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By Scott, on Wednesday,10:22 am
Some really interesting data has just been released that shows an SEO based approach to lead generation has by far the greatest impact as compared to other web based approaches such as PPC and Social Media marketing.
 SEO Is the Clear Winner. Just sayin... (Source - MarketingCharts.com) Even Better for Business to Business (B2B)
What surprised me is that according to the survey (sample size = 500) an SEO based approach has a more pronounced impact on B2B firms than Business to Consumer (B2C) firms. While in our own client base we have seen a sharp rise in business to business activity, business to consumer businesses have always had an even more pronounced positive return. Wow!
Firms with Highest Growth Rates Leverage Online Lead Generation
In a separate study by Hinge Marketing those firms with the highest growth rates and highest profitability also had the highest percentage of leads coming from online. Certainly makes sense but the difference is so striking that I felt compelled to include the graphic here.
 Growth Rate Correlates to Online Marketing (Source - MarketingCharts.com) Traffic Still the Number 1 Indicator of Success
Every month we supply a report to our clients that show how they are ranking in the search engines and how many NEW visitors our efforts are bringing to them. We’ve settled on the NEW visitor metric because it is easy to measure with Google Analytics and directly shows the impact of the most important step in our process – getting new potential customers to our clients’ sites.
 Web Traffic and Lead Quality Rule (Source - MarketingCharts.com)
Final Word
Just keep in mind that SEO by itself is not a panacea, it is simply a tool in a larger process. Unless a complete online marketing process is being applied, SEO can do more damage than good. The last thing your company needs is a bunch of unqualified leads tying up salespeople and customer service folks. So, please choose your online marketing partners carefully and beware of emails and voicebroadcasts from people you never heard of that sound too good to be true. They probably are!
By Scott, on Wednesday,8:36 am
 QR Code Integrates to Mobile- Try it Yourself Recently, luxury car builder Audi launched an innovative advertising campaign to support the introduction of their new A7 model. The campaign is a great example of melding off-line advertising with mobile and social marketing.
Here is a quick look at how it works…
Offline Component
The offline marketing anchor is a series of mega-size interactive billboards prominently displayed in Times Square. The billboards feature a prominent QR code that takes the smartphone user to the mobile piece of the campaign.
Mobile Component
The QR code takes you directly to the mobile site www.a7bolddesign.com where you can visit locations throughout NYC (for example the Brooklyn Bridge) that have been deemed “bold” by the campaign architects and other Audi enthusiasts. This last piece, enthusiast participation, takes us to the social marketing component.
Social Component
To further engage the audience the campaign has set up the Twitter hashtag #BoldDesign. People milling about Time Square are encouraged to tweet their thoughts, ideas and musings as well as their recommended “bold” places. Of course the campaign will also be supported on Audi’s YouTube channel (YouTube.com/audiusa) and Facebook page (Facebook.com/audiusa).
The Local Business Marketing Lessons
While you may never be in a position to or have the desire to have an interactive billboard in Times Square, there are a number of things you can learn from this campaign:
- Mobile is often most powerful when integrated into off line efforts. Postcards, signage, business cards and good old fashioned sales letters can all be made more powerful by integrating mobile.
- Get your audience engaged. Audi’s quest for boldness gets their audience’s attention and interaction by allowing people to express their opinions. Let’s face it, everyone has an opinion.
- Use multiple medias to support the message. Use your website, Facebook page, Twitter and YouTube channel to support your message and further drive engagement with the campaign.
Sound complicated?
Don’t worry, at FetchLocalCustomers we provide turn-key solutions for all your local online advertising and local mobile marketing needs.
P.S. We understand that you’re busy and are already wearing too many hats that’s why we’re here!
By Scott, on Monday,11:11 am
 Search Engines Remain The #1 Method for Deal Finding Seems like every time you turn around these days you are hearing a story about the business benefits of Groupon, Living Social, Facebook and Twitter. And, let me be clear, some or all of the aforementioned might play a positive role in growing your business. Yet… according to a recent study by retailmenot.com, the #1 way people search for “deals” online remains through the good old fashioned search engines!
This only makes sense. Search engines are always there ready to find you the best deal the instant you decide you need something. Groupon and Living Social are simply a new twist on “interuption” advertising. Their super-savings deals and self-induced scarcity attempt to get you to take an action that you otherwise wouldn’t have done.
Twitter and Facebook, when they work at all, follow the same interuption path while attempting to link social proof in the form of “likes” and re-tweets.
