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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,9:50 am
QR codes continue to be one of the best ways of bridging the printed and digital. Here at FetchLocalCustomers we have been getting more and more requests to create custom QR codes for clients for use in printed collateral.
Make Your Business Card Useful
Business cards continue to be the most popular way to transfer contact information. But, let’s face it, in the world of digital they do nothing but create needless data entry tasks. A QR code customized to deliver your contact information in one “snap” of a smartphone scanner and whooosh, your contact information is instantly added to your new networking buddy’s contact system.
Try it Yourself
More Uses Too Of Course
Recently Starbucks has been back on the bandwagon using QR codes to promote their new fall coffee line and their mobile app which has been allowing mobile phone payments for quite awhile now. Pizza king Papa John has been using QR codes on pizza boxes to tell the Papa John story and deepen the brand to customer relationship.
How Will You Use QR Codes?
The reasons and techniques for using QR codes to bridge the digital divide are only limited by your imagination. If you find yourself in need of a QR code strategy or just a custom QR code itself, use the contact information in the QR code above to reach out to us and get the FetchLocalCustomers team working for you!
By Scott, on Thursday,9:36 am
So few business people, web designers and people in general understand how search engines such as Google work, I find myself constantly in the role of educator. Thankfully, I love to educate, teach and explain things. The problem I find is that when I try to explain the details of how a search engine such as Google decides who gets displayed at the top, I find that I lose people.
Lately, I’ve changed my approach to clearing up the search mystery. I’ve taken to telling the following story and I am pleased to report that everyone get’s it! I hope this helps clear things up for you!
Starbucks, Doctors and How Google Works
Imagine it’s 3:30 in the afternoon and you find yourself needing that little extra jolt to get you through your afternoon and the upcoming evening’s networking event.
You pull into your local Starbucks and seeing that there is a huge line at the drive-through you get out of your car and walk inside. Unfortunately, you realize that the line inside is also moving pretty slowly so you whip out your smart phone, check your mail, look at Facebook and STILL the line is not moving.
Enter Doctor #1
 "I'm a Geriatric Doctor" At this point you begin taking notice of your fellow patrons and think “well my sales coach is always preaching to me about the 3 foot rule” so you catch the eye of the gentleman in front of you in line and you say “So, when you aren’t standing in line growing old, what do you do for a living?”
He replies “I’m a Doctor.” For the next minute or two he tells you he’s a general practitioner who specializes in geriatrics (old folks), where his office is located and other tidbits. He seems credible, seems to know what he is talking about but quite frankly you have NO way of knowing if he really is a Doctor or not!
Search Lesson 1 – The Doctor’s story is analagous to a website. As a website owner you can tell any story you want on your website but Google, Yahoo and BING have no way to know from your site alone whether or not your story is true.
Enter Doctor #2
 "Hey Dr. Jones..." Thankfully the line is moving again! You are just 3 people away from getting that shot of afternoon motivation you originally came for! You continue to exchange pleasantries with the your new Doctor friend when all of the sudden a second person who actually looks like a Doctor comes in the door and greets your Doctor friend. They talk shop about a recent referral your Doctor friend made to Doctor #2.
Search Lesson #2 This second Doctor is analagous to a “relevant back link”. If you had any doubts as to whether or not your new friend really is a Doctor, having this independent verification has helped remove it. In the eyes of the search engines, having a totally separate, relevant site reference your website helps them to believe that your website is telling the truth.
Enter A Group of Senior Citizens
 Hi Dr. Jones! At this point your Doctor friend has paid and you’ve placed your order! As he turns to leave he hands you a business card and you say goodbye. You then notice that a shuttle bus from a local retirement complex has arrived and a half dozen older men and women shuffle in. Each of them says “Hi Doctor Jones” as the Doctor walks out the door. You have no idea who these people are, but now with 7 separate, independent verifications you have no doubts that the person you spoke to is really a Doctor.
Search Lesson #3 These 6 senior citizen are analagous to “back links” from non-relevant sites. Google, Yahoo and BING looks for these types of verifying links to help them understand whether or not your site is being truthful and to help them identify how popular your site is and how much of an authority it is.
1 Week Later
You find yourself talking to a friend who mentions that her Mom is looking for a new Doctor. It seems her old Doctor has retired and moved to Florida. She mentions that she is looking for a geriatric specialist. You tell her that you just met a really nice geriatric specialist named Dr. Jones and you pass along his contact information.
On-Site and Off-Site Authority
Hopefully my explanation above clears up just how the search engines work. You need to make sure that your website is designed to sell, has good content and has been fully optimized. If you get these “on-site factors” right you will tell the best story possible to the search engines. Most experts agree that getting this right will account for 10 -30% of your site’s ability to rank highly.
The remaining 70 -90% of your site’s ability to rank comes from consistently building your site’s “off-site” authority. The more consistently you gain “votes of confidence” the more likely you are to be the #1 ranking site for your most important buying phrases.
At FetchLocalCustomers we conduct research, craft content, build websites that are designed to sell and are fully optimized to tell your story in as a compelling fashion as possible to both your human visitors and the search engines. We can also work our magic with your existing site. In fact, nearly half our clients use sites that we did not design!
