Local Business Marketing Start Ranking Now
Table of Contents LOCAL SMALL BUSINESS ONLINE MARKETING CHECKLIST... 3 FREE SEARCH ENGINE TRAFFIC FOR YOUR LOCAL SMALL BUSINESS... 11 CLAIMING YOUR BUSINESS ON GOOGLE PLACES... 18 WHY AND HOW TO MAKE A QR CODES TO PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS... 26
Local Small Business Online Marketing Checklist The marketing landscape for local business has changed dramatically. Smart business owners, like you, are relying less on print and traditional media advertisements and are instead embracing the power of the Internet and mobile technology. Consider this your checklist for ensuring you have all your bases covered when it comes to marketing your business locally. Your Website If you don t have a website, now is the time to create one. Your potential customers are searching for you online and they want to see your operating hours, address, catalog or menu before they visit you. If they can t find you, they re likely to move onto the next business that readily provides the information they re looking for. Your website needn t be complicated, but should include the following: o Hours of operation o Catalog / Menus and Pricing, where possible o Any specials you are currently offering o Contact information including address, phone number and email address o An interactive map to help users navigate to your place of business (Use Google Maps) o About Us information about your company o Customer / Client satisfaction and testimonials information o Website privacy policy and other legal documentation You can hire someone to help you or use site building tools like http://internetbasedfamily.com that require no programming and let you get set up very quickly. Search Engine Traffic There is plenty of potential for local traffic from search engines. Whether your customer is searching for your business name or searching for the type of service you offer in your local area, this is highly targeted traffic. o Free Search Engine Traffic: Most of the business listings you see in a search engine are free and businesses do not pay to be listed there. Search engines use a complex algorithm to determine which pages are relevant for each search its users make. For example, if a user searches for kids clothing boutique Raleigh, North Carolina and you happen to own a kid s clothing boutique in that city, you re more likely to be found, provided that your website is descriptive and includes those keyword phrases. o Main Listings: Always be descriptive when creating your website pages. Include your complete address on each page and describe your products and services. Make sure you or your web designer also includes descriptive keywords in your title, description and headline tags. If you re building your site yourself, find out
how you can modify your title, description and headline tags as the method varies depending on the type of design tool you are using. o Google Places: On Google, you may have noticed that there are Places results that often appear before the other listings. This is what the Places results might look like: These listings are based on sites that have been added to the Google Places database and they are ranked according to a number of factors including how often your business is mentioned on other websites, reviews and how frequently your Places page is updated. To add your website, visit http://www.google.com/local/add Make sure you encourage your customers to click the Write a Review link on your Places page:
Also, add your photos, videos and more to complete your listing. o Bing Listings: Bing also has a similar service to Places for U.S.-based businesses. You can learn more at http://www.bing.com/businessportal and you can see Bing in the result search listings like this: o Yahoo Local Listings: For American businesses, add yourself to Yahoo s listings at http://listings.local.yahoo.com/. A listing looks something like this:
o Yellow Pages: Online yellow pages often feed results to other search engines. To find a Yellow Pages in your area, see Wikipedia s list at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/list_of_yellow_pages o Pay-Per-Click Traffic: In addition to free traffic from search engines, you can also pay for it. But don t let the consideration of spending a few dollars worry you. A wellstructured pay-per-click campaign is designed to make you money instead of simply spend it. If you renot familiar with pay-per-click advertising, it is advertising that you pay for only when someone clicks on your ad. Unlike traditional advertising where you pay simply to have your ad shown, you are only paying for the results of clicks. You can also target your campaigns by only advertising for certain keywords and your ads will only be shown to people who are looking for the type of information or products you provide. You can see pay-per-click ads in the search engines and they are labeled as an ad, but it s not always immediately apparent. Here s how pay-per-click ads look in the search engines Google: Ads are labeled as Ads and often appear at the top, before free listings and on the right side of the page.
