Who Owns Mobile Marketing?
Mobile marketing is the rising sun. It is on the horizon and ready to shine its light on those business owners who recognize it for the potential that it has. And while it hasn’t really gone mainstream yet, it’s truly on the cusp of doing so. But there are a strong group of early adopters who have harnessed the power of mobile marketing and made it profitable. Who are they?
I think, to a large degree, that early mobile marketing adopters are local businesses. I think, to an even larger degree, that the future of mobile marketing belongs to local businesses. They own it.
Here’s why I say that:
- Mobile marketing allows you to connect with people on the move in your local area like no other form of online marketing
- Location-based marketing is just beginning to catch the eye of savvy marketers – it is the future
- iPhone apps have huge local marketing potential unlike any other mobile marketing tool
- New up-and-coming mobile marketing tools are focused on local business
- The integration of local directories and one-click calling over mobile phones will drive much of the mobile marketing technology in the near future
When a customer is in your area and wants to find you, how are they likely to do that? With their mobile phone using one of these tools: Twitter, an iPhone app, a location-based search, or one-click directory call. Local small businesses own mobile marketing.
Local Web Marketing Options
When it comes local online marketing, what kind of options do you have for your Scotland business? Truthfully, you have more options than you probably think you do. Here are some ways you can brand and market your Scotland business through local online marketing.
- Website Design – Your website’s design says a lot about you professionally, but it’s also not always about your design. You could do something real simple like establishing your local presence with a geotargeted URL like scotlandseo.co.uk.
- Local SEO – When you optimize your website, try optimizing it for local search terms such as “Scotland,” “Ayrshire,” and “Ayrshire, Scotland.”
- iPhone Apps Geotargeting – Got an idea for an iPhone app? Try to localize it with a geotargeted approach such as the one we developed for Glencoe Mountain.
- Local PPC – Pay per click advertising is always a nice option for local online marketers.
- E-mail Marketing – Add an opt-in form to your website and get people to subscribe to your e-mail newsletter. Use it to add a local flair to your marketing approach.
- Social Media – Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn all have a local component to their social media marketing platforms. Learn to use social media with a local lean.
Local Scotland businesses have options when it comes to marketing and branding online. Don’t get pushed into a marketing corner where you are out of reach from local customers. Plan and execute your local online marketing, and be consistent.
Why Google Is Going Local
U.S. online marketing blogger Frank Reed, who writes for Marketing Pilgrim, wrote a great article about Google sending out human operatives to several U.S. markets to discuss online marketing with small business owners. Those markets are:
- Portland, Oregon
- Austin, Texas
- Las Vegas, Nevada
- Madison, Wisconsin
- Charlotte, North Carolina
- San Diego, California
It’s interesting that none of these marketers are in the northeast or the midwest parts of the U.S. Where is Google in those markets?
That aside aside, however, there is some wisdom in Google using this approach. After all, local search is about more than digital indicators. It is also about human interaction and what better way to show that Google understands that than by sending out flesh and blood to interact with small business owners on their own turf?
Of course, the goals stated for Google’s local search efforts are simple and make a lot of good darn sense:
1. Introduce them to and educate them about Google Places and local search in general
2. Claim their Place Page and give them tips about managing that page moving forward
3. Introduce them to and educate them about the NFC (near field communications) window decal that Google would like to see in every merchants’ window across the land.
If you have not claimed your Google Place Page yet, then I recommend that you do so ASAP. Even here in Scotland, local search marketing is about to pick up speed. And Google and Bing will both be there to see that happen. Google Place pages will be a huge factor in future local search rankings. Claim yours before someone else does.
How Web Citations Help Local Businesses
Local search marketing is a different game than global search marketing. When you are trying to rank a web page against a global slate of competition for specific keyword phrases, you absolutely must pay close attention to your inbound link portfolio. Inbound links are not as important for local search.
Note that I said “as important,” not “unimportant.” The search engines have always analyzed at least a couple of hundred criteria to determine how web pages should rank in their indexes. Inbound links are just a single factor, or you might count them half a dozen to ten times if you consider all the relevant data related to them. But that’s a sidebar.
