Maximize Your Business' Online Presence

My neighbor, a small business owner, told me she thought she had the whole "SEO thing" under control. I'm sending her this column from David Mihm and posting it here so others can read the hints in SMBs Need More Local Outreach -- here is just a portion:

What businesses can do to maximize their presence on local search engines:

Verifying your business’s information may lead to improved rankings on the major search engines, in addition to ensuring that they present correct information about your business.

1) Check to see where you’re already indexed using GetListed.org

2) Claim and verify your information at the major search engines: Google, Yahoo, and Live

3) Submit or verify your information with as many different data providers as you can.

(David supplies a list, so click on over to see it)

Check Your Online Listing

Check out GetListed.org, or at least their free tool that lets you check your "claimed" listing in major search engines.

It's far from perfect at this point, mostly because the site is busy talking in "lingo" and not in local business-speak. But if you already sort-of understand your way around the local online lingo, it's a nifty check-up of whether you have dotted your i's and crossed your t's.

What do I mean that the site talks lingo? I typed Dr. Abed, 95126 (my dentist) and it showed no listings, even though when I went to Google and typed Dr. Abed 95126, she came up top of the listings. I typed in Zanotto's, (a neighborhood market) at it showed that the name had not been "claimed" on Google, Yahoo, Live but that it had 72 "citations" on Google. There was a link to click through and claim it, but no discussion on what "claiming" the name meant.

EDIT: Got a really nice note from the GetListed folks, and they pointed out that Dr.Abed's ZIP was 95128 - they are SOOO correct, which is what I get for making assumptions - and that her office is listed when done correctly.

Why, oh why (she asked again and again) do the online folks think that local businesses have nothing better to do than learn search-engine speak.

Anyway, Miriam Ellis writes a nice entry on why GetListed is good and useful and even necessary - and says nice things about the founders.

Online Ad Design for Radio & TV Advertisers

The partnership between 2AdPro and MediaSpan was announced* today - (*Full client disclosure is due here: I worked on this announcement, but that isn't the only reason why I like this partnership.)

2AdPro and MediaSpan Enable Radio and Television Stations to Create Custom Online Display Advertising for Local Advertisers

It's good news for small business and here's why:

1. It's a benefit to local advertisers to have as many ways as possible to get an online presence.
2. Not every small business wants to go the route of self-service search advertising, but hiring a designer is costly.
3. This has left a lot of small advertisers scrambling to find low-cost online display ad creations.
4. The ability to work with the local radio or tv station (with whom many small advertisers have an existing relationship) opens up a lot of opportunities.

Anything that opens up online advertising - inexpensively and professionally - is a good thing.

Local Media a Hit for Web Advertising

Like many local business owners, you're probably confused as to where to advertise on the web...you get all this advice, and it all sounds like a lot of time, money, experimentation, and work.

OK, so it's true -- a lot of opportunity is out there. But here's a report that provides good data to review: Titled, "Local Online Media: From Advertising to Action"

It's the overview of a study conducted by the Online Publishers Association with Jupiter Research and released this month. And it turns out that what those online newspaper reps have been telling you is true. Here are some of the key findings:

• Visitors to local media sites –online newspapers, TV and magazines -are more likely than visitors to other sites to take action after seeing local ads: from making purchases to visiting sites and stores
  •Local media sites attract valuable audiences who spend more money online than visitors to other local sites
  •Local newspaper and TV sites lead all others in advertising trust
  •Local content sites attract a high number of influencers –the first person others come to for local recommendations

College Students Come Calling for Google

Thanks to Search Engine Land for the heads up on a new Google program to turn college students loose on local businesses.

According to the always-on-top-of-things Greg Sterling, "You've got to hand it to Google for creativity. It created the local business referral representative program to enlist stay-at-home moms, college students and others to get better data about local businesses and build AdWords awareness. (I was told by Google that the response to the program had been strong.) Now Google has developed the "Google Online Marketing Challenge." According to the site, "student groups will receive US$200 of free online advertising and then work with local businesses to devise effective online marketing campaigns."

