A Must For Local Businesses - Online Directories

Local businesses are always looking for ways to be found on the internet. Especially if they are free. Online directories provide that online presence and more. These online directories will show up in search results on the major internet search engines.

Most of the online directories do more than just list businesses. Most offer a menu of services, which most also come with a price tag. Some of the more common offerings are reviews, ads, optimization and upgrades.

The opportunity for individuals to write a review on the listing page is offered for free and can be a great tool for promoting a local business. You ask your customers to write a recommendation for your business on the directory. Sometime during their buying process, provide them with the web address to write a recommendation on the directories. When reviews are placed on a listing page it is free advertising and word of mouth for your business. You must monitor these pages for any review, because not all reviews will be positive. Don’t get upset, this is an opportunity for you to show your great customer service by responding to the negative review.

All the online directories provide the opportunity for you to advertise on their site. You must evaluate each site and determine if it fits your marketing strategy and budget. Many of these online directories are used as search engines and product review searches.

Just like your website, a business listing needs to be optimized. The larger online directories allow you to include all types of business information along with identifying the type of industry. This optimization is used for internet search engines, so use the same philosophy as website optimization.

These sites must make money and the majority of them offer upgrades. All of the upgrades are different and you should make sure you are getting a real benefit before you pay for the upgrade. Free listings work and upgrades are not required.

If you are not utilizing online directories, your business is missing out on a great opportunity to shape and influence your online reputation. Most online directories are free. There are a few out there that charge to place your listing and you should determine whether your company should list with that directory.  Be sure to place a link to your blog, website and any social media sites on the directory page.

Here are a several free online directories I have found to be beneficial:

Manta
Merchant Circle
Local.com
Yelp
Google Places
Yahoo Local
Thinklocal
Supermedia
CitySearch
Insider Pages
Kudzu
HotFrog

Don’t forget any local directories in your area.

Can you add to this list?

Is Website Optimization Necessary for Local Internet Marketing Success?

The answer is……Let’s talk about what are the components of a successful local internet marketing plan. As I have mentioned in the previous blog, there are certain components that are part of a successful local marketing plan. However, after attending a very good webinar on How to become a Local Marketing Expert presented by Hubspot, I have added a few new techniques.

Prior to this informative event, I would not have considered these ideas as being necessary or even effective in local internet marketing. However, when you integrate all of the different tools, you have a very successful local internet marketing plan that will allow a small businesses to compete with big business!!

Here is the list from the previous blog. If you want more information on these, see Local Marketing – Are You Sure?

1. Local Opportunities
2. Email Marketing
3. Long Tail Keywords
4. On-line Directories
5. Google and Bing Places
6. Social Media
7. Blog

Here are the additions:

1. Add Yahoo Places – this is another search engine I inadvertently omitted. Also in places, some businesses will want to consider tags and advertising. It will make your places listing stand out with a special tag on Google and get you placed higher in Yahoo. You are also able to offer special deals through the tags and upgrades. Monitoring is key with places and all other online directories.

2. Facebook Places – You still need the business page, however, every business should have a places page. The page allows you to show up in certain location searches on Facebook and allows customers to check-in to your business on Facebook, sharing it with all their friends. FREE advertising.

3. Foursquare – I have not been a fan of Foursquare up until now. I still do not think it is for all businesses. Businesses that have a lot of walk-in traffic and potential repeat customers, should use Foursquare. There are 6 million users on Foursquare. It reaches out to mobile users, makes visiting your business fun and builds brand loyalty.

4. Online group buying – Here is another marketing tool that I was not a fan until now. I still don’t think it is wise for a local small business to partner with a national company such as Groupon. However, if there is a local online group buying company that fits your demographics, then I encourage you to consider this tool. Be sure you offer a great deal, but don’t offer a deal that has the potential to harm your business.

You take all of the components listed above and any local small business can compete with big business.

So my answer is – NO – website optimization is not necessary to have a successful local internet marketing plan.

What is the most important marketing tool in your proposal?

