Local Marketing Archives - Page 6 of 8

3 things to help you optimize for local search

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Andrew

Local search is everywhere. Think about how many times you search for something nearby. By 2015, 30 percent of all searches will be local. Compare that with 12 percent in 2009.

One of the reasons for this growth is the emergence of smartphones. 80 percent of all searches conducted through a smartphone are for local products and services. Local search is ever-changing as the major search engines give more focus in that area, and if you aren’t showing up, you need to.

1. SEO your website.
Make sure your website is search engine optimized (SEO). This means targeting certain keywords on your website, and targeting long-tail, geo-specific keywords such as “Chicago pizza in Seattle”.

2. Set up your profiles
Sign up for several business directories and Google Places. The more directories you’re in, the better, as your business is seen as more credible by Google. To get listed automatically in more than 100 directories, check out Business Listings at Local AdsUpNow. Local AdsUpNow is a service that automatically submits your business information to almost 150 directories and more than 25 mobile networks.

3. Encourage customer reviews
Encouraging your customers to review your business on places like Google and Yelp can be a great tool to help bring more business. Studies show that people are more likely to visit a business if it’s been recommended by a peer, so having your customers rate your business is essential to bringing in more sales and new customers.

So there you have it. By following these steps, you can start to optimize your online presence to come up higher in the rankings. You will not only increase sales, but your business will be more respected by Google, so it’ll have better rankings in the search results.

For more tips on digital Marketing, check out our website. We’re a Seattle ad agency specializing in digital advertising and marketing.

Have any more questions about local SEO? Let us know in the comments.

3 Ways to Increase Your Revenue By Marketing Across All Purchase Paths

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Andrew

Every customer you have ever landed came through a purchase path. Some of the paths are clear-cut, such as getting customers from your website, TV ad, driving by your store, or the customer’s smartphone. Others aren’t as clear. For example, someone might see your TV ad, go search for you online, then come to your store. Some might see your ad on Facebook, go to your website and fill out a form for more information, and wait to be contacted by a salesperson.

The point is, you might have an idea of how purchase paths are laid out, but the truth is they are usually more convoluted than they seem at first.

Because of this convolution, you have to be prepared to remarket your products or services to your customers in many different ways. It’s not enough to do some local TV ads and have a website, you need to be actively targeting and communicating with your customers in order to get them to convert.

There are several ways you can make sure that you are targeting your customers in the right way. The first of which is search engine marketing (SEM). SEM is important because it places your ads at the top of the search results for the keywords you’ve selected, giving you the ability to reach more customers.

Another reason this is important is because your customers may not remember exactly what your business is called, but they just know what type of product you provide. For example, if they heard your radio ad, or saw your business and couldn’t remember what the name was, but could only remember that you sold heaters and air conditioning, they could type “heating and air conditioning Seattle” (or whatever their city was) and your ad would pop up at the top.

A second way you can help promote across purchase paths is through retargeting. Retargeting places a cookie in the user’s web browser when they visit your site, this causes your display ads to be displayed to them after they leave. This brings increased mindshare and brand awareness during the customer’s shopping cycle, which will result in more revenue.

A third way to promote your business across purchase paths is by using your social networks. Chances are, you have a Facebook page, and studies have shown that users who buy something from a business after going through its social channels spend more money per transaction. Leverage your social networks to get users to make purchases. Offer discounts to Facebook fans, or plan a giveaway on your fan page.

If you want to be able to promote your business in today’s changing digital landscape, check out our website for more information on what we do. We are a full-service Seattle ad agency specializing in the digital realm.

We can help you get more from the Internet.

Top 5 Reasons An SMS Campaign Can Help Your Business

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Andrew

So you’ve seen SMS campaigns around, but never thought that they worked or figured they were too much trouble to implement. Well, I’m here to give you five reasons why an SMS campaign could work in the digital marketing strategy for your business.

