If you are a business owner serving a local community, chances are you have a Google Places listing. In fact, if you are a business owner serving a local community, you BETTER have a Google Places listing. And if you don’t know, Google Places is essentially an online directory that provides consumers with relevant information about a business. The kicker: Google Places listings are typically the first results shown when consumers search for a business online (see the images below). That’s why they are so significant!
The problem for many of you is that Google makes so many changes to its search algorithm and format that it’s hard to keep up. Afterall, you have a business to run and probably don’t have the time to stay up-to-date on such changes. For example, have you seen the latest one?
Image A: New Format for Google Places as of November 2010.
About a year ago, Google updated its local places listings to a new format. For most of you, it looked pretty much like image A; information gathered from both your Google Places page profile and your website, among other things. But Google never seemed quite comfortable with this format. For many categories they continued to show the old format with listings bunched together as you can see from image B. In fact, lately it seemed as though more and more industries and markets were going back to the old format (B).
Enter the Newer New Format
Just a few days ago, Google updated its format once again (see image C below). One of the most noticeable changes is the place markers, which correspond to the same place markets in the map to the right, are no longer red, they are grey unless you mouse over them, at which point they turn red again.
Image B: Old Google Places Format
The layout is a little different as well. The map at the top is smaller. The location data is to the right of each listing rather than directly underneath. And as far as the merged format, it looks like Google has completely done away with it, using a hybrid of both the new and the old formats.
When the consumer hovers over the double arrow on the right, an image of the business website used to appear. As you can see in image C, now the consumer can still view an image of the website, but also other pertinent information from the Places Page such as images and location on the map. This gives a much bigger advantage to the businesses that have completed a full Google Places profile. Put your best images here for maximum conversions.
Image C: The Newer New Google Places format as of a couple days ago.
Your dashboard (the place where you log in and make changes to your profile) may have undergone some updates as well, but we have yet to see any wide-spread changes in this area so we’ll keep you posted.
I’m not quite certain yet as to the algorithmic changes that may have accompanied this format change. In other words, the mathematical and statistical information gathered by Google spiders that determine where you rank in search continue to have a lot to do with your location, relevancy and popularity in your market area. We’ll keep an eye out for changes in this all-important area of search.
Finally, it appears these changes are not a test, which Google does often, but are a broad update. If you don’t see them yet in your market, I expect you will soon. No need to get used to them, though, as I’m sure more updates are on the way.
Why a marketing strategy?
Your marketing strategy is the most important part of the business planning process. The marketing strategy will address the tactics your company will employ to generate enough sales revenue for growth and success.
A solid marketing strategy serves two primary purposes. First, developing your marketing strategy will help you thoroughly think through the venture from start to finish. You will catch weaknesses before implementation and come up with new ideas to capture customers for your business.
After your strategy is completed, its second primary purpose is to serve as a road map, keeping you on the path that will lead you to your objectives. The marketing plan is not a set-it-and-forget-it document. You will refer back to it regularly to make sure goals are met and tasks are completed. You’ll make adjustments as new technology is introduced into the market place and you’ll dump tactics that aren’t working in favor of new ones – as long as they are consistent with your overall strategy.
Following your marketing strategy and achieving the objectives within will not guarantee your success, but it’s an enormous step in the right direction.
Marketing Strategy vs. Business Plan
A marketing strategy can be a portion of your business plan. While your business plan incorporates areas that do not directly impact your sales such as financing, company structure and operations, the marketing strategy’s objective is to help your business grow by capturing customers and driving sales. Your marketing strategy will most likely be the largest chapter in your business plan. It is certainly your most important.
That being said, I have not created a business plan in years. I do not have a business plan for my current business. I have a marketing plan, but not a business plan, and I do pretty well. My marketing plan contains my company objectives and sales tactics. It shows me exactly what I do to create more sales for my business. At this point, that is all I need. If I decide to go public with my company, then certainly I’ll have a professional business plan made.
Remember: No business person ever became successful by planning. Success comes from doing.
Many business consultants and teachers emphasize the importance of a strong business plan and marketing strategy. They often point to weak planning as the major reason for failure in business. I disagree. I think many entrepreneurs plan too much. Businesses fail because they either do not drive enough sales or they don’t make enough profit on the sales they make.
