by Chris Barnard | May 17, 2011 | Reviews and Citations
If it’s a donut shop on Roosevelt, a plumber off El Camino, or a nail salon on Carlsbad Village Drive; online visibility combined with a digital word of mouth strategy can begin to shape your local small business virtual footprint.
Local consumers are the lifeblood of any small business; do you know what your customers are saying about your business through the many review and local search sites out there?
A happy customer is your greatest advertisement!
This isn’t a time to shy away from the difficult questions, local online visibility is often the primary concern for Carlsbad small business owners in today’s evolving social marketplace. Right after making sure the lights are on and the cash register is operating correctly, local online visibility needs to be addressed or your business will not survive.
In a very short time we’ll all be accessing the Internet more from our mobile phones than any other source, and we’ll be instantly sharing our shopping – and let’s hope buying – experience with not only our ever-growing list of virtual friends, but also our local communities, and the general world at large.
If your local business isn’t part of the conversation you’re not only missing out on new customers, you could be losing once loyal existing customers to the competition.
Establish a Plan
This doesn’t have to be intricate, overly expensive, or very difficult. But it will cost you time to effectively develop, execute, and integrate digital word of mouth strategies into your local Carlsbad small business marketing plan. The best place to start is at the beginning, with a plan.
Plan what it is you want to get out of your digital marketing efforts; is it more new customers, is it improved customer feedback, is it amplified digital word of mouth???
First you will need to establish an online identity for your local Carlsbad small business if you don’t already have one. This could mean a website, or it could mean a Facebook Business page. The bottom line is your need some place to send people who either searched for and found your business information online, or are already existing customers.
Consider this your online command and control center, you want to direct local customers to leave reviews in your chosen environment AND their chosen environment.
Some people rule die-hard Foursquare® fiefdoms, others align more with Angieslist®. You want to encourage and facilitate your customer to communicate their dWOM in as many places as possible, but be sure to use your online command and control center as the primary repository. That way you control it.
You need to provide this place to the local consumer AND you also need to transmit that business information to the most popular local search and review sites used in your area.
This will be your online business identity – a website, a blog, a Facebook Business page…a virtual representation of not only your business contact info but also your products, services, and digital word of mouth.
Execute
Once you have an established online identity for your local Carlsbad business you can then begin to execute your plan to elicit, capture, and locally broadcast your digital word of mouth.
For every single customer than enters your doors or secures your business for a job, you want to ask them for a digital review of your small business. Direct customers to your website or Facebook Page, or direct them to the growing list of local search review sites out there – or both.
- Add a ‘tell a friend’ option to your website.
- Start a weekly or monthly (or quarterly) newsletter.
- Ask “Would you mind leaving us a review and help us build our business?”
Encourage feedback, and be ready for it. Remember, this isn’t a time for shying away from difficult questions. You should have already performed a serious look in the mirror as it relates to your business, as discussed in this past 1Local blog post.
Evolve
Be ready for change, it will come. An adaptive fluid strategy to collecting and syndicating local digital word of mouth will allow you to adjust to those changes and continually nurture your dWOM.
What happens to be the most popular local search site today in our immediate Carlsbad area may not be tomorrow. The best way to determine success with your digital word of mouth is to track your efforts and continually monitor the environment on a regular basis.
When you notice a trend, embrace it. If you determine one method of review collection is wasteful, adjust your methods. Just be sure to continue your digital word of mouth marketing efforts at all costs. If you’re not noticing results, analyze the situation and identify the possible reasons, then take action to overcome the challenges.
As mentioned earlier, mobile access is growing and is predicted to shortly become our chosen method of choice when connecting to the Internet. You should already have a mobile app for your business or a mobile version of your website, you should be looking into how QR codes can help recruit new customers…and even up your Carlsbad business’ digital word of mouth!
by 1localbusiness.com | May 10, 2011 | Digital Marketing
After not so much feedback concerning our last post, we decided to do a super simple follow-up examination of how to profit from local Carlsbad small business social media efforts.
