Bill Hagen’s Out The Window Advertising partners with SmartFinds Internet Marketing to introduce businesses to the benefits and components of Geo-Marketing, including Geo-Listings, Mobile Marketing and Geo-Social Marketing

FLAGSTAFF, ARIZONA & DETROIT, MICHIGAN – July 28, 2010 (OUT THE WINDOW ADVERTISING | SMARTFINDS INTERNET MARKETING) – Out The Window Advertising (www.reachoutthewindow.com), a full service Arizona-based advertising agency, and SmartFinds Internet Marketing (www.smartfindsmarketing.com), a metropolitan Detroit-based agency which provides businesses with Internet marketing services and solutions, have recently partnered together to provide businesses with an opportunity to learn the many ways that Geo-Marketing can positively impact their bottom line.

The benefits and components of Geo-Marketing, include Local SEO, Geo-Listings, Mobile Marketing and Geo-Social Marketing. Geo-Marketing helps consumers to find local businesses, products or services through web searches, mobile searches and mobile applications. Geo-Listing Security, Consumer Reviews, and Reputation Management are additional components of the services offered.

“The partnership between Out The Window Advertising and SmartFinds Internet Marketing is an exciting opportunity to effectively introduce Geo-Marketing services to our clients,” commented Bill Hagen, President of Out The Window Advertising.

Most recently, Out The Window Advertising was ranked the 5th largest ad agency in Arizona by the Phoenix Business Journal. The team at Out The Window excels in the planning, development, placement, and creative execution of Television, Radio, Print, Direct Mail, e-commerce, social media and customer retention campaigns for over 90 clients nationwide.

Out The Window Advertising’s impressive client portfolio includes automotive dealerships. Commented agency President Bill Hagen, “Our car dealership clients are eagerly aware of the need for local marketing, local business marketing, and local dealership marketing.” Hagen added, “It’s interesting that the automotive industry relies on early adopters of automotive technology, and in the case of Geo-Marketing, car dealerships are themselves early adopters of Geo-Marketing technologies. The dealerships understand the importance of being found quickly by mobile and digital customers.”

SmartFinds Internet Marketing CEO, Melih Oztalay, stated “We are excited to partner with Bill Hagen and Out The Window Advertising in our effort to share the benefits of Geo-Marketing. We are currently working with Out The Window Advertising’s client base to claim and update local listings on behalf of 150+ car dealerships. Car dealerships are just one of many local businesses dependent upon local consumers for their revenue.”

Melih Oztalay has over fifteen years experience with Internet and digital services in developing strategies that utilize all facets of the World Wide Web. As a Internet marketing agency, SmartFinds Internet Marketing’s major focus is to develop multi-directional marketing campaigns to drive traffic to client web sites from more than just search engines.

Anyone interested in learning more about the ways in which businesses can use Geo-Marketing to be more easily located by local consumers may visit www.smartfindslocallisting.com. For more information about Out The Window Advertising, please visit www.reachoutthewindow.com.

About Out The Window Advertising

Out The Window Advertising was recently ranked the 5th largest ad agency in Arizona by the Phoenix Business Journal. The team at Out The Window excels in the planning, development, placement, and creative execution of Television, Radio, Print, Direct Mail, e-commerce, social media and customer retention campaigns for over 90 clients nationwide. For a true “one-stop shop,” Out The Window Advertising offers the use of their “In-House” production facility for all client projects. For more information about Out The Window Advertising, please visit www.reachoutthewindow.com.

About SmartFinds Internet Marketing
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 www.smartfindsmarketing.com.

Contact: Esther Lastacy, 330 E. Maple Road, Suite 503, Birmingham MI 48009, 866.501.5758, esther@smartfindsmarketing.com.

SmartFinds Internet Marketing Introduction, A Michigan 50 Company

At SmartFinds Internet Marketing, an agency for businesses for stratecgic Internet marketing solutions, we take a rational approach to an irrational medium. Our digital marketing and advertising expertise along with our business intellect attracts multitudes of sophisticated team members, partners and clients.

In 2009, SmartFinds Internet Marketing was recognized as one Michigan’s “50 Companies to Watch,” an awards program sponsored by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, the Small Business Administration of Michigan, the Edward Lowe Foundation, and presented by Michigan Celebrates Small Business. You can learn about SmartFinds’ authority in the topic of Internet marketing at their Internet marketing blog. Follow SmartFinds Internet Marketing at Twitter.

