Online Marketing For Small Business Creates Great Customers!
OK, sure, if you’re big business like Wal Mart or Amazon the Internet is great. But, what do search engines have to do with online marketing for small business? In short, search engines are a tremendous opportunity to be found. How’s it working out for you in the Sunday newspaper classifieds? How many new customers found you in the yellow pages last month?
Online Marketing For Small Business Works Locally
Truth be told, right this minute, right here in the Twin Cities, eager buyers are searching for what you offer. Anticipate these eager buyers and you have the opportunity to stand up directly in front of each of them and tell them your great story. Once you identify the buyer personae of your greatest customers, what’s to stop you from stalking your perfect prospects? Isn’t creating great customers the best action you can take in growing your business? Is it possible to have too many great customers?
Search Engines Help Online Marketing For Small Business
Let’s look closely at typical search engine results to see what’s in it for you. For the sake of illustration, we’ll use Google. Sure, lately we’re seeing a lot of commercials about Bing, and certainly Facebook, too, has an impressive number of searches. Google recently reported four billion searches every day, one billion of which are seeking to buy locally. With two-thirds of all search engine searches, Google epitomizes the online search experience.
Depending on your specific search phrase, the Google search results page may contain three different types of results:
Paid Search And Online Marketing For Small Business
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising may appear above all other results and/or down the right side. First and foremost, know that these are paid advertisements. Every time somebody clicks on one of these ads, whoever placed the ad pays Google. From the time you sign up to the time you start seeing results can be as quick as a few hours. Paid advertising can quickly pull prospects, test landing pages and gauge the market.
Local Business Results And Online Marketing For Small Business
Have you noticed the maps? Unless you’re totally oblivious to the Internet and online search, these last two years of online marketing for small business are remarkable because of the local business results.
Google and the other search engines realize that there is an enormous demand for local and neighborhood search results. Why? Because eager buyers are shopping and ready to buy; but, they’re not prepared to put a new house in a shopping cart and purchase it from Amazon. For many items consumers still insist on buying from a person. They still put the relationship before the deal. And that is great news for local business.
Getting on the map is not a function of paid advertising. Nor is it simply a matter of having a great website. Local business results feature businesses that are remarkable in their community. First, they claimed their listing in the local directories, such as Google Places, Yahoo! Local, Yelp, etc. Second, these businesses made the effort to standardize their listings everywhere, including using the same local telephone number and spelling consistently. Third, customers find them remarkable enough to leave online reviews, endorsements and testimonials for local business. The search engines are gathering many public reviews into the local business results.
Organic Results And Online Marketing For Small Business
Last but not least are the well known organic results. They are called organic because they are the “natural” ordering of all web pages cataloged across the Internet. Although, different search engines rank and order web pages differently, the notions of credibility and trust and back link references from other websites are shared. Clearly, if your business is found on the first page of Google results, eager buyers searching for what you offer may click on your link. Also, the more eager buyers find your link the more likely your business is to sell. Although, many say organic results are “free,” do not forget that consumer searches vary and the search engines change their rules to appeal to searchers.
SEO And Online Marketing For Small Business
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of appealing to search engine algorithms in order to place high in their rankings. Effective online marketing for small business must consider SEO because each business must be found by buyers if they are to sell. Neither SEO nor marketing, however, is simply a matter of adding some ingredient to your website. If marketing is the relationship between a business and its marketplace, and every relationship begins with a single conversation, how many conversations with eager buyers do you want online?
Online Marketing For Small Business Creates Great Customers!
Is it possible to have too many great customers? Search engines are a tremendous opportunity to be found. Right this minute, right here in the Twin Cities, eager buyers are searching for what you offer. Is creating great customers your goal in online marketing for small business?
Call Now Online Marketing For Small Business Answers: 612-235-6060
Are you a business owner in desperate need of fresh new sales leads? Leads are the lifeline of just about any business. No matter what market you’re in every business owner knows that there will be dry spells from time to time. But we’re living in very tough times. Business is tough because unemployment is depressing, many are losing their homes in droves and people just generally aren’t lining up to part with their money.
New Sales Leads Are On The Internet
Although, there may be many answers to this problem, for the purpose of this article we’ll discuss using the Internet to generate new sales leads. Do you think that the Internet is just a fad? What can this crazy caprice, this virtual amusement park for kids and geeks have to offer your local small business? How can this haven for spammers, hackers and Amazon.com stimulate your business’ economy? Simply said, the Internet is where eager buyers are shopping for what you offer. Right this minute they are shopping online and they are going to buy from somebody. How much of that business do you want?
