Is it Time to get on Board the Facebook Train?

Facebook Places (just announced) is a direct competitor to Google Places.   Any small business that wants to take advantage of people shopping, and looking for places & services with their Smartphones should consider developing their Facebook presence.

What is Facebook Places?

Facebook Places is a mobile product that  can be accessed through Facebook’s most recent iPhone app or via on other phones by accessing touch.facebook.com.  If a Facebook Place is already created, a business can claim its Facebook Place and merge their existing Facebook Fan Page with Facebook’s Place page. Facebook Places is similar to Google Places because information about the business is created and available.  The extra spin is that Facebook allows Facebook users to “check in” themselves and any of their Facebook  friends.  Check out Facebook’s video below to get a better understanding of Facebook Places:

Why should I care?
Remember that Facebook is the #1 application used on iPhones and Droids.  When people check into a Facebook Place, they are broadcasting that business to their Facebook network and any network of a friend they may have also checked in.  Right now if  10% of FB users use Facebook Places , that’s 50 Million people!  Over 100 Million people a month using Google Maps on mobile phones to find local businesses, Facebook Places may instantly have 50% of the value of Google Places.

I am not yet recommending investing in Facebook Places for all businesses. But if you are a restaurant or a business where people meet their friends,  Facebook Places could become as useful as Google Places, Review sites (ex. Yelp or UrbanSpoon) and Twitter combined.

For some large consumer brands such as Coca-Cola and Starbucks, their Facebook Fan page is becoming more important than their own websites.  Kraft Foods’ Oreo is the No. 3 brand page on Facebook with an 8.7 million fan base growing at a clip of 71,000 a day.

At a minimum I would recommend that you search Facebook to determine if they have created a Facebook Place for you business.  If Facebook has not I would create one.  This is a small effort for any small business, that could be the next big thing in promoting your business.  As always if you need help give me a call or send me an email.

This is a big topic and Part I of a series of Posts about Facebook Places I look to develop.  If you want more information now, here is a list of useful Facebook Places Articles.

You & Stephen Cobert can put Yellow Pages on Notice!

In 2010, the properly informed Yellow Pages customer  has all the advantage in negotiating with any of the Yellow Pages Providers. Today advertising in Yellow Pages is only one of many ways new customers can learn about your products and services. You have strong alternatives and Yellow Pages knows it.

Yellow Page Providers need your business – Negotiate early & smartly and you will save big.

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With the use of the internet, the value of  that Dog Eared Yellow Pages Book by your customer’s phone has diminished (Is it still there?).  To create more value for their customers, Yellow Page Providers  have been creating a large variety of advertising services for the internet. With the attention Search Engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing are giving to local businesses, all the Yellow Pages Providers are fighting to maintain revenue.

The Yellow Pages Sales Person will provide proposals that seem to show tremendous value that Yellow Pages can deliver to a business on the internet, but without some basic knowledge of Local Search and Local Business Listings you cannot understand the real value of advertising services that Yellow Pages is offering. It is important not to take the information in Yellow Page Proposals at face value. You must analyze the information yourself. My observations in evaluating these proposals are:

• The Yellow Pages sales person has a lot of flexibility in pricing and services. You can push for a better deal than last year and get it.
• Yellow Page proposals can be a large list of services, but the cost is not broken down. This makes it hard to determine the value of any single part of the proposal.
• Even if you do not pay to advertise in the Yellow Pages, they need your listing and will not delete it.
• The statistical information presented in Yellow Page proposals can be out dated and skewed to increase the value of Yellow Pages.
• If the proposal includes paid search, the cost of having Yellow Pages administer the program costs 2 to 8 times the direct cost of using Google, Bing, Yahoo or Ask pay per click services.

The most important point is that in 2010, no matter what, re-negotiate your Yellow Page contract as soon as possible. At a minimum you should either pay less for the same level of advertising or get a whole lot more from your Yellow Page Provider than last year.

Below is an analysis I did for a client.  The client was presented a proposal from Yellow Pages that cost $600 per month and had three elements where we saw value; Yellow Page Book, YP.com, and PPC YP.  We included in our analysis our our best guess of the cost of each element  and placed the value for each element against the other Internet efforts that were being done for the client.  We doubled the value (Probability of Sale Factor) for Yellow Book and Local Search as customers that are looking to those places are more likely (more valuable) to call or purchase than just visitors to a website or people that click on PPC Ads.

The analysis above is in 4 parts (Cost Ranking, Initial Analysis, Refined Budget, Total Cost).  You can see each sheet by clicking on the item in the spreadsheet above.  Other than the ATT&T YP (Yellow Book), which was an educated guess, the other # of search actions were measured by Google Analytics.

The client’s final decision (As shown on Tab – Refined Budget) was to:

• Drop Yellow Pages (Save $600)
• Increase PPC Google ($90 to $250) to increase Customer Search Actions by 52 per month
• Overall reduced their marketing budget by $440 per month.