While we’re at it we’ll throw in some local search for good measure, the two actually go hand in hand toward taking your marketing digital.
It’s still pretty amazing how many retail establishments and small businesses out there have yet to take advantage of the social media marketing and local search opportunities out there in today’s digital (and increasingly mobile) world.
Local business owners are concerned with how neighborhood mom and pop stores can possibly compete with big box retailers…social media and local search are a good place to start that battle.
Take advantage; develop, nurture, and continually participate in your social local small business identity.
Return on Investment
Return on investment (ROI) is probably the number one calculation most small business owners need to be concerned with when figuring the bottom-line long-term success of their business.
Although calculating and analyzing ROI is sometimes more than confusing, defining that magic number is essential to get an idea of how your products and services are generating profit.
Generating increased profits (more new customers) should be the end goal of any local retail or small business marketing campaign. When it comes to social media for local small businesses, calculating that profit is relatively simple.
A few benchmarks can at the very least give you a clearer picture of how well your chosen marketing avenues are performing.
ROI = (Revenue – Investment) / Investment * 100
For example, let’s say you spent $200 on your monthly Pennysaver advertisement. And taking into consideration the fact that you have accurately tracked the response from that ad…let’s say you’ve grossed $2000 in revenue for the given time period (say one month):
ROI = (Revenue – Investment) / Investment * 100
ROI = (2000-200) / 200 * 100
ROI = 1800 / 200 * 100
ROI = 9 * 100
ROI = 900%
Not bad for a $200 investment…let’s just hope your real Pennysaver ad delivers similar numbers!
Now that we can calculate our success with our Results Oriented Information, how can we go about obtaining it with social media and local search?
Get Started
In order to profit from social media efforts and local search visibility, you first need to be part of the community. Don’t delay any longer; use this simple 3 Step Beginner’s Checklist to move forward with your social local marketing plan. We won’t force you to…but if you like the checklist, then please ‘Like’ us on Facebook and let us know!
By simply initiating social media profiles for your local small business and confirming (probably existing) local search profiles, you are immediately increasing local online visibility for your small business.
But be careful, that’s only the beginning. Now that your business is part of the social media and local search community, you need to take advantage of every single opportunity the media outlets and search engines make available to enhance your listing.
A user-friendly, concise environment inviting conversion from prospect to customer is the end goal.
The key to profiting from social media and local search efforts is controlling your online business identity with a well planned course of action.
The first step in doing so is to join the community – get started with your social media profiles and confirm your local search listings if you haven’t already.
Then be sure to populate your listings and profiles with photos, website links, video, coupons, promotional offers, customers reviews…lather, rinse, repeat for all local search environments and chosen social media outlets.
If you want to start profiting from social media and local search efforts, first you need to start planning for success. Launch your business into the social local stratosphere, then accurately track and calculate your return on investment.
What is your second biggest fear when it comes to local social digital and mobile marketing?
We’re sure the primary fear is losing money!
by 1localbusiness.com | Apr 12, 2011 | Local Search
Yes, and we certainly recommend increasing your ad size to a double page spread to further increase your YP ad return on investment. Does that sound familiar?
Some business owners have had the unfortunate experience of dealing with a local YP ad rep that pushed bigger is always better. A long-standing rule of thumb in phone book advertising is to look at your competition, then go one size bigger for your ad. Ipso facto, more local customers that found your business in the phone book!
Sometimes, and sometimes it’s a waste of time and money. How can you be sure?
You need to be sure, before you increase ad size or before you cancel the ad altogether. If you’ve tracked your YP ad performance since inception, this should be easy to determine.
First you need to design the ad content; text, copy, images, logos, calls to action…etc. This can be a significant investment, but one important to overall ad performance. It makes no sense to pay up to several thousand dollars a year to place a substandard ad. After you nail down the design, call to action, and benefit points, you then you need to buy the space in the particular phone book that is most popular in your area, and most often it makes sense to look at several books in your area. Some key things to think about are readership or circulation, and where your competition is represented within the particular publication.
