LOCAL BUSINESS OPTIMIZATION

There's no denying that when it comes to online marketing trends in 2011, local's the word. In spite of its international reach, a remarkable 1 in 5 Google searches is related to a local-based service. These searches yield business listings populated by Google Places. Have you checked your Google Places listing? Is it verified? Have you updated it with a menu, store hours, acceptable methods of payment, or a keyword-rich description of your business? Have you encouraged patrons to leave reviews? If you haven't, you're missing valuable opportunities for exposure.

Half your work is already done!

Users spend a remarkable 1 billion hours a day searching Google Places and browsing Google Maps. Local business listings appear along these searches, and those listing that are optimized for search are served up first.

These channels provide valuable opporutuities for restaurants, auto body shops, coffee shops, and other stores of a local variety to proactively discover new potential customers at the point of interest. Entice passers-by with an offer, or include your phone number in your listing so that potential clients can phone in an order right from their mobile devices.

How do you make the most out of every visit?

Not every visitor who arrives at your site from a local search will convert to a customer today. So how do you make the most of his or her visit? Capture an email address. Use a simple form and offer some collateral, whether an instant download or a $5 coupon off store merchandise. A database of customers who have identified your brand as trustworthy and who have given you permission to email them new product news, updates, and offers, is worth several hundred times that investment.

If you have a list, is it double opt-in? If not, you risk being marked as spam and blacklisted from major ISP's, dramatically decreasing your deliverability rates and rendering your email strategy ineffective. Our Email MaxDeliver platform adopts CAN-SPAM best practices and ensures the absolutely highest rates of deliverability, backed by analytics that reveal who opened your email, who ignored it, and who was the most engaged among active readers. This valuable information helps you retool and refine your message for maximium impact and ROI on later emails.

But 'local' goes beyond search

It requires more than Google Places, Yahoo! Local, and Bing Local listings to guarnatee visibility for your business. You should also have a current listing on Manta, Merchant Circle, the Yellow Pages, as well as pages on Citysearch and Yelp.

Groupon. Living Social. Google Offers.

With so many major players occupying the local offers space, it can be hard to develop a plan of attack. The allure is near-instant sales possibly to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars, along with more foot traffic than your small business can stand. The danger is a marketing investment that only affords you short-term customers at the expense of long-term value. How do you make the most of your foray in the local offer space? Before dealing with Groupon, Living Social, or Google Offers, make sure your initaitive fits into an integrated marketing plan. We can help you mitigate risk and maximize the chances that your local offer convert short-term visitors into long-term, repeat business.

Want a free analysis of your online strategy? Dial 412-212-8546 or email sales [at] firstblogmedia [dot] com.