Main Street Marketing 2.0 (Part 3)

Main Street businesses are certainly familiar with traditional forms of advertising. Newspapers, magazines, billboards, bus benches, radio, and television ads are traditional forms of push marketing. Push marketing allows businesses to inform potential customers and create awareness about their company and any sales or services offered, announcements can be temporary or long standing.

Yellowpages, business directories, and tourist information centers are traditional forms of pull marketing. Pull marketing takes advantage of the awareness created. Once a customer identifies his needs or wants, he seeks out ways to contact or visit companies that offer exactly what the customer is looking for.

All of these have a direct mirror in Internet Marketing. The difference between online and traditional marketing is that businesses are:

• able to reach to a wider audience at less cost
• able to easily track the results
• able to respond quicker to customer demand

Let's look at a table where we can see the mirrors of each strategy and where they fit into the buying cycle of customer behavior.

Although they did not fit on the table, we can assume that all the traditional push strategies fit only into the purchase stage of the funnel. But to be fair we'll stick with push media for now. Pull marketing is worthy of it's own lengthy blog.

Once again the Internet has an advantage over traditional media, because it can do remarketing. Remarketing is where, because online activities are being traced, we have a second opportunity to capture purchase makers even if they did not click on our push ad. Another more detailed blog about that later.

Back to the matter at hand Display ads and banner ads are to newspaper, magazine and billboard ads as television and radio are to viral video marketing and social media marketing.

Display ads appear among the content of news and other informational sites to potential customers that are a captured audience on those sites just like newspaper and magazine ads have a captured audience. With Internet marketing the number of impressions can be accurately measured. Not so with newspaper and other print and good luck measuring how many people see your roadside billboard.

Like TV and radio ads Social media and viral videos are subject to the whims of the viewer or listener. Once ads come on they can change the station unless the ads peak their interest. With TV and radio you cannot count how many times your ad was seen or heard. Viral videos and social media can be exact to how many times your ad was watched, and unique to the Internet, reviewed by the public!

By now you should be able to the ongoing trend here. Traditional marketing while effective most of the time does not provide accurate measurement and therefore presents an iffy portrayal of your Return on Investment. Internet marketing is just as effective if not more and portrays an exact measure for your Return on Investment. For those businesses that need to watch their bottom line more closely the Internet is their best option although a healthy mix of both would be ideal. Call your WSI Internet Consultant to learn more about the best strategy for your business today!

Main Street 2.0: Local internet Marketing (Part 2)

In part 2, we are going to discuss some more similarities between how a business markets themselves on and offline. Main Street businesses spend lots of money to generate word of mouth. Let's examine the most expensive part of those activities especially for a new business: their storefront.

Main Street is popular because of all the unique storefronts that decorate the sidewalks with entertaining window displays, inviting scents wafting from restaurants, and the colorful characters that make shopping downtown memorable. Companies spend a lot of initial investment creating the right look and feel for their storefront. Every element of their design is meant to attract customers and create word of mouth. It is most effective when foot traffic or window shoppers with no set shopping agenda say,"Ooh that place looks neat. Let's check it out!" And you know, when they get home they tell their friends about this really cool store they found.

Internet Marketing has a similar expense when building online storefront. Although a website is much cheaper than designing a physical store it still needs the same care and attention. Like a window diplay your website needs to be attractive and compelling. Like having good employees your website needs to be able to inform customers to turn traffic into purchases. We call these conversions. Conversion based architecture needs to be included in your website design to make your investment effective.

Businesses want to be located on Main Street because it brings them the most foot traffic. Local internet marketing does the same thing for online traffic. Companies need to invest in IM strategies to have the best location among their competitors. Thus, they will gain the most traffic and the most customers for their type of business. Like Main Street the Internet used to be small and simple to market your business. When malls and big box stores started to compete with Main Steet, it had to up its game. Nowadays the Internet is flooded with comeptition and local businesses once again need to up their game. The best strategy for them is to leverage proven Internet Marketing techniques.