Can New Sales Leads Find You?
So, what’s the secret to producing new sales leads on the Internet? First, your business must be found. You must be found by eager buyers. You must be found where eager buyers are looking. Anticipate eager buyers shopping for what you offer and everywhere they look you can be there. Furthermore, the more people are shopping there, the more targeted sales leads will enter your sales funnel. If you want a lot of leads, make sure you’re offering something in great demand. This combination of great demand and being found everywhere those demanding are looking is critical to success.
Respect New Sales Leads
Second, treat your visitors like the honored guests they are. Once found, be worthy of their visits. Consider what’s interesting about you and your company. Why do existing customers like to do business with you? How are you unique? Tell your story online and leverage your interesting and unique business character. Never talk about services and products again — instead, focus on eager buyers and how you can solve problems for them.
How can you push the envelope of what is tried and true in your market? Remember, your guests are visiting because they want a solution to their problem. How can you benefit them? Tell them about benefits and they will stay; otherwise they will go elsewhere. Give them valuable and relevant information and you grow in credibility. If it’s easy it’s already been done and it’s no longer valuable.
Call New Sales Leads To Action
Third, at the height of your guests interest, ask them to take action. Think about how information spreads online. What valuable content can you offer totally free? Think in terms of spreading ideas — not generating leads. Make your content easy to find and consume.
In exchange for a little information about your guest, you offer them an opportunity to receive more valuable information. Take them to your squeeze page where they give you permission to continue this relationship. An eBook, consultation and samples can nurture their interest until they’re ready to purchase. Every company has something fascinating, unique or funny that can be turned into a video that people will want to share. You do, too. As long as you hold their interest they’re not going to buy elsewhere.
New Sales Leads Cure Doldrums
Don’t be in desperate need of fresh new sales leads. Leads are the lifeline of your business, too. Great new customers always cure the doldrums. Still think that the Internet is just a fad? This crazy caprice, this virtual amusement park for kids and geeks also offers salvation to your local small business. Simply said, the Internet is where new sales leads congregate when they are ready to buy.
Call Now Answer Your New Sales Leads Question: 612-235-6060
Wanna hear a story of how one entrepreneur easily attracts targeted sales leads and creates a sales inferno? There’s no rocket science in duplicating this story and its success. If qualified leads are a means to your serious business growth in 2011, this is an outline of examples.
Share Your Story With Targeted Sales Leads
Reread the first line of this article. I bet you’re pretty good with your story. Put a good business owner eyeball-to-eyeball with a qualified prospect and odds are good they will hammer out a deal. Great stories have long been among the most effective sales tools. Why? Stories are an effective way to establish rapport and to build a relationship with your prospect. Take great care in crafting your story about you, your business and products and service. Your story adds personality, depth and substance to your brand. Good, bad or otherwise, you are building your brand in the prospect’s mind and what she remembers when you part is her brand recognition.
Your website, social media and other interactive online gathering places are opportunities waiting for your story. A big difference between the Internet and offline media is the window of opportunity. Tell your story in a journal article, tell your story over the phone, tell your story at a seminar — how long is your story available to be heard? Next month’s journal has new stories. Only those on the other end of the phone line can hear you. When you and everybody leave the seminar, your story leaves, too. Tell your story in a blog post, tell your story on Youtube, tell your story on Facebook — now, anybody any time can stumble across your story … today, next month or ten years hence.
Give Targeted Sales Leads Reason To Return
Even better, divide your story into chapters and publish them over time. Cliff hangers work on television and they’re great for breaking your story into bite-sized pieces. This will keep those most interested coming back time and again for more and more and more of your compelling story. Consider also repurposing your story properties into different online media such as video, podcasts, audio, articles, blog posts, etc. Some of your best prospects prefer video, some prefer audio, some prefer text … some may digest it all. Furthermore, syndicate each of these various story properties across multiple sites. Remember Hansel and Gretel? The more bread crumbs you scatter across the Internet, the more likely that a great new customer will find one and follow it back to you.
One common mistake I made was limiting where my business can be found. By publishing content only on my website I was dependent on the search engines to find enough of it before they ranked me high enough for me to be found. It’s easy to promote your story to a larger audience by writing guest posts on other blogs, participating in forums and webinars, being interviewed online and contributing to social media Q&A. Your story reaches an audience you wouldn’t normally reach through your website alone. In the case of online interviews, you have the opportunity to answer questions and focus on your solutions to real problems in the real world.
Targeted Sales Leads Are Searching For Solutions
Highly targeted sales leads are interested in you because they have a problem and they come to know that you have a solution to their problem. They are interested in you and your company to solve their problem. What can you do for them?
