Local listings and why it is so important to the small business

Local listings and why it is so important to the small business 

            Contributor - Angelo Zammit

            As a marketer I often find myself asking questions I feel are so obvious they almost slap you in the face. It boggles my mind to wonder how there are so many small business owners who feel they have it all figured out. " I don't need this and don't need that" they tell me. It's always, "my customers have been around since my grandfather started this company" or " I don't need to spend thousands of dollars to get found on the internet. If my customers want me they'll call me and i'll give them directions". My favorite one is, when I ask "well ok, what about new customers, lol". They reply " Well word of mouth has been my best form of marketing". Ok, ummmmm ya, anyway, what business owner wants more business, that's just absurd right?

            The point of marketing is to reach the broadest audience your budget allows and to increase your R.O.I. I guess if you live in an extremely small town with population 1000 your good. But to assume everyone in the town knows who you are and where you're located is crazy. People grow up and move on with their lives to other cities, towns, states and even countries. Some people even die, ya it's true! Generations fade out and change, out with the old in with the new. Businesses change information and locations often, from a simple phone number to a whole new address. Maybe you have more than one location as well. Maybe you plan to rebrand your business in the future  or intend on introducing a new product or service. Point is, you must be visible on the internet and easily accessible to customers, or you will lose so much business you can't begin to imagine the damage.

            If a customer is looking for a particular product, food or service the first thing they do is pull out their mobile phone, desktop, laptop or tablet and google. Most likely, the first place that pops up is their choice. If you get really lucky, they will actually scroll down enough to see what's underneath the top three suggestions. So how do you compete in a world where everyone is fighting for the top spot or front page of google. Well a great place to start is to make sure all of your business information is correct on every search engine, review site, directory and social site across the board.

            Not to mention listings expand your visibility and allow you to add visual content such as pictures, video etc. Which helps to increase sales and exposure. It gives the consumer a clear picture of what it is your pitching them to purchase. Most importantly, Over 90% of consumers now use search engines to shop locally. 

Search Engines, Review Sites, Directories, Social Sites 

    Let's talk about the benefits of local listings:

            Advertising your business locally is huge in the sense of brand development and awareness. I mean, the more people exposed to your business the more people are likely to utilize your services or buy your product. If people can't find your website or track you down, how can you expect them to know what you're selling. So not only are directories great for website exposure, it's a way to reach out to a specific audience and capture their attention.

             Local Listings etc. also allows you to promote whatever products or services you are offering to a targeted demographic. You can focus on a specific demographic as far as city, town etc. You can even target zip codes or go for the gusto and advertise nationally or internationally. You can target a specific audience as well but we will talk about that more later. Most of this is done utilizing certain paid services offered through Google Adwords, Yelp Advertising, Yellow Pages, Bing Ads and many more. Some advertisement is even free depending on the listing platform.

             Getting your business on every directory etc. and keeping your business information updated is also great for SEO. Again something we will talk more about later. Be sure to get on every listing directory that applies to your business. The more directories you're on, the bigger your brand becomes and the easier it is for your business to be found by potential customers searching for your product or service. There are hundreds of directory listings so doing it yourself is going to take you an eternity. I recommend doing some research and find a company who specializes in providing such services. East Coast Loyalty is one of the best to do it and at a great price. At ECL you can take full advantage of listing sync pro and let them do the hard work for you.

 Visit East Coast Loyalty and sign up with our listing sync pro service. Or, simply call us @ (800) 214-8085 & we will help get you started immediately.

            Cheap Exposure and very cost effective. Yup, you heard that right. It is free to list your business on most search engines, directories, social site and review sites. Although you can get enhanced profiles that will be sure to place you at the top of the search list when people look for your specific product of services. Heck, you can even keep competitors off your page and avoid those little pop ups with their little annoying advertisements that are specifically designed to steal your business.
But all in all, you can list your business for free if you intend on doing it yourself. Although there are many errors that can be made in doing so. Try to keep in mind that not having access to all the listings you have created on one single dashboard can become impossible to manage as well. So be cautious if your planning to DIY and make an excel spreadsheet with all usernames and passwords to each search engine, review site, directory and social site you have created.

Local Business Listing Optimization 

         
            SEO is huge and google has changed it's algorithm so much that it is getting harder each day to figure out what content it will pull or how to obtain solid backlinks etc. Either way, that is a topic for a different article in itself. Listings and SEO go hand and hand. For one, they get a lot of hits and in result helps to rank highly on major search engines. You must also consider the backlinks from online directories. They have a very high quality for the simple fact they are coming from a reliable and well nown source. Plus the one-way links towards your website may help with SEO as well.

            Doing local business listings, allows you to eliminate the need to hire a web developer for their services to update your website, or for that matter search engine spiders to crawl your web page. In conclusion, you have created an additional source that will self deliver your business information to search engines directly via the local business listing platform.

            Marketing/Advertising is a huge part of your business period. Marketing or Advertising via local directories allows you to be specific as mentioned in the introduction. It allows to target an audience based on your profile category, product or services. You can set up paid campaigns that are aimed at the audience you are trying to capture. Once your campaign has been created , you can then pay close attention to the analytics provided to ensure no missed opportunities. Not everyone will call to buy you product or service but that does not mean there isn't potential there. Analytics will provide you detailed information that will help you in future campaigns.

            Local listings are also great for cross promoting social media platforms. What I mean by that is you can attach Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest etc. Thus allowing you to grow your brand and raise awareness. You can gain a lot of free marketing or advertising out of this utilizing post, tweets, pins etc. to promote your products or services.

            Final thoughts, there is really no way you can mess this up if you follow directions and make sure your information as far as the description of your business, address, phone number, logo etc are identical on every search engine, review site, directories and social site platform. There are so many benefits to local listings i can't possibly name them all. You would be foolish to not take advantage of such simple methods that would push your business in a thriving direction.

             Remember, having duplicate listings or not claiming your listings can hurt your business as well, so be very cautious. Hence the reason I suggest making the investment into a company who specializes in directory listings. This will allow you to get your business information out there guaranteed on every platform that applies to your business within a timely manner. All without having to worry about losing control, making duplicate listings, losing usernames and passwords or just trying to keep track of hundreds of different search engines , review sites, social sites and directories. Let alone if something as simple as a phone number changes. Then you're in for a whole new surprise and headache, you'll regret not taking my advice.

            In order to have complete control without losing your mind and being able to change, alter, fix or add information with the click of a button across the board, is to find yourself a professional. Someone who will do the work for you, all while providing you access once the job is done. That way, you can still have control and make the necessary changes you need along the way.  But do it now, because time is actually costing you more money and opportunity wasted.

            

Visit  East Coast Loyalty and sign up with our listing sync pro service. Or, simply call us @ (800) 214-8085 & we will help get you started immediately. ECL also offers many other B2B/B2C marketing services that will help grow your business.

           
Click to learn more on how to claim your business online.