Webdesign is the starting point but you can't stop there. You need to promote it and measure the results. Traditonal media can be hard to measure. The Internet makes it easy with web analytics. Like your accountant can tell you how much ROI you are getting per sqaure foot of store space, your Internet Marketing consultant can tell you your ROI for all the ways you promote your online store. Ask a WSI Internet Consultant to show you how.

Main Street 2.0: Local Internet Marketing (Part 1)

Main Street2: Local Internet Marketing (Part 1)

More and more activities from our daily lives have gone online. It seems as if Main Street America is being replaced by the Internet. The outlook looks bleak. Why go to the bar when there’s Match.com? I can order groceries or a delivery pizza online, so I don’t need to go out. I can watch movies or local bands on YouTube or MySpace. The Internet is so convenient for all our activities why do we need to leave home?

It’s the same reason why jail is bad. Humans need to go outside and actually interact with other people. We need to get out and stretch our legs. When we can, we reward ourselves for our hard work be it dinner, drinks, clothes, or entertainment. The Internet is not going to replace our local businesses and destroy our humanity like some hard lesson learned story by Ray Bradbury. The world isn’t going to end, but the paradigm has shifted because of our other human need, information.

The Information Age is enhancing our communities by opening up communication. Local business listings on Google Maps and Yelp and other “review sites” opened up Word-of-Mouth marketing to business owners everywhere. Social Media, or Social Networking sites offers us a chance in our busy lives to build relationships in our community. Good relationships are the backbone of a local business. Internet marketing bridges the gap that used to separate companies and customers.

The opportunities to connect the span are not hard to see, but information overload can blind us to them. It’s wise to consult with an Internet marketing professional at this point (wink, wink). We are told about pay-per-click, social media, page rank, Google, Facebook, shopping carts and how great they are, but they’re not new concepts. Internet Marketing works because it’s based on traditional methods of building business-customer relations. In truth, the basic elements of T.V., Radio, Print, Yellow Pages and Word-of-Mouth have an online counterpart. The difference between traditional marketing strategies and Internet marketing is the heightened ability to track results, measure Return on Investment, adjust and adapt to market conditions and interact with customers.

The second part of this series will look at the behaviors of customers downtown and online. What makes a company competitive on Main Street and Online? Then, in part three, we’ll look at Traditional and Internet marketing side by side. How are they applied to customer behavior?

Optimized Local Business Listings

Local Business Listings as you know can be found in places such as Google Maps and Yelp.com. They are free to create in most cases and help customers determine where to shop. Business owners that invest time and creativity into their listings achieve the most success.

To get started with Google Maps you need to create a profile. This creates your listing and allows you to return to make changes. You want to include as much information about your business as possible.

Besides the obvious stuff (company name, products/services, etc.) include your business hours, charities you support, and local organizations to which your company belongs (local chamber of commerce, little league team, BBB, and local networking groups). These give you local ‘street cred’.

Next, place your ‘pin’ at the correct location on the map. Google Maps doesn’t always put it in the right place. You can also customize your pin to be a picture of your choosing. The best photo to have would be one of your storefront. This helps customers know exactly what they’re looking for before leaving the house.

Ok, now you’re all done. Not! Local business listings are free, but they take work. Google Maps and Yelp work on mutual benefit. They promote your business, and you promote theirs. You can get stickers to place in your storefront window which reminds some observant people to review you or look at your reviews, but that’s the minimum.

You need to ask your customers to write one. Even better, give them something for it. A coupon off their next purchase or a gift that’s appropriate for your product/service.

One mattress company is doing the latter with great success. Keetsa is an eco-friendly mattress store. Their products have names like “Tea Leaf Classic” and include features like “green tea memory foam”. My Mom went there to get a new mattress for her guest room. After her purchase they gave her a bag of green tea with their logo on it and asked her to write a Yelp review. This is what she wrote

Lynne A.
Alameda, CA

6/11/2009
We needed a new mattress and bed for our guest room. We did not want to spend a ton of money but we wanted out guests to be comfortable. We found just what we needed at the Keetsa store. Our shopping experience was great at the Keetsa store in Berkeley. Robert really helped us and worked with us the whole time. The mattress came in a box small enough to fit in our car (it expands after you take it out of the box) and the frame or stand was so easy to assemble you can do it without tools, Keetsa has really changed the mattress buying experience.

