Local Storefronts Looking for Customer Traffic Advantage Must Sign up for Local Search
August 30, 2010 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
Local marketing. Brick-and-mortar marketing. Storefront marketing. What do you know about real-life marketing?
“Look. I get that marketing has changed. But I want to know when I can do it? It’s great to know the other merchants in the area, but does that bring in a customer? I’m interested in specific things that bring me more customers. Or, do I just need to wait for the economy to improve?”
“How can you guarantee a successful promotion? What works in advertising today?”
There’s no one answer and that may be the confusing factor for many entrepreneurs.
Local is bigger than ever. But the locale is different. Interested in knowing more? Read on to find out about location-based marketing.
Begin your local marketing by registering with the three main local search engines:
Why? For one thing, mobile search is coming to the forefront of today’s business. In year’s past, the yellow pages dominated many business advertising expenditures. When competitors increased the size of their ads, you were forced to step up or be left behind.
“Over time, the single greatest opportunity is to rule the local search landscape. Twenty-30-year olds go straight to their mobile browser or Google maps to find everything – shoes, food, insurance, a dentist, you name it. If they don’t find you by doing that, then you don’t exist.” –John Jantsch, Duct Tape Marketing, February 2010
So, step one is to set up your keyword optimized profile in local search engines.
Google Places lets you optimize 200 characters for keywords in five different categories. In other words, your description can run slightly longer than a tweet on Twitter. Five different categories gives you listings for five products, for example.
Before you rush in and slap it up, think about adding more than simple operation information. For example, highlight payment options, or mention the fact that customers can find easy parking in front of the store.
In talking with one client, I encouraged her to use photos. Not only are they eye-catching, but pictures can be search friendly.
You can also add up to five YouTube videos. Videos, which are quickly indexed by the search engines add interest and character to your site. You may even trump the competition as you add to your presence.
Yahoo! Local, another free service, also offers businesses a place to display address, phone number and web site URL; again, you can put your business in five categories, listing products, services, or brands.
Bing Local lets you sign in with a Windows Live ID and improve or update your listing anytime to suit your needs. According to Bing Local, users can find businesses near them or near where they want to go. Best of all, it’s free.
Take the time to beef up your web presence with the addition of these three local search engines. You will find your web presence increasing and have the opportunity to drive traffic directly to your store.
Next? How will you maximize your online presence? We’ll talk about the advantages of mobile applications like Foursquare and Yelp and what those reviews might mean to your brick and mortar business in our next segment of Local.
How’s Facebook Working for You?
August 23, 2010 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
When I’m asked to review social media, many businesses really want me to critique a Facebook page. More often than not, I ask, “How’s that working for you?”
While answers vary, I find many business owners are dissatisfied with their Facebook results but at a loss for how to change their outcome.
Here are 10 tips to increase your Facebook reach and effectiveness:
- Know your primary goal. Sample goals: build 500 fans, drive people to a specific URL, generate more visibility for a brick and mortal establishment, listen to customers, support a cause, energize a community. The goal clarifies what happens to your project.
- Add content to interest your followers. This can include links, articles, events, photos, videos and more. If you have a great forum on your website, consider posting an example of the discussion and inviting Facebook followers to join in. Similarly, invite followers to interact in other arenas such as Twitter. Compile your tweet feed on Facebook and encourage followers to add you to their Twitter list with the click of an icon. Add Facebook places, new to Facebook this month. Charlene Li says, “Facebook Places Completes the Picture.”
- Recruit Facebook followers online with links from your homepage, ads, other social media sites and special promotions. Put a fan box on your blog or on your website. I enjoyed (and you might too) the Grandma Mary Show post “How to Use Facebook ads to get More Fans.”
- Engage followers. Use “Share this” and “Like” widgets to engage your community. Occasionally add a creative poll and offer a prize for participation. (Don’t forget to read the Facebook rules for contests and promotional giveaways.) Blogger Aliza Sherman listed ten third-party apps in a post entitled, “10 Easy Ways to Enhance Your Facebook Page.”
- Recruit Facebook followers offline. Integrate your Facebook unique ULR on your ads and other marketing materials. Include a Facebook link in your newsletter or your email signature, for example.
- Thank people for liking your page. One local business owner announces prizes for “big” number goals such as the 100th follower. As she talks about the status, she encourages others to follow her page as well.
- Share your page with key leaders in your industry and ask them to comment, if appropriate. Include links to a larger community, or promote others who have done something significant in your area.
- Invite people to interact with your business on Facebook. But, before you do, be absolutely positive that your page offers value. Otherwise, the “suggest to friends” will simply be one more ignored alert. Mike Mueller says it much more eloquently “Want Me to Like Your Page?”
- Monitor your page daily, if possible, responding to followers. Set alerts so you know when someone has written on your wall. Set achievable goals for yourself, starting at a level you can maintain for the long term. If it’s not realistic for you to handle full responsibility for the posts, delegate the project. Post to Facebook frequently. Your fans need to be noticed, respected and made to feel welcome.
- Study the built-in analytics. Facebook offers a complete overview of your page, including page views, wall posts, discussion threads, photo views, and more. Download these numbers to a spreadsheet and track them to study your success track. Better yet, add Google analytics and learn even more about followers.
In spite of surging growth, Facebook is under-utilized by small businesses. Make it your business to understand as much as possible about how this tool can maximize your visibility and how a Facebook page can help you beat the competition.
Building a press kit? Where are your digital files?
August 20, 2010 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
Your press kit doesn’t build itself. Consider:
Are you an artist who refuses to keep an updated CV? Imagine going back five years to unearth classes taught, shows displayed, awards won. Difficult? Add impossible to the list if during that time you moved, had a baby, or experienced any one of life’s major change agents. Seemingly unimportant items make the difference when presenting the story of your life in written form?