Our energy and our ability to deliver sound strategies for our clients are directly tied to our entrepreneurial culture. We thrive on wit and passion for what we do, and our team is collectively involved in our leadership style of serving our teams, our employees, our partners and our clients.

When a client comes for big, meaningful ideas, we take these ideas and exceed expectations through collaboration and helpful education. We do not provide them simply with “services”, but rather act as an internal swat team of digital media experts – an extension to their organization.

We have been in the Internet business since 1994 and in the Advertising and Marketing business since 1987. We have a team of 13 that includes project managers, writers, creative developers, technical developers, advertising team and marketing team.

Five major sections of the business: Research, Strategy and Planning; Creative Development; Technical Development; Digital Marketing; Digital Advertising; Management, Measurement and Analysis. Our new Local Marketing services with Local business listings for local business marketing to reach local consumers through web searches and mobiles searches was started in January 2010. More information on local marketing can be found at the local marketing blog. You can follow SmartFinds Local Listing on Twitter.

KillerStartUps.com reviewed the SmartFinds Local Business Listing services in November 2009 with their own editorial commentary about the direction of the local listing industry and the affects upon the traditional yellow pages.

Major Clients include: American Community Mutual Insurance, BASF Chemicals, Big Boy, Checker Sedan, Delphi, Detroit Convention and Visitors Bureau, DTE Energy, Flagstar Bank, Guardian Industries, McCann Erickson, Penske Auto Group, Soave Enterprises, Vietnam Veterans of America, Wendy’s and others.

Our CEO, Melih (“may-lee”) Oztalay, is a 16 year veteran of the Internet. As the CEO of SmartFinds Internet Marketing located in Birmingham, Michigan, providing Internet marketing solutions and services to businesses. The agency’s recent focus on local business listing management services helps small and local businesses reach local consumers through web and mobile searches. A recent interview by Metro Mode Media provides more information with Melih Oztalay and being an entrepreneur in the State of Michigan. Connect with Melih Oztalay on LinkedIn.

As a digital marketing agency, we are results oriented in our strategic approach. While our competitors are service providers and task oriented, our focus is to manage and aid all aspects of the client’s sales and business growth through integrated strategic marketing programs.

Follow SmartFinds at the following locations on the web:

SmartFinds Local Listing on Blog.com.

SmartFinds Internet Marketing on Google’s Blogger.

SmartFinds Internet Marketing on BizJournals.com.

SmartFinds Internet Marketing on Tumblr.com.

SmartFinds Internet Marketing on Vox.com.

SmartFinds Local Listing on WordPress.com.

A Question and Answer with Melih Oztalay. 

Oztalay has two words for Metro Detroit: early adoption. In the eyes of this downtown Birmingham-based entrepreneur, it’s a key phrase that will go a long way towards reinventing the region’s economy for the 21st Century

Oztalay started SmartFinds Internet Marketing in the early 1990s as an Internet service provider, getting in on the ground floor of the economic juggernaut that changed the world. His 13-person company specializes in everything from search engine optimization to mobile application advertising. He’s kept his firm at the forefront of technology trends, sometimes dragging Metro Detroit’s conservative business culture with him.

In the early years of his company, Oztalay couldn’t help but fantasize that he’d be retired on a South Pacific island if only he had set up his business in California instead of Michigan. Why? Because the dynamic entrepreneurial culture on the coasts doesn’t just make early adoption a priority, it makes it a necessity. Oztalay believes Michigan needs to be bolder, become a trendsetter instead of just waiting on the sidelines to see if something takes off.

“We’re just not open to innovation that is outside of our manufacturing space,” Oztalay says. He adds that introversion has broader implications than just job creation and profit margin expansion. “It’s difficult to change that culture,” Oztalay adds. “That goes to the fact that we’re not able to retain our next generation here in Michigan. They don’t see a future here. They only see what we had.”

