The Top 5 / Bottom 5 Local Business Online Marketing Techniques for the Real World

Do a search for online marketing gurus, and it seems like there are more gurus telling you how to do it than there are people actually doing it.  Internet marketing has become a cottage industry not unlike the millions of people who sold “Selling 101” tapes in the ‘70s. 

That being said, I do not consider myself a guru.  I simply base what I know about Internet marketing on the past 13 years of trial and error, start and re-start, success and failures.  The culmination of my experience has led to the founding of a fantastically (and surprisingly) successful Local Search company. 

My job now is to help local, small businesses leverage their online marketing efforts so as to manage expenditures while providing quantifiable results.  After working with literally hundreds of small, local businesses I’ve been able to compile a list of what definitely works – and what definitely doesn’t.  Here is that list:

1. Claim your “Maps” listings and make sure they are set up properly for maximum exposure - There are basically three main sites that provide businesses the opportunity to claim “local” listings: Google, Yahoo! and Bing. By claiming a listing and setting it up properly and business can potentially gain more exposure locally than a 50-foot sign out front. We’ve worked with small business owners who continuously report that the Google Maps listing alone is responsible for up to 50% of their new customer contacts. Pretty powerful stuff from a free service.
2. Optimize your business for local search – We’re not talking about a business website here (we’ll get to that later in the list). We’re talking about placing a business in the third-party directories, data centers and Internet Yellow Pages that routinely figure prominently in the search engines.

The vast majority of ALL searches for anything start in one place – Google. With the rapid growth of local factors in searches, this has provided easily the greatest opportunity for small businesses to make an impact.

Showing on the first page of Google can be virtually impossible on a small business budget when you consider the, for lack of a better word, size of the Internet. However, we can shrink the field substantially by focusing exclusively on local. Type in a search for “business card printing” and Google feeds in excess of 21 million results. Add a local factor like “business card printing Irving, TX” and the number of results shrinks to a mere 127,000. The task is far less daunting now.

The process of optimizing a business for local search requires a bit of knowledge in terms of how the Internet works, but it does not require a degree from M.I.T. One thing is for certain, a business would be better suited have a specialized company do this for them, but – and this is important – the service should entail a one-time setup and no monthly fees or contracts. Once the listings are in place there is very little a company can do to further enhance them over time – if they are done properly to begin with.

3. Build a website that is actually designed specifically for local exposure – Why is a website #3 on this list? Simple. A business website is just one site and there certainly is no guarantee that having a website will lead to new business. However, if a business goes through the expense and time of building a website it is critical that they do it properly. Local SEO is not the same as traditional SEO despite what the “gurus” will try to sell...er…tell you. I’ve covered the techniques of local SEO in other articles, so I’ll save the space here.

4. IF you have a website, spread the word. The web address should be on everything created in conjunction with your business. You web address needs to be on every business card, sign, invoice, check, advertisement, and email that exists for your business.

This particular point may not be important, but think of it like this – if a customer is referring you to someone do you think they are more likely to remember your website or your phone number?

5. Solicit online review for your business – Many local search algorithms, including Google’s, take reviews into account. Unfortunately, only the top 2% of your happiest customers will leave a review without being prompted, but nearly 100% of unhappy customers will do the same. The only way to combat these statistics is to solicit reviews from your customers. Give them an incentive and make it easy for them.

As part of our Optimized Local Search Services, we create a document for display that lists the top sites that accept reviews that can impact a businesses search engine positioning. The process works. The more reviews you solicit the more positive reviews you get. In many searches, businesses with reviews will show above businesses without. When a customer views your listing, they’ll be able to read all the positive reviews and they are more likely to call or visit your business.

The review thing may seem like an obvious thing, but quite frankly the vast majority of local business owners we work with do not fully realize the impact that it can have.

1.      Pay-per-click advertising -  Many local business owners choose pay-per-click as their sole method of online marketing.  Unfortunately, most business owners we work with complain that it doesn’t work as well as they hoped. 

We only recommend PPC advertising to businesses trying to reach a broader geographic region that reaches beyond their city limits.  With proper local SEO, most businesses do not need any further online advertising to show on the first pages of search results. 

The main problem with PPC is that the venue is saturated which means that top keywords are too expensive to provide a decent return.  Additionally, the average number of clicks that it takes to gain a customer is too high. 

For instance, we recently worked with a plumbing company who reported that they pay $7.50 per click and receive a phone call from a prospect about every 10 clicks.  At $75 per customer, no wonder plumbers are so expensive.

Finally, there are many “experts” who claim that the average search engine user ignores “sponsored results” as though they are not even there.  Why pay to advertise in a place that no one is looking?  It would be like running a TV commercial in the world of DVRs.  Oh, wait. 

And for goodness sake, do not hire someone to manage your PPC campaign.  There are no tools or methods better than those provided by the PPC companies, so the difference between a PPC “expert” and you is about ten minutes of reading and following a setup wizard.

2.      Websites designed by a phone book company – The two largest phone books in the United States both offer relatively affordable small business websites.  Unfortunately, the resulting website is rarely nothing more than a digital phone book advertisement.  At $100 a month, you’d think you’d get a bit of SEO thrown in.

3.      Facebook / Twitter -  There are exceptions to every rule, but social media for the vast majority of small business owners is nothing more than a waste of time. 

If the majority of your customers are repeat customers or if you can plug into a local niche, then perhaps Facebook is worth the effort.  We’ve worked with several businesses to help them make it work for them.  However, the amount of time investment required must be balanced against the return.

With the exception of a college town pizza place, we’ve yet to encounter a local business that has made Twitter truly work for them.  I’m sure this statement will bring additional success stories out of the woodwork, but so be it.  In my experience, small business owner simply don’t have time to do what it takes to make Twitter worth the effort.

4.      SEO Contracts – If you’ve completed all of the Top 5 topics, you won’t need a fulltime SEO consultant.  I’m not a fan of long-term contracts anyway, but quite frankly there is little an SEO company can do for you on a recurring basis that will actually provide a decent return on your investment if you are truly only interested in reaching local customers. 

If you need your site to be optimized for an entire country, state or major metropolitan area, then SEO is for you.  Remember, we’re talking about local businesses here.

5.      An e-Commerce site -  Too many local business owners we work with think that if you build a site that sells stuff, then you will sell stuff.  Anyone who has ever built a website knows that getting traffic to a site is the ultimate challenge.  With the average conversion rate of 1 sale per 100 visitors, then the e-Commerce site better be a hobby and had better not cut into the budget too much. 

As a local business, if you want to sell something online use eBay.  Your profit margins will be lower but at least you’ll sell something. 

Feel free to contact me with your thoughts.   As I stated in the beginning, I’m not a guru.  I’m just someone who has tried everything…more than once.