Let your story tell them how you have solved similar problems for real people. Tell them how your customers have benefited from your product and service. These case studies build credibility and kindle the first sparks of trust in prospects. Outline the struggles you went through, the experiments and the successes you’ve had with great customers. Give away How-To articles that help people with the basics. Mention similar situations that might also benefit from what you do best. Refer to testimonials and endorsements made by your best customers regarding this success.
Targeted Sales Leads Are Hot For Your Story
How easy is it to attract targeted leads online and create a sales inferno? There’s no rocket science in telling your story to eager buyers. Put you eyeball-to-eyeball with a qualified prospect and odds are you will close the deal. All you need to burn down the house is to gather targeted sales leads around your bonfire and tell a great story.
Call Now Answer Your Targeted Sales Leads Question: 612-235-6060
Marketing local business is not as simple today as it was in the past. A long time ago, it seems marketers promoted local business by putting ads in the yellow pages and buying ad space in the local newspaper. Business has gotten very hard in The Twin Cities. Eager buyers no longer look at the newspaper ads to shop for products and services. Today most consumers start by doing an Internet search before they buy. What will happen when you anticipate eager buyers shopping for what you offer? Knowing what they type into the search box, what’s keeping you from appearing everywhere they look?
Marketing Local Business Online
Take roofing for example. Drop by Google.com and search for the following:
twin cities roofing
minneapolis roofing
saint paul roofing
As I write this, the search engine results pages all show one thing in common: that gorgeous map! Local business results are your key to marketing local business successfully.
There are three sections to each Google search results page:
Pay-per-click advertisements at the top and down the right side;
Local business results and that gorgeous map above the fold; and
Organic or natural search results everywhere else.
So, each roofing company has at least three (3) chances to show on each page. And, take note, this is only Google! We’re not looking at Yahoo!, Bing, Facebook or any other search results. Is Your Website Marketing Local Business?
Consider your own company website. You may have paid big bucks to publish your online business card — did you? Did you pay for pretty? Or, did you intend to pay to produce more customers? How many new customers did you get last month because of your pretty website? What is your return on that investment?
What about your website content? Is it relevant to your visitors? Is it compelling them to take action and buy from you once they’re on your pages? What would persuade you to buy from you? Are you calling them to action on each page? If you don’t ask them to call you, what do you expect them to do? Not calling you, not buying from you and going away may be exactly the message they’re getting from you.
As a local business, what are you doing to make sure that eager local buyers know that you exist? How would you find your company if you didn’t know about it? Remember that cool map? Google will only place you in the local business results after they recognize that your business is local to that search. What is your service area? As a Minneapolis roofer, how interested are you in Duluth business? Or, business in Fort Lauderdale? The best marketing local business strategy pulls customers directly from your local community. Even if business thousands of miles away can be good, won’t local business be better?
Marketing Local Business Has Changed
Marketing local business online is not that different from marketing offline. Eager buyers want to taste, hear, smell and feel your products and services. Give them a great reason to walk through your front door and they’ll come to check you out. There are rating and review sites providing places for your customers to express their feelings about your business. Claim your business listing on social rating and review sites like Google Places, MerchantCircle, Yelp, Angie’s List, etc. With half a reason to stand up in public and tell the world about your remarkable work, many customers will do just that.
How much of that do you want?
Community involvement will certainly build your brand quickly. The more your neighbors talk about your business, the sooner marketing local business brings them to you. Marketing local business is different today than in the past. Today most consumers start by doing an Internet search before they buy. Anticipate eager buyers shopping for what you offer and, of a sudden, everywhere they look you are there. In fact, marketing local business online is different: it is effective.
Marketing Local Business 90 Day Challenge
Give me ninety days and you will be successfully marketing local business throughout the Twin Cities.
In this world we live in today there are tremendous opportunities to market your business online. It can be very confusing to navigate this online world and make sound decisions that maximize the value of your marketing efforts. To help you solve these struggles, below are several ideas to take away and implement right away to bring you more success.
Social Media Enhances Marketing Your Business Online
Social media is all the rage lately, and for good reason. Today Facebook is the third largest nation in the world with 500 million users: China, India, Facebook then the United States. It’s one of the best places to expose your business. Facebook makes this easy through the creation of Facebook Pages where visitors looking for more information about your business can find you. Setting up your business Page is simple and can be finished in a matter of minutes.