This all sounds like a lot, and we know for sure that your local phone book ad rep can certainly help your business advertise in their book, from soup to nuts. They’ll design the ad, place it, give you online options, connect your website, and everything else involved with initiating a phone book ad for your small business – just ask them…
But that doesn’t answer the question of phone book advertising performance in the digital world. In our experience, having a phone book ad for your small business is a good thing – if only to confirm your important business information for the digital environments out there that are sure to become more popular in local searches for products and services. To be clear, this means maintaining at least a cursory listing of business name, address, and contact info (website, email, phone number) within one(or more) phone books in your local area.
Having this most basic phone book listing allows other internet-based search environments to confirm your actual place of business, contact info, and sometimes even products and services offered. In the digital world, these connections to your business info are citations – and the search engines love citations. Just like citing correct sources for your PhD dissertation research, your business citations give the search engines a place to confirm your business information. The more listings out there with correct, verified, and owner-controlled business information, the better for online small business visibility.
But guess what?
An offline phone book ad can be a great place for search engines and other online directories to confirm and connect with your local small business.
Here’s a list of 25 other online places to build your citations – in no particular order or rank. There are hundreds more, and we’re working on compiling a ranked list for you, check back soon and let us know if you have any suggestions:
- http://citysearch.com
- http://cityvoter.com
- http://insiderpages.com
- http://localbiznow.com
- http://hotfrog.com
- http://merchantcircle.com
- http://angieslist.com
- http://yelp.com
- http://kudzu.com
- http://bbb.org
- http://superpages.com
- http://yellowpages.com
- http://local.yahoo.com
- http://dexknows.com
- http://judysbook.com
- http://showmelocal.com
- http://chamberofcommerce.com
- http://local.yodle.com
- http://switchboard.com
- http://magicyellow.com
- http://facebook.com
- http://twitter.com
- http://topix.com
- http://allpages.com
- http://manta.com
Just like with traditional search engine optimization, a slow and steady approach will serve you best when compiling citations for your small business. Don’t sit down with 196oz of coffee and expect to knock out 300 citation listings for your San Diego small business in one marathon session. Visit these sites and determine the relevance to your products, services, and location. Some will choose to list themselves everywhere and some will be more selective, and as rankings change we can begin to identify only the most advantageous connections by constantly monitoring the environment.
Besides that fact, some of these places cost money to list your business and some don’t. Then if you do list, be prepared for the sales calls that result from some of these sites. They’ll certainly invite you to spend a little bit of money for listing prominence, profile enhancement, connectivity, and overall return on investment – at least that’s the promise. Take your time, be selective, and learn more before you burn cash investing in something you don’t know how to maximize.
Also, be sure to check out this cool tool from our neighbors in the Great White North: http://www.whitespark.ca/local-citation-finder/#
And having a business listing with the large data aggregators like InfoUSA are good too – http://www.expressupdateusa.com/home.aspx
by 1localbusiness.com | Apr 6, 2011 | Digital Marketing
When it comes to retail small business advertising and marketing, it’s almost like a virtual desert. You can do a search for something like, “carlsbad dry cleaners” and come up with exactly one actual local business website. Sure there are a few Yelp listings or Citysearch results to weed through, and several directories that require further clicking, but as far as an actual business location having a presence on the first page for the associated keyword search?
One. Out of how many oh-so-coveted spots on the top search engine results pages?
If those listing were parking spaces, would those business owners be able to find their car?
The search was done with Google, but none of the Google Places listings was an actual confirmed listing for a dry cleaning business in Carlsbad. That’s pretty much a desert. Sure, how many searches are there every day for dry cleaners in Carlsbad, probably not too many – relatively speaking. But is that any reason for a local business to not control and profit from having a highly visible online presence?
A Yahoo search for the same keywords did not result in much better. Again, we’re talking about better in terms of business owner input these listings appear to lack. None of the top five listings appeared to be confirmed and controlled by the actual business.
This blind approach just doesn’t work in the digital age; there are way too many avenues of local exposure out there to not be identifiable and accountable when it comes to online visibility for your retail business. The best part is with a little research and lots of time, you can get started right away without breaking the bank. You’d be surprised how much online visibility you can gain for your local retail business for free. As technology improves, what was once a complex task, is now commonplace – ask a travel agent or digital video editor.