Read more at: http://www.metromodemedia.com/features/MelihOztalay0171.aspx

Visit SmartFinds Internet Marketing at www.smartfindsmarketing.com and their geo-marketing services at www.smartfindslocallisting.com

We have discussed the security risks of local business listing hijackings in the past. One of the comments made about these security discussions is why do the geo-listing websites like Google, Yahoo, Bing, and up to 60 others insure the security to avoid hijackings? Of course the question to be asked is why should they provide the security service for a free marketing tool that will benefit the business?

Geo-Listing Security
Many of these websites do have some level of security built into the process of claiming an existing listing or adding a new listing. So far, these security processes have included sending a post card to the existing address with a pin code; a computer calling to the business phone number with the pin; or in some cases a manual review by staff working for these geo-listing websites.

On May 27th, Google announced that community edits of local business listings was no longer be allowed to go without staff review. An excerpt of their announcement states:

“We recently made a change to Google Maps to require all community edits to be reviewed before they are shown. In the past, some “pending” edits were shown immediately on Maps and only moderated (and sometimes denied) later on.

We’re taking this step to ensure that changes to Google Maps pass the high quality bar our users expect, while preventing SPAM and other problems from showing up before being reviewed first.”

In summary Google is stating all community edits made to unclaimed local business listings will have to be approved by a Google representative before they are sent live. Supposedly, this means no more worrying about a competitor hijacking your listing and stealing your customers. It definitely means it will take longer for information to reach the local consumers through web searches and mobile searches.

While on the surface this may sound like at least Google is addressing the security issues of local business listings, the announcement did not discuss the security of data coming from third party sources through API’s. Certainly third tier business directories have no security and their data is sold upstream or makes its way to other database across the Internet with wrong information available for the consumers.

Why the high expectations for Free Geo-Marketing services?
I am certainly concerned about the security issues around local business listings, but I cannot expect these geo-listing websites to provide security for my company. The reason I do not expect them to provide this security is because they are providing the marketing service for free. Why should any business assume that a free service should have high level of security? We could certainly say “you get what you pay for”!

The issue for businesses lies in the book titled “Crossing the Chasm”. This book discusses innovators vs. early adopters vs. late adopters. The questions to businesses that have seen the Internet add, mature, and change technologies are:

• How long are you going to continue to wait to adopt Geo-Marketing technologies to help you generate revenue?
• Do you feel like you’re always behind the eight ball with the Internet?

A business cannot possibly understand how to use the various Geo-Marketing technologies well. For this reason you need to consider securing professional help and engage in these marketing technologies sooner rather than later. Plan these technologies progressively over a 3-year period.

Additional incentives for early adoption of Geo-Marketing technologies
There are three critical points that businesses need to consider now and not wait until the 11th hour.
1. The first and foremost we already discussed, which is hijackings.
2. Now let’s add that for your business there may be multiple duplicate listings that need to be cleaned up, merged and/or deleted to not confuse the consumers when there are multiple listings for your business.
3. Lastly, consumer reviews especially negative ones can potentially have an adverse affect on your website’s search engine ranking positions as search engine adopt consumer reviews as an additional data point to decide who is in the top ten for a search.

Certainly your time resources are limited and Geo-Marketing 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 16 years Internet marketing experience help you use this local business marketing tool properly and prevent brand security issues from occurring.

Local business listings began with a basic business directory more than a decade ago. Chances are, your business has a local listing wherever you have a physical address location. Check it out — go to Google, type in your company name. You’ll probably see a map locating your business and an address. Of course all you may find other information too. Local business listings are treated passively by many businesses. But that could be a mistake. You’ve probably read that prospects have something specific in mind when they are shopping. So try this test. Go back to Google, type in the name of a product or service your business provides plus your hometown. Did your business show up? If it did: congratulations. If it did not: you’re missing a major marketing opportunity.

Times have changed
From a marketing standpoint, the use of local business listings has exploded with the increase of social media and mobile devices. Consumers not only use these interactive yellow pages to locate a business, product or service in their area; they are also posting reviews of those products and services. Today, there are over 60 local business listing websites on the Internet in five different categories. They include the search engines, social communities, 411 websites (aka yellow page type websites), GPS websites and that age-old business directory.