Twitter has created a massive audience that is quickly growing to 200 million users. It’s becoming one of the first sites people visit when they log onto the Internet. Not only are people reading other people’s messages for personal amusement, but they conduct searches to discover new businesses and new products.
These are two of many different online media available for marketing your business online. This interaction with your customers will benefit your company by highlighting concerns where you can respond immediately. You can put out fires when they’re only smoking, before they grow into a real problem.
Understand Your Customer To Solve Their Problems
While ideas of creating the next Chia pet might seem like a good idea, they don’t solve anyone’s problems. The best way to grow your business is to focus on a niche audience and solve their real world problems. Once you have discovered their problems, you deliver products that are truly needed. Through social media in which those niches participate, time spent marketing your business online will return profit.
Marketing Your Business Online Is A Story
Your “story” is more than a buzz word when it comes to marketing your business online. Consumers are quick to ignore pitches and fake product reviews. They will listen intently to a story from a user and how they used a product to solve a problem. You know how good you are eyeball-to-eyeball with prospects — your story should be specific and related to directly to your prospect’s need. Online, too, this builds trust in people for you and your business. Build on your relationships with customers through your social media efforts.
Online Marketing Demands You Listen Then Engage
Listening to your customers’ conversations about your business and your competitors is extremely important. If customers talk about you in social media, no response to their requests and problems will adversely affect your business popularity. Customers demand to be heard more than ever! Listen carefully to what is said, then develop a sound response. Rushing to conclusion is never a good idea and further confuses the marketplace.
There are many other ways you can market your business online effectively. These tips will help transform your marketing effort into something modern and effective. Interacting with customers has never been easier than online. Marketing online is far cheaper compared to traditional marketing media.
Marketing Your Business Online Is Where Your Customers Are
It is always best to go where the people are. Right now, eager buyers are shopping online for what you offer. They’re all online waiting to hear what your business has to say. They’re listening for your stories and eager to engage with you. What are you waiting for? Start marketing your business online today.
Room To Breathe Online Marketing For Small Business
Online marketing for small business owners can be somewhat tricky, but, if done successfully, it can make running a small business simpler. Online marketing can make a small business successful while, at the same time, allow a small business owner an easier time running her business. So, how does online marketing for small business really help business? Does it really make things easier for small business, or simply simpler?
Online Marketing For Small Business Or Fail
Well, let me put it this way, small business needs to be aggressively marketed, no matter what, or the competition will eat it alive. If your business is not marketed properly, it will fail — plain and simple. As it is, the never ending race for new business is exhausting and consumes the bulk of my time. I love courting great prospects and the challenge to convert them into great customers. What’s better than bringing a great customer into your family? How can small business get any better than growing your family of great customers?
So, why should a small business be marketed online as opposed to marketed elsewhere? Let me show you several reasons:
First of all, marketing online gives small business owners a greater sense of control over where and to whom the business is marketed. To whom ought you to market your business? Understand your two or three best customers intimately and coalesce that intimacy into buyer personae. Focus on your buyer personae. If you’re not selling Pampers or used cars, do not market to Pampers and used car buyers. Online marketing is much better than traditional marketing for laser focus on target markets.
Focus On Online Marketing For Small Business
If your business sells rare antiques, you don’t want teenagers to be the majority of people seeing your advertisements. With online marketing, a business owner easily chooses on which online media to market her business. She can monitor the demographic viewing her website to help determine whether or not that online media is where she wants her business advertised. Marketing to the right demographic is one of the most important factors in generating sales, because targeted leads are more readily closed. This is accomplished most easily marketing small business online.
Furthermore, online marketing for small business makes growing business easier because online media are more readily changed. They don’t need to be as on top of marketing strategies as they needed to be when they ran ads in print or some other offline media. Have you ever tried to change the color palette on a billboard? How quickly can you change from black-and-white to color Yellow Pages spread?
What does this mean? Well, I’m not saying that a business owner won’t have to monitor her marketing strategies closely. Whether they are online or off, one size never fits all. Some techniques will work and others don’t. Some strategies may work today and no longer work next year.
Measure Online Marketing For Small Business
Nevertheless, it’s far easier to monitor effectiveness online, and easier to test multiple alternatives simultaneously. With a simple click of a button, the small business owner can see how many websites visitors she’s attracting from particular advertisements.
More to the point, it’s easier than ever to gather metrics and measure crazy stuff like visitors to leads to sales ratios. How profitable is your Yellow Pages campaign? Traditional offline marketing cannot provide clear cause and effect metrics. It’s exceedingly difficult to monitor how much interest in a business is being generated from TV commercials, newspaper ads and telemarketing calls. Online, these statistics are readily monitored.