No one was ever successful in business by planning. Success is achieved only by doing. Planning is an important part of the process, but do not become consumed by it. You need to recognize when to put an end to the planning process and get out there driving new business.
We like to plan because it’s an exciting process and full of so much hope. Let that hope and excitment – and perhaps fear – propel you to success.
Often, the successful entrepreneurs are the ones that are always making sales, even during the planning process. They recognize that they do not have a business until there is a consistent stream of customers purchasing their product or service. Every business I have started has always begun with customers. I had the customers before I even had a plan in place.
The plan will happen, but if you want to be successful, go get customers.
Here are some thoughts to keep in mind while creating your 2012 marketing strategy:
- If your marketing strategy does not include a digital marketing component to it, you are way behind and already losing customers to your competition. See Web Domination PRO. It’s everything you need to promote your business online.
- Do not become overly consumed with planning. Remember: No business person ever become successful by planning. Success comes from doing.
- Your marketing strategy should not be so rigid that you cannot try new ideas and incorporate new advancements in your industry. Make sure it has the flexibility to allow for change if things are not working.
- That being said, be careful not to deviate from your marketing plan in favor of the latest and greatest idea. In my business, for example, so called “internet marketing gurus” come out with hot new marketing products almost weekly, claiming that their system has beaten Google. We’ll, nobody beats Google, at least not for long. Don’t fall for this stuff and stick to what you know works.
- Involve your team members. If you want your employees to buy into your new ideas, make sure they take part in the planning process. They will be more committed to reaching objectives if they are their objectives. Let them take ownership.
- Make sure your marketing plan includes tactics for generating new business as well as retaining old business. It is much less costly to retain an existing customer than it is to find a new one. Don’t forget about referrals.
- Review your marketing plan regularly. One of the biggest mistakes new business owners make in planning is forgetting about their plan. Don’t spend time and effort creating a plan, just to stick it in a drawer and forget about it. Schedule regular review sessions.
- This bears repeating: Take the necessary time to create your plan, but don’t belabor it. Get it done and get selling. That’s your quickest way to success.
Anyone can post anything about you online. They can do it easily, they can do it anonymously and they can do it for free. The search engines and social media sites do relatively little to monitor slanderous comments on their platforms. Any unhappy customer, disgruntled former employee or struggling competitor could seriously damage your public reputation just by posting a few negative comments online.
There are hundreds of online customer review sites like Yelp, Angie’s List, Urban Spoon, City Search and Merchant Circle that allow users to rate and review businesses. On these sites, users have almost complete freedom to post what they want, regardless if the claims are true or not. Facebook, Twitter, You Tube and the hundreds of other social media platforms allow users even more freedom to post negative comments about businesses and individuals.
How would you like “[your business] is a scam” or “[your restaurant] made me and my family sick” sitting at the top of search results when consumers search for you by name?
If a competitor or former employee really wanted to destroy your reputation they could post comments on thousands of blogs and online article directories. There are plenty of automation tools that allow users to post hundreds of articles at a time, thereby creating a huge negative online footprint in just a matter of minutes. They could even create an entire website dedicated to trashing your company. Good luck trying to get in touch with Google or Yahoo to have the site removed. In fact, because these posts most likely have your name attached to them in the title, they will rank amazingly well in search results, even above your own website.
So how do you protect your online reputation? If the comments are not true and you know who posted them, chances are you may be able to file a lawsuit. Check with an attorney, but you may need to prove damages as well.
Customer review sites are unlikely to remove the comments even if you ask them to, but most allow you to respond. In a very professional tone, address the comment as slanderous and point out all the other good reviews you have. The tendency is to lash out at the person who made the negative comment, but this would be a mistake. Remember, your response to negative comments is for other readers, not the original review. They want to see how you handle criticism. I address negative reviews in detail in my Web Domination PRO program.
If the comment is a blog post, web article or web page that shows in search results, the best you may be able to do is push the bad stuff further down the page so nobody sees them. Few people go past page three in search results so optimizing your own blog posts, articles and web pages to rank above the negative comments may be a good solution.
