Google Places for SMB, Most Important SEM Tool for 2012

Google Places Best Marketing Tool for Small Businesses
 
This blog is dedicated to every aspect of marketing your SMB (Small Business).  We discuss everything from pricing to new product development to mailings to emailing.  We currently believe that the most Important Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Tool for most SMB's is Google Places.  Because of that, and because we have dedicated 1000's of man hours to research into how to get our small business clients the highest possible ranking on Google Places, we have a Google Places blog that is 100% dedicated to how you can get top rankings on your own.

My phone rings every day with individuals who have lost their top ranking and their phone has stopped ringing.  They come from dozens of different types of industries, from emergency services companies to builders to moving companies and restaurants.  One of my clients has had a strange situation where his Google Places listing is moving back and forth from page 1 to page 2.  He can tell by the phone calls which page he is on.

There is no other marketing tool or internet media with that kind of power.  Certainly pay per click (PPC) is trackable and commonly results in a very specific number of calls based on the expenditure made.  However, if you can mount a successful ppc campaign, a top ranking on Google Places will be multiple times more successful, and cost a fraction of the cost.

Some businesses, even my business as a marketing consultant, don't get very many calls from Google Places or other local search engines (in fact I get none).  My type of business gets most results from YouTube and blog posts.  If you Google Optimize Google Places or How to Optimize Google Places, you'll see that I am listed number one out of all the seo guys in the country.  That's how it works for me and it might be how it works for you. 

However, if you are a retailer, service provider like dentist, PI lawyer, chiropractor, restaurant, or plumber, you better be ranking on Google Places today.  There is nothing else like it.  Great that it is free (for now), but you may be wise to hire someone to help you optimize it.  My rates are in the middle compared to others.  But if you go here, you can see the wide range of services we provide for only $845 per month.  Call me, Randy, at 310-910-1848 today and we can help get your phone ringing and your door swinging.

Small Business Advertising Tip - Blogging Is Back

 Of all the various ways that you can increase your visibility online, none is quite as overwhelming to most folks as blogging.  Raise your hand if your favorite class in school was composition.  LOL.

Now you can learn to blog to help your small business grow.

Since it is harder than Facebook or Twitter (easier than YouTube, but maybe not as fun), blogging is the last thing many small business owners do.  BUT, as of 2012, it has become the 4th most important things you should be doing.  Here are the priorities:

1.  Fantastic Website, fully optimized, with great action items, and updated often.
2.  Major directory campaign including Google Places, Yelp, etc.
3.  YouTube videos
4.  Blog

The good news is that the results will be measurable and that blogging is easier than it looks.  Sign up today for a webinar that will take you step by step through the process and show you how you can generate 3000 page views per month in as little as 5 hours work per month.

Small Business Money Saving Tips - Save $1200 a Year or More with This

 Save $1200/year or More with this Idea 
  
If you've read my books like Running a 21st Century Small Business, you know that I repeatedly say that you are likely to make more money in business on the buy side than on the sell side.  I'm not going to go into depth on that idea here.  Read my book.  : )

However, an article, Click Here , caused me to review my own discipline in following my own wisdom (LOL.)

So, the article had to do with saving money by calling once per year on your insurance rates.  I'm going to almost guarantee you that you will save $100 per month if you spend three hours researching and calling your Cable supplier, your land line phone supplier, your internet company, and your XM or Sirius radio folks.  Tell them you are quitting or considering alternatives.  What will they do for you.

XM gave me 6 months free.  My land line company cut my rate by $20 per month and added more stuff.  The TV cable folks wanted to bundle everything and clean my house once a month just to keep me.  (kidding about the house work.)

So lay out every monthly bill you have.  Who are the alternatives to each provider.  Go on line and see what the packages are.  Now start calling the alternatives and find out what the real price is.  Hammer and hammer.  Now call your provider back and see what they will do for you.

Now that you are in the mood, call all your business suppliers and see what they will do to keep you.  Assume there is a better deal that you haven't asked for.  Then send me 10% of what you save.

Email Still Rules For Small Business Marketing

What if I called you today and said you could send a letter or brochure to 4000 of your customers who've visited you over the last three years for $150.  Layout, design, paper, printing, postage, everything.  You'd be happy if 2% of those resulted in some kind of action or 80 people calling or coming in.  Of course, $150 is a joke.  You'd pay $1200 to $1800 just for the postage.

So explain to me why it is so hard to get clients to put together an email list and send out emails on a regular basis to their client list?  The cost is $150 at the most even if you use an outside resource to create the content.  Now, let's say only 1% buy something or even .5%.  So 40 or 20 folks take action for $150.  Tell me where on or off the internet there is a better deal than that.

