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Digg it UP - Internet Search, Like Politics, Is Local
“Ha!” you say. “For someone to make a statement like that, they obviously haven’t worked in the real world and certainly have never had to run a company.” Well, let me assure you. In my past I’ve not only run companies, but spent many years in one of the most notorious industries for turnover – the restaurant industry.Don’t get me wrong, I understand and appreciate the challenges that turnover creates. Turnover causes a drop in productivity, lower profits, inconsistent quality, and certainly creates work overload. In addition, turnover results in a lack of motivation, a lack of enthusiasm, apathy, and a lack of teamwork. But here’s the question…Are the challenges I just raised problems or symptoms? In the context of our discussion of turnover, most people would agree that they’re all symptoms of our turnover challenge. Turnover caused each of these shortfalls, which leads us to the core question:Is turnover a problem or a symptom?Turnover is a symptom.But what is turnover a symptom of? You may argue that turnover
Perhaps more importantly you can offer your customers additional options for doing business with you - which they did not know about.
Let's say you sell cement to contractors and homeowners. Your customers get it delivered to the job site or in their driveway - most of the time. No one ever comes by, even though you have people working there twelve hours a day seven days a week.
Local search can be used to tell people that you're open in case they need to pick up a few extra bags of Quickrete over the weekend. Or they can place an order online or on your 24 hour a day voicemail for next day delivery.
Effec
What is ecommerce? Ecommerce of course is the art or process of doing business online. You can call it whatever you want, but a tiger by a different name is still a tiger. And that is the way I feel. You can call ecommerce web business, you can call ecommerce online business, you can call ecommerce home internet business - you can call it anything you want - but it is basically the art of making money online.So what are the basics to making money with ecommerce? There are two basics to making money online, with ecommerce? One is that of traffic, and the other is conversions. You have to have conversions to make any money online, and you have to have traffic to get conversions, that is for sure. So how do you get conversions? One of the big things is that you have to develop a relationship with your traffic. And I think the best way to create a relationship with your traffic is to build a list – that way you can communicate with them on a regular basis.And the best way, in my opinion, to get traffic is by writing articles and submitting them t
It's like the presenters and exhibitors just discovered that people are really mostly interested in finding products and services nearby.
I guess what's really going on is that finally technology, or its application, has caught up with what people really want Internet search to do for them.
I use Internet search for everything - especially local! We haven't had a copy of the Yellow Pages (or white pages) in our apartment since we got high-speed access.
We Google directions to the Gap across town. If a movie is playing in Brooklyn we Google directions to the theater and buy the tickets online - so we can get in after we make the trek.
As a user we know all we need to know about local search. We type in what we want and where we want to get it and bingo - here it is and a map's included. It just doesn't get any better than that.
So, what's the big deal for business owners when it comes to local search in 2007?
It's leveling the field - putting the Main Street Companies we love doing business with right up there with their big box rivals.
How's that possible you ask? Well, here are three simple ways to maximize your over all search results using a local search focus.
Differentiation:
What makes your company different? What are the local aspects of your business? That's how you differentiate yourself from your competitors. Local search ads and placement provide the opportunity.
Would you rather eat spaghetti at a local franchise of a national chain or a locally owned Italian restaurant that's supported the community since 1963 - who supplies pizza for the area football team parents night and whose grand daughter won the state's citizenship award competition?
We do business with our friends. Local search provides us with the information we need to do so.
Reach Buyers When They're Ready To Buy:
Let's say I was looking for a health club membership to begin addressing my 2004 New Year's resolution. OK, so I've put it off a bit - but now I may be ready, so what’s my number one criterion?
Location. It has to be as close to me as possible - so I'll be more likely to show up.
I may have been introduced to a certain company via their TV commercials. In our many walks around the various communities in New York I may have passed dozens of their health clubs. I may even know people who have a membership at one of them and swear by it.
But if I'm going to join one - it has to be in my neighborhood.
So I go online, do a local search, and find that they have a brand new heath club only a few blocks away. They even have printable coupons for various membership types. I'm doomed - my last really good excuse is gone.
Leverage All Your Touch Points
If your online goal is to simply drive people physically into your place of business you can provide them with directions to your place, a map, when you're open, etc. with your local search strategy.
Perhaps more importantly you can offer your customers additional options for doing business with you - which they did not know about.
Let's say you sell cement to contractors and homeowners. Your customers get it delivered to the job site or in their driveway - most of the time. No one ever comes by, even though you have people working there twelve hours a day seven days a week.
Local search can be used to tell people that you're open in case they need to pick up a few extra bags of Quickrete over the weekend. Or they can place an order online or on your 24 hour a day voicemail for next day delivery.
