By teamsf
BIRMINGHAM, MI – February 19, 2010 (SMARTFINDS INTERNET MARKETING ) – Ongoing FREE webinars (http://www.smartfindslocallisting.com/webinar.php) entitled, An Introduction to the Benefits of Local Business Listings, are scheduled to take place. The webinars are being hosted by SmartFinds Internet Marketing, with two upcoming sessions scheduled for Wednesday, February 24th at 10:00 a.m. EST and Thursday, February 25th at 2:00 p.m. EST. The free webinars will provide business owners with an opportunity to learn the many ways that local business listings can positively impact their bottom line through local business marketing.
SmartFinds Internet Marketing is a metropolitan Detroit-based firm which provides businesses with Internet marketing services and solutions. SmartFinds Internet Marketing launched their SmartFinds Local Listing website to promote the benefits and details of their Local Business Listing Management Service offering. Information about the SmartFinds Local Listing can be found at http://www.smartfindslocallisting.com
An affordable local business listing package service, offered by SmartFinds Internet Marketing, helps business owners claim, update and mange their local business listing, while helping to reduce the cost of traditional yellow page ads. Local online business listings are free through the major search engines and display in search results, as well as on mobile searches. The additional benefits include adding coupons, offers, discounts, photos, videos while changing them anytime – which cannot be accomplished with a traditional-print yellow page ad.
SmartFinds Internet Marketing CEO, Melih Oztalay, stated “We are very pleased to share the benefits of Local Business Listings with business owners through these educational webinars. The benefits to businesses are incredible to be available to their local customers when the customer is looking for them while being around town with their mobile device. The fact that the businesses can also update their offers anytime gives the local business the possibility to adapt to market changes.”
Anyone interested in learning more about the ways in which business owners can use local business listings as an alternative to traditional yellow pages and to be more easily located by mobile local consumer may register to attend the upcoming webinar by visiting http://www.smartfindslocallisting.com/webinar.php). Attendees will leave this event with a solid understanding of:
· What are local business listings?
· How will our business benefit from local business listings?
· What is involved with claiming our local business listings at multiple local listing websites?
Questions should be directed to melih@smartfindsmarketing.com.
About SmartFinds Internet Marketing
SmartFinds Internet Marketing is a 2009 Michigan 50 Companies To Watch awardee. The most critical element of SmartFinds Internet Marketing services is the creativity and imagination to apply the technological aspects of the digital marketplace to the marketing objectives of a particular business. Initial research provides SmartFinds the ability to develop a digital strategy that can be measured every step of the way to insure business growth and revenue generation. Some of SmartFinds’ clients have included Delphi, Flagstar Bank, Guardian Industries, Soave Enterprises, Detroit Convention and Visitors Bureau, McCann Erickson, Wendy’s and others. You can learn more about SmartFinds at http://www.smartfindsmarketing.com.
Contact: Esther Lastacy, 330 E. Maple Road, Suite 503, Birmingham MI 48009, 866.501.5758, esther@smartfindsmarketing.com.
By teamsf
The number of service providers that are attempting to help the local business and the small business to get listed are on the rise as the Internet becomes more valuable to the local businesses. What is strange is that in most of these cases the business is already listed! If you have a phone number for your business you are already listed with the major search engines and the major websites that focus their attention on the local market.
The local listing websites can be broken down into four major categories that include with some examples:
* Search Engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask)
* Local Listing Communities (Yelp, Judy’s Book)
* 411 Websites (Yellow Pages, Yellow Book, Super Pages)
* GPS (Magellan)
Any one of these websites receives their original data from the phone companies and other public sources. After all, local listings have been on the web for a number of years. There really isn’t anything new about this.
Let’s put local listing services into perspective.
First and foremost, the service that you really need to focus on is setting up an account, claim your business listing, updating your local listing, and then maintaining your local business listing. This will allow you to update your listing with current contact information, products, services, website, coupons, photos, videos, and much more. This is not something a “get listed” service will perform for you. Of course it is best to claim and maintain your listing at multiple local listing websites. We will explain why shortly as the world is greater than Google in this case.
Once you have completed this process your listing is more likely to appear for the appropriate search results on search engines and provide the consumer with your information on their mobile searches too. Claiming your listing will insure that you will receive your QR Code that will benefit you to market to local consumers. Additionally, claiming your listing will help you better manage consumer reviews, which will become important for search engine rankings in the future.
