The Ebb and Flow of Storm, Seasons and Time

This post was initially inspired in part by the passing by of #HurricaneDorian (passing by Florida; our thoughts and concerns are now focused on the Carolinas and other states up the coast, I hope they pull through fine).

When a major disruption like a hurricane arrives, or even seasonal interruptions like vacations and back-to-school, many of my clients lament the ebb in their business flow, as if they were helpless observers of the business cycle. That perspective is indeed the problem.

Like the proverbial squirrel storing nuts away for the winter, there are plenty of things you can do to counteract the effects of the business cycle, seasonality and unexpected events like the approach of a major tropical storm. They include:

• Work your customer base. This is the most important tactic. It's always much easier to get repeat business out of an existing customer than acquiring a new one. Think of the approach of the real estate industry, that encourages several touches of a prospect a year. Keep in touch with your past customers, offer them updates and specials. Actively encourage them to do business with you again and regularly. 
• Budget for the slow times. When times are good, you may feel no urgency to spend money on marketing, and those funds may wind up spent elsewhere. But just like the proverbial squirrel, you should be stocking up for those lean times, so you can bring marketing and promotional firepower to bear when times get tough. 
• Cut against the grain. What I mean here is to run promotions when no one else is. Everybody tends to promote during the obvious times like the Holidays and back-to-school. Try running your promotions during those seemingly slow times when no one else is. 
• Advertise and market consistently. Too many of my clients scramble during a slump to get out there and they're essentially playing catch-up. Budget to get your message out consistently throughout the year so people are always aware of what you have to offer. 

If you need help with any of the above, give us a call at 904-744-8877. If you're a small business with a local trading area, visit my site jacksonvillelocalmarketing.com for more local marketing ideas. 

On Labor Day (and other hollowed holidays)

No, that's not a typo. I did mean "hollowed" rather than "hallowed". It seems that as more years go by, these three-day holiday weekends are further and further removed from the origins and intent of the events that spawned them, so they have been sort of hollowed out. Now they seem to be uniformly about beer (nothing wrong with that) barbeques and much-needed time off for the beleaguered American worker, who works longer and harder than anyone in the industrialized world (if they get any time off at all in this service economy). And mattress sales. I don't know what it is about three-day weekends and mattress sales, but you could realistically change Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day to Mattress Sale Day One, Two and Three to avoid confusion.

Labor Day in particular has been hollowed out by the fog of time. It was originally proposed by an American machinist in 1882 to celebrate workers and promoted by the American union movement. It was formally adopted as a Federal holiday in 1894. International Workers Day, celebrated pretty much by the rest of the world on May 1, actually has is its origins in an American event -- the Haymarket Massacre in Chicago in 1886, when police fired on workers protesting for an eight hour workday, killing four. Still most Americans are unaware of the union and socialist origins of Labor Day, and a Republican lawmaker even went so far as to say that Labor Day is a chance to express appreciation for all those business owners that create jobs. Now I'm a business owner but even I went -- huh?

So what does all this mean to your communications? Well, usually people in business feel compelled to say something about a holiday that sounds wholesome and appropriate, like one client who on Memorial Day insisted on using that occasion to thank the brave men and women around the world who are protecting our freedom. Well Memorial Day is about remembering men and women in our armed forces who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the past and hopefully the service men and women they were referring to will never have to make that sacrifice. Or on Veteran's Day, where it's more appropriate, thanking men and women for their service on your website or Facebook page becomes like wallpaper because everyone is saying it. So here are some tips for making the most out of acknowledging a holiday:

• Make it specific to the original meaning of the holiday
• Tie the origin of the holiday to how we live today
• Put some meat behind it: If it's Labor Day talk about what you're doing for your employees, if it's Veterans Day, talk about the support you give to veteran organizations and so on. 

If you do this, your message will resonate with more depth, will more likely get noticed on the Web and in social media and you just might educate a few people too.

Be a Real Local Marketing Hero

Why spend money on a human directional dressed as a chicken or a giant submarine sandwich? If you're a business with a local trading area, your best bet to get seen by your potential customers  is through local search. It's really just a matter swimming with the current (or dropping your line where the fish are swimming or whatever aquatic metaphor that you prefer) because that's how most people begin to search when looking for a place to go or something to buy. And with Google looking to return localized results with every search and mobile searches growing exponentially (where local results are most prominent) needing to succeed with local search is as essential as paying the electric bill to keep the lights on. In fact, it may just be the most effective way to keep the lights on!