Bing: Ads are also labeled as Ads and often appear at the top, before free listings on the right side of the page. Yahoo: Ads are labeled as Sponsored Results and often appear at the top, before free listings and on the right side of the page.
Of course, there is a learning curve to pay-per-click advertising, but it is definitely a source of highly targeted traffic to explore. A Few Pay-per-Click Tips: o Set a budget and use the budget tools included in the pay-per-click program. They are designed to keep you from overspending when you re not available to monitor your campaign closely. o Use coupon codes or other tracking methods, so you can calculate the profitability of your campaign and know what you can afford to pay for each click. o Be as targeted as possible. Don t use the same ad for multiple keywords. Use different ads that you use the specific keywords in your ad text. o Make targeted landing pages for your campaigns. For example, if you are advertising blue widgets Birmingham England in one ad and then red widgets in Bradford England with another ad, not only will you use different ad text, but each ad should go to a different page that is highly relevant to those keywords. Where to Purchase Pay-Per-Click Ads: o Google Adwords: Google runs the most sophisticated and well-trafficked payper-click program and is the perfect place to start to learn the ropes and tweak your campaigns. You can sign up for an account at https://adwords.google.com o Microsoft Ad Center: Microsoft ads fuel the Yahoo and Bing search engines. You can learn more and sign up for an account at: http://advertising.microsoft.com Mobile Technology
Mobile Technology is booming and we can see it everywhere we go. Whether it s cell phones, tablets or other devices, this has opened up new marketing opportunities for local businesses. People are searching their devices for business information, checking in at various locations, sharing reviews and more. o Mobile-Friendly Website: While mobile technology has come a long way and many devices display web pages well, anything you can do to make the pages load faster and easier to navigate can go a long way. There are a lot of tools that can help you set up mobile-friendly websites, but you can also use the following tips in designing your website: o Make clear and simple navigation. o Avoid the use of Flash as it excludes your content from a large portion of mobile users. o Keep the number of images to a minimum. This helps ensure your pages load more quickly and your mobile user is more likely to stick around longer. o Text Message or SMS Marketing: You probably already have an email newsletter and understand the power of reaching your prospect directly in their inbox. Now text message marketing provides even more instant connection and results from your efforts. You can set up a cost-effective campaign using a variety of services, including http://eztexting.com o QR Codes: You ve probably seen these black and white codes on printed advertisements in your area. They look something like this: These special codes are a great way to connect your traditional marketing with digital marketing. QR codes can be printed on any brochure or advertisement and mobile users can scan the code and automatically be connected to your website. QR codes are an easy way to share coupons, special offers, schedules and more with your prospective and current customers. You can make your own QR codes for free at http://delivr.com o Online Check-In and Review Sites: Sites like foursquare, Facebook Places and Yelp are taking the consumer s life over by storm. These sites provide a check-in process that let users tell their friends where they are, they can share reviews with their peers and more. Make sure you re listed on some of the more popular check-in sites as this is powerful word-of-mouth marketing for your business.
Coupons and Deal Sites You ve probably heard about sites like Groupon and Living Social that offer a special deal daily. These are a great way to get extra exposure for your business as these sites market locally and help ensure your offer reaches your local audience. The deal site sells your special offer, collects the money and typically you receive about ½ the profits back. While it may seem like a large upfront cost, it can be a very effective way to get first-time customers through the door. After all, remember that satisfied customers are likely to come back for more, so the long term profits from a campaign could be very worthwhile. Social Media It seems like everywhere you go, people are talking about Facebook, Twitter and other social media. If you already have a large customer base and mailing list, growing your following on social media makes perfect sense. If you are a budding young business, it may take more work and strategy to gain a following, but your efforts can be very well be worthwhile. o Facebook: It seems like everybody s kid and grandma is on Facebook these days and that makes Facebook a natural choice for embarking on a social media campaign. http://facebook.com o Twitter: Not quite as popular as Facebook, Twitter s beauty is in its simplicity. It s a great way to provide a sounding board for your business and to connect with your followers as well. http://twitter.com o Google+: This is a new social network created by the search giant Google. It attracts an older and more technologically sophisticated audience, but comes with some very powerful marketing possibilities. http://plus.google.com o LinkedIn: LinkedIn is known as the professional s social network. It is a great place to connect with other likeminded business owners, make important connections and more. http://linkedin.com Where to Start It s true, there is a lot of information in this checklist and the thought of getting all these things done can seem overwhelming. Consider this your ongoing checklist to work through over time. Start with your website, get listed in Google Places and work on the other points. Just remember to track your results and see what s working, so you can do plenty more of what does.
