Google has just announced they are willing to photograph the inside of your business for free and add the photos to your Google Places page. They are starting off in five areas in the US. But why wait?
If you haven’t already done so, go to Google Places and click on the Get Started button under “Claim your business listing on Google – for free”.
Add as much information about your local business as you can, including hours of operation, credit cards accepted and especially some photos, including inside shots. If you can’t take decent pictures yourself hire a local photographer. The money spent should be well worth it.
During the process Google will call your business number and provide you with a PIN to confirm you actually own the business.
The result will look something like the picture below…
Google Search, Google Maps and Google Places are all becoming intertwined and it’s up to you to take the necessary steps to claim your business to promote it online.
Once you’re done, move on to claim your business at Yahoo Local and the Bing Business Portal.
More Info on Google Places:
Getting More From Your Google Place Page
Local Product Listings on Google Place Pages
.
————————
HOSB RSS Feed
In a recent survey of 8,500 small and local businesses by MerchantCircle.com shows that traditional offline marketing strategies continue to decline while social marketing is on the rise. Here’s a summary:
Traditional Offline Marketing
- Print advertising dropped from 40% to 27%
- Direct mail dropped from 39% to 28%
- Yellow Pages dropped from 45% to 37%
although almost a quarter of small businesses still named one of the three as their most effective method of marketing.
Social Media
- Facebook – 70%
- Google [Google is social media?] – 66%
- Twitter – 40%
Not Ready For Prime Time
- Mobile marketing – 15%
- Online group specials (like Groupon) – 11%
Most of the businesses surveyed were pretty evenly split on the effectiveness of social, search and email marketing. Also, about half were using Google Places and a third Facebook Places as well as other traditional online directories like Yellowbook and SuperPages.com
While mobile marketing may still be on the horizon we’re recommending to our clients that they at least set up a mobile-friendly version of their web sites.
The technology is moving and small and local businesses have to move with it..
————————
HOSB RSS Feed
If you are a local business owner and are running a special on one of your products, should you advertise in the local paper or on the web?
According to the latest AdWeek Media/Harris Poll it depends on your target market. The specific question the survey asked was “When you are looking for a bargain, which of the following types of advertising, if any, do you believe is most likely to help you find one?”
Of the over 2,000 adults surveyed 23% say the best bargains are in newspapers and magazines, 18% say the Internet is best and 34% say it makes no difference.
But, when you break it down by age groups…
When looking for the best bargains, different age groups have different ideas of where to look. Those 18-34 are more likely to say online ads (22%) and television commercials (17%) are the best places to go while those 35-44 years old go online (26%). The older one is, the more likely they are to use newspaper and magazine advertisements, as 24% of those 44-54 and one-third of those 55 and older (33%) say those are media most likely to help them find the best bargain.
In other words, if your product is slanted at a younger age group, you’ll get a better response with online ads. If you are targeting an older group your newspaper ad may get a better response.
Females had a slightly higher bias toward newspapers/magazines/catalogs, men had a higher preference for online ads.
29% of college graduates chose online ads for bargains while only 12% of high-school grads did.
So it pays to know your target market. While the difference isn’t all that much, you should gear your print ads toward products for older women and online ads for younger, college-educated males..
————————
HOSB RSS Feed
Google has announced that it is adding location oriented suggestions in it’s Mobile searches. This is in regular Google search, not just Google Maps.
It is, according to Google,
an improvement to Google.com search suggestions offered on Android powered devices and iPhone. Now, Google will offer suggestions based on the phone’s current or last location, making the suggestions more relevant.
From the comments on Google’s Mobile blog the effort has started off with spotty results, but the idea its that eventually you will just have to start typing a search into google.com on you mobile phone and search suggestions will load based on your location.
This will be an advantage for local businesses because potential customers don’t always know to use Google Maps to find your business, although you have to turn on “Save recent locations” and “Allow use of device location” under the Settings link on the google.com home page to use the new feature.
The point is, that with advancing technology it will become even easier for people to find your business using their mobile phones..
————————
HOSB RSS Feed
When doing market research or keyword research one of the tools I use is Google Trends. It shows data on search terms that includes the number of searches over time, whether in days, months or years.
Using this data can help you decide when to run online ad campaigns and is also useful for small businesses using direct marketing by choosing the appropriate time to run local ad campaigns.
Google Trends also shows data over time on web sites, whether your own or your competition.
The 6 minute video below provides an overview of Google Trends…
————————
HOSB RSS Feed
Even if you have a local business you need a local search marketing strategy. By local search I mean online search and now, more and more, searches using mobile phones.
A couple of months ago I wrote about local search taking over from Yellow Pages.
According to the latest study from TMP Directional Marketing it continues to grow. Local search has grown from 11% to 12% and Internet Yellow Pages usage has grown from 19% to 21% in the last year. Some excerpts from the study are below:
…the growing demand for local business information across interactive search platforms, especially online and mobile, is creating additional opportunities… In order to reach target audiences, marketers must think locally and focus their messages on local marketplaces where consumers shop.
…in-store purchases decreased across the board since 2007, most likely due to economic factors, half of all local business searchers made purchases [emphasis added].
With 22 million consumers using the mobile Internet through June 2009, the preferred mode to access local business information remains the mobile browser. In fact, 127 percent more users accessed local content via downloaded applications on mobile devices, compared to June 2008.
This means having a web site with hours of operation, address, phone number and a map as a minimum. This means claiming your business in local search engines and signing up in online search directories.
To be successful in today’s interactive community, your local business must be in local search engines and online local business directories..
————————
HOSB RSS Feed
Recommended