You can no longer be passive
To make your interactive yellow pages listing a stronger marketing tool, you must first “claim” the listing with all the search engines, social communities, websites and organizations that lead people to it. Once you prove the listing is really yours you can update it with your business marketing material. Businesses are realizing the importance of this claiming process. Once you have claimed your local listing you can update information with text, keywords, business descriptions, products, services, photos, videos, coupons, and more. Some websites, such as Google, allow you to use all these options while others charge a fee for enhanced listings making this information present for local consumers through web or mobile searches

So what’s the “security challenge”?
The claiming process is crucial to security because if the wrong person gets access to your business local listing they can direct customers to a different location by phone or website address. Additional damage can include incorrect information on photos, videos, coupons, and more. Because consumers are using local business listings to locate a business, product or service in their immediate area, the security around local business listings must have a high priority for any local listing website.

Remember phishing?
Phishing was described in 1987 before the Internet was a commercial boom. The first recorded use of phishing was in1996. The question is whether the business industry is going to wait for something similar to occur using Local Business Listings. The security holes are quite evident with Local Business Listings and I don’t think it takes a genius see what could happen if businesses do not “claim” their listings – the first step in closing those “holes.”

When hackers capture a Local Listing it’s called “high-jacking”
It is absolutely important that businesses not passively wait for local listing websites to put the appropriate security in place before you claim your listing. Installing security starts with the obvious claiming process, but many sites allow data to be inserted from other databases on the Internet and I am not sure there’s good security around this later process. If someone wanted to hijack a local business listing, they could easily insert the wrong information through a low level business directory that sells its data upstream or inserts its data directly into a higher level local listing website.

While the top search engines like Bing, Google and Yahoo have “some” front-end security; their API’s (Application Programming Interface) makes them vulnerable through the back door. Data is provided to their local listings from 3rd party sources including “get listed” services. Additionally, if someone cannot claim a listing easily, the process within these local listing websites allows for additional listings with the same address to be submitted by anyone.

Certainly your time resources are limited and Geo-Marketing 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 16 years Internet marketing experience help you use this local business marketing tool properly and prevent brand security issues from occurring.

Upcoming webinar will introduce businesses to the benefits and components of Geo-Marketing, including Geo-Listings, Mobile Marketing and Geo-Social Marketing

SAN FRANCISCO & DETROIT – June 8, 2010 (ELYMEDIA | SMARTFINDS INTERNET MARKETING) – A FREE webinar (http://www.elymedia.com/blog/?p=1252) entitled, An Introduction to the Benefits of Geo-Marketing for Businesses, is scheduled for Tuesday, June 22nd at 1:00 p.m. PST / 4:00 p.m. EST. The free Webinar will provide businesses with an opportunity to learn the many ways that Geo-Marketing can positively impact their bottom line.

Webinar topics will include the benefits and components of Geo-Marketing, including Geo-Listings, Mobile Marketing and Geo-Social Marketing. Webinar attendees will learn how to use these marketing tools for consumers to find their business, products or services through web searches or mobile searches. Discussions on Geo-Listing Security, Consumer Reviews, and Reputation Management are also included.

The Webinar is a joint venture between Elymedia (http://www.elymedia.com/), a San Francisco-based media strategy and buying agency, and SmartFinds Internet Marketing, a metropolitan Detroit-based firm which provides businesses with Internet marketing services and solutions.

Elyse Tager is founder and principal of Elymedia, which provides services in traditional, online and social media marketing and has worked with many of the world’s most recognizable brands from Microsoft to PowerBar. Tager is the SVAMA Morning Forum Manager for Social Media Marketing, is a frequent speaker on all things Web 2.0, is a past columnist for ClickZ, a contributor to NetworkWorld’s marketing e-newsletter, a blogger at Elymediafrenzy (http://www.elymedia.com/blog), twitter fanatic, and Social media evangelist. Her twitter handle is @ElyseTager.

SmartFinds Internet Marketing CEO, Melih Oztalay, stated “We are excited to partner with Elyse Tager and Elymedia in our effort to share the benefits of Geo-Marketing. During the upcoming Webinar, we will discuss how Geo-Listings, Mobile Marketing and Geo-Social Marketing affect local businesses dependent upon local consumers for their revenue.”

Melih Oztalay has over fifteen years experience with Internet and digital services in developing strategies that utilize all facets of the World Wide Web. As a digital marketing agency, SmartFinds Internet Marketing’s major focus is to develop multi-directional marketing campaigns to drive traffic to client web sites from more than just search engines.

