Step By Step Local Marketing Action Guide

Tammy Hawk-Bridges

Step By Step Local Marketing Action Guide

Hi there I’m Tammy!Ready to learn about

marketing?!

© Content Intellectual Property of Perfect Marketing Equation. All Rights Reserved.

Hi there! My name is Tammy Hawk-Bridges. I provide marketing training and education for entrepreneurs.

I hope you’ll visit my website Perfect Marketing Equation - www.perfectmarketingequation.com and

also follow me on Twitter @THawkBridges.

Local marketing is a gold mine to a business that:

1. Learns how to leverage it.

2. Develops a process businesses follow through without fail.

3. Stays aware of new trends and integrates what

makes sense for their business model.

This presentation will lay out the entire groundwork of

considerations needed before you can develop an awesome local marketing

strategy.

Local Marketing: Lets Cover the Internet Bases

1. Your Website

You must have a website that was built with the

customer in mind.

•How is it laid out?• Is it user friendly? •Do you have an idea of

how people would search for what you sell?

•Did you consider this when it was designed?• Is there a place for clients

to sign up to your email list?

•What’s the incentive for clients to sign up?• Is there valuable

information that serves as answers to clients potential

problems?

•Do they see you as a leader in your space?

Important: Is your website mobile?

Action Item 1: Take out your handheld and

look at your own site. •What do clients see?• Is it mobile friendly?

The whole idea is to use your local marketing efforts

to drive traffic to your website.

•When they get there what do they find?

Action Item 2: Look at your website from a

visitor perspective and answer the following questions.

• Is your website user-friendly? • Is the content done well? •Do people find what they

need right away?

• Is there a place for potential clients to sign up to your list, front and center?• Is there valuable

information for them?

•Does your website make you look like a leader in your space?

2. Search

When people need what you sell they do a search on the

Internet.

Your local marketing efforts are more successful when people

can actually find you.

Action Item 3: Type into Google what

someone would type into the search engine if they were

looking for what you do or sell.

•What comes up on the first page? (Make sure you are logged out of any Gmail accounts while conducting this search, as it can create false results.)

If you’re already on the first search engine page, that is a

huge asset to your local marketing efforts. Huge

points if you are!

If you aren’t on the first page your competitors are

getting the action.

Make note of who is on the front page. You’ll need that info for the competitor part

of this exercise.

Don’t type in the name of your business and find

yourself on page 1. Most of the time nobody is

going to search for you under your business name.

For example: Search engine keywords will

look like this:•Hairdresser Atlanta GA•Restaurants Detroit MI

Local Marketing and Geo-Targeting

Search engines now identify a visitors location according to the Wifi, IP and GPS data They are content specific to

that location.

Check it out.

Local Marketing and Yelp

48% of mobile users have an iPhone. That’s almost half!

Apple has a partnership with Yelp, so when an iPhone

user conducts a search for a local business the first

resource offered up is Yelp pages.

Fact: Most businesses have either claimed their Yelp page

or completely ignore it and don’t monitor the reviews.

Action Item 4: Do a search for your business

and find your Yelp Profile. Make sure there isn’t one

that already exists before you recreate one.

You don’t want two Yelp profiles out there for the

same business. Once you find your

business’s profile, claim it.

Your Yelp Profile is crucial to your local marketing efforts.Never overlook profiles that carry this much weight on

the Internet.

Next, make sure its populated with pictures.

Now you will need to check your profile on a regular basis for good and bad

reviews.

Respond to ALL reviews good and bad.

Important Trivia1. 73% of consumers lose

trust in your business if your online listings aren’t accurate.

(Search Engine Watch)

2. A one-star increase in a business rating can equate

to a 5% to 9% revenue increase! (Harvard Business

School)

3. Apple maps are used 3 times as much as Google

maps on iPhones and iPads. (Venture Beat)

3. Reputation Marketing and Reviews

When was the last time you did a search on the Internet

to see what’s being said about you?

When a searcher sees a bad review about your business,

you have lost a potential customer.

Put a dollar sign on it – How much is this new customer

worth to you?

There are services you can pay for to keep a track of your reviews like Trackur, Reputology, and Review

Trackers.

Step 1: Weekly check and respond to ALL reviews on

the following websites:• Facebook•Google• Yelp

Step 2: Once a month type your business name into the

search engine.

Go back at least 4 pages to look for any potential bad

feedback on any websites or listings.

What if you get a bad review?

Don’t ignore it! Talk to everyone involved and get feedback from all sides.

Once you have researched the incident, contact the

customer and do your best to smooth it over.

Most of the time people just want to be heard and have a

feeling of resolve.

Try to reach an agreement and ask them to remove the

bad feedback.

If they won’t remove the review there’s nothing you can do but

strive to get more positive reviews to push it down.