Are you a young professional with a full-time job plus a start-up business commitment? Once again, the gathering of information becomes the challenge. You suddenly become the obstacle if you don’t/can’t pull your resume, or bio, or head shot, or all of the above, together.
Are you a service provider so obsessed with billable hours you can’t concentrate on your own publicity? Keep in mind the necessity of working on your business, rather than just in it.
Are you a business owner who needs to pull a proposal together quickly? Your press kit probably contains collateral pieces appropriate for journalists as well as bankers, vendors, distributors or large customers.
Begin your digital press kit file today. (NOTE: In my last ProfitMeister newsletter, I talked about items to include in the online press kit. Sign up and receive ongoing, smart marketing information you can use to build your business.)
If you’ve got already got a digital press kit, comment here and share the example with others.
Oh, NO. Did you experience the nine no-nos?
August 11, 2010 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
If I had a nickel for every marketing no-no I experienced, I’d be rich. Here’s a list I drafted from last week’s experiences:
- No connection. A great visual and name combined with a strong specialty item for emphasis, fell flat when the speaker made no reference to either item in his presentation. Could this happen to you? Are you guilty of assuming the audience “gets” your message? Drawing the conclusion, or reminding the client of the benefit your product provides, cements the sale.
- No quality. One consultant who shall remain nameless posts dozens of comments, adds video daily and points to the prolific nature of his work as proof positive of social media expertise. Don’t be fooled. Quantity won’t trump quality – at least not on a long-term basis.
- No benefits. I recently reviewed a postcard in which the company presented a laundry list of its credentials on the front of the card and then stated charges on the reverse. I wanted to shout, “Silly. Your customer will ask, ‘What’s in it for me?’” Instead, I suggested they re-consider the “hook,” since there was none.
- No target. In another meeting, I experienced a consultant who provided not one but two beautiful brochures for each person attending. The brochures made an expensive statement, even more noticeable because she was the only attendee with such strong collateral. Still, the cost doubles or triples when the audience has no sense of appreciation for the person, product or opportunity. Brochures provide a connection tool. Use them appropriately or lose the effect.
- No keywords or wrong keywords. Many clients rant about the money tied up in their website. Today’s cost of doing business demands an Internet storefront. Rather than developing the site and then discussing the strategy for it, spend time on the front end to talk about purpose. What do you want from prospective visitors? How will they use your site? If your comment is, “I optimized and all it got me is calls from people wanting free information,” you probably picked the wrong keywords.
- No attention. Texting, tweeting and taking calls during any meeting definitely sends the message that your time is important and others take precedence over those with whom you’re face-to-face. If this is your behavior, why are you so surprised when I leave without scheduling an appointment?
- No white space. I like breathing room. In a crowded gathering place, I feel constricted, cramped. Tons of tiny copy generates the same sense of overwhelm. Give me white space.
- No plan. Most of us give more thought to our breakfast order than to the next Facebook post. (And puh-leeze. Don’t tell me what you ordered!) Based on what you’re selling, what is the #1 topic you should be talking about in your posts?
- No way. If you’ve commited the other nine sins, don’t be looking to me to be your next customer. My answer is no way!
Press Kits Revisited OR, Publicity 101
August 2, 2010 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
You’ve got a press kit, right? (A media kit, as my friend Jon who works in radio, prefers to call it.)
Like a resume for your business, a press kit or media kit presents the story of your company to the media, to investors and to a variety of audiences.
The time to prepare for publicity is before it happens. When a reporter asks for your media kit, it’s too late. Remember: luck is where preparation meets opportunity. Your press kit, or media kit can make it much easier and more likely for you to generate publicity. Lucky you!
Case in point: retail location grand opening
How do you count the loose ends in any retail opening? There’s the build-out, the stock, the inventory of the stock, the installation of the tracking software, the cash registers, the testing of IT systems, hiring and training of employees, the business signage, the coordination with the attorney, the bank, the bookkeeper, the leasing agent… You get the idea. The issues are too numerous to count; you simply push to the all-important goal: opening day.
If you’re the CEO, public relations may not be high on your radar, but grand openings provide an opportunity that can pay BIG dividends. Preparing with a well-planned press kit is time well spent.
A media kit contains the information you want your public to know. The kit needs to contain a press release. Think broader than that one item and include items from this list:
Where are the bios for your founder/CEO and other key players? Include a high resolution photo with each bio. Large firms might also choose to include an organization chart, for example.
List your FAQ’s. What are the top questions you want a morning show host or a news anchor to ask? Think of these as frequently-asked questions, FAQ’s. (NOTE: The beauty of this strategy is that it allows you to think of and practice the answers ahead of time. Not to sound rehearsed, but prepared.)
Are there special photo ops that you can list to tempt photo or video coverage? If you have an unusual logo, you may want to include a high resolution picture of it, or make it a downloadable application on the website.
Do you have a backgrounder on the company? Unusual stories offer human interest potential. Consider in advance what might make people read about or listen to a story about your firm.
Have you written a press release? (About a year ago I wrote this blog post: Press Release Death Greatly Exaggerated. Read it for more ideas.)
A strong press kit lets you control the information about your business in the community. Showcase it on your website in the form of a downloadable pdf. Use your grand opening to connect with potential customers in every way possible.
The process of getting information out begins with a plan. And guess what? Your media kit may force you to plan well enough to blow the competition away! Good luck with that!
For more on media kits: Take the Mystery out of Media Kits or Lauding the Simple, Under-rated, Under-Appreciated Fact Sheet elsewhere on this blog.
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