I Need it Now

My friend, co-worker, and sometimes boss, Richard Rosen is considered an expert in phone applications for local search marketing and he has an article, I Need it Now, in the recent Adotas newsletter.

Richard says, "But here’s the brutal truth: most of today’s local search directories currently in the field aren’t in a position to help anyone’s faucet get fixed. Even with the requisite trappings of Web 2.0 — user rankings and comments and integrated search results – they are only the first step in the evolution of a truly useful local search product. And because those local search directories aren’t yet genuinely useful, they’ve stymied the Web’s penetration of small business."

Richard is currently working on a new method for local search directories, an application that benefits consumers and local businesses in a way local search doesn't at the present time, so we'll be hearing more from him soon.

Updating Your Google Business Listing

Love it or hate it, any small business that ignores Google is definitely in the "get real" category. The whole, "I don't have time for Web marketing" excuse doesn't cut it. That said, you don't have to be an Internet guru or devote 24/7 to having an effective Web presence.

Search Engine Guide editor Jennifer Laycock has two "real marketing" articles for local businesses that are well worth the time: Updating Your Google Maps Business Listing and Are You Using Google Coupons?

Both articles send you to the Google Local Business Center, where you can create, edit, or suspend your Google Local business listing. But Jennifer's articles go step-by-step through the process so you can be certain your business gets the max from Google Maps.

Wanna Get Real? Look at Online Retailers

Online retailers know that what really matters is sales...not "what's easiest to build," not "what brand will pay us to promote them," and not "what spin to put on our PR." Ringing up sales means thinking about consumers first.

(The real marketing element of this = think about your users first, a lesson that countless "local search sites" and "pay per call" providers still haven't figured out...they keep trying to build a base of paying advertisers without really meeting consumers' needs.)

Anyway, like any good marketing maven, I keep an eye on internet retailing. These are companies working to make the online experience truly useful. In the SJ Mercury News coverage (June 9) of the recent Internet Retailing Conference., one paragraph had me yelling, "Hooray - yes!"

Streamlining the checkout process to a single page should be a priority, said Gene Alvarez, analyst at the Gartner. "Anyone here ever complete all your information, get something wrong, hit the back button and it's all gone?," Alvarez asked conference goers. "Imagine the checkout being a sidebar on the Web page, so no matter where I go on your Web store, there it is."

This isa real-world, practical application...good marketing as well as good sense.

I'm happy to link to the entire Mercury News article - though I have a bad feeling that after a short period of time the MN sticks their posts behind a paid archive service, so if that's what you get, complain to the Merc, not me. Full Story