Basic Small Business Website Tips

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Biggest Growth in Online Advertising Will Be Local

Jupiter Research reports found local display and search advertising have found life on the Internet and are leading among all online advertising categories for significant growth;

" According to the US Online Local Advertising Forecast, 2007 – 2012, released by JupiterResearch, local advertising will increase by 13 percent from 2007 to 2012, faster than online advertising as a whole, of which a 12 percent growth rate is anticipated during the same period. But it will be local display and search advertising that are poised to make the biggest impact."

"At this point, most local advertisers are not marketers and do not have the time or resources to manage, let alone optimize, online advertising campaigns," said David Schatsky, President of JupiterResearch. "Although search is increasing its impact on the local market, it still demands a degree of sophistication unavailable to most local advertisers."

Our unofficial research tells us that at least in our local geographic area businesses are unaware of online advertising options.

The venue is not part of the "common culture" among small business yet.

Many are being introduced to the concept by the same people that put them in the Yellow Pages for $1,000 to $4,000 per month and are now trying to sap them similarly online.

Google Enlisting College Students To Sell AdWords

Google today announced an innovative local marketing challenge designed to spread the word about AdWords to local business.

Student groups will receive US$200 of free online advertising and then work with local businesses to devise effective online marketing campaigns. They will outline a strategy, run their campaign, assess their results and provide the business with recommendations to further develop their online marketing.

It’s a great chance for students to gain practical, real world online marketing experience whilst getting all the excitement of competing with other students from all over the world.

What a great idea. This is a win win for all parties. Local businesses that sign on will see what they have been missing in the digital marketing space and students will learn how to craft marketing campaigns for small business.

Local Online Ads To Double In 2008

Search Engine Land quotes a Borrell Associates study of local online ad sales projections for the upcoming year.

"Local search is expected to grow from roughly $2.5 billion currently to $5 billion in 2008. Borrell expects local video to roughly triple from just over $400 million today to $1.27 million next year".

Other highlights from the Borrell Report;

• The three largest categories are Autos, Jobs and Real Estate.
• Dramatic rise in video for local business.
• Average local business spend was $299 "per location" in 2007. (Range, $18,000 high end to about $100 low end).
• Independent online ad specialists will be in high demand.

Search Marketing For Small Business

The L.A. Times runs a piece today concerning small business migrating to online advertising.

"Take Eddie Ugalde, 33, who runs an eco-friendly carpet cleaning business in Altadena. He started spending $1,000 a month with ReachLocal in March and got such a dramatic response from the search campaign that he moved Right Away Carpet Drycleaning out of his home, grew from two employees to 10 and bought a distribution business. He recently increased his monthly ad purchase to $1,500."

My small business friends, it really is that easy. All it takes is a commitment to growth and a willingness to break away from the hold your YP rep has on you.

Email us from the link on our main site. Let us help you GROW your business.

Mark Cuban's Message To Newspapers Unheaded

I'm pointing to an 8 month old Blog Maverick post by Mark Cuban where Mark talks about the power of local search advertising with Google. His message to the newspaper people is one I have pondered more than once since I formed this business. I'm amazed Cuban formed such visionary conclusions considering he is not in the local search business.

"Which leads us to Newspapers/Local Media companies. Whether you are a standalone newspaper, or a local media conglomerate with Paper, TV and more, the one thing you have without question is a salesforce. A salesforce that goes out into the business community and sells them on the benefits of advertising on your properties. The job of each salesrep, when done well, is to create a return to the customer that exceeds their investment. Of course its not always easy to define that return, but the salesrep hopefully has a close enough connection to the customer that they can evolve the strategy to fit their needs.

The "touch" methods of selling for local media, as opposed to the "self service purchase" of Google Adwords and its competition have been viewed by some in the Web2.0 world as a disadvantage. I think it creates an amazing opportunity to pull one from the Google Playbook.