Anyone interested in learning more about the ways in which businesses can use Geo-Marketing to be more easily located by local consumers may register to attend the upcoming webinar by following this link (http://www.elymedia.com/blog/?p=1252) to the event registration form. Attendees will leave this event with a solid understanding of:

• What is Geo-Marketing?
• What types of Geo-Marketing components can our business benefit from?
• How will our business benefit from Geo-Marketing?
• What is involved with getting our business involved with Geo-Marketing?

Questions should be directed to melih@smartfindsmarketing.com.

About Elymedia

Founded by Elyse Tager, Elymedia is an independent marketing agency devoted to media planning, media strategy, and media buying. With their focus on customer acquisition and lead generation, Elymedia delivers proven value to their clients. Beyond their creativity in online and social-media marketing, Elymedia offers expertise gained from decades of traditional direct-marketing campaigns. Whether marketing tactics include email, postal mail, or finding your prospects online, Elymedia can help. For more information, please visit the company website can be viewed at http://www.elymedia.com/.

About SmartFinds Internet Marketing

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 and their Geo-Marketing services at http://www.smartfindslocallisting.com.

Contact: Esther Lastacy, 330 E. Maple Road, Suite 503, Birmingham MI 48009, 866.501.5758, esther@smartfindsmarketing.com.

STUDENTS, ORGANIZERS CELEBRATE 10TH ANNIVERSARY, GIVE AWAY $17,000 IN SCHOLARSHIPS

TROY, Mich., May 19, 2010 – The Detroit Auto Dealers Association (DADA) awarded high school students deterring underage drinking with $17,000 in scholarships at the Courageous Persuaders Awards Celebration, featuring a red carpet arrival hosted by renowned television personality Huel Perkins, anchor at WJBK Fox2. The awards celebration was held on May 18th at Troy Marriott in Troy, Mich.

The DADA is the primary sponsor and administrator of the Courageous Persuaders program which is facilitated through the DADA Education Foundation. “We are thrilled at this year’s entry turnout and to celebrate the students that understand the serious dangers of underage drinking,” said Bill Perkins, DADA President.

The competition, now in its tenth year in Michigan, encourages high school students to create 30-second television commercials warning middle school students about the dangers of drinking alcohol. The contest drew 743 video entries, which included 1,196 students from 383 schools in 45 U.S. states.

Student scholarships and award winners:

• Grand Prize, $3,000 – “Don’t Drink – Understand!” by Camryn Washington, Chelsea Washington, Homeschooled, Southfield, Michigan.
• First Place, $1,500 – “Peer Action” by Benjamin Webber, Tim Callesen, Trevor McDowell of Davison High School in Davison, Michigan.
• Second Place, $1,000 – “Agents Against Alcoholic Beverages” by Corey Gipperich, Ross Stolzenburg, Sean McIntyre of Lake Orion High School in Lake Orion, Michigan.
• Third Place, $500 – “Don’t Skip Steps” by Robyn Gray, Doug Oliver, Brad Powell, Lee M. Thurston High School in Redford, Michigan.

In addition, special sponsored awards were presented to the following:

• Lindsey Renee Cianciolo Family Memorial Scholarship $3,000 – two $1,500 Michigan based scholarship winners: “Adieu” by John Russell from Lenawee ISD Tech Center, Adrian, Michigan. “Word Score” by Michael Crawford from Detroit Catholic Central High School in Novi, Michigan.
• DADA Award, $2,000 – contributed by the Detroit Auto Dealers Association: “Don’t be a Tool” by Devon Green of Walled Lake Western High School Commerce Township, Michigan.
• New York festivals, $2,000 – chosen based on the commercial’s effectiveness to inform and inspire: “Pass Me Another Lie” by Karianne Caylor, Dakota Forgette, Kaylyn Schultz of Carney Nadeau Public School in Menominee, Michigan.
• Adcraft Club of Detroit Award, $2,000 – presented to the commercial that conveyed factual information about the dangers of alcohol use in the most persuasive and creative manner: “Think Don’t Drink” by Jonathan D’ Abrosio of Lake Orion High School in Lake Orion, Michigan.
• State Farm Award, $1,000 – chosen based on the commercial’s effectiveness on the dangers and consequences of underage drinking and automobile usage: “Spelling Bee” by Troy Gould of Oakwood High School in Dayton, Ohio.
• College for Creative Studies Award, Free Continuing Education Course – “Spelling Bee” by Troy Gould of Oakwood High School in Dayton, Ohio.
• USA Today Award, $1,000 – chosen by the USA Today Detroit staff from among the most persuasive commercials, as judged by middle school students: “A True Friend” by Ariel Sinelnikoff of San Rafael High School in San Rafael, California.
• USA Today Courageous Leader Award – presented to a special teacher for his or her extraordinary contribution to the Courageous Persuaders program: Kara Clayton of Lee M. Thurston High School in Redford, Michigan.

