All small businesses catering to the real world ought to get started by focusing within a local area on a small niche market. There is a continuous demand around the world for effective strategies for marketing local business to the community. Regardless of this large number of businesses searching for ways to market within their local area, most end up failing. Why is this happening? How is it that so many well intentioned business people fail marketing their local business?
Are these indications that local business marketing is not effective? Is it because business people, although qualified professionals, are not capable of carrying out local marketing tasks successfully? Local marketing is really about establishing your business presence within a specific area, getting eager buyers shopping for what you offer to recognize and respect your brand. Traditionally, there have been numerous ways to market locally, such as radio and TV advertising, telemarketing and print advertising including magazines, newspapers and Yellow Pages. With the advent of the Internet, however, traditional marketing is waning in effectiveness because consumers no longer respond to intrusive advertising.
Even though all of these methods continue to be effective to a smaller degree, we have found it much more affordable and effective to advertise our local business online. Marketing local business online is a broad topic comprised of different strategies. Yes, everybody today has a website. Regardless how pretty your website looks, the true tests of effectiveness are the number and quality of the leads your website produces. How many eager buyers shopping for what you offer contacted you last month because of your website?
Start Marketing Local Business To Nurture Prospects
For starters, not every visitor to your website is immediately prepared to buy. Email marketing targeted at local businesses is a good way for people to continue learning about your business. Social media marketing is also powerful at promoting your brand in your community. Individuals more closely relate to businesses within their community than from dissimilar geographical locations. Additionally, we are a very visual culture and video is a fantastic way to tell your local business story to a local audience. Becoming familiar with these facts helps you to take advantage of and use the strength of marketing local business online.
Search engine marketing is also readily directed at specific geographic areas and regions. Considering the simplicity of this strategy, in addition to effectiveness and affordability, it is the first I recommend that you consider implementing these days. Pay-Per-Click advertising is also readily directed geographically, but due to cost you need to allocate additional marketing budget. Last but not least, increase your website traffic with effective search engine optimization and basic back-linking techniques. SEO is really about publishing the rich, relevant and rewarding content search engine users seek. Back links are testimonials elsewhere on the Internet endorsing your local business by putting a link to your website on their website.
Many people question the effectiveness of search engine optimization for local business marketing. Basically, anticipating the key words and phrases that eager buyers type into the search engines allows you to be found wherever they look. Google facilitates this through Local Business Results and Google Places. Yahoo! and Bing are also eager to provide local business results because all search engines recognize that millions of eager buyers are searching to buy locally.
Marketing Local Business Speaks To Your Community
Marketing your local business is essential if you want any new business from your community. When you fully understand and implement some of these techniques, then your local business will profit from local customers. Every business is different and one size never fits all. Try these techniques marketing local business online and determine which combination best profits your business. Besides that, understanding the strategies and options available enable you to plan effective local marketing that best benefits your local business.
Are you looking for a real way to grow your business, get more leads and generate more sales? Let me say upfront, you can’t wrestle with your business and achieve a clear victory without marketing your business online. Don’t swat at me quite yet — I have my reasons which you’ll soon see.
I’ve been an entrepreneur for over 10 years now and I have a lot of experience growing businesses. Throughout all the business growth, I’ve been testing each method to find the best ways to improve business. I discovered that marketing your business online is the most effective way to gain popularity and attract a flock of eager buyers shopping for what you offer. Although there are still offline techniques available for growing business, many of these methods are waning and can sink your bank account. Especially when your business is quite young, you usually can’t afford to use high cost promotion methods. At times like these, can you risk investing in advertising with questionable return?
You Have Permission To Market Your Business Online
One of the greatest offline marketing business turn-offs today, consumers no longer accept intrusion marketing. They are not waiting to be told what is available for purchase. Instead, think about your own habit. When you get the whim to acquire something new, are you more likely to Google for it or scan through Yellow Pages?
Luckily, the Internet makes it possible for everybody, even those with tight budgets, to market their business online via websites, blogs, video, social media and social networks. Are you serious about serious business growth? Are increased sales and more of your best customers acquisitions that drive you through your business day? I suggest you consider marketing your business online. Perhaps the greatest thing about this is that it’s considerably less expensive to market your business online than ineffective traditional marketing ever was.