Local businesses can claim a listing in each of the search engines’ local databases. Google has Google Places. Yahoo! has Yahoo! Local. And Bing has Bing Local. Each of these listings include a business name, a physical address, and a phone number. What would happen if that information started appearing in various other places around the web without a link?
The answer is, it will likely increase your local search rankings.
In local search, you are not competing against every website in your niche around the world. You are only competing against like businesses in your geographic location. If you can get your business name, address, and phone number listed in various sources – both locally and globally – then you can increase your competitiveness in local search.
Meetup And Local Off-Line Marketing
If you are interested in promoting your local Scotland business online without spending all of your time chasing backlinks and creating web pages, then Meetup is the perfect social media website for you.
Millions of people flock to Meetup daily all around the world looking for groups that interest them. You can find a group on almost any topic for just about any location in the world, including Ayrshire, Scotland.
So let’s say you want to start a group that meets weekly to discuss local Ayrshire history. All you have to do is go to Meetup, start a group, advertise where your group will meet, and pay the Meetup organizing fee. You can charge your members a fee or charge a fee for attending your meetings, but if you are organizing a group for business purposes, you might think otherwise.
This works particularly well if you are involved in the industry of interest. For instance, if you are a genealogist and you hope to sell your services as a genealogy researcher, a local Meetup group that discusses Ayrshire history could very well be a great marketing vehicle.
Local off-line marketing has benefited greatly from online marketing strategies. Meetup is the perfect example of local marketing using the Internet.
Negative Reviews Are Good, Right?
We’ve been conditioned by the real world to think that negative reviews are bad. In truth, they certainly can be. But online they can have positive benefits. In fact, they could help your website rank better in the search engines.
Each search engine has a local business listing component. At Google, it’s called Google Places. Bing calls it Bing Local. And Yahoo! has Yahoo! Local. You have to claim your business listing, which is free, but once you do your customers can write reviews of your business.
I highly recommend that you claim your local business listings. Then, you want to provide great customer service and ask your customers to write reviews. Start with your best customers first.
If your local business listing has twenty five reviews and one or two of them happen to be negative, that’s a plus. You’ve still got twenty three or twenty four positive reviews. All of those reviews will work to push your local business listing to the top of the search results.
You can also add a reviews page to your website and allow your customers to write reviews there. You can even moderate those comments and only publish the ones you want. The more reviews you receive on your website, the more likely you are to have that page rank in the search engines, which will lead to more traffic.
Instead of fretting over negative reviews, try turning them into a positive.
Real Estate SEO: Naturally Local
The one thing that you can say about real estate SEO that is absolutely true no matter where you live is that it is naturally local. That is, all real estate SEO is local SEO.
Think about that a minute. If you are a real estate agent in Ayrshire, what good does it do you to advertise your services in London, England? And if that doesn’t make sense, then does it make sense to optimise your web pages for global traffic when you know that you are seeking traffic from local people?
Now, hold on a minute, you say. What if someone is moving to Ayrshire from London, England? I’d want them to find my website, wouldn’t I?
Yes, of course. You want people to find your website no matter where they live: England, Africa, Hawaii, etc. But the question to ask is, what search terms are people going to use to find your website? And the answer is, they are going to use “real estate” or a related term plus your local identity. In our example, people will search for “real estate in Ayrshire Scotland” or “Ayrshire real estate.” In other words, they’ll search using local terms.
That’s the reason you want your SEO focused on local keywords and search terms. Optimising your website for “real estate” in general is going to get you very little. The online competition is too broad. Narrow your scope to local geographic terms in addition to your real estate terms, then see what happens.
Local SEO is about narrowing your scope. That’s what you have to do when you are in real estate.
Yell Dying Offline – What About Online?
The once very popular and must-have Yellow Pages print directory is in trouble with revenues from offline sources falling at a staggering 20% per quarter. At present, Yell’s online revenue only accounts for 25% of their total business, hardly sufficient to carry the company in the long term. Yell has stated that local search will now be one of its main focuses into the future – is it too little too late?