Winners were selected after several rounds of judging. During the first round, a panel from the Detroit Auto Dealers Association viewed the entries and identified the top 70 contenders. Those entries were then reviewed by students at middle schools who completed questionnaires. Results of the questionnaires determined the winners.

“This video worked because it showed that friends can help other friends not drink,” said a middle school student who judged the winning Grand Prize Award. “The play on words was an entertaining example that kids should say no,” said another.

The Courageous Persuaders program was created in 2000 by Oakland County District Judge Michael A. Martone and John Barczyk, a local McCann-Erickson advertising executive. In 2007, the DADA became the primary sponsor and administrator of the Courageous Persuaders program through its DADA Education Foundation.

The grand prize-winning commercial will be broadcast on television and the winner will also be featured in a print ad that will run in USA Today this summer, and will be televised on TV stations across the U.S. Winning videos will be posted on www.courageouspersuaders.com. For additional information, please contact the Detroit Auto Dealers Association office at 248.643.0250.

About the DADA Education Foundation
The mission of the DADA Education Foundation is to promote excellence in education through quality programs and leadership. In addition to the Courageous Persuaders program, the Foundation also administers Automotive Education Day at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS), and the NAIAS Poster Contest.

About Detroit Auto Dealers Association (DADA)

The DADA was founded in 1907 by 17 local car dealers, and has grown to more than 220 member car and truck dealers who donate their time and resources to a host of community activities.

Detroit area auto dealers participate in the NAIAS, LLC, which is responsible for the production of the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS). The most significant charitable venture of the DADA is the annual NAIAS Charity Preview, which has raised more than $82 million for children’s charities in southeastern Michigan since 1976. To find out more about Detroit Auto Dealers Association, visit www.dada.org. To find out more about the North American International Auto Show, visit www.naias.com.

Contact: Sandy Herp, Tel: 248.283.5138, sherp@dada.org

About SmartFinds Internet Marketing
SmartFinds Internet Marketing is proud sponsor of Courageous Persuaders helping with Internet marketing. SmartFinds 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. You can visit SmartFinds Internet Marketing at www.smartfindsmarketing.com or at www.smartfindslocallisting.com

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Not to my surprise, I find mobile marketing has both a digital and traditional definition. The digital definition is as one would expect, marketing your business message through mobile devices. In the traditional definition there are moving billboards that are associated with mobile marketing. We are going to be talking about mobile devices.

The mobile industry certainly has grown quickly the past three years. The iPhone coming to market was only the beginning. It didn’t take long for mobile applications to make these devices more useful to the consumer. With the flood of mobile applications consumers were able to find many different uses for their mobile device. Games and Entertainment were only the beginning. More useful applications like tools, utilities and resources also found their way to the mobile device.

As of December 2009 there were 285,610,580 mobile devices in the United States against a population of 308,505,000. Basically 91% of the population has a mobile device. Feel free to look at the Wikipedia article at for more statistics worldwide.

With 91% of the U.S. population having a mobile device, and these devices having considerable capabilities, it is undoubtedly the next significant source of information for consumers and businesses alike. Using it as a phone is only the beginning. Email, Games, Entertainment, Texting, Instant Messaging, Browsing, Photos, Camera, Calculator, Calendar, Maps, Voice Recognition, News, Banking, Weather, Finance, Social Communities, and Radio are only a small fraction of what mobile devices are used for. Their capabilities will continue to grow as this mini-computer will have more use in our daily lives.

As an Internet and digital marketing agency we’re going to focus on how a business can use mobile marketing. We’ll focus on four specific areas and describe a starting point and a planned progression for the next few years. Each area has many details and this information is designed to be in summary. Future articles will specifically discuss each section separately.