"There are couple certainties in the advertising world today.
1. Google isn't going to send a salesrep to visit, or have an inside salesrep call on the local 5 store pizza, dress, toy, laser surgery, dentist, whatever chain of stores. You are.

2. Some percentage of those small to large localized businesses you call on will have a website and of those, the vast majority of them will have no idea how to properly use web services like AdWords or AdSense to either generate foot or phone traffic (the 2 Fs of brick and mortar) for their businesses or make some money from advertising.

3. Local traffic is worth more per click through than national traffic is.

Which creates a phenomenal opportunity for your company. Just as Google arbitraged its selling ability between its ability to monetize traffic and AOL and Myspace, why not use your sales force to arbitrage the ability of your salesforce to sell locally and all the Google Adsense/Yahoo/MSN networks to sell locally ?

You are already selling display and classified ads for the paper, or commercials for your TV station, why not expand that effort to include Search Engine Marketing? Why not hook up with a local SEM expert and make that a service that you offer to your customers ? There is very little chance the local Pizza chain or Body Repair shop knows how to use SEM correctly and those that try more often than not waste a ton of money trying to figure it out. Why not offer it up as a service, even if they don't buy ads for your newspaper or TV station ? In otherwords, you put yourself in the position to become the dominant force for local advertising in your markets, NO MATTER WHAT PLATFORM those ads appear on.

Why not buy a media planner that specializes in your market ? Or put together the resources to compete with them ? Selling locally is a core competency. Optimizing advertising in a comprehensive campaign is a skillset that all local businesses need and many don't know how to find."

My experience with my local newspaper has been cold, actually they view me as the enemy. I'm not of course. McClatchy, Fresno Bee, call me I have some great ideas!

Small Is The Now; Small Is The Future

According to Matt McGee posting on Search Engine Land;

"Small is the Now: Based on its most recent figures (2005), the U.S. Small Business Administration estimates that 99.9% of the country's businesses are small businesses. The U.S. Census Bureau says small businesses employ slightly more than 50% of the workforce.

Small is the Future: The recent Intuit Future of Small Business Report cites a 2005 Gallup/CNN/USA Today survey, in which nearly 80% of 18-29 year-olds questioned said they'd rather start their own business than work for a big company. The report specifically mentions technology as a driving force behind the growth of small business among young adults:..."

Matt reveals Search Engine Land will be starting a new column dedicated to small business search marketing, great!

Confusing, Costly Choices Ahead For Local Business

While reading Krasilovsky's piece on The Kelsey Group Blog today about Gannet's new search marketing initiative I imagined being in the place of the local merchant. The typical local business by my definition is a landscaper or a restaurateur serving a city the size of Tucson Arizona.

The merchant already has a presence in the print Yellow Pages, maybe more than one, and likely has sunk one to four thousand dollars in each. He or she also maintains an ad in the local newspaper, runs coupons in ValuePack and maybe has some direct mail deals going. Local merchant is doing all he can offline and is paying a pretty price.

Now comes the Internet marketing peddlers.

Our representative local merchant likely has a website and assumes he's already "on" Google and Yahoo! but really doesn't know. The guy who set up the website told him he'd be in Google and he thinks he is. The website is live and it looks slick.

The Yellow Pages rep hits up our local merchant with a flashy proposal full of cool stats and promises of traffic. There is a sense of trust with the YP rep because an ad does exist in the book, that trust earns the rep a pitch.
The cost for representative keyword searches in Tucson may run $400.00 per month for a featured spot. That's a lot but the rep shows how the competition is already there or better yet points out the competition is NOT there yet. You have to be there in any case right?

Next is a call from Gannet's people from Planet Discover and their package is pretty slick too. The salesperson does his/her best to convince our merchant friend listing on Tucson.com
is vital. Soon after he gets a call from the CitySearch sales force.

After the big sell by these local directory people one might assume all the bases are covered but not one of them told our merchant he won't be seen within Google or Yahoo! local listings (to any meaningful extent).