The days of zero dollars in the ad budget, and relying on your customer word of mouth to give your business neighborhood prominence are not completely over, it’s just going to require some change in thinking and some adjustment in execution. For the average retail business owner in Carlsbad, digital marketing and social media are not at the top of the to-do list. Will we be saying the same thing 5 years from now, or will every local business have some type of beneficial online presence?
Will the virtual desert materialize into a local online retail oasis?
When you’re looking for a local service or product, where do you begin your search?
Most of us go right to the Internet, some right on our mobile phones. According to web info company, Alexa, the majority of us search Google when we go online to search. Some ask friends and family, and others go the old fashioned route of checking the phone book. Do you think the new Facebook Questions functionality will take off when we consider local shopping?
Whatever the answer is, the important point to remember is people are looking for your products or services every single day, in your immediate area. Doesn’t it make sense to have your business represented within the most popular modes of information gathering?
We think so.
Here we will present a super simple formula toward gaining online visibility for your Carlsbad retail business. Five easy steps you can take toward securing online visibility for your local retail business.
1. Develop a Website
If you haven’t taken the plunge already, develop a website for your retail business. That thing called the world wide webternet is not just a passing fad, actual commerce happens there. Get involved; build a website to showcase your products and services. $500 can get you started on the right foot, and $5000 can prepare your business to deal with whatever changes in virtual landscape we experience – or is it vice versa? These days it need not be expensive (maybe free if you’re tech savvy and DIY inclined), or expansive. Our feeble attention spans couldn’t handle it anyway, just give us the goods and let us buy them – online. That’s good enough. When in doubt, keep it simple.
2. Start a Blog
No, you don’t have to produce the next great American blog. The stay at home Moms out there have you beat anyway. Just get involved in your industry, and let the surrounding community know how much you’re involved. A blog is a great way to keep fresh and relevant content flowing to your website. Some may say blogs are a thing of the past (short attention spans again), but use your blog to keep us up to date on your products, services, industry news, community efforts, and even customer experiences. Keep it simple take two.
3. Build a Facebook Page for your Business
Easy-peasy, go to Facebook and give your local business some social street cred. You’re nowhere these days unless your dry cleaning business is on Facebook. Own a Laundromat? Facebook is a perfect place for you to connect with your patrons and offer them some free soap as a thank you for their continued loyalty. Not in the dry cleaning or laundry biz…then start reading between the lines!
4. Explore Other Online Options
Alliteration aside; Angieslist, Foursquare, MerchantCircle, HotFrog, Superpages, Citysearch, Facebook Places, Foursquare, Groupon…the list goes on, and it will keep fluctuating and changing. Get started with the research now if you haven’t already, click around on some of these sites and see how your business could benefit from a listing. Some are free, some appear to be, and some are not. There are probably another few hundred sites out there to list your business; these are only the most popular.
5. Get Local on the Search Tip
The first two screenshots on this blog post were representative of Google Places and Yahoo Local, respectively. In the interest of utmost fairness…Bing has their own too; yep you guessed it – Bing Local. For a definition on local search from Wikipedia, click here. Basically when we say local search, we mean online representation for your retail business in these highly visible localized search engine environments. And we’ll concentrate on those three – Google Places, Yahoo Local, and Bing Local. Go search for your business right now on each of those search engines, then just follow directions to confirm or verify your business listing. By doing so you are at least taking the first step in securing your online business presence with respect to these localized search engine results pages. Be careful, take your time, and do some sniffing around to make sure you don’t have any duplicate listings or any other associated virtual malady.
The aforementioned plan is a simple five step sample plan to gaining online visibility for your local retail business. Does it end there?
Nope…in fact, after proofreading this fifty times we’ve come to realize that perhaps an entire series should be dedicated to tactics as much as strategy when implementing a plan to begin building local online identity for your Carlsbad retail business.
We have a lot of work to do.