You can get started today by signing up at Constant Contact or by giving us a call.  Randy at 310-910-1848

Is Your Small Business Website Mobile Ready?

Thirty eight Million, 38,000,000 folks bought an iPhone in Apple's 4th quarter of 2011. NO ONE expects this rate to slow down. Android has similar stats. 30% of all cell phones in use at the end of 2011 were smart phones with a projection that more than half will be smart phones by the end of 2012. My own observation is that 15% - 25% of searches for local businesses are not coming from mobile devices. An extrapolation of the ownership stats above would suggest that 25% - 45% of all searches for local businesses will occur on smart phones - not Computers - by the end of 2012.

How does your website look on a phone? Doesn't take long to figure this out. You either own one yourself or your spouse or probably your oldest kid does. Don't be shy. Check your website out on the phone. Is that how you want to be represented? Now do something even scarier, do a search for your keyword and city. See what happens. Good result? HMMMM. Now, if you don't have an iPhone, find someone who does. Ask them to ask Siri to search for your kind of business and see what pops up. Looking good?

You need a mobile website. They aren't expensive. You may need a mobile app. They can be expensive, but sometimes they are not too bad. You need to be found on a mobile search by text or Siri. If you aren't doing these things and your competitor is, it is going to be a rough year for you. The cost of getting all of this done is probably under $5000 total, and you can work on it over the next 5 months at $1000 a month. That may seem like a lot. Unless your sales drop by $3000 a month due to not being mobile.

2012 Economy - More of the Same for Small Business

Small Business Owners - Predictions for 2012 Economy - More of the Same - What you can do!

Do not depend on an economic uptick to save your small business bacon in 2012.  It just isn't going to happen.  In fact, if anything, we may find ourselves headed into a double dip!  The current economic situation is so precarious that any hiccup could bring down the house of cards.  And, unfortunately, between the Eurozone, Iran, Oil, and our current government, plenty of potential hiccups are known.  Then there is always the unknown. 

So, let's figure the odds are for a flat year.  What should you do about that?  After four years as a marketing consultant during a recessionary period, and having now been a part of the daily situation with over 200 businesses during that four years, here are my thoughts.

Plenty of the businesses I am working with are well up in sales.  In many cases, they are up in sales year over year for the entire 4 years.  You see, your small business may be effected by the ECONOMY but in truth, you have your own economy that is very much more under your control.  Here would be a list of things that I believe are determining whether or not you will grow in this next flat year.

1.  Your Attitude - Your attitude has to be positive and that needs to be reflected to your staff.  This consulting business started in 2008 with NO Money and lots of personal overhead.  Our first year we did very well.  But year two was 50% above year one.  Year three was another 50% above that.  And the first quarter of 2012 has bookings as of the end of January that will double 2011.  My attitude could not be negative or I'd be collecting food stamps. 

2.  Salespeople - You have to have someone or several people on board who can sell.  I mean that are great at it.  If you don't, fire somebody to make room for a real salesperson. 

3.  Customer Service - Yelp and Google Places are killing companies who don't have great customer service.  I have clients who are paying the price.  If you have grumps or angry people talking to clients, don't let them do so any more!!!!  Then hire someone to clean up your Yelp Reviews.

4.  Bottom Line Profits - Are you making money?  Do you know if you are or are not?  You have to be profitable in these times.  You need to have cash in the bank.  If you aren't profitable, raise prices, sell more, and/or cut costs. 

5.  Be Visible Online - If you aren't showing up on page 1 of searches for keywords critical to your business, you will be out of business.  Don't rely on so called SEO firms.  You need marketers who will help you have massive online visibility.  It isn't enough to have your website and Google Places well placed.  That can change in five minutes.  I've seen it over and over.

6.  Connect with Your Clients - Email is easy and cheap.  You need to be maintaining a conversation with your clients with monthly or bi weekly emails. 

7.  Think outside the box - New products.  New lines, Black instead of white, green instead of orange.  New packaging.  Contests.  Events.  Second location.  Close a bad location.  Move.

8.  Social media -  For most of you that means YouTube and blogs.  It will probably mean Google +.  It will probably not matter much about Facebook, Twitter, or Linked In.  There are exceptions, but that is my current thinking.

9.  YOU MUST BE Mobile - Your website must look great on Smart Phones.  It can be done for under $1000.  Almost all of you have 15% or more of your customers looking for you on Mobile.  By then end of 2012, that will be 30-50%.

10.  Get an outside adviser to help you through this stuff.  I see 2012 as a game changing year.  Don't get left behind.