Getting your business listed can provide you benefit by getting your information into secondary local listing website that are predominantly 411 websites. The benefit here is something called citations. In particular Google is looking to verify your business which happens by finding your business information through these other 411 websites. So, there is a benefit from these “get listed” services, however, do keep it in perspective as to how much it will really help your business market to the local consumers.
If you’re wondering why you need to manage multiple local listing websites, the answer is relatively simple. Your customers will choose which local listing website they post their review about their experience, your products and your services. This is probably the one area that Google will not be the 800 lb gorilla in the near future. Local listing communities have been on the Internet for quite some time and the consumers have been using them to post their comments.
This is another reason why getting listed services are not going to be helpful. Consumers have been posting their comments without the involvement in this process by the business they are writing about. Without claiming your business listing you will not be able to manage the consumer reviews, which will ultimately play a role with your website ranking position. Google’s failed attempt to acquire Yelp for $500 million during the 2009 holiday season is a good indication of the type of data Google is seeking out.
Getting listed services are not going to eliminate another individual or competitor from hijacking your listing. Local listing hijackings are a very real problem as there really is no good quality control. The search engines have attempted to make this process as secure as possible; however, there are always loop holes, particularly with 411 websites. If anything, getting listed services are more likely to cause confusion by adding duplicate listings and not having security checks to verify the business they are listing.
Duplicate listings are equally an issue with local business listings. Information about a business is coming from multiple directions to major search engines. This includes getting listed services, 411 websites, the business itself, and local listing communities. As this industry evolves over the next few years, this information will get cleaned up, but in the meantime it is important to focus on not adding to the turmoil of data.
Getting listed services are for the most part only running a computer program to distribute your information to a variety of sources. You are getting what you pay for from these low cost services. They have a role relative to increasing the awareness of your business at multiple locations in a short time. This information will aid you with citations as Google’s local listing algorithm is in effect.
If you want to use the local business listing as a local marketing tool to reach the local consumer, then you need a service that will have a progressive plan to help you manage these local listings and multiple local listing websites. This progressive plan includes setting up accounts, claiming your listing, updating your listing, and maintaining your listing. This will then be followed by consumer review management, citations, and QR codes.
Your time resources are limited and your expertise is with your business. This does not necessarily include the management of Internet marketing of your business. Local business listing management services are provided by SmartFinds Internet Marketing. You will find this to be of great benefit to your time resources and the low cost service may eliminate your yellow page ad costs. Let the experts of over 15 years Internet marketing experience help you use this local business marketing tool properly.
By melih
Ping
These Battle Lines Are Drawn in Yellow
By MIGUEL HELFT
Published: February 14, 2010
Google is taking on the Yellow Pages by courting small businesses. A new service, to highlight listings, costs only $25 a month.
Yellow may be an appropriate color for the tag. Google’s new enhanced business listings, which it started to test quietly in Houston and San Jose, Calif., early this month, have an obvious competitor: the Yellow Pages.
“I think Google is going to be the new Yellow Pages,” Mr. Cowie said. “More and more of these younger kids are used to Google. They are looking at their phones rather than opening up a phone book.”
Click here to view the whole article at the New York Times.
By teamsf
If your business is dependent upon the local consumer for revenue then you will need to start paying attention to your local business listing. You, also, need to know that paying attention to your local business listing is not about one location. There are over 60 different local listing websites and search engines in four different categories. Most allow the local consumer to post their experience about your business, products and services without your knowledge or involvement. While this has more importance for B2C companies, it does indeed apply to B2B companies as well.
One way of describing local business listings is to call them the interactive internet yellow pages. I say “interactive” because it is a two way street. Local business listings are a convergence of search, social media and mobile marketing. More importantly they have evolved to be an excellent marketing tool for the local business. Local business listings show up in search results on the first page and on mobile searches when the local consumer is around town.
Local businesses are defined as large local businesses, franchises, restaurants, banks, professional services, and small business. Pretty much any business that is dependent upon the local consumer for their revenue.
The business can do more with local listings then they ever could with the traditional yellow pages. Aside from the basic business information, you can add photos, videos, coupons, and events to showcase your business, your products and services. More importantly you can update them 24x7x365.
The consumer also is interactive in this case. They get to post their review of your business, their experience with you, your products and services. What is interesting is that the business does not have to be engaged in local business listings in order for consumers to post their reviews. Websites like Angie’s List, Yelp, Google, Yahoo, Bing, City Search and more are a good example how consumers have been very engaged in posting their commentary about a business (good or bad).