Free Search Engine Traffic for Your Local Small Business It s a digital world out there and instead of pulling out the old Yellow Pages, savvy consumers are taking to the Internet before they visit local businesses in their area. This means you need to be visible online when people are searching for businesses like yours. When your local customers are searching, you want them to be able to find you: For your business name. This seems simple enough, but there are so many local small businesses that miss out on a tremendous opportunity when their potential customer cannot find them online. For your type of business in your local area. For example, if you are a hairdresser in Canton, South Dakota, you want to be found when they search for hairdresser Canton South Dakota. For your product or services in your local area. Building on the previous point, you also want your potential customer to be able to find you for your individual services. For example, children s haircuts Canton South Dakota Now, how do you make sure this happens for your business? It s all part of the search engine optimization (SEO) process. Whether you hire a designer to create your website or you make it yourself, make sure everyone is aware of these important steps. Part 1: Your Virtual Real Estate Before you start building your website, there are a couple of important things to set up properly. If you already have your website, you don t need to rush out and change what you have because your established website is ALREADY valuable when it comes to ranking well in search engines. These are just extra considerations you should make if you happen to be starting from scratch. Domain Name Register your own domain name and do not rely on other services that display a URL for you. You want to own this important virtual real estate for your business. Consider purchasing a domain that is specific to your country and even your state or province if your business is specifically relevant to that area. For example, you might register a domain with.us for USA,.ca for Canada,.uk for the United Kingdom, etc.you can also go further if you want to target your domain for a state or province. For example ny.us for websites from New York, USA or.bc.ca for websites from British Columbia, Canada. NOTE: While a geographically specific domain can help target your website locally, it is not totally necessary. If you want to capture a worldwide or multi-national audience, a.com domain will suit your business just fine.
Web Host Where possible, choose a local web host for your business. The location of your web host s server can provide clues about where your website is from and helps return your website in the search results for that area This isn t a make or break factor, but it can helpful. You can also ask your web host for what s called unique IP. They will probably charge a small fee, but it ensures that your websites has its own unique space and you can t be affected by any search engine cheating done by the web host s other clients. You never want to put yourself at the mercy of other people s mistakes. Part 2: Building Your Website Now you re ready to start building your website with search engine optimization in mind. If you already have a website, it is worthwhile to go back and fix what you can to ensure your pages are optimized to get highly targeted traffic from search engines. Geographically Organize Your Website s Directories / Folders Many websiteshave information that is relevant to different geographic locations. For example, if you have a retail store that is located in different cities and offers different products or service, you may want to provide appropriate information for each area. To help search engines understand which area the information is relevant for, you can label the directories (or folders) with the appropriate information. For example, your site might have folders like this: myhairdressingsite.com/canton/ - for your information for your store in Canton or myhairdressing.com/clear-lake/ - and for your store in Clear Lake Relevant Content The content on each page should be relevant and useful because search engines rely very heavily on this to determine what your pages are all about.include descriptive content about your products and services, where they are offered and more. Don t repeat words to try to game the search engines, but write naturally and descriptively. Add Your Business Address Add your business address to all the pages of your website. Include your full address, including city, state and phone number with area code. You can also add an interactive Google Maps map on your Contact Us page. To get a map for your page, go to: http://maps.google.com/ Enter your address and once the map appears, click the link icon on the left side of the page:
That will give you some HTML code, so you can insert the code into your website. Optimize Your Title Tags for Search Term + Location Search engines use certain tags used in your website code to help them understand what each page of your website is all about. A title tag is the title that appears at the top of your web browser when you are looking at a particular page. It is also the title that appears in search engine listings. For example: In the above example, Haircuts &Haircare Products Great Clips is the title tag. To target your title tag locally include: What product / service you are offering Your location Your company name For example, Hairdresser in Clear Lake, South Dakota Jenny s Great Cuts would be a descriptive title tag. How you insert your title tag depends on the type of tool you are using to build your website. Consult the help files of your website builder to find out how to modify yours. The basic HTML code looks like this:
<title> Hairdresser in Clear Lake, South Dakota Jenny s Great Cuts</title> IMPORTANT: Use a different title tag for each page of your website, so that search engines can find your different pages that are relevant to specific searches. Optimize Your Headline Tags Headlines are the large bolded headlines and subheads on your page. They are important in helping search engines understand what your various pages are all about. Just like with your title tags, you can include relevant information like the product/service you are offering and your location. How you insert headline tags depends on the website building tool you re using as well, but the basic HTML looks like this: <H1>Professional Cap Highlights in Clear Lake, South Dakota</H1> The number 1 in the tag <H1> is for your main headline. You can make subheads by using <H2>, <H3> tags, etc. Optimize Your Description Tags Another HTML tag that is relevant to your search engine optimization is your description tag. It is often shown in as the description in your search engine listing, so it s worth ensuring this is descriptive and relevant to each page s content. Remember, this example? In the above example, Haircare services from Great Clips. We provide quality, no-appointment haircuts for adults and kids alike. is the description tag. Just like the other tags we mentioned, how you update yours will depend on your website builder, but the HTML code looks like this: <meta name="description" content="providing a variety of hair services for women in Clear Lake, South Dakota, Jenny s Great Cuts is looking forward to giving you your next haircut, color or perm." />
Part 3: Listing Your Website While search engines can find and ranking with little to no intervention on your part, there are some promotional activities you can do that will improve your chances of being found in the results. Here are some of the most important ones. Add Your Website to Google Places You ve probably noticed that when you look for a type of business, Google returns its Places results that look something like this: Google is the largest search engine, and you should take the time to get yourself listed in Places to ensure your site appears when people search for businesses like yours in your area. Rankings are based on a number of factors including how often your listing is clicked, how many other websites mention your business and the reviews listed in Google Places. To add a website go to http://www.google.com/local/add/. You have to log into your Google account (you can create one for free, if you don t have one) and then you ll be able to start the process. Encourage your customers to submit reviews and get listed on other local websites in your area. Add Your Website Bing Listings Bing also serves local listings and they look something like this:
You can add your through the Bing Business Portal at http://www.bing.com/businessportal/, but note that the service is only available in the United States at the moment. For other countries, Bing seems to pull data from Yellow Pages and possibly other location-based sites. Add Your Website to Yahoo Local Listings And of course, Yahoo has their own version of Local Listings at http://listings.local.yahoo.com/ (USA only). The search results look something like this:
You can choose a free basic listing or pay for an enhanced one. Yahoo Local Listings are available for other countries, but they have a different website set up for each country. Online Yellow Pages Many search results are fed by online Yellow Pages, so a listing may help a site rank well for location. The Yellow Pages keep their listings separated by country, so you may have to search for the appropriate site to submit your website to. You can find a list of Yellow Pages on Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/list_of_yellow_pages. Local Directories and Review Sites How often your site is mentioned and linked to from other websites plays a big role in how well you rank for your relevant keywords. Look for local directories and review sites where you might get listed and reviewed.
