 billion have Local intent (42% increase from 2006). Out of all local business searches, 86% of Internet users follow up their search with a phone call or a visit to the store. Of those, 61% end up making a purchase.

On top of that data, respected technology experts around the world think the world of mobile search is ready to take off in 2009 and 2010. In some places around the world, like Japan, many of these technologies are already in place. They’re in use even in the United States, with more sophisticated devices like the iPhone. Mobile searches are primarily going to pull their results from Local Search Engines.

So what are the pieces to Local Search Listings?

Local online directories such as Google® Maps and YellowPages.com™ are the Internet yellow pages. Profiling your business in these directories is similar to listing your phone number in the traditional yellow pages. Today, customers turn to the Internet to find a pizza store, a beauty parlor or a home improvement contractor in their area. Make sure your business is listed in local online directories where customers are looking for it.

So how do I submit my Business to Local Search Engines, Online Yellow Pages and Local Social Networks? And how do I update or correct wrong entries? - Sometimes this isn't easy to figure out!- For some sites you can do that online, through an online interface, but in other cases you will need to contact the Core Data Provider of the site in question.

Taking control of your business' Local Search Information is the Key to any effective Internet marketing strategy. I can help you to find the right pages on the sites and give guidance to how & where each site (ex. Google, MSN, Yahoo) get their business data from - because only if you know that you can control it. Email me for FREE 20 minute appointment.

Has your Business Identity been Stolen from You?

First, everything else being equal, most people want to do business with a local company. They know it is good for their community and it just feels more comfortable. On the Internet even Google recognizes this and has placed Google Local Search prominently on the key first page of any appropriate search of products or services.

So the good news is that Internet Search Engines like Google and Yahoo are providing high visibility to local businesses. It is surprising that at the end of 2008 it is estimated that less than 20% of Local Small Businesses have taken control of their local business account on any of the major Search Engines. That does not have to be a terrible thing, as the Search Engines can do a good job of at least acting like a web based yellow page and does not hurt your business.

What is alarming is that, either through bad computer algorithms or worse, the high jacking of your Local Business site, the links embedded in Your Local Business may not being linked to your business. This means that the best way new customers can find your business, is being redirected away from your website and ultimately your business. Examples can range from:

• A local franchisee who has a local website going to the corporate site, loosing local information
• A competitor linked to your business siphoning business away from you
• A similar named business being linked to your business

What would you do if you were looking for a Kitchen supply company and a link took you to a Pizza joint? Most people would move on to the next business on the list and you would have lost an opportunity to get a new customer.

Why Should You Care?
Nielsen//NetRatings found in 2004 that 24.4% of searchers on major search engines conducted searches that were local in scope, averaging 4.6 searches per searcher. By 2007 Nielsen//NetRatings saw this increase to 32.6%. Using the Internet to find local businesses is now main stream and can only grow in frequency.

For many local businesses, the question is no longer whether they should begin to market in the local online space, but when. Incredible opportunities are being missed, as consumers search online for local products and services, but the businesses do not have an effective online presence to serve those customers.

I specialize in working with Small Businesses in local markets. As an introduction to my services I will do a FREE analysis of your business and determine if it has been claimed on Google, Yahoo, LiveSearch (MSN), and Best of the Web. All I need is you to email me your Business Name and Zip Code and I will return to you your business’ status on the top 4 Search Engines Local Sites.

Where does the best Advertising Come From?

The single most powerful form of communications is word of mouth.

The Corporate Culture Customer Trust Index 2006 showed that comments from trusted acquaintances topped the poll of trusted channels of communications.

In simple terms, successful businesses continue to strive to make the customer experience memorable so that each customer becomes your advocate. The more advocates you have, the better your business will become.

Social Networking is one of the strongest tool for small business to keep in contact with their advocates and compete in today's down market.