What all four of these have in common and the lesson you should take away is that all four, when they are effective, bring people to your website for information, confirmation and hopefully a clear call to action! And that, my friends, is what defines a website that sells which is a core essential of the FetchLocalCustomers process.
Search Engines Are Still the Primary Driver for Local Businesses
But at the end of the day, when you need something you more than likely turn to Google to find out where you can get it and who has the best price. And you are not alone. That is what most people do.
So the second lesson you should take from this post is that ranking at the top of the search engines for your most important buying phrases remains the single most important online marketing and advertising effort for your business. And of course, this comprises a second essential step in the FetchLocalCustomers process.
Ready to put the power of the search engines to work for YOUR business?
What are you waiting for? Isn’t it time you found the right Online Advertising Agency?
Now is the time to leap-frog your competition and gain the unfair advantage that is going to take your business to the next level!
By Scott, on Saturday,7:44 am
 Does Voting on Search Results Make Any Sense? In yet another overt, yet not publicly-acknowledged indicator that Facebook is making Google really nervous “Big G” unveiled their version of a “Like” Button last week.
Called “Plus One” by Google this feature is slowly being rolled out (hasn’t hit my corner of the Google Dynasty yet) and is Google’s attempt to try to harness the credibility of “peer” reviewing into their search and adwords results.
As reported in an article on Adage…“When someone recommends something, that’s a pretty good indicator of quality,” said Matt Cutts, Google’s principle engineer for search. “We are strongly looking at using this in our rankings.”
 More Clutter or a Valuable Addition to Search Functionality? How Plus-One Works
The Plus-One system relies upon the searcher having a Google profile created. Right off the bat, this will limit the use of Plus-One since most people I know (and these tend to be pretty tech and web savvy folks) don’t have a Google profile and likely won’t see the need to create one just so they can “vote” on search results.
Some Reasons Why Plus-One Won’t
- Requires a Google Profile Creation
- Who really wants to “like” their search results? If I’m looking for information on “Windmills”, “skin cancer”, “bottle-nose dolphins” etc. do I really want my friends, family and the world to know that? Sure, there are different privacy-levels but if everyone is “private” then what good is the social aspect of this tool?
- This will clutter Google’s search results even further, making them less useful. What makes Google the de-facto choice for people who are looking for answers is the simple, clean interface. If I what a bunch of crap and clutter I’ll go to BING
- Too easy to game the system. Whether Google is dumb enough to give any weight to the Plus-One button in their algorithm remains to be seen but just the fact that my search results will soon be cluttered with “likes” that can be outsourced for a couple a cents per vote or worse yet created by robots (I have on good authority that one of the most infamous black-hatters out there is already building such a machine) is going to lessen Google’s search credibility.
- Time drain. Unlike Facebook where people “hang out”, Google’s search results are all about speed, efficiency and effectiveness. Who are these people who will take the time to vote on a search results and do I really want THEIR opinion??
What This Means for Your Local Business
Clearly having “likes” next to your organic listings can only help you stand out from the crowd and might help with click-thrus… but of course you have to be on Page 1 for it to matter at all! So, stay the course and do not lose site (pun intended) of your top priorities:
- High Quality, Relevant, Useful Content
- High Placement in the Search Engine Results
- Clear, Focused Call to Action
Ready to finally get the professional help you need to take your business to the next level? Please give us a call at 888-505-6162 and let’s have a chat. The call won’t cost you a dime and the relationship we begin will deliver new customers, new profits and peace of mind for years to come!
By Scott, on Thursday,10:37 am
 Domino's Is Selling Pizza Via Mobile Mobile Produces Results.
I know I’ve been beating this drum for so long you are probably sick of hearing it. So let me switch topics just a bit and add something that will make this conversation a little more palatable, if not downright tasty…
Mobile Sells Pizza!
Hot, delicious, gooey pizza straight from the oven. Can you smell it? Can you taste it?
Good! Because we love pizza too and mobile marketing and advertising can help you EAT more pizza while your favorite pizza shop SELLS more pizza. Talk about a recipe for success!
“Domino’s Pizza iPhone app generates more than $1.3M in sales”
That’s right. In about 3 months in Great Britain, the folks at Dominos moved $1.3 million in pizza just from their new iPhone app. Pretty impressive considering that the app’s main feature is simply to make ordering more simple and more fun. You can read the details here: Domino’s Mobile App
What about your “Local” Pizza Shop?
Here’s the thing about mobile and restaurants of any type, including pizza shops. Mobile represents the most cost effective way to get new customers and to sell more to existing customers.
Forget the newspapers, coupon mailers and the yellow pages!