Action Item 5: Conduct a reputation search

on your business using the steps I pointed out before.

Do it on a regular basis.

4. Directory Profiles

Its important to look through any directory listings like

Yellowpages, Merchant Circle, etc. to make sure your information is correct.

You can usually claim the free version of your listing

page.

There are tons of obscure directory listings. It is their

business strategy to populate your listings just enough so you will contact

them and claim your business.

Then they will hit you with their pitch.

Does it help to rank better in Google if I am on all of these

directories?

The answer is yes and no.

No – There is no value listing your business in every

obscure directory listing out there.

Having a ton of links to your website used to be helpful but now it can actually be

harmful.

It is helpful to have your link on high ranking on sites like

Facebook, Yelp, LinkedIn, Google, Yellowpages, etc.

It’s not helpful to have your link on directory sites no one

cares about.

Yes – Populate the top ranking directories that are on the first few pages of the

search.

No matter what, make sure the information is correct.

Important: Google looks to establish

sources of data to both build their database and check for local business information.

Visit Moz Local . It grades your effort in completing

your directories.Enter the name of your

business and the city and it will do the rest.

Action Item 6: Do a solid search 5 pages

back. Look for all directories where your business is

listed.

Claim listings and make sure information is correct.

5. Competition

Know who your competitors are and how they position

their business.

•Are they communicating via social media?•What does their website

look like?

•Where do they rank in your searches?•Are they advertising on

Google? Facebook?

“But we are special in our space, no one is doing what

we do and the way we do it.”

The consumer decides who your competitors are, not

you.

If they can get something you sell somewhere cheaper then you have a competitor.

Brick and mortar businesses are feeling the burn as

people start turning to the Internet for a wider range of

products, cheaper prices and free shipping.

The Internet is also your competitor.

Competition is real.

Consider having some hard facts on your competition as

part of your marketing strategy.

Action Item 7: Competition Analysis – Here are a list of actions to take to become more aware of your

competitors.

1. What would someone type into Google if they were

looking for what you do or sell?

Type that into the search. List 10 businesses that are

there.

2. Visit the competitor websites in the search one

by one. Write out observations. How good is

their website?

3. How are they positioning their business? Do you see

anything they are doing that is different from you?

4. Do a check on their online reviews.

This will give you an idea as to their customer service

practices and how good they are at their business in

general.

5. Look up their Facebook page and see how well they are at social media efforts.

Does it look like they care about what their business looks like on social media?

If not, then this is a big opportunity for you! Do they share useful

information and really engage with their followers?

7. Look around for evidence of email marketing efforts.Are they offering discounts or other incentives to get

people to sign up?

If this is something they are doing and you aren’t they

are more aggressively getting new customers and

staying in front of their customers.

8. Do you see evidence of a customer loyalty program in

place?

Customer loyalty programs enhance the customer experience and provide

incentives for clients to come to you versus going to a

competitor or on the Internet.

In today’s world if your business directly deals with the consumer, a customer

loyalty program needs to be a part of your marketing

strategy.

Consider all these points. How do you fare?

Make a list of action items and list them in priority.

These are the types of actions that are the

difference between growing your business and losing

new customer opportunities to your competitors.

Local Marketing: Google Places is an

Important Tool

Utilizing Google Business Places is just as important as

having a website.

When your customers go to look for your business online

Google Business Places is the first thing they see.

Did you know Google Places can give you a huge Internet

ranking boost?

When people go to the Internet to conduct a search Google Business Places takes

up a large portion of the landscape.

A greatly optimized Google page with lots of good

reviews has 2 major benefits to your local marketing

strategy:

1. It helps you to rank higher in organic search results.

2. It shows people who find your business online how

well you conduct your business.

Remember a 1 star increase can increase revenue by 5%-

9%!

On the next slide there is an example of a client of mine.

We are on top of all their keywords and they are on

page 1 for their search terms.

We started focusing on their reviews. Now for the first time in 2 years if you type “handyman Alpharetta”

their Google page ranks #2.

My goal is to get them to #1!

When someone conducts this search on a mobile

device there is a call option in addition to the website

and directions. A huge boost to our marketing efforts!

Some interesting facts:

•73% of all online activity is related to local content. (Google)

•82% of local searchers follow up with a phone call or show up on your doorstep. (TMP/comscore)

•66% of Americans use local searches to find local businesses. (comscore)

Action Item 8: If you haven’t claimed your

Google page, find it and claim it today! It’s critical to your

local marketing strategy.

Action Item 9: Populate your Google Business

Page until it reaches 100%.

Action Steps:

1. As before mentioned, you will want to make sure your

profile is at 100%.

2. Include product or service keywords in your listing

description.

List one or two of the suburbs/cities where your

target market lives. DO NOT overuse keywords.

3. Once your page is completely finished and

optimized then encourage all your best customers to leave positive reviews on

your page.

