Coaching For Success
Mobile Marketing
3 Steps To Optimising Your Business For Local Search
Oct 25th
Are you and your internet business visible to users searching locally? That may not have meant a great deal until recently, when, with the fairly recent increase in GPS- and mapping-enabled smartphones and the changes in the way Google’s search results are triggered, local searches started to become a vital marketing channel. If your business ignores local search, the answer to the question posed at the beginning of this piece may be “No”, which is not the answer you want to get.
Change Your Focus
Most companies are aware of the need to at least claim their listing in Google Places, but rarely go much further than that, concentrating their efforts mainly on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) for general queries.
Claiming a listing in Google Places is a good first step in a location-specific search optimisation strategy, but most users searching locally aren’t actually using Google, instead preferring online yellow pages, city guides like Yelp and CitySearch, local directories or other search engines like Bing or Yahoo.
So, changing your focus from optimising your site for general search queries to local search queries is essential to avoid missing the boat altogether where local search is concerned. Here are 3 steps that can be taken to optimise your internet presence for local search queries.
1. Stake Multiple Claims
The first thing you should do is get your business listed locally on all three of the major search engines, Google, Yahoo! and Bing Maps. In addition, increasing the number of “citations”, or mentions, of your company’s name along with the local address and phone number on third-party sites such as YellowPages.com, Yelp, Local.com and CitySearch is crucial to improving your site’s ranking in map listings.
Third-party sites such as the ones mentioned above attract quite a bit of traffic in their own right with many users supplying reviews of local businesses. These reviews are often pulled by Google and a location’s 10 pack ranking (the top 10 business listings shown on a map designated “A” to “J”) can be affected by the number of reviews it receives, while those rated highly by customers often see improved click-through rates.
2. Illustrate and Amplify
Since search engine rules and algorithms are changing constantly, staying on top of local Search Engine Optimisation will be an ongoing endeavour, much like general search query optimisation. In the case of Google Places, once your listing’s been claimed and location(s) verified, the next step is to enhance your business’s profile by building up your listing with as much information as possible, including videos and photos.
Adding coupons to your listings provides customers with incentives and also helps with tracking the results of your efforts. Choosing the correct category for your business is essential, as this ensures your site shows up for the search terms you’ve targeted. The more comprehensive your business profile, the more your listing will be trusted by both users and Google.
3. Take Chances
Look into options that may be a bit more edgy, like incentivising user actions through social media sites such as Twitter. In July, Twitter was supporting around 800 million searches per day, double that of Bing and Yahoo! combined, many of those searches being aimed locally, offering leverage for both direct response and branding. This makes Twitter search a viable and useful marketing vehicle, regardless of your ability to build a following.
Also, there’s great potential in location-based mobile applications such as Foursquare and Double Dutch, which allow companies to make use of the geographic locations of their users, which can in turn be used to provide offers along with information about nearby points of interest and businesses.
Constant Updates
As with standard search engine optimisation (SEO) strategies, constant care and attention to your local search marketing program will reap great rewards in terms of increasing not only online but also offline traffic and sales. If any of your location details change, updating your online profile and listings will maintain your credibility not only with the search engines but also your users and keep you on the radar of local searches.
To make sure your internet business isn’t invisible when users search locally, consult a UK internet business coach who’ll get your business on the map locally and help you keep it there.
Mobile Marketing Can Lead To Big Profits
Sep 15th
Using Mobiles Phones Can Boost Your Profits
Mobile phone use for internet business, applications and penetration into the consumer market is huge and growing daily. Millions of ordinary people and businesses are using them for keeping abreast of developments or just to stay in contact with online friends as a consequence these devices are becoming (if they already are not) a basic necessity in today’s society.
As a business, if you are looking for a new cost effective means of promotion then you must utilise the potential of mobile phones and mobile marketing. Right from small business owners to large corporates, everyone is now using this media for their business promotion. One important tool in this arena is SMS. SMS is a cost effective way of promotion. In this article we will see how a simple short message can become an effective source of revenue generation for a business.
Pros and cons of SMS marketing
SMS is a cost effective means of getting your promotion across as you need to send an SMS only once and the end user will read it as an when he wants to, so it is better than making a call where the user may not be always available. On the top of that it is a two way communication when customers start responding. The results of SMS campaign are easily measured from tools such as delivery reports.
From a marketing point of view, an SMS campaign can be an effective viral marketing tool as one user forwards the SMS to others and helps create a buzz. A lot of tools such as MMS and WAP push technology can be used to add creativity to the message through audio, videos and pictures.
A SMS can also let people send inbound SMS requests to your company. These requests could be for added information, purchase requests or service requests. All of the above activities helps in increasing your customer database.
The biggest con of SMS as a promotional tool is technical faults like delivery failures, in addition some customers may perceive them as spam so it is important that your SMS campaign give due consideration to this issue by allowing users to opt out as and when they want. This can easily be covered by setting up proper policies for content development.
Approaching an SMS campaign
There are some simple steps to be taken for an effective SMS campaign. First of all you must thoroughly understand your target customers by getting information about their age, demographics and their general behaviour. Their behaviour must be captured to know how they access SMS and the timing when they are most probable to read the SMS.
According to the target audience, you can finally generate the message content. If you can provide any additional benefits in terms of promotional offers then your message will be more effective.
Apart from above points, you should try to make SMS an interactive tool by engaging your potential customers through a pleasurable or unique experience with a value proposition. You must provide a communication channel and channels of action to engage them. And always remember not to spam.
Tips for an effective message content
Just as in online marketing keywords are used for effective content generation so to is the case with SMS marketing, which also involves the use of a keyword and short codes. A ‘short code’ is a special 5 or six digit phone number which is unique to your business and recognized by all customers. Customers send messages on this number an example of a short code is 80001.
Similarly, a ‘keyword’ (s a unique phrase that a customer uses to interact with you. The keyword you choose might highlight a product or service your internet business provides i.e. your are an insurance company who might use the keyword ‘claim’. So keywords are paired with short code to send a message from a customer to you.
Advertising your short code on all your current marketing material will expose your business to more consumers. These consumers can in turn send SMS requests to your short code which allows you to grow your database.
Thus, we have seen that you just need to be creative enough to get attention using a few words. It is quick and crisp. Lot of businesses are reaping the benefits of SMS campaigns by reducing their advertising costs and increasing their reach.
So, if you are looking for cost effective publicity using Mobile Marketing, get a shortcode and mobile marketing advice through an Internet Business Coach or internet consultant or let us set up a campaign for you. Right now we are offering great UK rates and free advice on how to get more business using SMS, just fill in our contact form.