We have long advocated the use of local search by businesses. If Yellow Pages in print format does disappear altogether, online search will gain a real boost as print users are forced to find their information elsewhere. Yell has made an interesting point in an interview published in the Guardian:
Pocock said Google, which dominates the online classified ads market, doesn’t have “half of what we have” in the local search market. “Look at Groupon, Google, Yahoo … none of them have outside sales forces,” he said, highlighting a key relationship Yell has with local advertisers over its rivals.
Yellow Pages have had a good relationship with local advertisers. However, as they also pointed out, they are losing revenue (and one would think, advertisers) at 20% per quarter, so the question will soon be asked – “what local advertisers”?
For businesses servicing a local area, local search is certainly a must. If Yell can get its act together and build a strong online local directory that is even half as popular as its offline counterpart used to be, then it will be a force to be reckoned with. One can’t help feeling they have missed the boat.
Why Local Businesses Must Embrace Local Search
If you have a bricks and mortar business, no matter how big or small, the time has come to embrace local search. Why? Survival! I can’t put it any plainer. You don’t need a website or to spend time wooing customers on social sites like Facebook – you do need to claim your business listings through both Google and Bing’s local search features.
There are a number of reasons for claiming your business and many of them still come back to that one word – survival. Consider these possibilities:
Another business could claim your listing, robbing you of customers. Online retail is growing at a startling rate and is successfully filling the void of the old mail-order businesses. Do you want your customers buying from you, or from an online retailer in Glasgow or London for example?
Shoppers are researching online before hitting the high street to do their shopping. If they don’t find you – well, they won’t find you!
Need I say any more? Every one of those situations could potentially cost you customers. As your business customer base shrinks, so too do your profits and your ability to stay in business. Yet it needn’t because claiming your business is not a difficult process.
To claim your business, just go to Google’s and Bing’s local search features and enter in your business details. Be sure to read the instructions as you fill in the online forms, especially when it comes to using real telephone numbers (rather than call centers, for example) and unique business addresses. If you are in a mall, for example, include your shop number.
Once the search engines have verified your details, your business listing will be live in search results for local search. If you want to go the extra mile and create a website, for example, that can be done for minimal costs. If you want to survive long term, then claiming your local business listing is certainly a good start.
Giving Your Links A Local Search Boost
Local businesses that are looking to stay competitive really do need to consider an online presence. At the very least, they need to claim their business through the local search features on the major search engines. For those a little more adventurous, having a website that has been optimised for local search can really give your local search listing a boost in search results.
Optimising for local search is a little different to optimising for general search. Fortunately, most of the general search engine optimisation tactics still hold true. There are a number of important areas that you must address, and there are a number of changes to general search that could make a difference.
There is a common theme developing around local search, namely, name, address, and phone – now abbreviated to NAP. What is important about NAP is consistency. Use exactly the same data in every reference you leave online. NAP may well make a difference in link building as well.
The value of a link is determined by the authority of the site providing the link, the text around that link, and how relevant the link is to the page’s contents. What is interesting is that local search seems to be gaining better value from links if the business’s name is used in the link, not a series of key phrases. If you add to this the value of the surrounding text, then the link can increase in value. If you were to link to us using the following, you will see where I am going with this:
ASM Development
Kirkstyle
53 Main Street
Dundonald
Ayrshire, KA2 9HH
01563 850 072
How does this change normal linking techniques? First, the link is in the business name, further reinforcing our business for local search. Secondly, the text around the link refers to our address, this helps the search engine localize us. Overall, the link and address matches any other references we have around the web.
Add to this the fact that the link and details are on a page that relates to our business services, and you have the perfect local link. How do you achieve this on other websites? It depends on how you acquire the links in the first place. In articles, place the business name and address at the end of the article. For link swaps, request that your business name and address be used rather than marketing text. Remember, this is to optimise your business for local search. By all means, use keyword anchor text for general search – if you need it.