This reduced the cost per Search Action from an average of $0.24 per action to $0.12 per action or looking at it another way – Save 50% per customer action.

The current use of the Yellow Page book is way down, but some portion of consumers still use the Yellow Pages book to find products and services. I do believe that the Yellow Book and YP.com can increase calls and walk ins to a business. The question is at what cost?  In the example above, the client saw no value to the Yellow Page Book and decided to opt out of all paid promotion through Yellow Pages. I am not recommending that all businesses do this, each situation is unique, and there are good reasons to maintain ads in the Yellow Pages.

To evaluate, adjust or eliminate your yellow pages expenditure you need to look at each aspect of the proposal and determine that value of each part. Start with answering the question, “When I want to buy something the first thing I reach for is (the Yellow Pages, my computer, my smartphone, or ?????).” Do a gut check to determine your bottom line value of the Yellow Book to your customers.  Ask new customers how they found your business and when was the last time they took out their hard copy of the Yellow Pages.

Then use a spreadsheet like the one above to determine some relative value for each effort.  Here is a link to the spreadsheet I used above.  Use it to analyze your advertising program or call me to do it for you.

Have you been able to reduce your your Yellow Page cost and increase the value you get? Tell us your experience with Yellow Pages.

Leverage Word of Mouth

Many established business do great work, have excellent customer service and have NO REVIEWS on Google or Yahoo. I am not surprised by this. Are you?

What I find surprising is that more companies are not making an effort to get their customers to review their business on the Internet. Positive Reviews have a direct impact on your business.

Online reviews increase sales and customer loyalty. Online Reviews are the most credible form of marketing available, and it is Free.

Google, Yahoo, Bing make reviews and comments about your business as available as your own website. On their own, anyone can write a review of your business. The most motivated reviewer is someone who is unhappy (disgruntled employee, competitor, etc) with your business. You need to invite satisfied customers to write reviews, generate great word of mouth, and put potential negative comments in context. The Internet is the Wild West and you need to be vigilant of your reputation on the Internet.

At a minimum there are two things a small business can do to get positive reviews from their customers:

• Ask them to write reviews (Sometimes you need to ask multiple times)
• Make it smoother and easier for them to review you.

Small businesses often know/ask for their customer’s email addresses, now use it to make it easier for the customer to review you. If they have a yahoo email, they already belong to Yahoo; if they have gmail they already have a Google account. Send them a link to the review site of which you know they already belong. When a person goes to review your business on the email service they already use, they are already signed up, so they don’t need to create an account to give you a review. If it is easy for them to give you the review, they will.

Borat Knows Reviews Work

Still not convinced to put some effort into building reviews on the Internet?   Here are some facts:

• Review links rank high on Search Engines such as Google
• People research products and services before buying on the Internet
• Reviews are the #1 piece of product and service information searched for:
  • Customer Reviews 55%
  • Comparison Charts 22%
  • Expert Reviews 21%
  • Other 2%

Best Review Bang for your Buck

An eMarketing report found that 2-7 reviews can make a potential customer buy or contact a business. Reviews need to be created in the past year to have the greatest impact. This means you need to have at 1-3 positive reviews every 3 months to keep your prospects engaged by reviews of your business.

Think about it. If you are a potential customer looking for a local business to perform a service, and you saw seven firms listed and one firm had a series of great reviews, a well developed business listing, who would you use?

Who would you click on?

La Costa Upholstery has been working with me for the past 12 months.  Roger Gureczny owner of La Costa Upholstery has made The Small Business Advantage the center of his advertising effort and has new customers calling him on a daily basis. Click on La Costa Upholstery and see what people say about his shop, and get your sofa re-upholstered.

You Can’t Edit Your Way Out of Negative Reviews by Jeff Saxon

….Very simply, reviews increase conversion rates. And several studies point to the fact that, yes, even negative reviews help.
It all boils down to credibility. Customer reviews simply have more credibility than your sales copy, so they inspire more confidence in the buyer. And negative reviews lend credibility to the review process itself, standing as visible proof that the reviews are not edited….

…The point: Your brand and product perception is not what you say it is anymore but what Google says it is….

Click here for the Article

In the U.S. at the end of 2007 there are well over 10 billion unique searches done each month. Of those searches 4 billion have Local intent (42% increase from 2006). Out of all local business searches, 86% of Internet users follow up their search with a phone call or a visit to the store. Of those, 61% end up making a purchase.

On top of that data, respected technology experts around the world think the world of mobile search is ready to take off in 2009 and 2010. In some places around the world, like Japan, many of these technologies are already in place. They’re in use even in the United States, with more sophisticated devices like the iPhone. Mobile searches are primarily going to pull their results from Local Search Engines.

So what are the pieces to Local Search Listings?

Local online directories such as Google® Maps and YellowPages.com™ are the Internet yellow pages. Profiling your business in these directories is similar to listing your phone number in the traditional yellow pages. Today, customers turn to the Internet to find a pizza store, a beauty parlor or a home improvement contractor in their area. Make sure your business is listed in local online directories where customers are looking for it.