Messaging Services
This is known as “texting” and includes SMS Texting (Short Message Service) as well as MMS (Multimedia Message Service). For a business to tap into this marketing tool you have to begin by getting permission from prospects and customers to send them SMS or MMS messages. Begin by seeking out a service that provides SMS and/or MMS services. You will be assigned a text number that customers can send a subscription notice to. You can add this feature into your website, email marketing or display in your business to promote how prospects and clients can get alerts from you by SMS or MMS. Because it will take time to build up subscribers you will want to start this sooner rather than later.

Mobile Websites
We have had discussions with clients in which they felt as long as their website was showing on a mobile browser then they had a mobile website. Not the case. A website that was developed specifically for a standard computer or laptop monitor does not mean you have a mobile version of your website. On a mobile version of a business website a user will not need to zoom in or out or pan left or right when viewing your website. The website will be a “lite” version of your primary website with specific call to actions that are useful to the users visiting your mobile website. A good example is Delta Airlines. Go to their website on a standard computer. Then go to their website using a mobile device’s browser. You will see two very different websites. As a business you will want to budget and get a mobile version of your website as one of your very next steps.

Mobile Applications
At some point every business will have a mobile application and it’s even possible that mobile applications will diminish the need for domain names. Mobile applications can be useful as a tool for your customers or you may decide to have an application for branding purposes that is a simple game. There are certainly many possibilities for mobile applications and you will need to consult with a marketing firm to decide how to best utilize mobile applications. Mobile application development budgets vary dependent upon creative, interface functionality, database use and Internet streaming.

Mobile Advertising
Text advertising like Google adwords and banner advertising is available direct to mobile devices. The difference is how they’re delivered. For example banner ads will appear in free mobile applications and when the application is used at the bottom. You can push your mobile banner ads through mobile advertising networks like AdMob (acquired by Google) and Quattro (acquired by Apple). Development of your mobile ads requires a different approach since there is limited physical dimensions of your message.

By utilizing all four mobile marketing components for your marketing plan over the next couple of years you will be able to tap into a new marketing tool that happens to be well suited for local business marketing. Waiting for two years to pass and then deciding to plan and adopt this technology is probably the wrong answer. You need to incorporate this process now and build it into your business marketing process otherwise you will be left behind.

Certainly your time resources are limited and Geo-Marketing 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 16 years Internet marketing experience help you use this local business marketing tool properly and prevent brand security issues from occurring.

As an Internet marketing agency we have to work with many service providers and that includes all the geo-listing (a.k.a. local business listings, local listing, business directories, interactive yellow pages) websites. Our communication with them is for our clients and in the event the information requires correction, then we have to communicate with these geo-listing websites to resolve the inaccuracies.

In this case we had to reach out to Citysearch and follow their procedure. What we learned after searching the Citysearch website (which partners with Ask.com Local) is that our client’s business and information was not listed in Citysearch. We learned in one of our communications to Citysearch customer service that we need to send them an email with the business information.

April 28th, 2010
The Citysearch website for customer service suggests sending inquiries to myaccount@Citysearch.com or cscs@Citysearch.com.

The email we sent originally to the above email addresses was:

April 29th, 2010
The response we received from Citysearch with the email address CSMerchantSupport@Citysearch.com is below. At this point everything is moving along quite well and we received a response within 24 hours. No complaints…yet!

May 11th, 2010
After securing the correct information and setting up a Citysearch account we submitted the following e-mail to Citysearch.

Same day response received from Citysearch as follows:

You can see the process is already degrading. In our initial email we had identified that a Citysearch account already exists! We, also, asked for the two listings to be “added”. Now, you would think that if someone in customer service was actually comprehending what they are reading those two points would have raised a red flag for a little research before a reactionary response. We can only assume no research was done based on the reply.

From our office, same day still and it’s not even noon EST yet we sent the following reply:

We continue on the same day with the following reply from Citysearch Merchant Support. Please keep in mind that all of the communications on May 11th are in the same email thread. If anyone were to scroll up or down they could easily follow the dialogue with our Geo-Marketing team.

At this point what do you think we did? We scrolled down to the bottom of this email dialogue to our original message text copy and copy-pasted the same exact information that we started the conversation with them with! At this point it is now the end of business day on May 11th.