With Yelp, the business owner is notified when a new review is posted. He sent an email to my mother thanking her for the review. If you go to Yelp and look up this company, you will see many positive reviews about them from one-time and repeat customers.

The business owner at Keetsa is achieving online success with local business listings. By prompting his customers, whether they found him online or not, to review his business he is

· Gaining local credibility
· Improving customer service and
· Controlling word-of-mouth/ brand reputation.

All these things bring him more customers and more success. Your business could easily do the same. Check out Yelp and Google Maps for yourself. If you’re not sure which is the best review site for your type of business, contact the experts at WSI Magic Web.

Why Are Local Business Listings Important?

Local Business Listings done correctly are a great way to attract local buyers. Customers love them, because they can compare reviews from one company to another. After the buying experience customers can join the conversation by writing their own reviews.

Business owners like the listings, because they can see how people rate their business. They can see where they are doing well and what needs to be improved. The savvy business owners will even address customer complaints to ensure a positive word-of-mouth.

Before review sites, companies could not be a part of the word-of-mouth they generate. Now that the conversation between customers has gone online, the business owner can join it. In the pre-review era all a company could do was to ask customers to "tell their friends". Now the business owner can incentivize customers to review them online which reaches a greater audience than just a circle of friends.

Another reason for encouraging patrons to review your business is to gain higher display frequency. Google's local business listings (Google Maps) are rotated for each search. This means that for competitive keywords your listing might not show up a lot of the time. Listings with a greater number of reviews are rotated in more often than listings with little to no reviews. This is because Google sees reviews as business creditability and rewards companies with greater creditability.

Local business listings are a great place to start your Internet Marketing portfolio for your local business. The next post in this series will teach you how to get started and how to leverage your listings for online success.

A Word About Word-of-Mouth

Talk to most business owners and they will tell you that word-of-mouth is their best, if not only, source for attracting new customers. And why not? It's free (almost).

There are some costs to achieving positive word-of-mouth. You must have spent money training a knowledgeable and friendly staff to ensure the best customer service possible. You've no doubt given discounts, refunds, and give-aways to satisfy unhappy customers. You probably spent time and money trying to measure your customer's experience with customer comment cards and surveys. Even after all these efforts your business can't be there when word-of-mouth takes place, or can it?

Your customers are talking about you online. Search around on Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, Myspace, and other Social networking sites to see exactly what I mean. If you don't see anybody talking about you, then try refining your search locally. If you still don't see chatter about you, then you have an even bigger problem, and also a great opportunity. (Funny how crisis and opportunity appear at the same time.)

First, let's talk about what to do if you see people talking about your company, products, or services. You simply need to join the conversation where the word-of-mouth is happening. You may ask," How do I find out all the places where my customers are talking about me?" Your WSI Internet Consultant has tools and reports to find out for you. We can simplify the process of gaining a presence in the Social Media sphere of influence. Now let's look at the second scenario.

So, you can't find any word-of-mouth about you online. What does that mean? It does not mean that your customers don't go online. Unfortunately, it does mean that your business is not creating strong word-of-mouth, which is as good as no word-of-mouth at all. Fortunately, like having no credit you have a great opportunity to build good standing. With the slate blank you can start the conversation then invite your customers to join you. In turn, you improve customer relations and build a community around your business.

Community organizing and involvement are buzz-words today that cannot be ignored. Look at how much success it brought to the Obama campaign in 2008. It has a powerful impact in your market share. Banks have to be involved in the community by law. Most successful small to medium businesses support local Little League programs or charities. There are communities built around these important organizations on Social Networking sites. Your business could support them online as well as off. People like businesses that act beyond their bottom line. Thus, word-of-mouth grows from community involvement.

Want to know more? WSI Internet Consulting and Education is a great place to start. Visit our website to learn more about marketing your business or non-profit on the Internet.

It's Pay-Per-Click, Not Paper Clip!