A big part of my consulting is managing your online reputation. Contact us for details. There are ways to remove, hide or address all the bad stuff people are posting about you online; however, if your company really does suck, no amount of damage control is going to help.
Finally, you can always make a You Tube video explaining that a competitor or disgruntled former employee is posting negative remarks about your business online. Let viewers know that you have tried to handle the situation fair and professionally. Of course, if the claims are true and your business really does suck, no amount of damage control is going to help.
Why is digital marketing so important?
Simply put, digital marketing is the future of sales. But I almost hate to use the word ‘future’ because if you haven’t yet noticed, the future is here. Nobody uses the phone book anymore; magazines and newspapers are going out of business; broadcast media is too expensive; cold calling is no longer effective and networking is just too slow. Companies are going online to find customers. Why? Because that’s where the shoppers are.
According to Google, 97% of consumers search online when researching a product or service. And they’re not all going to your website. Many are going to Google Places. A whole lot of them are checking online customer reviews in places like Yelp, Angie’s List and City search. They are tweeting about their experience. They’re asking their friends in Facebook, Linked In and Google Plus for recommendations. They’re checking for a nearby salon, café or other business on their mobile phones. They’re checking daily deals and holding on to the coupons you’ve provided to them in your blog or email blast.
Digital marketing is everywhere. If your sales strategy does not have a digital marketing component to it, then how much business are you losing to your competitors?
A Digital Marketing Campaign that Drives Sales
So then, how can you use digital marketing to take your business to the top of your industry? More importantly, how can you use all the digital marketing components together to create a winning strategy that will drive consumers to your business?
 SEO: Your website is your base camp for your digital marketing campaign. Among other things, you can build backlinks to your web properties to show popularity. This will help it rank high in search results, but you also want a website that is not only pleasing to the consumer, but one that provides them the information they need to purchase your product or service. |
 Online Direct-ories: Google Places is important because it is usually the first thing consumers see when they search for a local business on the Web. Google Places is an online business directory. You can optimize your listing to help influence consumer buying decisions. Directories are all over the Web. Get your business listed in Yellow Pages, Superpages, Info Group, Yahoo Local and others. |
 Customer Reviews: Are huge for consumers. Everyone wants to know what your customers are saying. Our clients continually boast about how much business they’ve gotten because a consumer read one of their reviews online. Engage the consumer here and help influence their buying decision. Know how to respond to negative reviews to attract even more customers. |
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 Email: It’s not dead. In fact, now that many people read email on their handled devices, it has undergone a bit of a come-back. Email is the best way to stay in contact with repeat customers for additional sales and referrals. The Web provides many tools to help you implement an easy, automated email marketing campaign. We like Aweber, but there are plenty. |
 Pay-Per-Click: How do you target exactly those consumers who are not only likely to buy from you, but are ready to buy from you? Answer: Adwords and Adwords Express. I would stick with Google, Yelp and Facebook for pay-per-click and banner advertising, but would ignore most of the rest. If done right, though, these three can laser target the very consumers who are looking to buy right now. |
 Research: Your market research is one of the most important steps in creating an effective digital marketing campaign. Get this wrong and your entire campaign will be a waste of time. The good news is that Google provides numerous free marketing tools that will help you find your customers, but more importantly, will help them find you. Begin with the Google Keyword Tool. |
 Analytics: If market research is one of the most important steps in your digital marketing campaign, then analyzing your data is “the” most important step. Google Analytics is another free tool that will help you find what is working and what isn’t. Stop wasting money marketing in the wrong places. Now you can laser target your efforts to pinpoint the right consumers. |
Your 2012 Digital Marketing Campaign
2012 is the year to start new. Create a digital marketing campaign that will put you back on top. The Web Domination PRO program gives you everything you need to develop a winning digital marketing strategy that will drive more consumers to your business. It’s full of videos, guides, tools and resources that have made both local business and national corporations the leaders in their market. And the best part – it’s only a one-time fee of $17, but we’re only offering this price to the first 100 subscribers. After the first 100, it’s going to a monthly subscription. This is your chance to get lifetime access for only $17. Click on the image below before the special subscriptions are gone.
You can file this post under “relatively meaningless topics that impact my life how?” But sometimes things just stick in your craw and compel one to voice their opinion. This one goes out to all those who dabble with Google Places.
