So let’s have a look at some techniques to help you dominate your own local market. Firstly visit http://www.google.com/local/add/businessCenter and sign up.

1. Fully complete the status bar of Google Places to 100%

2. If your company name has keywords in it this will help greatly, don’t modify your company name though if it doesn’t have keywords in it naturally, it may work temporarily but Google may delist you.

3. On site optimisation – include your full address on every page of your website, I usually do it in the footer (see bottom of page). Side note: If the goal of your website is to generate phone calls include your number prominently on every page also (amazes me how many people only have it on their contact page).

4. Select five categories that closely describe what your business is, not what it does (see below). Make sure the content on your site is related to these categories.

5. Make your listing comprehensive, photo’s, video’s, payment methods, opening hours, parking etc all these are good things to have on your page.

7. Make sure your website and business is listed in as many quality directories as you can find. e.g. truelocal.com.au, yellowpages.com.au they all have free options. All the business details should be consistent on each website.

8. Encourage people that have done business with you to leave a review. You could make a link in your email footer when sending invoices or something similar. Every one of them does not need to be a glowing review (this will seem fake anyway). Instead focus on being the best you can and earning higher reviews. Do not review your own business it’s likely these services track your IP address and know if you are.

Once you have done all the above and verified your listing you will no doubt begin to see some highly targeted leads coming into your business. For stats on your listing you just return to http://www.google.com/local/add/businessCenter. Impressions are the number of time your listing has being viewed. Actions are the number of clicks interacting with your listing, including requesting more information, viewing photos, or getting driving directions.

With it’s new prominence expect a higher degree of scrutiny headed towards local business listings. As I’ve hinted a few times above do not try and game Google, it may work short term but you will almost certainly be headed towards a ban on your Google places listing (which will take months to resolve at best). Some details may seem a little bit fiddly but they will make a difference to how many people find your business when they are searching for your services.

If you are interested in doing your own Google Places account I recommend following this checklist carefully.

• Keeping students and parents up to date with the latest information (website + email newsletter)
• Attracting new students to the school who have being referred by a friend or seen some offline advertising e.g. flyers.
• Attracting new students who are searching online for generic terms (not your company name) e.g. Dance Schools Suburb Name, being in front of these searchers is critical for business growth (if your not looking after them your competitors will gladly).

Over the past 3 years Pure Dance Academy has opened at two locations servicing both the Alexandra Hills and Jimboomba Areas of Brisbane. The number one source of new customers at both locations is their online marketing. We installed Google Analytics Tracking on the website to report on the number of visitors and more importantly the number of visitors that turn into paying dance students. The below report breaks down the traffic sources into where visitors came from. The number one source of new customers was Search Engines (e.g. Google), beating offline advertising and referrals combined.

Appearing highly in the search engines for terms that are highly related to the local business service you provide is important. People searching visit the top links first and then the bottom links after (only if they didn’t already find what they wanted or are doing heavy research for a large purchase). Below are some of the keywords Pure Dance Academy ranks well for and lead to a consistent source of new leads and customers. Note unlike the advertising block which is highlighted (where the advertiser pays every time someone clicks), Pure Dance does not pay Google for this ongoing source of new customers and 97% of searchers will not click the ads but rather the “natural” search results (that’s a big difference!).

Do some searches for your own business service + suburb name and see who is at the top of Google, is it you or is it your competitors? Over the next 3 years how will you compete if people aren’t finding your services when they are looking for them?

The only problem is they forgot to actually deliver the happy banking experience. At the end of the day they are just a typical bank and I can’t criticize them to harshly for that.

It is though a great example of the problem with great brand advertising that doesn’t reflect what you actually deliver:

• No one will spread your message because it’s not real
• People that do try you out are going to be let down when you don’t deliver what you promised
• Your going to have to continue to spend tons of money forever to keep up your image, it will never support itself
• Staff and business partners will disconnect with your manufactured image

On the flip side take a company like South West Airlines, sure they try and put out some brand advertising as well, but it doesn’t work. People know they have bad customer service, yet they got the highest customer satisfaction in a survey of airlines. People are happy when they get what they expect. Don’t let your marketing get out of touch with what customers can expect from the rest of your company.

Think more about how you can improve what you do, not how you look.

“listening to your customer is one thing, but actually giving a shit and doing something about it is what truly matters” - Gary Vaynerchuk

This creates a dilemna do you satisfy your customers want or do you challenge them and risk losing the sales to get them what they need. I believe it’s a dangerous road to go down selling clients what they want, in the marketing consulting arena it’s downright irresponsible. Plenty of businesses are happy to take your money for services that aren’t going to benefit your business. In the long run though it always leaves both parties feeling burned and cheap.

Next time you look at purchasing an ad campaign or a website try writing down the number of questions they ask you about your business. If it’s a low number (less than 30) chances are you’ve hit a churn and burn provider that isn’t looking for a long term relationship or getting you the results you really want.

Before you buy your next lot of ads don’t forget to check out the Truth about Ad Sales.

There are so many more profitable areas in your business you could touch up. Your sales funnel, online marketing, referral system, search engine optimisation the list goes on. While new technology is always exciting it’s always a good idea to remember that the surest way to success is to follow tried and true methods. Especially in marketing your business there are best practices out there you just need to research and apply them. Location based apps are the icing on the cake master the fundamentals first.

For an early look at Geolocation Marketing see the New Jersey Nets Case Study.

The above video is a rather comedic look at the world of ad sales. Unfortunately it’s not so far from the truth. It’s fine for big companies to throw money around like this (carpet bombing the entire country does work if you have a billion dollars to spend). But growing businesses requires a much stricter strategy and return on investment.

Radio, TV and Magazine ads should all be tracked 100%. Cut any advertising which does not pay for itself. This can easily be done by using a unique phone number or online tracking software if your goals are web based.

Ad reps are going to tell you, that you should run the ad a few times and that branding is important so you are doing the right thing. That’s their job to sell ads. It’s your job to look for smarter ways to spend your advertising budget.

Online advertising can be much more targeted and cheaper than Radio, TV and Magazine advertising and also much easier to setup, manage and scale.

At the end of the day all the money and half hearted efforts you throw at a problem aren’t going to mean anything if no-one believes you. It’s time to have a conversation with your customers, find out what they want, then DO something about it.

Your customers will determine your brand, they are the ones telling other people about you. They all have their own twist on your story, their own personal twist. Help them and they will help you.

BP has pledged 75 million dollars towards the 40 billion dollar cleanup cost. #makingitright http://bit.ly/cWVsxl

November 19, 2010 11:20 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

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