Local Internet Advertising Strategies

According to a recent study by Borrell, there is a massive small business shift from print to Internet advertising.  This is having a devastating affect on both offline yellow pages and newspaper advertisements.

There are two reasons why small local businesses are shifting their advertising dollars online. 

1. It is more convenient to search online for business resources.  The reality is a business web site blows away a static yellow page ad.  It is like comparing a Ferrari to an Edsel.  A web site is much more dynamic.  It is able to offer an endless amount of information and display of graphics and video.  Most important, it is interactive. 
2. The cost to advertise online is considerable less than offline.  For example, in another Borrell study the averge cost per 1,000 advertising impressions online was $3.65, it was $9.35 per CPM for the yellow pages. (more…)

With the price of a gallon of gas costing as much as a 6-pack, people are starting to cut back on their driving.  The cost of gas is cutting into important essentials like beer.  What this means for your local business is your customers are going to be less incline to go driving all over to comparative shop.  They are also going to be less likely to make a casual trip to the local mall to spend some quality time browsing.

In a recent survey it was found that shoppers are going to be using the Internet to do more shopping and to search for local businesses.  There are a number of benefits the Internet offers, but one of the most important is convenience.  And for local customers it offers the convenience of finding local products and services from the convenience of their home. 

This growing trend of local customers using the Internet to find local businesses is only going to increase with increases in the cost of gasoline.  Taking a leisurely drive around the neighborhood in a Ford Expedition is now becoming a luxury.  Of course, that will change when we are all driving electric cars, but it is going to take a few years.  For the time being, your customers are going to be cutting back on their driving.  In fact, government statistics show Americans are driving billions of miles less.

So when your customers go online to search for businesses like yours, you need to have a web site that converts them from prospects to profitable customers.  You also need to have a presence in the places where your customers are searching on the Net.  That includes the major search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN.  It also should include Internet YellowPages, regional resources like the web sites of local newspapers and national local directories like Local.com.  You’ll want a combination of free listing and paid advertising in these different resources. 

With the current state of the economy money is going to be tight and business is going to be more competitive.  However, the Internet offers an opportunity to reach potential customers at a low return on investment. 

Local businesses are coming to terms with the fact they need to market on the Internet.  It is unavoidable.  If you want to connect with your customers, you need to be where they are, and more and more are online.  However, for the uninitiated, getting a presence on the Internet can be daunting, but it shouldn’t be.  There are opportunities for local businesses to get a presence online for free or for a minimal cost.  

The path that most local businesses follow is to hire a web designer and pay for an ineffectual web site that has no traffic.  A web site is worthless if no one every goes to it.  The problem with most web designers, is the fact they are not web marketers.  They tend to be graphic artist with no real experience in converting prospects into customers. 

So if you are a local business and you want to get started promoting your business online, I am going to give you some suggestions that won’t break the bank.  These are simple, do-it-yourself techniques that anyone with a computer can perform. 

1. Free Business Listings - List your business in the local versions of Google, Yahoo and MSN.  All three of the top search engines have a local version of their search results.  It is designed for regional search.  More importantly, it connects local customers to local businesses.  It is free to list your business. In fact, you can list your business, provide a detailed description, add photos, coupons, directions, method of payment, link to your site and email, and customers can click on an interactive map to assist them in finding your business and spending money.
2. Do-It-Yourself Web Sites - Do you know there are services that let you build your own web site for as little as $10 per month.  This is in comparison to paying a web designer thousands.  These content management sites provide wizards that allow you to contruct a web  site without having any knowledge of coding and programming.  You can have a site up in literally a hour. They give you full control to make edits on the fly. 
3. Cost Effective Pay Per Click Advertising - The most innovative form of advertising since television is pay per click advertising.  In a nutshell you advertising on keywords searched in on sites like Google and Yahoo.  You only pay when a person clicks on your ad and goes to your site.  In other words, you pay for results.  This form of advertisements grew from nothing to a multi-billion dollar industry in just a few years.  The reason why - the best return on investment of any form of advertising.  You can start up a PPC campaign within a hour, and can begin with as small of budget as you want.   The strategy is to advertise on terms local customers will search for to find local businesses.  A winning strategy. 

If you are a local business owner and are hesitant to get a presence online, I’ve just given you three reasons to start NOW!  The longer you wait the more you will lose market share to your competitors. 

You can start promoting your local business by going to Google Maps and getting your free listing.  Once you see how easy it is, proceed to list your business with Yahoo and MSN. If you don’t have a site, check out our Local Online Marketing Association Site Builder.  Once you have a site, start a PPC campaign for only $5 at Google Adwords.