If you think that “getting listed” inexpensively is the solution then you need to reconsider what you know about local business listings. The trick is to claim your listing at multiple local listing websites in order to update them with your marketing material and manage them on a regular basis. It is estimated that less than 15% of all local business listings are claimed, therefore there is large number of local businesses that neglect this as a marketing tool and their reputation.
These local business listings represent your company’s brand and your customers feel about their experience with you. Isolated negative reviews are not to be taken lightly because your prospective customers that don’t know you and can only make a decision based on what they read. Any negative review will reduce the perception about your brand and consumers will think twice where to spend their money. These online reviews of your business are a powerful first impression of your brand credibility as well as a sense of security for new customers. They need to know they can trust you.
Consumers are tuning out the commercial messages that bombard them everywhere at all the times. Any opinion coming from another customer gives confidence with prospective customers. The opinion given from an existing customer with no economic interest helps to facilitate a foundation of trust.
If you’re wondering how a business utilizes this marketing tool effectively at all these locations with limited time resources, then the answer lies in local business listing management services that support the business to take care of this at multiple local listing websites. The only thing you have to be careful here is that most of the companies out there are about “getting listed”, which is not really what the business needs since most businesses, unless they are new, are already listed. What you need is someone who will help you setup an account, claim your listings, update, manage and maintain them for you.
Local business listing management services are provided by SmartFinds Internet Marketing. You will find this to be of great benefit to your time resources and the low cost service may eliminate your yellow page ad costs. Let the experts of over 15 years Internet marketing experience help you use this local business marketing tool properly.
By teamsf
(above pictures shows yellow box in the map and next to view website as action items for
local consumers in enhanced listings)
Local business listings have been around for some time and based on the direction the industry is going, this will be the next major wave on the Internet. If you’re wondering what Local Business Listings are, please take a look at some of our other blog posts on Local Business Listings. One thing we can tell you is the last thing you need is to “get listed”. If you have a phone number for your business you are already listed with the major search engines and the major websites that focus their attention on the local market.
Let’s talk more about new developments at Google regarding the local business listings. Google has made some changes to the local business listing with Google Maps by adding enhanced business listings. These enhanced listings will identify what you would like local customers to see. This may include a video, coupon, a link or anything else you find important.
Google has continually added new beta features in the last few months. They started off with local business listing adwords in the San Francisco area. That was then followed with QR Codes to a limited number of businesses nationally (100,000 to be exact). Now Google Enhanced listings are being offered in limited areas. Google will of course assess the results of these tests and then using feedback along with their measurements make decisions to implement the program to everyone.
Benefits of the enhanced listings include:
- You can easily and inexpensively highlight your listing on Google Maps and Google.com from the Local Business Center.
- Potential customers in your local area will see what you think is most important or unique about your business.
- You can track the effectiveness of your enhancement with your Local Business Center dashboard.
- You will be charged a low $25 flat monthly fee, with no bids and no keywords required.
If you’re wondering what type of information you can use to enhance your local business listing, then this may help:
- Website
- Photos
- Videos
- Coupons
- Menu
- Reservations
- Driving directions
Many of these options are already available as part of your standard listing, but they are not emphasized or highlighted in any way. Google’s enhanced listing will help to insure you promote what is most important to you to the local consumer.
Overall, this enhanced local marketing tool will continue to show up in all the same places it does today. The primary difference is what you see in the listings next to the map. You will be able to drop your enhanced listing fee with Google at anytime, which does give this service an inexpensive option to trial for a short period. Using Google’s Local Business Listing Center you can also monitor the search and click activity giving you a good idea how your enhanced listing is performing.
If you’re thinking that enhanced listings will change if you are ranked at the top of the list next to the maps or the bottom, then think again. You will still need to insure you are following all the Google policies and procedures, which a professional Internet marketing firm can help you with.
You can use local business listings as a local marketing tool to reach the local consumer and a professional service will have a progressive plan to help you manage these local listings and multiple local listing websites. This progressive plan includes setting up accounts, claiming your listing, updating your listing, and maintaining your listing. This will then be followed by consumer review management, citations, and QR codes and other technologies as they are made available to the business community.
Your time resources are limited and your expertise is with your business. This does not necessarily include the management of Internet marketing of your business. Local business listing management services are provided by SmartFinds Internet Marketing. You will find this to be of great benefit to your time resources and the low cost service may eliminate your yellow page ad costs. Let the experts of over 15 years Internet marketing experience help you use this local business marketing tool properly.
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