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.

Marketing in the new era & Millennials

Marketing in the new era & Millennials

What the small business owner has at their fingertips and has yet to capitalize on!

SMS Marketing

Text Message Marketing (Loyalty Rewards Program):

Angelo Zammit - Contributor:

           Mobile Marketing - has for sure played a significant role in some of the leading corporate businesses development and growth threw out the years. Companies like Starbucks for example have mastered the art. But the issue we found was how does the small business owner who owns the local coffee shop on the corner compete. It’s simple; loyalty is the key in any business's growth. Hence the reason companies such as Dunkin Donuts and most recently RaceTrac have implemented their very own Loyalty Rewards Program. In fact they have spent millions upon millions developing such platforms. All in attempt to retain and draw repeat business utilizing existing customers. See, what corporate companies have realized that the small business owner struggles with is, it cost 5 times more money to obtain a new customer then it does to keep an existing one. To add insult to injury, existing customers will spend 80% more money than a new customer. Sounds crazy right? But it’s facts!

Text Message Marketing Digital Punch Card Rewards Tablet

Visit East Coast Loyalty to sign up and implement our unique loyalty rewards program into your current marketing strategy.

What’s the solution:

            Just to touch on the small business owner for a moment I’d like to say and in their defense, it hasn't always been very cost effective as well as simple to implement such a marketing strategy. In the past we used what we call the paper punch cards. Well there in itself lies the downfall. Allowing one to have possession of a paper card with reward incentives, encouraged most to cheat for a lack of a better word. Customers would punch extra holes in order to gain a particular reward much sooner, or even go as far as saying they lost their card with one punch away from a reward. That really put a lot of small businesses in a tough spot. Most of the time the business owner would have to honor the reward in fear of receiving a bad review or losing a customer. The small business can suffer substantial damage from such accusations a customer might claim against them. Not to say some customers didn't lose their cards because that was another enormous issue, but you get the point. And that is just two of many arguments I share in the paper punch loyalty rewards department. Lucky for you, the world of millennials has taken a huge leap of faith into the new era. Technology has dominated the planet in the past half-decade or so as far as loyalty programs go. They have become much more affordable with companies who are dedicated to the small businesses like East Coast Loyalty. Point is, ECL has taken the traditional punch card and digitized it into an app and tablet check in, tier based program. All customers need to do now is opt in with their mobile number, via tablet and wait for an automated text message to download your loyalty rewards app. Or simply text a keyword like (Pizza) to a shortcode like 85964 for example. Then it’s all uphill from there. The customers can now wait for those exclusive offers, deals, promotions, discounts, sweepstakes, incentives etc. All while earning rewards every check in or visit. Even better, the businesses can reach their customers in real time anytime. All with a simple text message directly to their customers mobile phone, or send a push notification with an instant deal or social deal directly to their customized app, drawing their customers in when they need them most. To top it off, 98% of text messages are read within the first 3 minutes. Now if that's not serious marketing power, then what is?

Check in and start receiving the best deals from your favorite places to shop or dine.

Check in and start receiving the best deals from your favorite places to shop or dine. Visit EastCoastLoyalty.com for more information on how to get your very own loyalty program and start seeing customers roll on in.

Conclusion:

            In conclusion, the best form of marketing that i have seen to date with the greatest return on investment is mobile. So while there may still be those baby boomers who swear by traditional advertising/marketing, they better wake up or suffer drastic failure. Millennials have adapted to a whole new method of advertising/marketing thanks to technology and the wave of the web. They act on impulse and without thought. They see it, they like it, they buy it. It's first come first serve as far as businesses go. There is very little loyalty left anymore. So much for papa joe's pizzaria on the corner of Broadway and 5th ave. Now it's, 'if you don't give me anything in return then i'll find someone who will". And that they will! So don't fall behind the trend, set the trend. Don't be a fool and wait for the loyal customers you do have to come to you. Instead, go to them. Get in their pockets and get personal. You want loyalty these days, then buy it. Sad to say but it is so true. The way to keep millennials loyal is to gift them or spoil them for shopping lol. Be that business owner who gives back and do not act as if your business and it's customers are set in stone. Remember there are thousands of small businesses around the country starting every day. Everyone of them are planning and plotting on consuming your customers. The best investment you will ever make will be a loyalty rewards program. That way, when they think about leaving or going to the competition, you can remind them why they should come back.

East Coast Loyalty tablet digital punch card and signage.

10 Fascinating Customer Loyalty Statistics: (Reference)

1.) 86% of consumers say loyalty is primarily driven by likeability and 83% of consumers say trust

2.) A Totally Satisfied Customer contributes 2.6 times as much revenue as a Somewhat Satisfied Customer

3.) Millennials are 1.75x more likely than Boomers to say they’d like to be brand-loyal

4.) 77% of people are considered brand loyal

5.) Once a provider loses a customer, 68% of consumers will not go back

6.) 13% of consumers said the ability to earn more rewards or save more money would prompt them to switch brands or shop at a different store

7.) 62% of Millennials report that brand engagement is more likely to make them a loyal customer

8.) 55% of consumers who leave feedback in a mobile app are not likely to remain a customer if their feedback goes seemingly ignored

9.) 60% of millennials said that they are often or always loyal to brands that they currently purchase

10.) 62% of millennials say that if a brand engages with them on social networks, they are more likely to become a loyal customer

SMS/Mobile Marketing with East Coast Loyalty. We are known to provide the best service hands down. Visit EastCoastLoyalty.com or call us @ (800) 214-8085 to sign up.

East Coast Loyalty @ Sen Nails Saugus Massachusetts. Another proud merchant!

Angelo Zammit & Ami Pancholi proud owners and founders of East Coast Loyalty with Tony Vou, owner of Sen Nails.

Get set up today with your very own Loyalty Rewards Program. Visit EastCoastLoyalty.com to learn more.

East Coast Loyalty service flyer and actual tablet/kiosk set up of digital punch card loyalty program @ POS or check out location.