Every time I present a marketing strategy proposal, I get the question 'which one of these marketing tools is the most important?'  I know that you are not suppose to answer a question with a question - however - my response is 'what are your goals?'.  I cannot answer their question without knowing what is their most important goal for their business.  Adding new customers? Bringing back old customers? Increasing sales to existing customers? Just increase the bottom line?

I was actually asked that exact question today during a presentation today.  My answer for this particular company was a new website and SEO.  The website is the foundation to all their marketing strategies.  It has the greatest potential for generating leads and providing the most information for potential customers.  If you are an ecommerce site - then I don't have to explain that one.

I know what many of you thought when you saw SEO. I am not talking about just keyword phrases. I include inbound marketing and blogging in my SEO package. You cannot provide a successful SEO program without including inbound marketing and blogging. Call-to-actions, landing pages, links and social media are all a part of an inbound marketing plan. Blogging can increase traffic to your site by up to 50%.

Don't get me wrong - other traditional advertising, email marketing, internet marketing and traditional media can all be important components of a successful marketing plan. However, small businesses many times need to start slow and a little at a time. Know what a small businesses goals are and match the appropriate marketing strategies to their goals.

What are your goals for your business in 2011 and does your marketing plan match those goals?

Is Your Website Generating Leads?

Many SEO or internet marketing companies wow businesses by how much traffic they will bring to their website.  Great!!!  The bad news - traffic does not always mean more customers.  What are you doing to capture the traffic?  Do you have a call-to-action on the website?  What is a call-to-action?

The best way to capture leads from website traffic is to have a call-to-action on the home page an other appropriate pages.  The call-to-action must be viewed as something of value to the visitor.  There are two different types of offers for call-to-actions: 1) 'Just Shopping' and 2) 'Buyers.

'Just Shopping' are those visitors that are gathering general information on the products or services you offer.  They are not convinced to even by the product or service whether it is from you or someone else.  Offer them a whitepaper on the benefits of the product or service.  This is not to sell your product or service, this is to give the basic benefits that they offer.  You can mention some of the added benefits your product or service offers, however, this is not the main point.  General information to show them they need the product or service.

'Buyers' are those visitors that are going to purchase the products or services you offer and you need to convince them to purchase from you.  It could be an article from a third party showing your products and services are rated higher than the competition - or - it could be a live demonstration - or - a video showing the superiority of your product or service.

How do the visitors receive these offers?  Landing pages are the most effective.  When the visitor clicks on the call-to-action, it sends them to a landing page that has the following: 1) picture - related to offer; 2) general points about the offer; 3) form - to acquire visitors information prior to receiving the offer; and 4) links to all social media, blog, and email list sign-up.

Here is an example of one of my customers landing pages:



Once they submit the request for the offer - do not forget to say thank you.  You have given this visitor some valuable information to assist them in making a decision and now that visitor is a LEAD!!!

Let me know of any other ways you capture visitors to websites.  I know there are more - let's see what you got!!!

Is Your SEO really working?

How do you measure if your SEO is working? Even better, how do you justify the money you are spending on SEO? There are alot of statistics you can gather to show the activity on your website. Visits and clicks are the most common. There are others, however, those are the two most commonly talked about.

I come in contact with many businesses that tell me that they are really excited about their SEO and what it is doing. The first thing they say is "wow, traffic on my website has really increased". Traffic? What is traffic? You might as well say "alot of people have seen my website". Does that really equal success? NO!!!

You can have a billboard on the side of a road that gets thousands of cars drive by every day. The problem is that you are selling vitamins for individuals over 65 and the billboard is placed in front of a high school. Wrong audience!

Is the traffic on your website the right audience - target market? If you are getting the correct target market to visit your website it will create leads. That means you get information on individuals that visit your website or they will contact you (phone or email) based on the information on the website.

From these leads, you get customers that actually purchase from you. NOW that is a statistic that everyone understands. That is the number used to determine ROI, not traffic.

Okay, you say increased traffic equals leads which equals sales. Prove it!! Track how many leads and sales you get from your SEO and not just traffic. How do you do that? There are very highly technical ways to do it that are automated and there is the old fashion way - ASK the potential customer how they found you.