Online Marketing For Small Business Is Smart
Overall, online marketing for small business is just plain smart! Making the small business owner’s life much simpler is perhaps the single greatest benefit of online marketing.
Marketing is undoubtedly among the most essential aspects of any small business venture. It is actually how businesses grow and how they continue to work toward profitable goals. However, marketing is also one of the most challenging areas for small business owners to manage. It is often difficult to figure out what type of marketing is needed and which is effective.
Keep It Simple With Online Marketing For Small Business
Small businesses might not know the best places to advertise or might not know which marketing agency to hire. For the most part, online marketing for small business is the ideal solution for most of these concerns. The strategies to carry out marketing online for small business are very simple to understand and are considerably more affordable to use compared with traditional marketing campaigns, such as newspaper ads and Yellow Pages spreads. If you think about how ineffective traditional marketing with wide-ranging strategies is today, you will realize that the amount of money you have to spend on these campaigns is wasteful.
Online Marketing For Small Business Targets Best Customers
Just imagine that you purchase a commercial advertisement from your local television station in the course of their most popular programs. Suppose your product is geared toward the younger market, but the program is targeting all age groups. Even though you might make several product sales and some of your ideal individuals might pay attention to your advertisement, you probably will not generate sufficient interest and sales to cover your considerable advertising costs. The truth is, more often than not, you would have wasted your money.
One Alternative: Online Marketing For Small Business
Now, think about online marketing as an alternative. Your ad is published online in places frequented by interested individuals who want to see it and buy it. These people are trying to find the information that your advertisement provides, whether they are seeking a specific product, your service or more information. Now, because of the brilliance of online marketing, the market you are targeting will find your website because eager buyers are shopping for what you sell. This makes a huge difference, because rather than placing an advertisement in a single spot with the hope that someone will actually see it, your ad will be requested by eager buyers shopping online for what they want at the moment they want to buy it.
Remain Flexible With Online Marketing For Small Business
Online marketing for small business directs customers directly to your business. Done effectively you get considerably higher quality leads. Measurement of traffic quantity and quality allows you to determine how effective each ad is. In addition, in contrast to traditional marketing, online advertising empowers you to easily make changes to your campaign even while it continues to run. Have you ever attempted to do this with traditional marketing promotions? Can you change your Yellow Pages spread once printed? Can you change your TV commercial after production? Traditional advertisements created by traditional marketing agencies could easily bankrupt your business if you insist on changes that are carried out effortlessly everyday online. Flexibility is key to online marketing for small business.
In case you have just become a business owner, you should know that it is vitally important to find the best opportunities available for marketing local business. Doing all that it takes to get and keep consumers interested in spending money to benefit from your service will be your key to generate a lucrative profit.
Marketing Local Business Appeals To Eager Buyers
Local advertising campaigns have proven to be crucial for every business, whether you are a professional doctor or lawyer with some years in your field, or a roofing contractor starting out. It is always best to advertise locally even if your business is already established, because local buyers will be the first to invest their money in your products and services. Marketing local business is the best way to appeal to buyers in your neighborhood and for you to cultivate a successful business.
In many cases this exposure can expand from local to international with simple, positive word of mouth reviews. By using a marketing strategy that leverages testimonials, this will enable your business to thrive. When you are prepared with the best way to market your local business, you will not spend an enormous sum of money — not even in the beginning.
Marketing Local Business Requires Expertise
The most effective way to market local business and boost revenue is to enlist the expertise of a local marketing company. Once the majority of your community knows about you and also what you have to offer, then you should move on to other effective advertising strategies. Advertisements in the local newspapers, tabloids and magazines in order attract more customers used to be the only way. Those traditional methods may not be as effective today. All of your advertising must prominently display your business logo. It is a major visual component to your brand and can be seen everywhere. Your logo can look great on signs and billboards in close proximity to your business.
Marketing Local Business Exceeds Expectations
After you capitalize on these basic marketing techniques and your profit looks good, then you can continue to the next phase. Going beyond the traditional approach of creating brochures, pamphlets, leaflets and flyers to be distributed all over your local area, continue promoting your local business wherever eager buyers are shopping for what you offer. At all times you want to ensure that you are using all advertising options to your advantage. Striving to make earnings exceed expectations, you will find nothing more essential than effective marketing. You will discover that this is one of the best decisions you will ever make for your business.
Marketing Local Business Fulfills Dreams
Now is really the time to get aggressive with local marketing. Ensure that your local business continues to grow to the level you desire. Dream big! Always remember that the opportunities for marketing local business were never this easy. The sky is the limit if you are serious about success and you keep your finger on the pulse of your best customers. Marketing local business brings results.