So how do I submit my Business to Local Search Engines, Online Yellow Pages and Local Social Networks? And how do I update or correct wrong entries? – Sometimes this isn’t easy to figure out!- For some sites you can do that online, through an online interface, but in other cases you will need to contact the Core Data Provider of the site in question.

Taking control of your business’ Local Search Information is the Key to any effective Internet marketing strategy. I can help you to find the right pages on the sites and give guidance to how & where each site (ex. Google, MSN, Yahoo) get their business data from – because only if you know that you can control it. Email me for FREE 20 minute appointment.

So the good news is that Internet Search Engines like Google and Yahoo are providing high visibility to local businesses. It is surprising that at the end of 2008 it is estimated that less than 20% of Local Small Businesses have taken control of their local business account on any of the major Search Engines. That does not have to be a terrible thing, as the Search Engines can do a good job of at least acting like a web based yellow page and does not hurt your business.

What is alarming is that, either through bad computer algorithms or worse, the high jacking of your Local Business site, the links embedded in Your Local Business may not being linked to your business. This means that the best way new customers can find your business, is being redirected away from your website and ultimately your business. Examples can range from:

• A local franchisee who has a local website going to the corporate site, loosing local information
• A competitor linked to your business siphoning business away from you
• A similar named business being linked to your business

What would you do if you were looking for a Kitchen supply company and a link took you to a Pizza joint? Most people would move on to the next business on the list and you would have lost an opportunity to get a new customer.

Why Should You Care?
Nielsen//NetRatings found in 2004 that 24.4% of searchers on major search engines conducted searches that were local in scope, averaging 4.6 searches per searcher. By 2007 Nielsen//NetRatings saw this increase to 32.6%. Using the Internet to find local businesses is now main stream and can only grow in frequency.

For many local businesses, the question is no longer whether they should begin to market in the local online space, but when. Incredible opportunities are being missed, as consumers search online for local products and services, but the businesses do not have an effective online presence to serve those customers.

I specialize in working with Small Businesses in local markets. As an introduction to my services I will do a FREE analysis of your business and determine if it has been claimed on Google, Yahoo, LiveSearch (MSN), and Best of the Web. All I need is you to email me your Business Name and Zip Code and I will return to you your business’ status on the top 4 Search Engines Local Sites.

• Grew 14% Q4’08 over Q’407
• Were up 5% Q1’09 over Q1’08

Background:
Specialty retailer with one location, that has been in business for over 30 years and has a great reputation within their customer base. They have maintained best practices including the business systems they use. They have excellent IT integration from vendor ordering, POS (Point of Sales) systems, to their website. Being a small business owner, the client was focused on the day to day activities and was not able to spend any time marketing their business other than historic use of yellowpages advertising. Q1’08 business was down compared to Q1’07 and I was brought in to bring a fresh look at bringing new business to the store.

Goal:
Leverage in-store personnel, existing IT systems, and NEW Internet Tools to:

• Effectively compete against three larger multi-store competitors
  
• Bring increase in new customers to the store

Tools used:

• Email Capture in POS system
• Updated Website
• Monthly Email Newsletter
• Controlling Web presence / Social Networking
• Google Alerts
  
• Google Adwords
• Google Analytics
• Google Blogger / Facebook / Twitter

Conclusion:
The tools and framework that I provided were only a part of the clients success. The client put a significant amount of sweat equity (Employee Time) creating marketing programs for their customers including product sales, and free demonstrations of their products and services.
What I was able to do was guide the client in the use of free to inexpensive internet tools (Less than the cost of his old Yellowpage advertising – Which they dropped) to get the word of the client’s marketing programs to existing and new customers.

Other indicators:

• Web activity increase of 3.5-4.5 fold increase in hits / page views from Q4’07 to Q1’09
• Email capture grew from ~200 to over 2500 in 12 months
• New customers grew from 22% of business in Q1’08 to 43% of business in Q1’09

For those of you who may not know what a blog is, it’s short for web log, and is a frequently updated website consisting of blog posts, or entries (more often than not, dated entries) that are arranged in reverse chronological order. So when a reader comes to your blog, they see your most recent article or post first.

The advantage of a blog is that blogs allows you to post written text, audio and video and have it online within minutes, unlike traditional static websites which can take hours to update and cost you each time – unless you’re familiar with building or editing web sites.

As you can see, I like blogs as the center of a new marketing effort instead of websites, but it is not just an apples/oranges decision, and it’s not just about which is easier to manage. It’s about which web you want to invest in:

• the current brochureware web, which gives you a static place to refer people to for information about business; or

• the social web, the thing the web is becoming, which has built in feedback loops and a referral system that can dramatically build awareness for your products & services.

Right now, I am a big fan of using blogger.com from Google. Along with it being a Free blog, using the business tools that Google has in conjunction with your blog can quickly provide you with a strong professional marketing effort on the web for little money.