The only good news in all of this frustration was that it happened on the same day. To that end we will give Citysearch a good grade. However, the fact that the dialogue had to circle back to the beginning raises a question if English actually is the preferred language being understood at Citysearch?

If English is the language being read, written and understood at Citysearch then the competency of the customer service staff is highly questionable. In this economy when there are so many competent people looking for jobs you would think that we can hire staff that can actually comprehend an email dialogue.

While this situation is specific to Citysearch, I can attest that the problem of customer service by email occurs with all large corporations and the staff responding to emails. Email communication does make customer service more efficient and reduces the costs of phone calls. One would think that if the customer service staff of these large entities could take another 30 seconds to actually comprehend the dialogue further efficiencies could be gained.

Stay tuned as we finally get this resolved.

Geo-Marketing (or Geographic Marketing) is a new method of marketing a business and its website through web searches, mobile searches and social media. As you can see, the geo-marketing tools being used are digital and through the Internet or Mobile devices.

While geo-marketing’s definition is the association of data and maps in the traditional sense, the added convergence of local business listings, mobile marketing, and social media makes this method of marketing more powerful than ever before. This marketing tool is no longer just a large business marketing tool, but is available to small and medium size businesses too.

We should define what we mean by local business. A local business is any sized business dependent on the local consumer for its revenue. This means you could be a national company like Home Depot, U-Haul, or Best Buy or you could be a local florist or independent store only known to your local geography.

From a technical standpoint an Internet user’s IP address is tied to GPS data, like longitudes and latitudes, which are mapped with technology to geographies around the world down to the city and street level. While all this data may seem overwhelming, the good news is that most businesses do not need to concern themselves with this part of geo-marketing. Many of the tools already have all of this information built into their software or hardware technology so we can stay focused on how we will use geo-marketing tools.

The difficulty with any new marketing tool is a business’s inability to adopt the methodology early. When it comes to technologies and the Internet, in the past, by the time most businesses are ready to adopt a marketing tool, the industry has already moved on to something new. Being an early or at least an earlier adopter of marketing methods on the Internet and through digital devices can only benefit the business.

We have seen many signs over the past two years regarding the evolution of geographic marketing. When companies like Google, Apple, and the investment community of Wall Street start to put $100+ million and more behind a technology it will become part of our daily lives whether a business wants it or not. Consumers have and will be using more of these geo-marketing tools to find businesses, services or products near them.

Let’s take a look at the three main tools that consumers are using to find businesses, products or services close to their geography.

1. Web searches are the first and most obvious, however, these are web searches in which a map displays with targets the businesses that match the search criteria. Unlike the traditional yellow pages, these geo-listings (a.k.a. Local Business Listings) can be claimed and updated with your business marketing information in order to meet these search criteria.

While this may sound relatively easy, geo-listings also include: consumer reviews that need to be managed; the clean-up of duplicate listings; coupons; offers; discounts; videos; photos; citations; QR bar codes; and, hyper local websites. Understanding what to start with and how to strategically use these components can be done by a professional marketing firm that specializes in this area. You can read more about these components in one of our previous articles here.

2. Mobile Marketing is the next most significant geo-marketing tool in which SMS Texting, Mobile Applications, Mobile version of your website, and Mobile advertising are your key components. The starting point in this process will be with SMS Texting to get your alerts out to customers that subscribe to your short bursts of information. The reason why this is your starting point is that it will take time to build your list of subscribers.

3. Social Media Marketing continues to evolve and is, also, geographic in its targeting ability. Consumers are using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Wiki sites, Four Square, Instant Messaging and other social community tools on their mobile devices. While they use it mostly to find businesses, products and services, in the social communities they are seeking recommendations from their friends (near and far). They are, also, using these social communities to post their experiences with a business, product or service. For this reason you have to monitor the social communities in order to embrace any potential problem situations and work with them.

These three geo-marketing components are important to any business size – large or small – and each have their own sub-components that need to be well understood in order to succeed. Understanding the strategy amongst them; the acceptance and embracing them early; and, finally planning on a 3-year return will put you on the right path of geo-marketing.

Certainly your time resources are limited and Geo-Marketing 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 16 years Internet marketing experience help you use this local business marketing tool properly and prevent brand security issues from occurring.