Effect
Once there was a time in business when you could experience a change and then return to a period of relative stability. Nowadays, changes occur constantly - one on top of another. We need to acknowledge change and realize that change is a continuous journey - a way of life rather than a one-time event that can be lived through. With considerable momentum and continuity building in our organization, it definitely can be said that nothing is ever absolutely certain (other than possibly death and taxes).These changes and challenges that we are encountering can at times bring added strain to business organizations. What is not always clear to us is how much more trouble we would be in for organizations failed to change. Often times people can have a funny way of hanging on to old habits. In particular, we are often unwilling to quit doing what we can do well, even if it is no longer valuable to our customers. It is easy for people to get stuck in the thinking that got them to where they are today, even though that thinking cannot be used to get t
As a user we know all we need to know about local search. We type in what we want and where we want to get it and bingo - here it is and a map's included. It just doesn't get any better than that.
So, what's the big deal for business owners when it comes to local search in 2007?
It's leveling the field - putting the Main Street Companies we love doing business with right up there with their big box rivals.
How's that possible you ask? Well, here are three simple ways to maximize your over all search results using a local search focus.
Differentiation:
What makes your company different? What are the local aspects of your business? That's how you differentiate yourself from your competitors. Local search ads and placement provide the opportunity.
Would you rather eat spaghetti at a local franchise of a national chain or a locally owned Italian restaurant that's supported the community since 1963 - who supplies pizza for the area football team parents night and whose grand daughter won the state's citizenship award competition?
We do business with our friends. Local search provides us with the information we need to do so.
Reach Buyers When They're Ready To Buy:
Let's say I was looking for a health club membership to begin addressing my 2004 New Year's resolution. OK, so I've put it off a bit - but now I may be ready, so what’s my number one criterion?
Location. It has to be as close to me as possible - so I'll be more likely to show up.
I may have been introduced to a certain company via their TV commercials. In our many walks around the various communities in New York I may have passed dozens of their health clubs. I may even know people who have a membership at one of them and swear by it.
But if I'm going to join one - it has to be in my neighborhood.
So I go online, do a local search, and find that they have a brand new heath club only a few blocks away. They even have printable coupons for various membership types. I'm doomed - my last really good excuse is gone.
Leverage All Your Touch Points
If your online goal is to simply drive people physically into your place of business you can provide them with directions to your place, a map, when you're open, etc. with your local search strategy.
Perhaps more importantly you can offer your customers additional options for doing business with you - which they did not know about.
Let's say you sell cement to contractors and homeowners. Your customers get it delivered to the job site or in their driveway - most of the time. No one ever comes by, even though you have people working there twelve hours a day seven days a week.
Local search can be used to tell people that you're open in case they need to pick up a few extra bags of Quickrete over the weekend. Or they can place an order online or on your 24 hour a day voicemail for next day delivery.
Effec
We're living in incredibly turbulent times.The well spring of this uncertainty lies in one of the characteristics of the newly-arrived Information Age. Business people are being buffeted by an increasingly rapid rate of change. Consider this. In 1900, the total amount of knowledge available to mankind was doubling about every 500 years. In 1990, it was doubling about every two years.Imagine the implications of that kind of increase in the rate of change! It means new products, new regulations, new market configurations, new customers, and new technology in almost every industry. It's no wonder that we're confused and uncertain about what to do.And the growth of that knowledge continues at an expanding rate. One futurist predicts that today's high school students will have to absorb more information in their senior year alone than their grandparents did in their entire lifetime. And Nesbitt is on record as predicting that in the year 2020, the rate of knowledge will double every 35 days!That incredibly rapid pace of new knowledge
Would you rather eat spaghetti at a local franchise of a national chain or a locally owned Italian restaurant that's supported the community since 1963 - who supplies pizza for the area football team parents night and whose grand daughter won the state's citizenship award competition?
We do business with our friends. Local search provides us with the information we need to do so.
Reach Buyers When They're Ready To Buy:
Let's say I was looking for a health club membership to begin addressing my 2004 New Year's resolution. OK, so I've put it off a bit - but now I may be ready, so what’s my number one criterion?
Location. It has to be as close to me as possible - so I'll be more likely to show up.
I may have been introduced to a certain company via their TV commercials. In our many walks around the various communities in New York I may have passed dozens of their health clubs. I may even know people who have a membership at one of them and swear by it.
But if I'm going to join one - it has to be in my neighborhood.
So I go online, do a local search, and find that they have a brand new heath club only a few blocks away. They even have printable coupons for various membership types. I'm doomed - my last really good excuse is gone.
Leverage All Your Touch Points
If your online goal is to simply drive people physically into your place of business you can provide them with directions to your place, a map, when you're open, etc. with your local search strategy.
Perhaps more importantly you can offer your customers additional options for doing business with you - which they did not know about.
Let's say you sell cement to contractors and homeowners. Your customers get it delivered to the job site or in their driveway - most of the time. No one ever comes by, even though you have people working there twelve hours a day seven days a week.
Local search can be used to tell people that you're open in case they need to pick up a few extra bags of Quickrete over the weekend. Or they can place an order online or on your 24 hour a day voicemail for next day delivery.