It really is that easy to start connecting with your customers online.

Regards,

Fred

In our continuing coverage of local Internet marketing rip-offs, the next in our list is Pay Per Click Advertising scams.  For those who are unfamilar with pay per click advertising, it is the #1 form of advertising online, and it is the fastest growing advertising online and off. 

Although there are numerous variations of it, most PPC advertising is sold on popular search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN.com.  When people search for keywords, advertisers like local businesses can insert ads into the results.  For example, if you sell titanium golf clubs in Augusta, GA, you can advertise on the search result, “Titanium golf clubs Augusta GA” on Google.

And why would you want to?  Because someone searching that term is about as targeted as you are going to get in a customer, and you would probably want to connect with that person. 

Now what makes PPC advertising so attractive and potentially profitable is the fact it is a result oriented form of advertising.  You only pay for individuals that click on your ad and go to your web site.  You only pay for results.  You pay a price per click.  That price depends on the competitiveness of the keyword and the position of your ad, first, second, third place, etc.  There are countless other benefits to pay per click advertising.  For example…

• You can set daily expense limits.
• You can start and pause your advertising at any moment.
• You can bid on as many related and targeted keywords as possible.
• You can track all aspect of your campaign, including traffic, clicks, conversion, earning per click, etc.
• You can set up a campaign in less than an hour and have your ads live immediately.
• You can have complete control over every aspect of the campaign, in fact PPC is designed for even novice to build and maintain.

Overall, pay per click advertising can be very cost effective, in fact, it often provides advertisers with their highest return on investment when it comes to marketing.

So this is how companies are scamming local businesses with PPC advertising.  What they do is set up a PPC campaign for you on a major search engine like Google or Yahoo and charge you an exorbitant price.  A price that is way out of line for the services they provide. 

They will charge either an extreme multiple of the cost of the click, like five times as much as you would pay if you controlled your own campaign.  Or they will charge you a flat fee for so many clicks per month. The bottomline is you are paying far and above the going rate for the traffic.

There are companies offering a value added service to pay per click advertising.  In fact, one company will provide you with tracking 1-800 numbers so you can track both phone and web site leads and sales.  However, many companies take advantage of the naivete of local businesses and basically screw them.  Here is a perfect example.  We talked to one individual that got suckered by one of these companies.  She was paying about $1,000 per month for their services.  She had know idea how much traffic she was getting, and where it was coming from.  She did know it was not leading to new customers. 

If your are going to benefit from the incredible opportunities of the Internet, you must be in the know.  Know what the options are, and the going rate. 

If you are a local business owener and have been scammed by unscrupuous Internet marketing companies please provide your story in the comment section. 

Regards,
Fred Waters 

In the second in our series on Local Internet Marketing Scams, we are going to cover search engine marketing.  One of the prized placements for your web site is to rank at or near the top of the search results on sites like Google, Yahoo and MSN.

A top ranking is coveted because it can lead to some very targeted and profitable traffic to your site.  For example, if you are a local exterminator business in Raleigh, NC and a person searches for “Exterminators, Raleigh, NC,” it is beneficial if your site ranks at the top.  That person searching is often a ready and willing local customer who has an immediate need.  The kind of customer you want to connect with. (more…)

As local businesses begin to market on the Internet, they are becoming easy prey for less than scrupulous web designers and so-called Internet marketers.  In the past, local businesses would advertise through direct mail, newspaper ads, yellow pages, radio and TV.  These advertising options were simple and followed industry standards.

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More than half of all real estate customers are turning to the Internet when buying a home. When asked where they first learned about the home they purchased, 35% identified the Internet. That is a 15% increase in one year.

The Internet is a reality that realtors can no longer ignore, and search engine marketing is integral part of it. Search has been a defining factor behind the success of the Internet. It is through search that people can find products, resources and information.  Consequently, through search realtors can connect to ready and willing customers who are ready to buy real estate NOW! (more…)

As a local business, you have the opportunity to make some serious money through search engine optimization. What is SEO? It is the process of creating relevant web pages based on keywords or themes that your customers use to search for products or services like the ones your business provides. If done right you can dominate the rankings in the search engine results. (more…)

There have been waves on the Internet, for example, email marketing and search engine marketing.  And let us not forget the dot bombs.  The current wave is Small Local Business Internet Marketing.  Where large national companies and entrepreneurs have profited from the highly targeted technology of the Internet, now it is the small, local businesses that are going to reap the benefits.

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