ClaimingYour Business on Google Places This tutorial will assist you with getting more exposure and traffic to your businesses. By adding or claiming your business on Google Places, you are increasing your opportunities to reach potential customers and clients. When Google users make a search on Google for a certain type of business in your area, the Places results may appear. You want your business to be in that list. Here s an example of what you might see. This is a search for pizza takeout Geelong, Australia. To get your business listed in Google Places, follow the instructions in this tutorial. Step 1: Log into your Google account.http://google.com/lbc Be sure to use an account associated with your business. If you don t have an account, you can create one for free using the sign up link.
Step 2: Search/Edit a Business Listing. Select the country in which your business exists. Enter your business phone # & click Find Business Information button. This allows you see if Google Maps already has some of your business information in their records. If you own 10 or more businesses and you are trying to claim all of them, you can save some time by using the bulk upload option. If Google finds a listing, it will show up directly below the phone number search option. You can choose to edit the existing listing or add a new listing.
Step 3: Add your business information If nothing shows up from the search in Step 2, you will be redirected to a page where you can add the business listing. Here you will have several areas in which to enter information about your business. This section is for the basic business information, including: Country: From the dropdown, select the country in which your business resides. Company Name: Your business name Street Address: The physical address of the business (no P.O. boxes allowed) City, State, Zip: The city, state and zip code for the business. Main Phone Number: The main number for the business. You can include additional phone numbers as well. Email address: NOT your personal email. This would be the email address for customer support. Website URL: Enter the website URL for the business. If they do not yet have a website, select the no website box. Description: Enter a short description for the business (up to200 characters).
Category (up to five): You might have to play with this a bit. Type the first word for the category you think would best fit. The dropdown will show related categories to that word. You must choose at least one from the list of categories offered in the dropdown. I.E. If your business offersseoservices, you might start by typing internet or online. The dropdown categories will then give you an option of internet marketing services as well as others. Select the one that is closest to your business services. Step 4: Your service area and hours of operation Choose whether business is conducted at your office location or at the customer s location. If you offer services at the customer s location, you will be required to enter your service area by distance or by list of areas served. Service Area by Distance: Enter your city & choose how many miles from the location you service. Service Area by List: You can list the exact cities/states/providences you service.
Enter your hours of operation. Step 5: Payment Options Select the methods of payment you accept.
Step 6: Add photos and videos You can add up to 10 photos& 5 videosto display on your Google page. Click the Browse button to search for your images on your computer. Then click the Add Photo button to upload. Videos have to be uploaded to a 3 rd party site such as YouTube. To add a video, enter the URL to the video and click the Add Video button. Step 7: Additional Information If you have additional information you d like to add to your page such as parking, brands or types of products available, discounts, and so forth, you can add those here.
Double check your information & click the submit button to create your listing. Step 8: Confirm your location. If your phone # is already in Google s system, you may be able to confirm your submission by phone. Otherwise, you will have to wait for a postcard to arrive at your address (can take up to 6 weeks) and then follow the instructions on the card to confirm. Make your selection and click the Finish button.
You will be presented with a thank you page that will look like this, only with your business information. If you confirm by mail this is what the confirmation card will look like.
Why and How to Make a QR Codes to Promote Your Business If you re not familiar with QR codes, they make it easy for mobile users to find your website, ad or promotion. All they do is scan the code and they are immediately taken to the web page or information you want them to visit. They don t need to try to remember or type in any website address, it s all done automatically. So the next time they see your ad at a bus stop, in a flyer or in a magazine, all they do is point, scan and the marketing magic begins. QR stands for quick response and they are two dimensional codes that you ve probably seen on advertising. They look something like this: You can use QR codes to promote your business in many ways. Here are just a few ideas: Use them in your print advertising, making easy for readers to find your website. Create coupons. Once your user scans the QR code, they can access a coupon. Provide access to interactive maps, so your customers can find your business. Add QR codes to your printed catalogs, so your customers can make their order online. Add a QR code to your business card, offering a special discount for scanning. Does your business have schedules? QR codes are a quick way to access fitness, show and other types of schedules. The possibilities are limited only by your marketing imagination. The gap between print and digital is closing quickly, providing you with so many options for using QR codes in your business. But how do you make a QR code? Let s talk about that next Make Your QR Codes for Free with Delivr Delivr is a free service that allows you to create QR codes for your website pages and more. For this tutorial, we ll be focusing on making a QR code for a website page or URL, but we ll briefly explore the other features too. Go to http://delivr.com to get started. While you can use the service without any account, we recommend signing up for a free account so you can edit your QR codes and access tracking/analytics capabilities. We re going to use the service with an account in this tutorial, so you can see all of the features.