Connecting with others regardless of proximity is one of the strongest values Social Media brings to the table. My blog may be read in earnest around the world and I appreciate that. LinkedIn has brought business to table with people I’ve not met nor am I likely to meet (e.g., China, India.) Exchanging tweets across the universe is fun and rewarding. So, what is all of this hoopla about Location Based Social Media?
That being said, I do in fact live here, in this specific place, and not only to I reside here, but I shop here, I eat here and I come face-to-face with hundreds of people every week — right here in Minneapolis, MN USA. Most businesses I see do not benefit from ecommerce and shopping carts. Somebody in Afghanistan on the Internet can go to target.com and order a 4-slice toaster; Target will do the currency exchange and ship the toaster to them the next day — everybody wins. On the other hand, my dentist in Plymouth, MN is not likely to benefit from that Afghani shopper. My dentist has a service area outside of which he’s not likely to profit.
Location Based Social Media are the darlings of 2010. New social media platforms, known as Location Based Services, add a contextual layer of movement and proximity to our relationships online and offline. Location Based Services are smartphone applications utilizing GPS to provide information and social networking relevant to our current location. Location Based Social Media are our interfaces to these applications. We are exploring our community online, tracking our friends whereabouts, recent activities, opinions and we shout out to our world where we are and how we want to be found.
What does Location Based Social Media mean to you? ABI Research estimates, “By 2014 global LBS revenues will have surpassed $14 billion.” The more detailed information we have on prospect behavior patterns and social context, the better we find something truly valuable to offer them. We can also provide more specific, directed information based on the location of our best audiences. Location Based Social Media is particularly valuable for brick and mortar store front business who need to drive local traffic to their store, and for anyone promoting an event at a physical venue.
Social Check-in sites enable users to access information about businesses in the local area. At the same time, Social check-in sites encourage users to develop location based relationships with other users, with their other social networks and with local businesses.
Offer incentives to users to check-in and frequent your establishment. Compelling offers bring new customers to your location and build loyalty with your existing customers. Encourage users to check-in on any and all Location Based Social Media. Honor incentives you offer across any Location Based Social Media a user may use.
Listen to your guests! Review sentiment. Comment on posts. Acknowledge Testimonials and Referrals. Most Location Based Social Media have Facebook and Twitter connections that allow your guests to promote your business to their entire social network.
Some Location Based Social Media have search options facilitating keyword and brand term searches. Look for opportunities to promote special offers to users checking in to a nearby locations. Some Location Based Social Media have advertising platforms that enables marketers to purchase advertisements based either on category or location.
Social Review Sites
Social Review sites encourage users to publish online reviews, referrals and Testimonials based on their experiences at restaurants, hotels, shops and wherever you and your business are found in Location Based Social Media. Quality scores can be assigned to each comment based on this user-generated content.
Not all Social Review sites are Location Based Social Media.
Social Review sites are critical for brick-and-mortar business — do not skip your strategy here. Utilize Social Review sites for the free market research they offer — make the changes your customers ask for as appropriate.
Social Review sites enable businesses to publish local business content. Many Social Review sites facilitate offering coupons and discount offers to loyal customers.
Make absolutely certain that your guests remember that you exist on Social Review sites. Ask them for their Testimonial. Acknowledge customers that take time to post the positive reviews. Respond to your negative reviews with tact and consummate professionalism.
Local businesses need to listen closely to what their customers say about you, and respond to their suggestions and complaints.
There is no more effective marketing than Testimonials. Every review, every referral, every comment is a Testimonial to the quality of your business. The more positive Testimonials you accumulate, the greater your authority and credibility in your community.
In real life you cannot please everybody. Everybody cannot be your best customer. Some customers cannot be satisfied. The minority negative review is real life. Occasional dissatisfaction is more believable than saccharin drivel, and builds your online personality.
Social Scheduling Sites
Social Scheduling sites facilitate sharing your “social calendar” with your social networks. Individuals can find out about upcoming events. Networks of people can plan anything from birthday parties to movie dates.
Rather than publishing to the world where you are at at this moment, Social Scheduling sites facilitate sharing where you will be. Like a public calendar, you publish where you’re going, which events you will attend and with whom you are going.
Social Scheduling sites often include comment and review functionality. Other users comment, share information, and they can publish their own intent with a “count-me-in” button.
Social Scheduling sites can facilitate keyword searching, so customers and Location Based Social Media can find out about your events. Any marketing involving conferences, meetups, parties, or other get-togethers will benefit.