Search Google for most local businesses and you will see a map to the right of the page with these red, well, we will call them ‘things’ for now as they are the subject of this post. Running down the middle of the page there are seven local business listings labeled A through G. This is Google’s local business listings or Google Places. Each one of them comes with a profile that you can update. You can upload images, video, coupons and all sorts of good information to help the consumer choose your business over others. To the right of each listing there are more ‘things,’ but these are grey, unless one hoovers over one of them with the mouse curser, then it turns red like those in the map, but for the moment, none of that matters. What really matters in my space at the moment is what we call those ‘things.’
I have heard them called a number of things such as stick pins, labels, place pins, pin markers and the worst of all, red pin heads. Why do I immediately think of a vaguely disturbing clown when I hear the term red pin head?
Now, they kind of do resemble a stick pin, but as we know, Google loves to regularly surprise us with changes and updates to its interface. No sooner will we decide to call them stick pins, will Google change their look altogether to something resembling nothing remotely similar to a stick pin. So we need something a little more generic.
It turns out the best solution just happens to be the most practical, and in fact, the very name I’ve been giving them for years now. Won’t you join me in calling them Place Markers? Let’s put an end to the foolishness. No more red pin heads. No more map placement markers. I dream of the day that Google users across the world will speak with one voice when referring to the place markers in Google Maps. Indeed, such uniformity puts us all closer to happiness throughout the world. It begins with you, Google User. Today, it’s place markers. Tomorrow, world peace.
And by the way, in case you were wondering, the placement of the comma in the title to this post is correct syntax. Benny Hill watchers will get the reference.
Last week I incorrectly reported on a Google algorithm change that turned out to be a hoax. OK, maybe not a hoax, but I was given some incorrect information directly from a Google employee and rather than test the results myself, as I normally do, I went ahead and reported the change in this blog. The post has been deleted.
I had contacted Google because of the drop a couple of my clients experienced in Google’s search results. One of my clients went from the #1 position all the way down to the 6th page for his primary keyword! Yikes! When I reported the issue to Google’s support team, I was given this exact response:
“Your dashboard incorrectly displaying ‘Active’ for your listing is due to
a technical issue and we’re working to resolve it. Your listing should
show as ‘Needs Action’ because there are some changes we’d like you to
make, in order to match our quality guidelines, before reincluding your
listing on Maps.Specifically, we need you to either hide your location and specify a
service area for your business, or to change your address to an actual
business location that is customer-facing. Currently, your address
leads to a residential location. These do not meet our quality
guidelines, which can be viewed here: Google Places Quality Guidelines.”
That email turned out to be wrong, completely wrong. It turns out that Google has no problem with the home office as indicated in the above email. The reason why my clients dropped in search results is directly due to a new algorithm change by Google. If you perform a search for a local business, say a general contractor, salon, plumber or dentist, you may notice that your search results are tightly focused around the city center, much more than they used to be. For example, a search for dentist San Diego, will render results all below the 8 freeway. Most of the listings are pretty close to downtown. Prior to the change, businesses all around the county were listed in the top 7 results. Google, then, is now favoring businesses that are much closer to the city center.
Many of us in the online consulting business believe that the change was way too dramatic because there are certainly businesses that could be more relevant, but a little further away.
And what about contractors? if you hire a contractor to come work on your home, does it really matter to you if they are 5 miles away or 10?
We’re not sure if this change will stick or if Google will loosen up a bit. My belief is that Google will gradually ease up on the importance of location somewhat, but not entirely. Unfortunately, if your business is far from your city center, there is little you can do at this point to get your listing to the top of search results for your area, unless you move downtown.
I recently got the following comment on my blog:
“to the huge review, however The definitely supporting the modern Zune, as well as houp this, plus the fantastic evaluations some other folks have drafted, will allow you to determine whether it is the right choice for you.”
Other than the fact that I’m kind of diggin’ the phrase “houp this,” the comment is clearly spam and has been deleted. Every now and then a comment gets through my spam protection and I have to clear out a few posts. Not a big deal, really. Most bloggers accept a little comment maintenance from time to time, especially as the blog becomes more and more popular. My real problem with the comment is that it was clearly generated with spin software.