Step 1: Log into Your Account Once you re logged in, click on the Create New Code box in the top right corner of the page. You can create a QR code to a website, YouTube video, Flickr image or video, Google Maps and even just to display some text. Step 2: Create a QR Code to a URL Creating a QR code to a website page is simple. Just enter your URL at the http://. Then click go. Once you ve done that, you ll see a few options to share and save your QR code. Your sharing options include Facebook, Twitter and Ping.fm, but we want to get the QR code that you can use in your advertising and promotions. You ll find the QR code on the far right side of the page:
You can save the file in a variety of formats including PNG, JPG and EPS. You may want to check with your printer on what format they d like if you are hiring someone to do your promotional printing. If you want to do a do-it-yourself promotion, you can try the Print Flyer option, but you can t edit the flyer at all. It is simply a picture of your website and invitation to scan the code. Here s an example of a QR code for YouTube.com.
If you make a flyer for your website, it would show a picture of your website instead. Campaign Editing You have a few options when it comes to editing your campaign. To do this, click on Dashboard in the top menu of your account. Then click the edit icon for the campaign you want to edit.
You can change the destination URL. This might be useful if you ve created a special landing page or promotion that you would like to direct your visitors to. You can always change the URL again later. There are also some more advanced settings like prompting for a GPS location and advanced tracking, but for our purposes, we don t need this. Campaign Analytics To access your Analytics, click on Dashboard again and then click on the Analytics. You can view daily, monthly and other reports. The report will show you how many scans your QR code has received and other data as well. You can also what type of device users are reaching you with. Our campaign is brand new, so there is no data showing at this moment.
There is also a map that shows you where the geographic location of your visitors and what type of device they were using. Other QR Tag Options As mentioned earlier in our tutorial, you can make tags for YouTube videos, Flickr photos and videos and more. Let s briefly go over those options here. YouTube Video (or Flickr) To make a code for a YouTube video, you can choose the YouTube option and enter the video URL or ID. The process is the same for Flickr, but we re demonstrating YouTube below. The URL is what appears at the top of your browser, like this: Or just enter the video ID, which in the top example, would be: GDeCenium8 Once you ve entered your video information, you can also add a title and a description. Whenever someone scans your QR code, they will be taken to a page on delivr.com that includes your video and your personal message.
Google Maps If you d like to provide your customer with an easy map to get to your store or office, you can also connect your QR code to a Google Map. On the Google Maps option, simply enter your address in the box. After you click, go, you can personalize the map by including a title and a description. Click Finish when you re done. When your readers scan your QR code on a GPS-enabled device, they will be prompted to use their current location and they can easily get directions to your place of business. Text If you d like an easy way to share a simple mobile-friendly message with your visitors, you can also make a QR code to a page with some text. To start, enter a title for your message. Click go when you re done. Then you can edit your message. You can also insert photos, YouTube videos, a phone number, website links and more. Click finish when you re done.
When someone clicks your QR code, they ll be led to a page that shows your ad on a mobilefriendly page. As you can see, creating QR codes is a fairly simple process and provides your business with plenty of marketing options. With the growth of mobile technology, QR codes make it possible for you to improve the response to your marketing efforts.