So you may ask: "Larry, can I really get free visibility through local search instead of paying someone to stand all day in an uncomfortable costume in the stifling heat?" Not only will I say yes, but I'll tell you a few simple steps to get you started. So here goes:

• If you haven't yet claimed your Google Places listing (the one associated with the map, search for yourself (aren't we all searching for ourselves?) and click the Manage This Listing box in the right hand column. (If you've already have claimed your listing you can skip to the third bullet point.)
• Sign in with your Google account (if you don't have one create one; it's free) and the first thing you will see is a dialogue that will ask you to verify that you own the business. Chose phone verification (instant) or mail (takes about 5 days to get the PIN) and then return and read the rest of this post after you've verified.
• Make sure you complete all of the business information that Google asks you for (they give you a handy progress bar to let you know how you're doing. This includes choosing the category(ies) that most closely match your business, writing an about description using words that people use when looking for what you do or sell, adding hours and contact information (including your website). 
• Google has finally merged the Places listing management tools with the full Google+ Local panel with social functions. Using this dialogue you can upload a cover photo, other photos, add people to circles and post like you do on Facebook. You should post often.
• Encourage people to review you on your Places/Google+ Local page. Reviews count for a lot.
• Get your business listed in as many directories and local listings that you can. This not only gives you additional avenues of exposure but is a factor in how Google ranks your Google listing. This handy tool at getlisted.org can help you make that happen. 
• Make sure there are local markers on your website if you have one. This means having location words in the page title and main headlines but especially having location (including phone number) and directions on the home page if possible. If you want to take it a step further, you can put schema, or html markup language on your page for locations. There are a few tools out there, but here's one -- http://www.microdatagenerator.com/local-business-schema/ -- that's easy to use.
• Strengthen your website by sourcing quality in-links from other strong websites, preferably local ones.

So that's it. Give it a try and hang up that chicken suit for a while. If you have any questions, enter them here or call me at 904-744-8877. If you prefer to let us drive, click here to learn about our local marketing services. 

                                          

Google+ Local Update

This is both an update to my latest post on local search and a post about an update to Google+ Local so that we're all, well, up-to-date.

As promised when Google rolled out Google+ Local in uncharacteristically clumsy fashion back in March, there is now at least some integration available for those small business early-adopters who opened up a Google+ Business page for a local business or place and then found themselves blindsided and befuddled when  their Google Places page suddenly became a Google+ Local page. The result was that they now had two Google+ business pages: one with full functionality but couldn't be found that easily in local search and another that was basically a Places page skinned to look like a Google+ page, but with very limited functionality.

But the sun does rise, the cloud cover breaks, and now you can merge the two. What these means for you  is that you now have the best of both worlds -- a page that customers can find easily on the map and where they can post reviews plua a true social media page for you where you can post regularly, gain followers, create circles and so on. To merge the two, just follow these simple steps:

• When you visit your Google+ Business page you'll see a radial that says Verify Now in the right column. Click on it and follow the instructions
• You will, unfortunately, have to go through the postcard verification process again
• Once that's completed, Google will merge the local data from Places with your Google+ Business listing.

If you've claimed and populated your Google Places (+ Local) page but have not created a Google+ Business page, I recommend you do so to get more utility to connect and sell along with a better experience for the user. Then you can go ahead and merge the two but make sure you open your Google+ Business page as a local business or place.

If you haven't yet claimed your Places listing (see my last post) then it appears you'll still have to go through the Places interface, but hey, Rome wasn't built in a day.

Why Direct Mail Works for B2B

Recently on Google+ there was a posting, by Google Analytics I believe, passing on an article that basically stated that b2b and b2c were really no different, since everyone is essentially just a consumer. I took issue with that premise and further suggested that the most effective b2b tactic was actually physical direct mail. I was surprised at the reaction that I got, how audacious I guess it was in the online space to suggest that an old warhorse like direct mail was the way to go. (And no, the increasingly beleaguered USPS did not pay me to write this, although I would welcome the opportunity).

I've already expressed my skepticism when it comes to b2b social in this post and I wish I could link the Google+ thread to this blog, but I still haven't found a way to link my blog to my Google+ business page, not the personal account that it's under, as this thread was under my personal Google+ profile (anyone who knows how to do that please let me know). So I'll just excerpt my response here as to why physical direct mail was a more effective b2b tactic than say, paid search, with one of the reasons being that in search, the person doing the searching is different than the decision-maker :

"...Generally speaking (and I'm only making general inferences here) the CTRs (click-thru-rates) in paid search for b2b and b2c are comparable and at times for b2b they're higher. However, in my experience the abandonment rate on the form and/or landing page for a b2b product is much higher and since most times you're talking about generating leads, you have to factor how many clicks you have to generate to get a sale into your ROI equation. (Even for b2b products that can be self-served, like software trials, data backup or cloud services, I've seen this general pattern hold.) So that buttresses my theory of the discoverer being different than the decision-maker.

With physical DM, using a good hand-compiled list, you can get directly to the decision-maker for the product/service in question -- finance, IT, HR and so on. A couple of years ago -- after a long, long time away -- I briefly took a Director-level position at a corporation (although director is not what it used to be) and there was nobody opening my mail (I wish there was because I invariably forgot to approve invoices and so on). Even at an executive level where there is an assistant opening the mail, if you create a piece with a high-enough perceived value the gatekeeper is going to be very reluctant to toss it. So I find physical DM to be the most efficient tactic when it comes to ROI against a b2b target."