4. Consider launching a campaign with an incentive

for customers who leave feedback for you on Google.

It can be a coupon, a special discount – whatever you

want it to be.

Remember those reviews revert back to sales!

It’s worth a well thought out effort to create a marketing

strategy that increases reviews.

5. Include your Google page link on your newsletters and

your website.

6. Once you open up this effort you can’t just leave it!You should be checking your

reviews weekly.

Even when you get positive reviews respond and say “thank you”, it just looks

good.

When you have a bad review address it immediately!

Nothing is worse than when people see bad reviews on your Google page that go

ignored.

Local Marketing: Facebook is a Crucial

Element

Facebook is a huge part of your marketing puzzle.

If your customer is 35-55 years old, this happens to be

Facebook’s largest demographic, so you

definitely want to be there!

You actually won’t get a whole lot of engagement

just doing regular posts. But that doesn’t mean you

shouldn’t do them.

If you write something great and people start liking it,

that will give it more views in your fan feed.

I feel every business no matter what you do and

who your customer base is should be spending a small amount on Facebook ads.

If you are promoting a special product or sale, the best thing to do is write a

post and then boost it –that way you can decide how

many eyes see it.

Before you decide not to pay $10-$20 to boost something you feel should be free just

remember to always be focused on the result.

If you pay $10 to boost an ad and it brings in more traffic to your store and

increases sales that’s a win!

You should ALWAYS think of the benefit and value of

investing money to market your business versus cost,

especially if it’s a tiny cost.

Example:

It is most important for your Facebook to be fully optimized

and look professional.

Important: More people will engage with

your Facebook page from your handheld so make sure it looks good from all points.

Action Item 10: Lets do a Facebook checkup!

1. First, take out your mobile. See what it looks like to

experience what your visitor sees.

•Do you have your call to action set up properly?

For example: if your call to action is “contact us” or “email us” make sure its connected to the contact

page on your website.

If you have a consumer driven business my favorite

call to action is “Call Us Now”.

If someone clicks that from their handheld your number

will pop right up.

Look at the example from my client on the next slide. See how their call to action

is call now?

One of my other clients has a retail store. Her button

says “Buy Now” and it goes straight to her online store.

Make sure you make the best call to action decision for your particular business

model.

2. Get Verified. If your Facebook page isn’t already verified get that done right

away.

Getting verified gives your page more credibility.

According to Facebook, getting verified will give your

posts more advantage in your fan feeds more so than pages that aren’t verified.

Look at the white arrow on the next slide that is

pointing to the verified symbol.

To Verify Your Page:1. Click Settings at the top of

your page. 2. From General click Page

Verification.

3. Click Verify This Page then click Get Started.

4. Enter a publicly listed phone number for your

business, your country and your language.

5. Click Call Me Now to allow Facebook to call you with a verification code.

6. Enter the 4 digit verification code and click

Continue.

3. Fill out your information completely. Remember people go here to read

about your business, so you want to treat your Facebook

page like a website.

Make sure all your information is filled out in

full like general information, hours of operation etc.

Every single tab should be filled in.

4. Set up your automatic messaging options.

People can now send you messages through Facebook

and because you can’t always respond right away you want

to look professional.

Facebook has some great options for you. Go to

Settings>Messaging. Your options should pop up.

First set your response time. Let people know how long it typically will take for you to

get back in touch with them.

Example:

5. Below you can enable an away message when your

business is closed. See example on next slide.

Here you can set up instant replies so when someone sends you a message they

receive one back.

In the example on the next slide, we provide clients

with our phone number so they can call for immediate

assistance instead of waiting for us to get back to them.

6. Scheduling Facebook Posts- What if you are busy during the week and don’t have time to make posts?

Easy! Schedule your posts in advance.

Write a post like you normally would then click the upside down triangle you see the short arrow pointing to, then choose

schedule.

Once you choose Schedule, a box will pop up. (Example

on next slide) Set it up for when you want

it to go out and click Schedule.

I could go on about Facebook but I have already

written a novel. I hope you have found this

marketing guide useful.

Don’t forget to sign up to download your action sheet

in a PDF format. That way you can do your checkup at

a later time.

PLEASE get it done! It is CRUCIAL for your business!

Once you set up your local marketing online presence, make sure you take care of

it. Cheers!

© Content Intellectual Property of Perfect Marketing Equation. All Rights Reserved.

Please visitwww.perfectmarketingequation.com for many other marketing lessons for

entrepreneurs!

© Content Intellectual Property of Perfect Marketing Equation. All Rights Reserved.

Connect with me!

Twitter: www.twitter.com/THawkBridges

Facebook:www.facebook.com/TammyHawkBridges

YouTube:www.youtube.com/user/THawkBridges

Google:https://plus.google.com/u/0/+TammyHawkBridges