Google, Yahoo, Local.com, MSN's local.live and SuperPages.com, local search most powerful directories still await. The ancillary or supporting sites like InsiderPages, Yelp, Judy's Book, Angie's List, Chowhound and the rest still wait as well.

So what is local business to do? Currently there are few search marketing agencies that specialize exclusively in local search marketing.
Take a look at the these results for local search marketing. It's populated with articles about local search but the merchant will have to dig deeper to find someone to help him sort out available online marketing options.
At the present time most local search marketing specialists use a cookie cutter approach to serving clients. Local search marketing performed correctly requires development of a personal relationship with the client's particular needs. There is little cookie cutter about it.

My advice to local businesses when approached by various directory sales folks is to put them off and list in their directories for free. See where you end up on their results pages. If you wantb an enhanced position take a trial run for a month or two.

Most importantly research Yahoo! Local and dig into Google Maps (local). Acquaint yourself with Google AdWords (PPC). Their local targeted AdWords product is the single most effective marketing tool bar none for a quick start local marketing campaign.

Feel free to call me for a free consultation. My number is on the front page of my home site.

Local Search Marketing For Local Business

Darell Zahorsky, the small business information guide for About.com posts a nice primer on local search marketing;

"Just how many consumers search locally? A recent comScore Networks study found over 849 million searches were performed in the U.S. during one month in the summer. The Kelsey Group estimates over 30 billion local searches annually will be conducted by 2009. Even more significant is almost 50% of local searchers visited a local business as a result of a search....

How much can a local search be worth? In Dallas, local search in one month revealed by Overture resulted in 1250 local searches for the keyword Dallas flowers. With over half of local searchers visiting stores, the Dallas market for flowers (at an average sale of $50) would be worth over $30,000 per month in business....."

Nice read.

"Panlocal" "Hyperlocal" Pegasus Defines It for Us

Greg Sterling's Screenwerks pointed me to Pegasus News Mike Orren's piece on Online Journalism Review. Mike hits it on the head here:

"Local retailers, many of whom may not even have websites, are a huge class of business that is not flocking to pay-per-click ad services. And while that presents a huge opportunity, it means the hard work of picking up phones, knocking on doors and feet on the street – just like with traditional local media. However, once you get them on board, local advertisers are amazed at the precision, flexibility and business intelligence provided by online advertising. Restaurants used to paying a flat fee for ad space in a weekly are shocked that their bill is lower if you deliver fewer pageviews. Stores are aghast that you can change their sale ads every day..."

Pegasus News

Local Search Talk, I Love It

Some interesting facts about local search from Mike Stewert of Dallas Blog.

".....In 2006, 77% of those who used an Internet Yellow Pages for at least one product/service category also used a print Yellow Pages for at least one product/service category. The point is: To reach ready to purchase consumers a business owner, as they say, does not need to put all thier eggs in one basket. Some people use print, some people use online local search (Google, Yahoo, Superpages.com, YellowPages.com, MSN, etc etc.), but most use both.

Local online marketing firm conducted an online survey this past August regarding Internet usage to find a local service business. The survey used Nielsen//NetRatings’ online panel and asked about behavior within the past 90 days. Among more than 2,800 consumer responses:

• 70% had used the Internet to search for a local service business at any point, and 46% had used the Internet to search one or more times for a local service in the last 90 days
  
• 89% found search to be “somewhat effective” or “very effective” in finding local services in their area.
• 68% said they would most likely use the phone number on the website to contact a vendor..."

He goes on to say;

"If you want your business to be found by ready to buy consumers, you need advise from someone that understands the in's and out's of LOCAL SEARCH. This includes organic search, SEM, link popularity, online directory advertising, and print advertising designs and concepts."

My thoughts on those points;

• Organic search; Important but shop carefully for SEO help, vultures lurk.
  
• Link popularity; Not so important for local as for businesses with a national intent.
• SEM; All important, trumps all other means of advertising for a local business.
• Online directory advertising; Imperative
• Print advertising designs; Still important but don't waste more than 20% of your budget on it.