If you’re a local business and are looking for ways to get more people through your doors, get the word out about your business, and ultimately drive new sales, the Internet offers lots of opportunities to do just that. Now even though I talk quite frequently of the overall power the Internet has to help local businesses, what I’m talking about here is using specific tools to drive people to your business.
One such tool is a service/website/social game called Foursquare.
If you’ve never heard of it, it’s basically a location based application that works on smartphones like the iPhone, the Android, or Blackberry. Any time a user arrives at your location, they ‘check-in’, which is the same as telling everyone in their social network that they’ve arrived at your location.
Now, while many might view Foursquare as a gigantic waste of time (let’s face it, there are some people that think ANYTHING social media related is a giant waste of time!), it has a lot of potential to be a very powerful marketing tool for your local business as you look to grow using the Internet.
First, it has a game component so it’s fun for people to do. I mean really, what’s the benefit of checking in to a particular location and why would hundreds of thousands of users be doing this on a daily basis if it wasn’t fun? When someone check-in to a location, they’re essentially letting other know they’ve arrived at a place that’s worthy of talking about.
Second, anytime someone checks in to a location, they notify their network of friends, which in many cases includes their Facebook and Twitter universe of friends! This is essentially word-of-mouth marketing on steroids because again, they’ve deemed your business worthy of the shout-out and they’re telling what could be a whooooole lot of people about it.
Third, you have the ability to make some kind of offer via Foresquare to people that visit your business. When you sign up for a Foresquare account you can offer users something to come into your place of business, which again, is another fantastic opportunity to introduce yourself to your target market.
Now, I will say that Foursquare isn’t for every business and most of the participants are restaurants or retail locations. That’s not to say it can’t work if you’re a lawn care guy, attorney, or some other service provider, but you will definitely need to be creative.
Overall though, Foursquare is a perfect example of some of the increasing number of tools available to the local business owner looking to grow his business using the Internet. And just like every other tool out there, it can be extremely powerful when used correctly, but it can also be a HUGE distraction if you allow it to be.
As long as you have a clear understanding of what you’re trying to achieve online, you’ll be better able to analyze the tools like Foursquare and determine if it’s going to help you grow your business or just become a giant distraction.
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If you’re a local business and the idea of generating tons of new prospects and customers via the Internet seems like an exciting idea, you’re right on track.
However, before you jump in with both feet you want to make sure you’re starting off on the right foot.
As exciting as the Internet can be, it’s also filled with all sorts of pitfalls and stumbling blocks that can lead to headaches, frustrations, and empty promises. Because there are new tools being introduced every day, it’s important to make sure you have (at a minimum) an idea of what it is you want to accomplish online.
You see, without a plan of attack, you’ll quickly find yourself spinning your wheels trying to make tools like your website, a blog, PPC ads, and the many social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, or FourSquare work for you.
So, with so many tools and different methods for marketing your business online, where exactly does one start?
Well, as with anything related to marketing your business, the very first step in the process is to decide what it is you’re trying to accomplish. Without knowing where you want to end up, how will you know which direction to go? Or how to correct course when you get off track? Or even when you’ve arrived?
Chances are you already have a pretty good idea of what you want to accomplish. You know who you’re target market is, you know how your products or services satisfy their wants/needs, and you know what it takes to make sales.
The next is to decide which online tools are best able to help you accomplish those same goals online. To help kickstart the thought process, keep the following questions in mind:
- Which online tools best allow me to effectively reach my target market?
- What information is my target market looking for when they go online looking for the products and services I provide?
- How can I best communicate my unique selling proposition online?
- Can I re-purpose marketing collateral I already have for use online?
- Can I recreate my offline sales process using online tools? Which tools will help me do that?
Remember, marketing your local business online is no different than doing so offline. It’s all a matter of identifying your target market, figuring out where they ‘hang out’, and then presenting them with the information they need to make the decision that you offer the best choice for them.
The Internet provides PLENTY of opportunities and tools to do just that, but without a clear idea of what you’re trying to accomplish, it’s impossible to determine which tools can best help you achieve your objectives!
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If you’ve been online, trying to grow your business via the Internet for any length of time than you know how important it is to list your business in the local business listings. Unfortunately, it’s been a little tough to make this powerful tool work if you’re a home based or primarily service based business that doesn’t really have an office or storefront.
At the recent Search Marketing Expo in Austin TX a few weeks back, Google’s Director of Product Management for Google Local, Carter Maslan, hinted that we would be seeing changes very soon.
Well, that day has thankfully arrived sooner rather later!
If you’ll log into your Google Local Business Center listing and check the address information, you’ll now see the ability to hide your address information.
Hopefully this will save some of you from unexpected household visits from clients or prospects while you’re working (or lounging around) in your underwear!
I work a lot with local, service based businesses and the more and more people I talk to, the more and more I’m realizing just how mysterious this whole ‘Internet’ thing is. I’d venture a guess that a large majority of these local, service based business owners definitely know what they Internet is, the certainly know it’s an important thing, but when push comes to shove, they really have no clue how to make it work for their business.
What Keywords Would Someone Use To Find Your Business?
In other words, how can they generate qualified leads online, convert them to customers, and then hopefully build a lasting and profitable relationship, all online through their Internet presence.
Whenever someone asks me what the starting point should be in terms of growing your local business through the Internet, my first answer is always, “you’ve got to do the keyword research” to which they usually reply, “what’s keyword research?”
In a nutshell, keyword research is identifying the words or phrases someone would use to search for your business on the Internet. So when they go to Google and type in the words they think will bring them the answer to their query, what are the words that will bring them to you?
Just like you need to pick a niche for your services, you should also pick just a handful of keywords and focus on them as you begin your web marketing efforts.
For example, let’s say you run a lawn care or landscaping business. The very first thing you should do is figure out what words someone would type into a search engine if they were looking for your business.
Would it be ‘lawn care’, ‘lawn care service’, or maybe ‘lawn mowing’? And what if they were looking for someone to do lawn fertilization, they’d might search for ‘lawn care fertilization’ or something of the sorts.
The key is to pick 2-3 primary keywords that you’ll focus the majority of your efforts on. This means you’ll want to sprinkle your keywords throughout the content you create for your site, you’ll need to include them in your title tags and meta tags, and you’ll want to create content (articles, videos, blog posts, etc.) that talks about those keywords.
Remember, doing your keyword research up front is like creating the roadmap for where you want to go. If you don’t know where you want to go, you want know what direction to head, and you’ll certainly never know when you get there.
So before you do anything online, spend some time brainstorming the right keywords because it will make everything you do a whole lot more focused and a whole lot more effective.
Well, not anymore. Compete.com just released some recent analytics data that shows Facebook has overtaken Yahoo! as the second most popular destination on the web behind Google.
What does this mean for you? It means that if you’re serious about growing your business using the Internet then you MUST get serious about Facebook.
If you haven’t already, start a personal profile. Play around with it for a while. Search for some of your old high school or college friends.
Then once you’re comfortable, move onto setting up a Fan Page for your business, which is very similar to your personal profile. Here you’ll have the opportunity to develop relationships that could result in new business or profitable partnerships.
So, if you haven’t already picked up on the idea that Facebook should be a part of your multi-channel marketing efforts (notice I said ‘a part’, not ‘the whole enchilada’), hopefully this news will help open your eyes!
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