You Can Afford Marketing Your Business Online
Of course, nearly all business owners have a website. All by itself, how effective has your static online business card been for your business? Among the most effective online marketing strategies is participation in social media and social networks. I have been augmenting my website efforts with social media for over 5 years now and it’s been tremendously effective increasing awareness of my business brand.
Where Marketing Your Business Online Takes Place
Yes, there are at least 101 social media and social networks in which you can participate. Not all of them are equally effective for your business; and to participate in all of them will be prohibitively expensive. So, where to start? Where will it benefit your business most? Of the 101 possible, I recommend all businesses consider these three:
Linkedln — The world’s largest network of professionals;
Facebook — The 3rd largest “country” in the world; and
Twitter — Customers, vendors, partners & competitors discuss you here.
Social Media Are Marketing Your Business Online
Social media are effective precisely because they empower consumers to participate in business development. What better way to market your business online than to ask your market what it will buy? Once you anticipate for what eager buyers are shopping, place your content there where they will find it and follow it back to your door. Marketing your business online is that simple.
“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 …
Millions Now Find Local Business On The Internet Even Though The Yellow Pages Lie On A Shelf In The Closet
Is Your Local Business Getting Enough Phone Calls?
MDS Resource Is Marketing Local Business Online
What keeps you awake at night, indigestion boiling up your esophagus, eyes open, staring at the ceiling? What do you secretly, ardently most desire? Is your business growing to satisfy all of your Needs?
With the radical changes in the economy and people moving away from Yellow Pages, newspaper Ads and other old school advertising media, your customers are looking on the Internet for you. They search the Internet, and then they go down the street and buy what they want and need. If they don’t find your Local Business in their search, they are not buying from you. When are you going to be marketing your local business online?
Times have changed, indeed. The Internet is still new; but, it is everywhere, and it is not going away anytime soon. The Internet has transformed our world, shrunk the whole world into a computer you hold in your hand, heretofore known as a cell phone. If you don’t get your business in position to be seen on that small screen, your customers are going someplace else.
Marketing Local Business Online is what you need to do to be found.
If Your Local Business Is Found On The Internet, You Can Sell
WARNING: Your Customers Are Looking For You Online Right Now!
Perhaps, a few statistics will shed light on this mystery:
Over 1 Billion Local Searches performed every month — growing over 50% a year
80% American consumers are using the Internet [2009]
80% of people first search online before making a purchase
97% Internet users use the Internet to shop [NPD Group]
90% Internet searches result in offline brick & mortar purchases [Comscore]
82% Internet searches result in calls & contact with businesses [Comscore]
74% Internet users perform Local searches [Kelsey Group]
73% Internet searches are related to Local content [Google]
66% Internet users use Internet for Local searches [Comscore / TMP]
25% Internet searches have purely Local commercial focus [ Kelsey / Bizrate]
Pepsi, FedEx pass on 2010 Super Bowl Ads … shift Ad dollars to new marketing efforts mostly online.
Marketing Local Business Online Is A Brilliant Idea
What Are Your Customers Looking For?
Old school marketing is still King. Times have changed, and media change, too. None of us alive today remember the King’s herald announcing news from the official scroll. Some of us recall barkers calling out theater or carnival sideshow attractions to passers-by. Most of us have bought something from a newspaper advertisement, or called to order something prompted by a Yellow Page spread.
The Internet and computing devices are new media. Applying old school marketing principles to new media is a wise idea. That’s exactly what we are about to show you here. Marketing Local Business Online simply makes sense.
Can Your Customers Find Your Local Business On The Internet?
Local Business Search Results
Don’t worry — if you’re a Fortune Multi-National Conglomerate, you don’t need to appear in the Local Business Results.
One of the best kept Local Internet Marketing secrets is Google Places. Until your business is registered here, it cannot be found in the search results map. Google implemented this feature in early 2009, and it’s been evolving ever since. For those buying locally, however, this is the First thing most searchers see … and probably the First links on which they will click. Once here, not only are you at the Top of Page One — look at that Map! They now know where you are and how to Get To You …
If you’ve seen maps and GPS on cell phones, this is how your Local Business shows up on mobile devices. The Mobile Market is enormous and truly the Wave of the future. Marketing Local Business Online puts you on the Map.
Organic Search Results
Additionally, you need to be at the top of the normal, Organic Search Results, the traditional results area on the left, mostly below the Local Business Results. When your web page link is in the Top Six Organic Search Results — your Local Business has Another Clickable Link on this First Search Page.Multiple Clickable Links on the First Search Page increases your odds that your Customers will go to your Web Site … once there, we believe you can close them. This is the heart of Marketing Local Business Online.