Sterling also has a heads-up about an upcoming Simple Ads program, so check out his post.

For Christmas Sales, Local Retailers Need to Advertise Online

A great post on SearchEngineWatch detailing how significant "research online, purchase local" has become. Attention local advertisers: you should be placing online local advertising for your Christmas season now.

Citing an Accenture report, the post says

• 67 percent of survey respondents prefer to make purchases in physical stores
• 69 percent research product features online
• 68 percent compare prices online.
• 58 percent said they locate items online before going to a store to purchase
• Only 13 percent said the Internet plays no part in their offline shopping
  

The post also says, "The Kelsey Group research indicates that with purchases over $500, where the Internet is the starting point, over 90 percent of the transactions finish offline. comScore meanwhile reported last year that 63 percent of search related purchases happen offline; and The U.S. Census Bureau reports that e-commerce represents only 2.5 percent of U.S. retail spending."

For the sake of your Christmas season, which this year will start at Halloween according to the National Retail Federation, get your online advertising in gear.

Shady Dealings in Search Engine Sales

MarketingShift has a cautionary tale about shady dealings from a company called ZipWeb. John Gartner writes:

"...the telemarketer insisted it was a risk-free 30 day trial and that we would have great placement on MSN, Google and Yahoo. I'm wary of these "something for nothing" free trials having been burned several times, but since I wasn't asked for a credit card numbered I figured it wouldn't cost me anything. Surprise! This month my phone bill -- my phone bill! -- had a charge of $49.95 from PaymentOne.com, whom I'd never heard of before."

Gartner says he never authorized the charge, got no leads during the "free trial" which of course turned out not to be free, and was unable to get the charge removed from the phone bill.

As search and online directories become more practical for the local merchant, we're bound to see more of this. Sometimes honest misunderstandings. Sometimes predatory tactics. I'll let you know if I find out more about which this was.

Marchex provides basics of online local advertising

There are lots of optimistic reports about local online advertising, and plenty of opinion pieces about what will work (or should work, or ought to work) but I was taken with a new report from Marchex.

Rather than tackle new information, Marchex fills the need for a compilation of basic information in their primer on local advertising: Unlocking the Potential of the Local Internet.

The primer pulls together available data ("The combination of growing consumer usage and capital investment has led analysts to estimate that annual growth rates for local paid search over the next four years will be as high as 42.8% and 15% for the entire local Internet ad market"), defines the types of destinations available (search engines, IYP/directories, local guide, online newspaper, local niche sites), and examines some of the issues facing online advertising as a media category (overcoming fragmentation, evolving functionality, etc).

The report is a good read for local retailers/businesses that want a quick course on local search advertising. It's also a good read if you want a better picture of challenges facing the online media that compete in this space.

So if you've been dangling your feet in the waters of online advertising - but wishing you had a better overview - Marchex has heard your pain.

eMarketer: The promise is greater than the reality in local online advertising

There's an old joke about stockbrokers: "in every transaction, the broker makes money, the brokerage firm makes money, and hey, if the customer loses money, well, two out of three still isn't bad."

That's what I thought of when I saw eMarketer has a new report about local online advertising, titled The Local Online Advertising Report.

It projects that "local online advertising spending in the US will reach $2.9 billion in 2007, only 13.4% of the total Internet market. But as portal giants Yahoo! and Google and major newspaper chains make deals to sell advertising and share content, the sector is set to become a significant growth area for the maturing Internet ad space."

The report then says, "The promise of local online advertising, at this stage, is greater than the reality."

As I see it, this is a double-edged statement. While the context refers to how much money is in the local market to be had by local ad networks...it is also true that the promise is greater than the results for most local businesses.

Yes, I know all the examples of local businesses with successful online stories. But what makes these stories notable is that they are still the exception rather than the rule. Online advertising is still time-intensive for local merchants. It works spotty: some categories do well with pay-per-call, others don't. Some categories do well with web sites and e-commerce. Others don't. Some have nurtured review sites and reputation management on the web to develop new business. And so on and so forth.