Conclusions About Location Based Social Media
Carefully examine the list of Location Based Social Media. Explore the pros and cons. Determine which platforms will best help you communicate with your customers. Marketing Local Business Online demands that you go where your customers are. Be found everywhere they are looking for you.
Listen carefully and learn from your guests. Self-reporting your location has a value in itself. Declaring your current location is more than just a piece of information — your intention is behind it. Suppose you’re in a bar and the name of the place is broadcast to your colleagues. That’s both a statement about where you are and an invitation to others. They can infer about your availability or your willingness to interact socially.
Engage with your guests — communicate — bring something of value to the conversation.
Remember that Location Based Social Media is very new. You are marketing to early adopters with voyeuristic tendencies and enormous digital mouths.
Be genuine. Engage your guests with open arms, a big smile and kind words. Offer them the right incentives at the right time. Your Location Based Social Media community will become your most loyal customers and loudest evangelists. Location Based Social Media is where we’re at.
“Permission marketing is the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them.”
Marketing Local Business online demands a rigorous understanding of how best to be found when people search the Internet for what you offer. To best understand HOW people search for what you offer, it is necessary to understand the tools they are using. As I write this, Web Search Engines stand head-and-shoulders above other search tools; and Google dominates all Search Engines with more than 80% Search Engine marketshare.
Before we can understand Search Engine Marketing (SEM,) we must have a working relationship with Search Engine mechanics. Effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is predicated on creating content that people want to find in a way that the Search Engines will notice and catalog and make readily findable by those hungry seekers.
What is a Search Engine?
A search engine is a tool used to find interesting information in a database. In recent times, such search tools are computerized. In its simplest form, the electronic card catalog at your public library is a search engine.
Although search engine is a general class of computer programs, the term is often used to specifically describe systems like Google, Yahoo! and Bing that enable users to search online media, the World Wide Web and Usenet newsgroups.
What is a Web Search Engine?
A Web Search Engine is designed to search for information on the World Wide Web. Web Search Engines work by storing information from billions of web pages, which they gather from the web page code.
Web page contents are gathered by a Web crawler, or spider — an automated Web browser that reads every line of code in every web page, and follows every link on each page. Contents of each page are analyzed to determine how to index it for later retrieval. The index allows information to be found quickly.
Three essential features of Search Engines are:
crawling,
indexing, and
searching.
Search Engines evolved from Internet Directories
Archie [1990], “archive” without the “v,” was the first tool searching the Internet. Archie downloaded directory listings, not contents, of all files located on public FTP sites.
Gopher [1991] combined document hierarchies with collections of services and gateways to other information systems.
W3Catalog [1993] was the first primitive Search Engine, periodically mirroring numerous specialized catalogues.
World Wide Web Wanderer [1993] was the first web robot and generated an index called ‘Wandex’.
Aliweb [1993] was manually notified by web site administrators of an index file at each site.
JumpStation [1993] used a web robot to find and index web pages, and used a web form interface as its query program.
WebCrawler [1994] allowed users to search for any word in any web page, which is now the Search Engine standard.
Lycos [1994] was one of the first Search Engines with a for-profit business model, followed closely by: Magellan, Excite, Infoseek, Inktomi, Northern Light and AltaVista.
Yahoo! [1994] founders David Filo and Jerry Yang, Ph.D. candidates at Stanford University, started their guide as a way to track their personal interests on the Internet.
Google [1996] began as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, at Stanford working on the Stanford Digital Library Project (SDLP). Google’s first funding was secured in August 1998 in the form of a $100,000 USD contribution given to a corporation which did not yet exist.
Microsoft [2004] began a transition to its own search technology, powered by its own web crawler (called msnbot). Microsoft’s rebranded search engine, Bing, was launched on June 1, 2009.
On July 29, 2009, Yahoo! and Microsoft finalized a deal in which Yahoo! Search would be powered by Microsoft Bing technology.
How do Search Engines make money?
In 1996, Netscape sought a single featured search engine for their innovative web browser. Five Search Engines paid $5 million each to be in a rotation on the Netscape search engine page: Yahoo!, Magellan, Lycos, Infoseek, and Excite. Today, most Search Engines are commercial ventures supported by advertising revenue.
Some Search Engines allow advertisers to pay money to have their listings ranked higher in search results.
Other Search Engines seek to categorize and prioritize web pages by measures of intrinsic value and make money by running search related ads alongside regular search engine results. Such Search Engines make money every time someone clicks on one of these ads (Pay-Per-Click.)
How do Search Engines differ from Directories?