Your Organic Search Results are a function of the Quality & Credibility of your Local Business presence on the Internet. You want all online roads leading back to you and your Web Site. There are virtually unlimited credible and respectable sources throughout the Internet, and from there nearly infinite routes back to your Local Business Web Site. Remember traditional Referrals and Testimonials from old school marketing? Referral Links back to your Web Pages from everywhere on the Internet are Testimonials to your Local Business relevance.
The Local Business with the Most Links Wins !!!
Content Search Results
Furthermore, your Online Content must also appear in the Top Search Results! All Content relevant to that search adds More Links back to your Local Business on the First Search Page. You and your Local Business are going to be viewed as the Top Authority on all matters regarding this Search. Google loves Rich, Relevant & Rewarding Online Content !!! If marketing is fundamentally the relationship between business and its marketplace; then, Marketing Local Business Online presents the opportunity to initiate conversations with your marketplace.
Online Videos (Youtube.com)
Online Press Releases (PRweb.com)
Online Articles (EzineArticles.com)
Social Content Sites (Squidoo.com)
Online Classifieds (Craigslist.org)
Online Business Directories (MerchantCircle.com)
Online Review Sites (Kudzu.com)
But, wait, there’s more!
Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
You want to be in the Pay-Per-Click and/or Sponsored Results up there in the top yellow box and down along the right side. Pay-Per-Click is Pay-As-You-Go — your Ad Only shows up when somebody searches for your specific Key Words. Your Ad is Only shown to your Best Customers who are searching specifically for what you have to offer. You set how much you are willing to pay, and you Only pay when somebody clicks on your Ad — the Fully Qualified Buyer.
So, the question is, how much is each Fully Qualified Customer on your web site worth to you ??? Marketing Local Business Online is your opportunity to decide.
Geo-Targeting Your Ads
Furthermore, you can also target your Ads to Local Customers in your area. By focusing on Local Customers, your Ad is Only seen locally. Locally seen Ads are more likely to attract Local Customers, are cheaper for you, and you do not compete with companies on the other side of the World.
For example, a consumer searches, “I need a plumber.” Google knows where the Local Plumbers are. When you Only show your Ad to people in your city for these “generic” keywords, you get cheaper clicks, targeted traffic and less competition. Do you see how Marketing Local Business Online differs from the yellow pages?
What If Your Web Pages Sit Atop The Search Engine Results?
What If You Are The #1 Authority Online?
Imagine what Marketing Local Business Online means for your Local Business! How many more customers do you want coming to you every single day? every single week? every single month?
What will it do for your Local Business when you have your Online Market Domination Plan in place?
If Marketing Local Business Online interests you … If you’re just a little bit curious … If your Local Business wants more telephone calls …
Contact Us Today! 612-235-6060
Make an Appointment for an Absolutely FREE and NO Obligation Consultation.
MDS Resource will review your Local Business and your current situation on the Internet. MDS Resource will work with you; we will work out a plan that Best meets your Needs. MDS Resource will light your way to Marketing Local Business Online.
If you have a Yellow Pages Ad, you are already Spending Marketing Money. What is your Return On That Investment ???
WARNING: Only A Few Will Qualify To Work With Us
Every Search Engine Result Page can present only the Most Relevant Web Pages that fit into the limited space on one page. Only an Elite Few Local Businesses can possibly be seen there. Marketing Local Business Online is simple today because you will leap ahead of your competition; and once in the lead, you need only hold the lead to win.
Do your own homework. Look for yourself. Do a search using keywords that your Best Customers will use to find your Local Business.
Which Local Businesses are on the First Search Page? How many Local Businesses are on the First Search Page? Is that your Biggest Competitor there in A. or B. in the Local Business Results? Are your Best Customers going to your Competitors because they find them — NOT YOU — in the search results?
As you see, nobody can possibly do a credible job placing more than six Local Businesses in your Market on Google Page One. Furthermore, when you consider our goal is to have Multiple Links to your Local Business on that same Google Page One, even fewer Local Businesses qualify for our representation.
Will your toughest Competitor come to us first? Do your Competitors want more customers? Are your Competitors marketing local business online.
Act Now! 612-235-6060 Call Today!
Marketing Local Business Online May Be Your Salvation