Restaurants who want to grow in our new “social” age must embrace mobile!
Text message advertising, local search marketing, geo-targeted mobile banner advertising and social media platforms (keep in mind that 60% of all social media use takes place via a mobile device) deliver targeted, measurable results for pennies on the dollar.
Mobile Beyond Restaurants
Now, stretch your imagination just a bit and ask yourself what other types of businesses have similar business models where time and space utilization directly translate into profits? Come on… think….
Well if you came up with a list such as:
- Nail salons
- Oil change garages
- Car washes
- Hair salons
you get an A+ on your marketing savvy report card for the day!!!
So what are YOU doing about getting mobile in YOUR business? Listen, there are no excuses to not taking action.
This morning I spoke to a 65 year old gentleman in Colorado about taking a car dealership mobile. Yes, you read that correctly a 65 year old is investigating the power of mobile!
NO Excuses! Go learn more about the basics of mobile or simply pick up the phone and call us to chat about the power of local mobile marketing for your business. 888.505.6162
Oh… and if you know a pizza shop that might want to trade some pizza for a little mobile marketing and advertising in the St. Charles, Illinois area… have them give me a call! I’m sure a tasty deal can be worked out!
By Scott, on Wednesday,9:06 am
 Facebook Messages Promises to Consolidate All Your Messaging It’s been about a month since Facebook started rolling out its “Facebook Messages” service. So I thought it might be interesting to take a quick look under the hood to see what this service might hold in store for us.
Here’s what I’ve found…
First, don’t be surprised if you don’t have “Messages” as a Facebook feature yet. According to Facebook they are rolling out Messages to everyone but the process will take some time.
Second, Messages will be (or at least aspires to be) the first truly integrated messaging platform. Excerpting from an excellent report by Adam Sutton over at MarketingExperiments.com:
Truly Integrated Messaging
Facebook’s launch last week of its new Messages system is a step toward truly integrated communication. The announcement, though, raises many questions for email marketers, particularly since Facebook is offering its over 500 million active users @facebook.com email addresses.
1. Seamless messaging — messages will not be listed by date but organized by contact. Conversation history will be stored for extended periods.
2. Integrated messaging — users can integrate their Facebook messages, SMS texts, and @facebook.com email into the new Messages system. All the content sent through these means will be pulled into the seamless conversations mentioned above.
3. Social/Friends inbox — Facebook messages will have two inboxes. One will essentially be for messages from friends, and the “other” folder will be for everyone else.
There are other smaller highlights — such as the elimination of formal subject lines and the ability to have group conversations. Many features are customizable. For example, users can specify that they only want to receive messages from “friends” and “friends of friends.”
What is driving Facebook Messages? Probably a combination of things. First, younger generations are showing less patience for email, preferring text messaging and Facebook posting. Second, no other service has successfully aggregated all the different messaging modalities and by moving first Facebook has the potential to become the communication hub for small to medium sized businesses.
Think about the potential communication efficiencies Messages might hold for your business. One “message” could be served as a wall post, an email or a text message depending on the preferences of the receiver– pretty cool.
And let’s not forget that something like 60% of all Facebook users access their accounts via mobile devices so the obvious synergies on the mobile marketing side of your complete marketing system house are hute
Well, first things first. Go get in line for your access to Messages. While we’re waiting there together maybe we can talk about your overall social media marketing strategy!
By Scott, on Monday,11:42 am
 Look Who's Using Social Networks... Your Customers!! Take a guess at how many “older” folks are using social networks everyday?
According to Pew Research the rate of online social networking approximately quadrupled among Older Boomers (9% to 43%) and the GI Generation (4% to 16%) for the time period 2008 – 2010.
Think about what this means for your local online marketing…
- Of course, it suggests that you should begin looking towards social media marketing and advertising if you want to present your message to this more “seasoned” audience.
- It strongly suggests that this audience is using “online” information sources far more often than you likely imagined.
- Indeed three-quarters (76%) of Older Boomers are online and 81% of Younger Boomers are online meaning a solid majority of working-age adults are online (TRANSLATION: YOUR POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS ARE ONLINE!)
- 30% of the GI generation (over 74 years old) classify themselves as “online”
So what should you do?
Better get your complete online marketing system up and running!
- If you are currently making investments in dead or dying media to grow your business you better start redirecting those funds to your online efforts…NOW!
- Start with securing your local online search presence, then your mobile presence, then your social media strategy.
The amount of potential new customers looking for your products and services is increasing every day, same with mobile, social, online review sites…
Ignore these trends and you risk becoming irrelevant. So take action here:
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