Historically, Yahoo! was among the most popular ways for people to find web pages of interest, but it operated on its web directory, contents of which were submitted by web site administrators. Web directories are databases of human-compiled results, also known as human-powered search engines.
Unlike web directories maintained by human editors, Search Engines operate on algorithms, or are a mixture of algorithmic and human input. Search Engines automatically create web page listings by using spiders that “crawl” web pages, index their information, and follow each page’s links to other web pages.
Spiders return to previously crawled sites on a regular basis to update web page changes. Everything that these spiders gather is entered into the Search Engine database.
How do I use a Search Engine?
Major Search Engines include a simple dialog box into which you type a word or phrase, and a Search submit button to begin the search.
A Keyword is this word or phrase of words in this simplest sense.
Most Search Engines support using Boolean operators AND, OR and NOT to further refine search queries. Boolean searching on the Internet may manifest in three ways:
Full Boolean logic with the use of the logical operators (rare)
Implied Boolean logic with keyword searching (typed symbols)
Boolean logic using search form terminology (multiple form entries)
When a user submits a query, the Search Engine compares it to its index and returns a listing of web page information, usually with a short summary containing page title and part of its content. Some Search Engines support natural language queries that allow the user to type a question in the same form you would ask it of a human.
What is a Search Engine Result Page?
A Search Engine results page (SERP), is the listing of web pages returned by a search engine in response to a keyword query. The SERP typically lists web pages with titles, a link to the page, and a short description showing where the keywords have matched content within the page.
SERP’s of the major Search Engines may include different types of listings: contextual, algorithmic or organic search listings, sponsored listings (PPC,) images, maps, definitions, videos and suggested search refinements. Major Search Engines visually differentiate specific content types, such as images, news, blogs and sponsored links.
Each SERP also includes navigation to subsequent and/or previous SERP’s, possible search suggestions or refinements, suggested similar searches, and back to begin a new search.
How do Search Engines sequence results?
Initially, web site administrators manually submitted their web site information to be included in Web directories, often for a fee. Often as part of their business model, these “search engines” featured these sponsoring web sites according to the amount of fees collected.
By 2000, the Google Search Engine was gaining popularity among searchers because it achieved more relevant results with an innovation called PageRank. Google developed an algorithm to rank web pages based on the number, trust and authority of other web pages that link back to them. Google’s premise is that good and desirable web pages are linked back to more than less desirable web pages.
Now, major Search Engines operate similarly.
How each Search Engine decides which pages match best and in what order varies widely from one engine to another. The methods also change over time as Internet usage changes and new techniques evolve.
What is an algorithm?
An ‘algorithm’ is an effective method for solving a problem expressed as a finite sequence of instructions. Each algorithm is a list of well-defined instructions for completing a task. In computer science, a search algorithm is an algorithm for finding an item with specified properties among a collection of items.
There are also many algorithms designed specifically for retrieval in very large databases, such as bank account records, electronic documents, product catalogs, fingerprint and image databases, and so on.
Each Search Engine uses a proprietary algorithm to index and return only meaningful results for each search query. The index is built from the information stored with the data and the method by which the information is indexed.
While millions of web pages may include a particular keyword, some pages are more relevant, popular, and authoritative than others. Search Engine usefulness depends on the relevance of the results it returns on each search query.
Who are Search Engine customers?
Major Search Engine business models are for-profit.
Each SERP has a clearly defined topic and targeted theme. Money comes from paid advertisements strategically placed on each SERP. Each ad includes a Web link to the advertiser’s web page. Advertisers pay for these ads to attract people searching for particular keywords.
No search engine has control over the content of the universe of web pages. The better a Search Engine responds to each search, the more money that Search Engine is likely to make.
These Web searchers are becoming more sophisticated everyday. Everyday, more and more people search the Internet to find and buy more and more.
It stands to reason that Search Engines will continuously hone their search algorithms to continuously improve profitability.
What is a Search Engine? Perhaps, it is the key to your Local Business prosperity …
It’s no longer enough to sit back and wait for new customers to come to your Local Business. Fact is, in these times, your customers are more sophisticated than ever. Barraged with thousands of Buy-Me messages everyday, they are determined to find for themselves true value. They are not waiting around for your message; but, they are seeking what they want to buy on the Internet.
Therefore, Marketing Local Business online is your new imperative. Now that you understand Search Engines, how they work and who uses them for what, it is time for you to seize the day. Use the Search Engines to market your Local Business. Put yourself in front of your customers. Take the initiative.
Be found!
Eager customers are looking for you in the Search Engine …