Let me briefly explain: Linking hundreds of articles to a particular web page can make it seem popular to the search engines, which gets it ranked well in search results. The problem is that most marketers believe they will not get credit for all that popularity if the articles they submit are all duplicates. And writing hundreds of different articles is just too much work for the lazy internet marketer, who more often than not, is looking for an easy way to make a quick buck.
When an industry starts to lose respect for its own product and works almost entirely to game the system rather than provide a credible service, then we’re in for big trouble.
They overcome this problem by using spin software which creates hundreds, even thousands, of unique articles by replacing random words with synonyms. The articles are essentially the same, but with different words. Their hope is that Google spiders will crawl their content and see each article as unique, even if it is incoherent to the human reader.
The problem is that auto-spin software stinks. They generate unintelligible comments like the one left on my blog. When an industry starts to lose respect for its own product and works almost entirely to game the system rather than provide a credible service, then we’re in for big trouble. The most recent example is the mortgage meltdown in 2008. Mortgage brokers, investment bankers and investors stopped caring about the value of their products and the consequences of their actions, leading to a crisis that almost brought down the world economy.
Now, I certainly do not believe spammers are going to bring down the world economy, but marketers are doing the same thing by saturating the Internet with garbage; articles that are either poorly written and submitted merely to provide a backlink, or are written somewhat clearly, but provide no substantive content.
For years I have been urging webmasters and marketers to clean up their content. Mostly, I get ignored. As early as two years ago I warned the Internet community that someday search engines like Google would start to tighten the screws on those contaminating the Web with their “space junk,” and there is evidence that they now may be taking note. Nothing would make me happier.
Even when the grammar, usage and sentence syntax of articles finally gets cleaned up, we’re still going to be faced with the problem of thousands of marketers writing authoritative articles about subjects they know nothing about. Hopefully, the search engines will come up with a way to keep that in check as well. Or, should I say; Ideally, this seek locomotives is designated to occur upwards among any resolution on to retain who around view likewise. Houp this.
This has got to be my favorite use of QR Codes to date. If I passed by this ad, I would have a tough time not scanning the code. I love creative marketing that pulls in, not just typical
consumers, but new ones. This ad does it. Of course, it is Victoria Secrets after all. My heating and air client may have to be a little more creative.
The new Zero Moment of Truth Webinar Series has been pushed back another week. This is all brand new stuff and we’re trying to make sure there’s a ton of good content for you. If you haven’t seen the ZMOT trailer, then go to this link and check it out. You can also get the free ZMOT ebook from Google.
We’re going to discuss the new approach to consumers and how you can zero in on those who want to buy from you.
I’ve been lagging a little lately on my blog posts due to the preparation of the webinar. I apologize to my readers as I know you expect regular content from me, but I promise the webinar will be full of a lot of really cool stuff for local business owners. The new start date for the webinar looks like it will be Wednesday, September 7th. We’ll keep you posted with times and replays.
For a long time now I have been engaged in a marketing idea that I have believed to be revolutionary. Not exclusive, others have been using it as well, but new, exciting and absolutely ground-breaking. Google calls this idea ZMOT and it is what every local business owner must know if they want their company to survive.
If you are not familiar with ZMOT, or at least the idea of reaching consumers at the most critical moment in the sales process, then you should watch this video and download the ZMOT Ebook.
Granted, this may be a not-so-subtle way for Google to promote Adwords, but the Zero Moment of Truth has changed the way business needs to approach consumers. In the old days, advertising campaigns told consumers which products to buy and which services to use. But business is no longer in the driver’s seat. The consumer is. They’re going online to customer review sites and forums to learn and make better buying decisions. They’re blogging and using social media to discuss brands. They’re reporting back to their circle of influence about their experience, beginning the cycle all over again for others. This is great power for the consumer, but it’s also a great opportunity for business. We have to engage them in the process by participating at this moment, which Google calls the Zero Moment of Truth.
Read the book. You can go to You Tube, search for ZMOT, and watch the full series of videos as well. They’re short – each one is about 2 minutes in length – but they’re powerful and offer great insight into the mind of the present day consumer.