Our systematic and professional authority building program drives your website to the top of the search engines, consistently building authority and popularity using totally “white hat” methods.
The result is a flood of highly targeted and qualified new customers. That’s why we say that “We Do What Our Name Says”.
So pick up the phone and call 888-505-6162. Let’s talk about your particular situation and see if we can help you get the new customers that you deserve!
By Scott, on Friday,3:44 pm
 Scott Metcalfe, Featured Speaker at QBPro Fall Summit When the Chicago QuickBooks Pro Advisors wanted someone to speak at their group’s day long summit on the topic of online lead generation for professional services Scott Metcalfe of FetchLocalCustomers was the logical choice.
The event, held on September 22nd 2011, attracted more than 50 professionals from around the Chicago area making it the largest of it’s kind in the region.
Scott’s presentation “Getting the Cloud to Rain Prospects” was right in step with the conference’s theme of accounting and bookkeeping moving from paper to desktop to the cloud.
Welcome Trusted Business Advisors
Another major theme of the conference was the idea that accounting and bookkeeping professionals need to move beyond the functional services they provide their clients and into the role of Trusted Business Advisor.
To that end we are pleased to announce our Trusted Business Advisor partnership program. This program allows professional business advisors such as accountants, CPAs and bookkeepers to offer FetchLocalCustomers services to their clients at a 10% discount.
You can get all the details here:
http://www.fetchlocalcustomers.com/trusted-advisors.html
Congrats to all the Chicago QuickBooks ProAdvisors and thanks for having FetchLocalCustomers
http://www.fetchlocalcustomers.com/trusted-advisors.html
By Scott, on Thursday,8:08 am
One of our many areas of expertise is working to improve the rankings and conversions of Franchisee sites or “sitelets”. Often these sites are highly structured and inflexible, making our job even more difficult than normal.
Recently, we have been doing a considerable amount of work with Sandler Training franchisees around the country and it was during one of these many conversations that the invitation to speak to the good folks of Orange County, CA happened.
Throughout the course of the show, the host Will Crist and I looked at the role the Internet can and should play in terms of lead generation for sales driven organizations.
So… grab a cup of coffee, sit back and take some notes as you listen to this lively discussion!
Scott on OC Talk Radio
Are you a Franchise Owner?
If you are one of the tens-of-thousands of franchise owners around the country who is frustrated by the lack of leads being generated by your site or sitelet, please give us a call. No guarantees, but we just may be able to help you get your site producing the leads and those new sales you want and deserve! 888-505-6162
By Scott, on Wednesday,10:02 am
SEO Phone ScamProbably just like you I often find myself on the receiving end of emails, voice broadcasts and cold-calls from scammers who claim something like “Hi, we’re with Google and we can get you on the first page…..”
It’s gotten so bad that when a real Google rep called us last month to discuss one of their new Adwords programs the first thing the poor guy had to say was “Really, I’m not kidding, I really am with Google!”
So… I couldn’t resist sharing this recording that we got at the FetchLocalCustomers office last night. Please take a listen and then I’ll point out why this is a scam and how you can protect yourself from these types of charlatans.
What’s Wrong With This Scam
1. Google, Yahoo and BING do not use or need “data providers”. They fill their search results with all the pages that their spiders deem worthy 24x7x365. I suppose by the most loose definition, I suppose you, me and anyone else who ever posts a web page is a “data provider”
2. The suggestion that the caller is somehow associated with Google, Yahoo or BING is an outright misrepresentation. It’s interesting that “Phil” didn’t name a Company (I didn’t bother to call Phil back). But… in the past when I have called back or “pressed 1″ and learned the company name a quick Google search yielded hundreds of scam complaints.
The fact of the matter is that you can’t “buy” one of the top organic spots in the major search engines. You can work hard to optimize your site or hire experts like us who work hard for you and that can lead to top positioning but you can’t swipe a credit card and outright purchase a spot.
Think about it. If that were true the search engines would instantly be discredited, people would stop using them and all of their paid advertisers (think AdWords) would stop paying them billions of dollars! That is NOT going to happen!
So beware of the scammers who call you claiming to be part of the Big 3 and promising to sell you a top spot.
And, if you are interested in really getting new customers from a world-class online presence, by all means give us a call at 888-505-6162. The call is free, our advice is invaluable and we might just determine together that our service has a good fit for your business.
By Scott, on Saturday,9:21 am
Well, one thing you can say about Google is that they are never boring. In fact, I’m not sure the words “status-quo” are even allowed within their hallowed Palo Alto walls.
So, it came as no surprise when their “Places” pages started looking a little bit different last week. Here are the changes, which quite frankly are pretty subtle in appearance (unless you study this stuff like we do) but may have some large behind the scenes impact.