Just getting the name right can be hard, not to mention running a successful campaign for your business. Many small business advertisers, with their DIY modus operandi, believe they can drive traffic to their website with an inefficient budget of $50 bidding on one or two keywords. During my time as an Internet Consultant I've met many of these guys who complain," Why don't I ever see my ads and how come I never see any traffic from them?"

The answer is that they are not properly using the Three Core Elements of a Paid Search Campaign.

1. Keyword Research
2. Keyword Bidding Strategy
3. Text Ad Creation

These elements are critical to Pay-Per-Click (PPC) success. Let's breifly review each one. If you would like to learn them in more detail, contact us at www.wsimagicweb.com to reach our expert Internet Consultants.

Step 1: Keyword Research

If you are considering managing your own campaign, take the time to extensively research the search terms that would be best for your business. Free tools such as WordTracker help you to find keywords that are popular but not competitive, A.K.A. keywords with a high KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index).

Another tool called SEMRush allows you to see what keywords your competition is bidding on and for how much! Finding keywords with high KEI is great, but you also need to be found where your competition is, so you can compete with them directly. Combining the data and advertising on all the keywords you've found from both tools will start to get you ahead of the game.

Are you starting to see why a DIY campaign of two keywords and an inefficient budget does not work?

Step 2: Keyword Bidding Strategy

Manually managed PPC campaigns have a simple but time consuming keyword bidding strategy.

• Keyword research
• Bid on new keywords
• Outbid competition

In the mind of the DIY advertiser," I will do my keyword research when I have time away from running my business, then bid on my new and current keywords when I have the time and the budget to implement it." Well, that's not good enough. Keyword research results change all the time as behaviors of Searchers and their search patterns are constantly in flux. Your average, busy business owner/ manager will be constantly behind the competition.

However, they can fix this problem by hiring a salaried employee to do it, or they can go the economical route and hire a professional Internet Consultant. WSI Internet Consultants have simplified PPC marketing for you. We do not charge an hourly rate, making it less expensive than hiring a person to work in-house.

WSI PPC keyword bidding strategy is different, because we

• Do the Keyword Research for you daily.
• Bid on hundreds of related keywords for you daily.
• Combine expert professionals with intelligent technology to keep your campaign optimized daily.
• Are managing thousands of campaigns for local businesses like yours.
• Are partners with all the major Search Engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask, AOL, etc.).

Watch a brief video of our PPC strategy on YouTube. You only need to pay a small management fee plus your ad spend, we will take care of the rest.

Step 3: Text Ad Creation

First of all there are rules. Google, Yahoo and the other major Search Engines have rules about what can and cannot be displayed in the text ads. Exclamations are right out. Offer lines are only so many characters long which count spaces and punctuation. Another is that you cannot say you are the "best" if it cannot be verified by a reputable third party. Copyrighted terms like brand names may need special permissions from the copyright holders.

Second, your ads need to be compelling. Try to stand out from your competition with an engaging offer and use strong calls-to-action. "10% off" or "call us today for a special discount" are statements that will grab traffic in the buying phase of the online purchasing cycle. Be sure your ad links directly to the page on your website with the stated offer/ coupon.

Third, you should be AB testing your text ads. That's right, you should have two or more text ads running to learn which offers are more effective for which keywords. You may have to run multiple campaigns to do this. This entails doing keyword research and bidding for each campaign for each Search Engine on which you are advertising.

Does this seem like a lot of work?

Unless you are a business owner with lots of time on your hands, this is too much work. Even your Webmaster does not have this kind of time, because he's busy building websites. Your WSI Internet Consultant will make Pay-Per-Click marketing easy and profitable for you.

We do not need to make changes to your website which means no messy code work for you. We recommend an efficient budget appropriate for your business. We manage your campaign with our expert professionals and our intelligent proprietary software (nobody else can do this). We exclusively optimize and report on your campaigns daily for free! You will always know what your campaign is doing and what your Return on Investment is, which is something the DIY advertiser cannot do themselves.

Call 1-866-690-4249 today or contact us through our Website to speak with a WSI Internet Consultant about starting a successful Pay-Per-Click Marketing campaign.