Local online advertising is a big catch phrase for a lot of online opportunities. So far, there are too many online networks designed by folks too far out of the trenches of the small, local business.

eMarketer concludes that, "several factors are set to accelerate growth of the market: the wealth of small and mid-size companies potentially available as online advertisers, the increased use of local Internet sites and services by individuals, such as local search, and the development of local online ad networks connected with local media, such as newspapers. "

This is certainly titillating to the thousands of entrepreneurs who want to start a company that depends on local ad dollars, but for the thinly-stretched small business owner, it's a target painted on their backs.

Saks CEO Gives Recipe for Retail Success

Stephen Sadove gives an interview to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, in which he reveals the steps to advertising/marketing success for the prestigious Saks department stores:

Part of it is about the product, but part of it is also about having a bigger presence in the community and doing more outreach...
I think we have to do a lot better job and do more in local marketing...
Each of our stores is so different that is not about national advertising but about local advertising, marketing, outreach, initiatives, presence in the community and being involved in local events.

This is thinking that all local businesses should incorporate. And local newspapers, online local media and others should also take note about how they can help retailers accomplish it.

15 Sites for Promoting Your Business

You've already considered Yahoo Local and Google AdWords, but have you thought about MerchantCircle.com, AskCity, TrueLocal, and YellowPages.com?

Writer Kristin Edelhauser has compiled a list (many of the ideas are free) to help promote your business including AskCity, MerchantCircle.com, and Froogle Local (now renamed "Google Product Search") in the Entrepreneur.com article that every local business should check out for some real marketing ideas: 15 Sites for Promoting Your Local Business

Contests for Local Businesses

Looking for local online marketing ideas for your small business? Check out the winners of Yahoo's Ultimate Connection Contest, three local businesses that won a $25,000 Yahoo ad budget plus other perks.

And if you missed out on the Yahoo contest but still want to turn your really good marketing into cash, the UPS Out-of-the-Box Small Business Contest is open until September 1 with a chance to win prizes from $5,000 to $25,000.

Clicks & Bricks is Important Local Strategy

Retailers that have started a hybrid of online/in-store marketing, like Sears and REI, have found that customers who use this strategy are more likely to buy additional products when they pick up their items, according to Patti Freeman Evans, an analyst at Jupiter Research, in an interview with Practical eCommerce.

Freeman Evans believes smaller, local merchants should learn from industry giants, and says that within the next three years, "nearly half of all retail sales will be influenced or transacted online."

She explains that, "The 'influenced-by' number comes from the people who will go online maybe to just find a store or maybe to do days and days of research on a product. Then they go offline and make the purchase."

If you are involved in local marketing, and trying to make sense of what to do now to prepare for the next few years, this is a must read..

Growth for Local Advertising

MediaPost's Tameka Kee reports on the state of local online yellow pages, Internet 1Q Yellow Page Searches Surpass 800 Million: comScore. The upshot is what local merchants already know: the market is still immature.

With 800 million internet yellow page (IYP) search queries in the first three months of the year, consumers haven't settled on one clear leader. Yahoo currently holds a slight lead over Idearc Media (Superpages.com) and Yellowpages Network. Google, Yellow Book, Local.com and a score of others continue to make this a pitched battle for both the advertiser dollars and the consumer usefulness.

"There is no true leader in local search," said Stuart McKelvey, CEO of TMP Directional Marketing. "Consumers are making the transition from print to Internet, and the big media properties haven't figured out how to really deliver it yet."

Meanwhile, in other local advertising news, Media General saw a decline of 11% in online classifieds, partly offset by their recent partnership with Yahoo HotJobs. They also saw a 43% rise in local ad sales.

My word to local marketers trying to wend their way? Some of the hype you hear from ad sales people is "get real" because they put their need for growth above your need for results. Others want to learn what works as much as you do, and can be great partners for "real marketing."