By melih
If you are a business dependent upon the local consumer for your revenue, then local business listings at multiple local listing websites is an important local business marketing tool for you. A few important tips.
1. Claim Your Local Listing
By claiming your listing you are effectively protecting your listing from hijackings and also allow you to use your local business listing as a marketing tool. Don’t wait to do this….run!
2. Update Your Local Listing
Not only insure that all your basic business information is accurate, but add photos, videos, coupons, and events to your local business listing. The added information helps your ranking position amongst local listings and the consumers have more information to entice them to your business.
3. Monitor Your Local Listing
Consumers have been posting their experience about a business, products and services into local listings for the past three years. Sadly, business owners have been less than aware of this practice and finding themselves in a public relations problem. These reviews show up in web searches and mobile searches. Monitoring and managing these reviews will insure that you are up to date on any problems and also encourage customers to post positive reviews too.
With each marketing tool comes the management and the time it takes to insure the marketing tool is effective. We have to keep in mind that this work has to be performed at multiple local listing websites. If you are constrained with your time resources, there are Local Business Listing Management Services that can help you.
The internet has become a good marketing source for the local business dependent upon the local consumer for their revenue through web searches and mobile searches. Tap into the power of Local Business Listing!
Local Business Listing Management Services are provided by SmartFinds Internet Marketing. You will find SmartFinds Internet Marketing 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
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.
By teamsf
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.
By teamsf
The Internet has turned into a great local business marketing tool in the past couple of years. While local businesses have not yet adopted these tools into their marketing strategies, the technologies are moving forward with or without them. The convergence of Search, Social Media and Mobile Marketing is bringing business information with products and services into the hands of the local consumers.
Having had Internet business experience for the past 16 years, I can tell you this is probably one of the few times where we can put all the local business marketing puzzle pieces together and see what marketing tools we have available over the next 2 – 3 years. Let’s review each one so we can see how they come together.
Local Business Listings
In short these are the interactive yellow pages of the Internet. Interactive because as a business owner you can update and manage these listings at search engines, social communities, 411 web sites, GPS/Mapping websites and basic business directories. They are also interactive because consumers can post their experience they had with your business, products or services. In order to get started you need to claim, update, monitor and manage these listings at multiple local listing websites. Don’t have the time resources? Don’t worry, there are companies that provide local business listing management services.
Local Business Listing Marketing vs. Data Services
As a business you will want to seek out companies that provide the marketing services. The companies provide basic data services only push your information out, but they do not help you protect your listing from being hijacked or for that matter manage your listings for marketing purposes with various types of content like coupons, events, QR codes, consumer reviews, coupons and citations. The marketing services have a higher cost to them than the data services, because the marketing services are more effective and do more for your business.
Consumer Reviews
This will be the first time that most local businesses dependent upon the local consumer for their revenue will need to manage their public relations. Consumer Reviews are not just about other consumers seeing the information, but too many negative reviews will adversely impact your website ranking position in search results. This is no longer about just consumers posting their frustrations to a website or blog, but directly into your local listing. As a business you will need to closely monitor these reviews and also begin to engage customers that have positive experiences to post their information as well.
Local Listing Coupons and Mobile Coupons
The Local business listing gives the business the opportunity of posting their coupons, offers, and discounts. They are then available for consumers to find through web searches and through their mobile devices. While this is not available through all local listing websites or available for free, this is in no uncertain terms the demise of the traditional coupons.
Events and Promotions
If you promote your business then you will want to use the Events promotion tool within Local Business Listings. You can include Specials, Events, New Products, General News, pretty much any alert you wish to make the local consumers aware of so they can find it through a web search or a mobile search.
QR Codes
These small square bar codes will allow you to program them for consumers to scan using their mobile devices. The code will then do whatever is programmed to them. For example, a coupon, discount, offer, event, website link. You can also use them on business cards, websites, traditional ads, store window, and much more.
Citations
This tends to add a level of complication for most businesses. If you’re familiar with the idea of inbound links, this is very similar only this time is not necessarily just about a link, but your company name, address, city, state, zip, phone and many other aspects that are related to what is known as HCards to include your longitude and latitude of your business address. Because this is a combination of marketing and technical expertise you may wish to get someone to help you with this item.
Hyperlocal
Websites that are hyperlocal give a local business the opportunity to highly target advertising and marketing geographically and demographically. While these websites are not as prominent for this purpose yet, this will change and needs to be planned for in 2011 and beyond.
Having had Internet business experience for the past 16 years, I can tell you that that geographic marketing is the direction of our immediate future. Hopefully I was able to portray to you some of the known components of local business marketing and how this local business marketing tool can be used to reach the local consumers.
Certainly your time resources are limited and 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 16 years Internet marketing experience help you use this local business marketing tool properly and prevent brand security issues from occurring.
