7 Ways To Connect Locally With Your Customers (Part V)

Here is Part V of our seven (7) part series

Local.com

here's how it works: Local.com lists businesses by name, address and phone number.

It has syndication agreements with search engines like Google and Yahoo! and also partners with other directories like Superpages.com and Yelp to exchange information and customer reviews.

For a fee, companies can enhance their listings with more in-depth descriptions of products and services, as well as receive premium placement in Local.com's search function.

Local.com also confers with local Better Business Bureaus to ensure that businesses are in good standing. For more information go to www.local.com

Here's what it costs: Premium service runs between $50 and $200 per month, depending on the number of search categories and locations.

For instance, you might pay the base fee to appear in a search for "Bowling Center, Manhattan," but more for the broader "Entertainment, New York City."

Tomorrow;Part VI

7 Ways To Connect Locally With Your Customers (Part IV)

My E Blogger server was down yesterday so I was unable to send our Part IV.

But now it is up and running!

Today we are going to talk about Citysearch, a great local marketing tool

Here's how it works: Citysearch lists the name, address, phone number, customer reviews and a maximum of two photos for free. Citysearch also offers a premium, paid-for service that allows owners to add more information, from videos to coupons. It even has a "send details to my phone" option.

Better yet, Citysearch promotes premium advertisers through a network of newspapers and Web sites across the country. As with Google AdWords, paying advertisers get better placement in the search results. For more information, please visit www.cityseach.com ,

Here's what it costs it costs: Advertisers on Citysearch.com pay a minimum of $200 per month. Citysearch subtracts from your designated amount each time a viewer clicks on one of your links.

When your budget is used up, the content is still available on Citysearch.com, though not through the distribution network until the next budget cycle begins.

Tomorrow Part V.

7 Ways To Connect Locally With Your Customers (Part III)

Here is Part III of "How to Connect Locally With Your Customers".

Google AdWords:

Here's how it works: Businesses pay to be listed in the "Sponsored Links" column next to the results of a typical Google search.

If the searcher clicks on your company's link, you pay Google an amount based on how desirable your keywords are.

For example, if you want the search terms "hotel, Atlanta" to place your business in the Sponsored Links column, it will cost you more than, say, "Melanie's Bed & Breakfast, Atlanta," which is a lot more specific and would have served up your company's name anyway, with no additional help from Google.

For more, go to Google.com/adwords

What it costs: To open an AdWords account, you must pay an initial $5 fee.

Choose a budgeted amount per month or per day; once you've reached the amount of clicks equal to that dollar amount, Google simply takes you off the Sponsored Links column.

For bowling center clients, I usually recommend a budget of about $500 per month.

You can do less, of course, but $500 will give you a very good test. If that's a little too much, scale it back to $300, but don't budget any lower.

Check the price of keywords on Google's Traffic Estimator. Use key words like bowling, entertainment, family, fun, dates, weekends, kids, teens. You get the idea.

7 Ways To Connect Locally With Your Customers (Part II)

Here is Part II

Yelp

How it works:

Yelp lists the names, addresses and phone numbers for companies across the U.S. for free online; small-business owners can also add information about products, services and special offers.

Customers rate the businesses from zero to five stars.

If a company merits a 3.5 or higher, it receives an invitation from Yelp to participate in a premium service program, in which it has the privilege of paying for placement in the top of the search stack on Yelp's site. Now that's snob appeal. For more, go to www.yelp.com

Here's what it usually costs: Premium service costs between $150 and $1,000 per month, depending on the type of business and amount of advertising you buy.

Stay tuned for Part III tomorrow!

7 Ways To Connect Locally With Your Customers ( A 7 Part Series/ Part I)

Many small businesses rely heavily on the love of local customers, and the Internet continues to make reaching them easier and cheaper than ever.

For entrepreneurs who would rather not shell out--or simply can't afford--as much as $1,000 for an old-fashioned ad in the Yellow Pages, there are now a host of alternatives for wrangling the locals (and even calculating the return on those marketing efforts).

This is the first of a seven part series I will be writing about.

Each day you will receive one, in detail, explanation of how to connect with your customers inexpensively and efficiently.

1-800-FREE411

How it works: Instead if paying $1.50 to a mobile service provider for each directory-assistance call, customers dial 1-800-Free411 (1-800-373-3411) and connect directly to the business of their choice.

Callers can specify the name of a business or just canvass a category in that location (say, "Melanie's Chocolate Shop in Manhattan," or just "candy store, Manhattan").

The catch: Customers must endure a brief advertisement for a 1-800-Free411 advertiser in the chosen category and location.

What it costs: The model--common among the new crop of local ad providers--is performance-based: Businesses join the database free of charge but pay for each call received through the service. Each lead generated by that opening ad costs the participating company between $2 and $7 per call, depending on the type of business.

Stay tuned for Part II tomorrow.w.

An Ardent Reader Responds

One of my ardent readers, Tom Hebbe of Blue River Bowl, sent me a quick response to my blog "What We Can learn About Marketing From A Four Year Old." here it is in its entirety

"Hell yes we are missing something...THE INDUSTRY and the people still remember HOW IT USED TO BE.

I currently have less than fifty sanctioned youth bowlers-(never have had more that 144)...

Locally Soccer Spring and Fall has between 600 and 800 kids participating!!
Babe Ruth Baseball has nearly 300 boys playing summer leagues!
Basketball...EVEN Larger numbers than Soccer.

ALL have defined age groups. All have UNIFORMS! All have COACHES and Practices and SHORT SEASONS 12 weeks or less! All have a STRUCTURE from the top down...an actual WORKABLE plan to get kids into the sport, learning the fundamentals, and graduating to the next level as part of the structure.

Bowling is a great game. Bowling is truly a Lifetime Sport! But the LEADERSHIP needs to get a workable plan to get the sport re-built from the ground up!

It is so frustrating when you know what could be with this industry...and year after year.season after season...people still just come bowl...but they do not get involved! but then again, why would they?

40 YEARS of watching an industry crumble, I am saddened, frustrated, worried and just so tired of it all..."

Sincerely,
Tom Hebbe
Blue River Bowl

A Four Year Old Teaches Us About Marketing

I watched my grand daughter at the playground today.

First, she very carefully watched the other children to see what activities they were involved in before she made her decision as to what activities she should participate in. Interestingly, she chose the activity that other kids were doing.

She made that decision based on the number of kids doing it.

Even at age four, she was aware of what was the "popular activity" and made her "safe" decision based on that fact.

Which got me to thinking.

I probably visit 100 bowling centers a year. Not one of them has ever promoted bowling as the #1 "pay for play activity" in America.

Nor have I seen any signage about " bowling, the sport that over 70 million American's enjoy".

Why is it that we don't tell our customers that they are engaging in a "sport that millions of people enjoy".

Wouldn't that reinforce the buying decision?

Wouldn't that make them feel that they too have made a "safe" decision.

Maybe we are missing something.