Effec
In this modern world of logistics, technology and big business, crate rental has become an important and useful factor to provide easy packaging, handling, shipping and logistics of industries, businesses and sectors. Using crates supplies a no fuss, efficient, convenient and generally secure method of transportation for almost any thing. No longer are business and personal items being packed into undersized cardboard boxes, which usually fall apart after time. Now consumers and businesses can benefit from companies providing the useful method of transportation of items – crates.There are reputable crate rental companies to choose from, choose a company with plenty of experience; this will ensure you receive fast, efficient and reliable services. A professional crate rental company will ensure customer satisfaction and will generally strive to deliver comprehensive solutions to their clients. Choosing a reputable and long-standing industry crate rental professional will also help for advice on removals services, respected shipping companies and prom
Location. It has to be as close to me as possible - so I'll be more likely to show up.
I may have been introduced to a certain company via their TV commercials. In our many walks around the various communities in New York I may have passed dozens of their health clubs. I may even know people who have a membership at one of them and swear by it.
But if I'm going to join one - it has to be in my neighborhood.
So I go online, do a local search, and find that they have a brand new heath club only a few blocks away. They even have printable coupons for various membership types. I'm doomed - my last really good excuse is gone.
Leverage All Your Touch Points
If your online goal is to simply drive people physically into your place of business you can provide them with directions to your place, a map, when you're open, etc. with your local search strategy.
Perhaps more importantly you can offer your customers additional options for doing business with you - which they did not know about.
Let's say you sell cement to contractors and homeowners. Your customers get it delivered to the job site or in their driveway - most of the time. No one ever comes by, even though you have people working there twelve hours a day seven days a week.
Local search can be used to tell people that you're open in case they need to pick up a few extra bags of Quickrete over the weekend. Or they can place an order online or on your 24 hour a day voicemail for next day delivery.
Effec
First what do B2C and B2B mean as knowing this will give the most of the answers.1. B2C means Business to Customer or Consumer as in the end user, or the car showrooms who sell complete Ford motors.2. B2B means Business to Business as in the suppliers of parts for cars to Ford to make the complete cars.The customer requirement is different for each. One, B2C deals with business transactions to the end consumer, the customer.The other ,B2B, deals with other businesses as the end customer and so the marketing and selling is different as the target market is different.Another difference may be the type of order, a customer in a B2C relationship may order or buy only one item or small quantities.The B2B customer may order on the thousands or millions, depending on the size and scale of the business. A small family or one man operation may order small quantities but mainly large firms will want to place larger orders and therefore deal with other companies that can supply those type of numbers.Regularity or guar
Perhaps more importantly you can offer your customers additional options for doing business with you - which they did not know about.
Let's say you sell cement to contractors and homeowners. Your customers get it delivered to the job site or in their driveway - most of the time. No one ever comes by, even though you have people working there twelve hours a day seven days a week.
Local search can be used to tell people that you're open in case they need to pick up a few extra bags of Quickrete over the weekend. Or they can place an order online or on your 24 hour a day voicemail for next day delivery.
Effective local search tactics reaches local searchers when they are ready to buy - with every way that it is possible for them to buy from you.
At the Search Engine Strategies event the experts told us to adopt a search marketing strategy that has global reach (hey, you never know), regional implications, and connects with our local buying audience.
How is that possible? Let's take a top down look.
National Campaign:
For most companies this is best left to their manufacturers. Let General Motors create the buzz, show the new models, pitch the extraordinary value, and the environmental friendliness of their vehicles.
Let them do national TV and spend a bazillion dollars on search engine optimization, just push them to link to your company while they're at it. Hey, it's their brand; so let them do the branding.
You spend your money and energy with actions that result in sales for you.
Expanded regional Area Keyword Search:
There is an Auto Mall on I71 North of Cincinnati. I bet the dealers there sell most of their vehicles to folks who live north of downtown all the way up maybe 25 to 40 miles north of where the Mall is located.
People living a little farther north of that line may turn right when they get on I71 and head toward Columbus. People south of downtown Cincinnati cross the bridge into Northern Kentucky. On the east side of Cincinnati there is at least one huge Auto Mall siphoning off potential business as well.
Out of area local search can target these buyers telling them to come by your dealership for a comparison before they buy. If they do you guarantee to make it worth their time.
Tell them how long it will take on I275 from different parts of the metro area. And if they buy a new vehicle you'll give them an extra $500 off if they live more than so many miles away. You get the idea.
What's it worth to your business to increase your traditional marketing area by another 25 miles in every direction?
Local Relevance Promotions:
Don't forget the importance of dominating the market you're already in. A local search marketing strategy will help you solidify your base with a reminder that you're still there.
As a local business owner you are sought out by every community endeavor for your support. Local search provides an opportunity improve on your local relevance - why people should support your business. Local search gives you a chance to remind people of your commitment to them.
As with the Italian restaurant - I'll pay more money for new tires if given the chance to buy them from the nice people who sent the local high school band to New Orleans to play in the Sugar Bowl parade - even if it was a decade ago.
Compare that to saving a few bucks from a giant store where I am just a number and actually had to be there before 10am to qualify for the special price anyway.
Here are three things to keep in mind when considering your local search marketing strategy.
What do you really want?
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