Growing Your Business in 2009 - Case Study #1

Results:
The client's industry (U.S. Specialty Retailing) saw sales drop 13% for Q4'08 and looks to be down ~20% for Q1'09. In this down market, working with me, my client sales:

• Grew 14% Q4'08 over Q'407
• Were up 5% Q1'09 over Q1'08

Background:
Specialty retailer with one location, that has been in business for over 30 years and has a great reputation within their customer base. They have maintained best practices including the business systems they use. They have excellent IT integration from vendor ordering, POS (Point of Sales) systems, to their website. Being a small business owner, the client was focused on the day to day activities and was not able to spend any time marketing their business other than historic use of yellowpages advertising. Q1'08 business was down compared to Q1'07 and I was brought in to bring a fresh look at bringing new business to the store.

Goal:
Leverage in-store personnel, existing IT systems, and NEW Internet Tools to:

• Effectively compete against three larger multi-store competitors
  
• Bring increase in new customers to the store

Tools used:

• Email Capture in POS system
• Updated Website
• Monthly Email Newsletter
• Controlling Web presence / Social Networking
• Google Alerts
  
• Google Adwords
• Google Analytics
• Google Blogger / Facebook / Twitter

Conclusion:
The tools and framework that I provided were only a part of the clients success. The client put a significant amount of sweat equity (Employee Time) creating marketing programs for their customers including product sales, and free demonstrations of their products and services.
What I was able to do was guide the client in the use of free to inexpensive internet tools (Less than the cost of his old Yellowpage advertising - Which they dropped) to get the word of the client's marketing programs to existing and new customers.

Other indicators:

• Web activity increase of 3.5-4.5 fold increase in hits / page views from Q4'07 to Q1'09
• Email capture grew from ~200 to over 2500 in 12 months
• New customers grew from 22% of business in Q1'08 to 43% of business in Q1'09

Free business research tool from Google - Google Alerts

Put Google Alerts to work for you by sending you a daily digest of links of information related to your business by searching the web for key words you choose. For Free, you can get timely information about your industry, your competitors, or what people are saying about your business.

The different types of alerts include news (the latest news articles about your topic), web (the latest web pages that contain your search terms), blogs (posts that contain your search terms), comprehensive (the latest results from multiple sources), video (the latest videos with your search terms), and groups (posts from your Google groups). It's up to you whether you'd get daily, weekly, or "as it happens" email alerts.

To start you building your blog content you can simply take exerts from the original content Google Alerts provides (Make sure you reference the writer) and at the end create a link such as "Click Here for the article". If you are a reseller (as most retailers are) bring content & reviews from your vendors and place it on your blog.

Leveraging Google Alerts can be a easy way to add posts in business blogs, for those of you with writer's block. Click here if you want to see an example of using others articles on the Web found using Google Alerts, to build your blog.

It can also be the first line of defense in protecting your online reputation. It is good to know what people are saying, both good & bad, about you in the Wild West of the Internet.

Blogs vs Websites - Where to start?

Blogs are the way to go! It is a great way to start building a strong online presence without spending a lot of money and hassling with web designers. You can easily add new content. Search engines (like Google & Yahoo) love them. And if done right, customers love to read them.

For those of you who may not know what a blog is, it’s short for web log, and is a frequently updated website consisting of blog posts, or entries (more often than not, dated entries) that are arranged in reverse chronological order. So when a reader comes to your blog, they see your most recent article or post first.

The advantage of a blog is that blogs allows you to post written text, audio and video and have it online within minutes, unlike traditional static websites which can take hours to update and cost you each time - unless you’re familiar with building or editing web sites.

As you can see, I like blogs as the center of a new marketing effort instead of websites, but it is not just an apples/oranges decision, and it’s not just about which is easier to manage. It’s about which web you want to invest in:

• the current brochureware web, which gives you a static place to refer people to for information about business; or

• the social web, the thing the web is becoming, which has built in feedback loops and a referral system that can dramatically build awareness for your products & services.

Right now, I am a big fan of using blogger.com from Google. Along with it being a Free blog, using the business tools that Google has in conjunction with your blog can quickly provide you with a strong professional marketing effort on the web for little money.