Good-Bye But Not Farewell to 3rd Party Reviews
Previously, Google displayed reviews posted on other sites (Yelp, InsiderPages etc.) along side reviews posted directly on their Places page. Not so anymore. Now to find these 3rd party reviews you’ll need to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page! This seems only natural since a few months back they completely retooled their review submission process with something they call their “Hot Pot” system. Which leads us to…
Writing Reviews Emphasized
As you will see by the two big brick red buttons in the screen capture below, Google is really emphasizing their own reviews now. Plus, it seems a though they have really streamlined the process as well if you are already signed into a Google account, such as Gmail. This is a welcome change, since at one point just for fun I think I documented 17 different steps one had to complete in order to leave a review on Google previously!
“Citations” (aka local links) are Gone
Previously, other “local” sites (whether they were directories such as HotFrog, SuperPages or your local Chamber of Commerce) showed up on your Places page. Not sure why anyone at Google ever thought having these citations was important to the end user to begin with, but in any case, these have gone the way of the Dodo at this point. What remains to be seen is whether this is strictly a cosmetic change or whether it represents a fundamental shift in the Places ranking algorithm as well.
What This Means For Your Local Business
Google will continue to tweak their Places pages and how they integrate them into their local search results. You need to make sure that your business has a well-crafted, authoritative Places page. That’s were we can help. We’ve made it our business to know what it takes to get your places page to both look good and rank well. Let’s face it you would much rather be “Place A” than “Place E” when your next potential customer is looking for the products and services you provide. So give us a call at 888.505.6162 and let us take care of your business’ local listings for you.
By Scott, on Thursday,11:16 am
Here’s a News Flash for you.
Local mobile content consumption is increasing!
 Apps Becoming More Important for Local Businesses Duh, you say?
Yeah, me too!
As we’ve been shouting from the mountain top for quite some time now, the mobile Internet is growing at a rate far faster than its older brother, the wired web.
And, since mobile devices, especially smartphones, are especially well suited to accessing local content it only makes sense that more and more of your customers and potential customers will be looking for your local products and services via the mobile web.
As detailed previously, all this is being driven by the surge in smartphone usage and the coming ubiquity of 3G and 4G network access.
The Numbers
According to a July 2011 study from the Local Search Association in the period January 2010 – January 2011:
- The number of respondents accessing local content via Apps rose from 42% to 56%
- The number of respondents accessing local content via Browser fell from 75% to 72%
- The number of respondents accessing local content via SMS fell from 30 % to 25%
Overall, local content users accounted for 33% of mobile subscribers, with 87 percent owning a GPS-capable handset (up 9 percent from the previous year).
What This Means For You
While the good old browser remains the big dog in the local content department, Apps are becoming more widely accepted. Therefore, your local web dominance strategy might very well benefit from the creation of an App.
At FetchLocalCustomers we can help you develop an App for your business that will have your product and service up-front and center with your customers and prospects.
Give us a call at 888.505.6162 or shoot us an email to get the ball rolling.
By Scott, on Wednesday,5:17 pm
Imagine my surprise recently when my reputation monitoring system informed me that FetchLocalCustomers had a new CEO!
Here’s what happened. Everyday my reputation monitoring system sends me an email with all the mentions of FetchLocalCustomers, Scott Metcalfe and other terms. As I scanned through the emails I saw this one:
 New CEO? No One Informed Me! When I followed the link here is what I found:
 Who is This Andrew Shank??? What Happened?
Fortunately our reputation monitoring system worked exactly as planned and notified me of this person attempting to “squat” on the FetchLocalCustomers brand. One quick email to Manta explaining the situation and showing them the real company profile on their site was all it took. 15 minutes later I received an email from Manta informing me that the bogus listing had been removed from the system.
The Reputation Lesson For Your Local Business
Given the thousands of social sites, directory sites and blogs that could potentially be “hi-jacked” by nefarious evil-doers in an attempt to damage your reputation you are absolutely crazy NOT to have some form of online reputation monitoring and management system in place.
Not sure where to begin? Don’t worry, FetchLocalCustomers has you covered with cost effective solutions for local businesses just like yours.
By Scott, on Wednesday,7:31 am
The Hospitality Suite
Few things say old school event marketing more than this old standby. Get a suite, order up drinks and food then hope and pray that your prospects and customers have nothing else to do! With any luck at least some of them will filter up to your suite for a no-pressure meet and greet. Sound familiar?
The Challenge – Get More Prospects to the Suite
10 days prior to the event we fielded a call from the CEO of a prominent network security firm who wanted to make sure that she got hundreds of prospects and customers to her hospitality suite at the CheckPoint Security Expo in downtown Chicago.
The Solution- QR Code Game
Using a series of cards like the one to the right we created a raffle game that drew prospects and customers to the client’s hospitality suite to get their cards decoded.
Results
About 200 prospects and clients participated in the game resulting in one-to-one conversations that would likely never have happened. Even more interesting, the client was asked to shut the game down because of complaints from competitors who saw the immediate unfair advantage our client had when it came to drawing prospects off the Expo floor and into their suite. Pretty sweet, eh?
How Are You Using Mobile?
How can you use mobile to breathe new life into your offline marketing? If you’re not sure or if you want to be certain that you get mega-results shoot us an email or pick-up the phone and give us a call. At s we know mobile marketing and we know how to get results. (888) 505-6162
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