So there you have it, you heard it here first (or last since DM appears to have gone the way of vinyl records, but as any audiophile will tell you, they sound a helluva lot better). Oh, and by the way, b2b direct mail is one of the things I specialize in and I do it because it works. Considering the decline in popularity, I can't be doing it for the money and excuse me because I have to go meet my friends from the PO for a beer to commiserate.

Building A Social Media Plan

Here's a really good article from Social Media Examiner on building a social media plan. It contains a lot of good commonsense advice and steps that every small business can take.

Just a couple of things that I would like to amplify (and I would feel a little guilty or lazy if I just blogged a link; it seems like an unbloggerly thing to do). One of the best points this article makes is about committing the effort to social media and I find that many clients are ill-prepared to do just that. Too many businesses don't post enough or when they do, it's self-promotional material that doesn't engage the audience. Contests and exclusive expert information go a lot further to building a following than doings at the business or "hi, we're really excited to be us."

Businesses also don't realize that this is a long-haul effort with results that are likely to be incremental and supplemental rather than monumental. This is sometimes an outgrowth of misguided expectations as social media proponents and the media have been pounding this for so long as the next big thing that people almost jump in as a reflex reaction. However, just because you won't get huge results doesn't mean it isn't worth doing, it just means that social should be one component of an overhaul marketing plan, with the amount of resources you put against it (including sweat equity) in line with the potential return on investment. (Another related point that the article also makes: pick your spots, find the social channel that makes the most sense for you to be in based on your customer profile. Trying to be in all the social spaces or to make a splash in the biggest of them may not be the best place to focus your efforts).

In any case, enjoy the article and by the way, helping you build and execute a social media plan is part of what I do, in conjunction with an overall marketing plan that includes things like advertising, promotions and even direct mail. But more on that in another post.

Upon Further Review of Google+ Local

In an earlier post I expressed excitement about Google's transition of Google Places to Google+ Local and opined that it would give businesses owners more room and flexibility to enhance their Places listing. For the present time, this does not appear to be the case and in fact the opposite might be true:

• For the time-being businesses still need to manage their listing through the existing Places interface
• Among other things, this means that you're still subject to the Places character limit in describing your business and that paragraph is all that appears in the Google+ Local About page
• Other sections populated in Google Places, such as the Additional Information sections, don't appear to carry over at all, at least right now
• Many businesses report that they've been having trouble getting their photos to show up in Google+ Local.

Still, there are some things business owners can do to make the transition easier and eventually realize  the full potential of Google+ Local:

• If you've already claimed and fully-optimized your Google Places listing, it's probably best not to make any further additions or changes right now until the smoke clears
• If you already have a Google+ Business Page (the equivalent of a Facebook Business Page or what used to be called a Facebook Fan Page) it's best that the Places and Google+ Business page both be under the same Google account email
• Even if you don't have a Google+ Business Page, it will probably be helpful to open a Google+ personal account under the same email you use to access your Google Places account.

These blog posts from Search Engine Journal and Poobah Marketing contain additional information and tips and the latter includes a video from Google that has some helpful tidbits, if you can get past the annoyingly sunny disposition of the two Googlers delivering it. 

A Sense of Places (Google)

If you're a business with a local focus, especially if you're a brick and mortar business, the single, most effective thing you can do for your business is fairly simple, free and available to you right away -- your Google Places listing.

Google Places is sort of an outgrowth of Google Maps and there's a free page that's associated with your map location (that little balloon pinpoint on the map with the letter inside it). On it you can post information or a description about your business, your hours, special services that you offer, photos, videos -- you can even offer coupons on your Places page. Your customers can also rate, review or leave comments about your business.

Since in a locally-oriented search Google makes the Places results prominent on the search engine results page (SERP), and they try to deliver in the Places listings businesses most relevant to the search and the closest to the location of the searcher, your Places page should be optimized by using the best keywords to describe your business. Just like your website, optimizing your Places page will get you to the top of the results that Google returns and having both your Places page and your website optimized for local search can lift the performance of both.

Most importantly, your Places page can often deliver more results than your website. I have clients who, when you count clicks on the map icon, phone calls and click-thrus to the main website, actually get more action from their Places page than from their main site. Some use their Places page as their only online presence, successfully couponing and driving traffic to their page via Adwords Express (a stripped-down version of AdWords designed for Maps and Places).

So if you're a local business, before you spend a lot of time and money on your website or get into print advertising, flyers, direct mail, email marketing or heaven forbid, GroupOn, start with your Google Places page. You can email me with any questions or follow me on Twitter @lbconsultinginc.