1. You get access to everyone.
Not everyone has a smartphone, but basically everyone has a cell phone. SMS campaigns work no matter what kind of phone the person has.

2. You can monetize interactions through texting.
You can promote your texting program by telling people to text a has keyword to your number to get a coupon for whatever you want to promote. By offering an incentive for them to sign up, you can start building a mobile following.

3. Drive more sales.
You have the ability to reach all your mobile customers with a few clicks. You can send out a message when business is slow, or just offer deals to your mobile subscribers whenever you want to make a sale.

4. Reach consumers who might otherwise slip through the cracks.
When someone buys something at your store, they remain pretty anonymous. Unless you write down their information, they might leave and never come back. With an SMS campaign, you can remarket to them by offering them special deals for being an existing customer.

5. Acquire customers who don’t know you existed.
By promoting your texting campaign on your existing advertising, you bring something unique about your business to the table. By telling TV watchers or radio listeners to text you for exclusive deals, you can bring people to your business who wouldn’t have otherwise heard of you before.

These reasons only touch the iceberg of why an SMS campaign is good for your business. Being able to communicate with your customers at any time is a great business advantage.

Turn Your Clicks Into Customers

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Andrew

Every time you get a website hit, that’s a potential lead. Aside from the people who accidentally click on your site, all your visitors are at least somewhat interested in your products or services.

So why do you get so much website traffic and so few leads? Because shoppers today go to Google and compare everything about your business with your competitor’s at the click of a button. That means you only have a few seconds to sway them in your direction, or just hope your website was memorable enough that they’ll re-visit it.

We’ve already written some posts on retargeting, but here’s a quick recap: First the user visits your website, and your website places a cookie in their browser. Next, they leave without converting. Then, the cookie in their browser tells the websites they visit to display your ad. Finally, they see the ads, are reminded of your website, and come back and make a purchase.

So what’s so great about retargeting? Well it follows-up with your prospects automatically. As they surf the Internet, your ads appear and remind them of your services. Also, to increase conversions, you can even promote a special deal for people who click on your ad.

As a full-service ad agency in Seattle, we have a retargeting program that delivers return traffic to your website, guaranteed.

Retargeting allows you to cater to website visitors no matter how far into the buying cycle they are. Whether they’re just doing preliminary research, or almost ready to make a purchase, retargeting works in the same way: it reminds them of you.

Let your web traffic bring you results. More than 98% of your website visitors leave and never come back – give them a reason to.

4 Ways you can apply lessons from Superbowl commercials to your business

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Andrew

For those of you in Antartica last weekend (or non-sports fans), the Superbowl took place last Sunday, and the best football players competed with the best ad agencies for the limelight. You might think Superbowl ads don’t apply to your business because there’s no way you would ever be able to afford one, but all the ads had takeaways that can help with advertising and marketing for any budget.

1. Add a social layer.
If you noticed, almost every ad in the Superbowl had a social media element to it. Some had hashtags associated with them, such as Audi’s vampire commercial’s #SoLongVampires. Others, such as Bud Light’s commercial, encouraged watchers to go to Facebook for more content. While you don’t necessarily have to have a hashtag, promoting your specials on Facebook, or offering extra discounts to users who share your content can help add a social layer to any promotion you do.

Audi’s Vampire Commercial

2. Make it unique.
Every Superbowl commercial has a unique factor to it – usually humor. Do your ad spots say or show anything to separate your business from your competitors? Beware of bad jokes or going overboard, however. Your commercial may go viral for the wrong reasons.

3. Don’t just sell your product.
Not many people want to hear numbers about how your car has 6hp more than the other guys’, or why the hot tub you sell has jets that deliver 26psi more than your competitors’. Instead, focus on the lifestyle aspect of your product. VW’s commercial showed a dog getting in shape so he could chase a New Beetle, and became one of the most watched TV spots because of it’s unique approach.

VW’s Dog Commercial

4. Don’t jab at the competition
Chevy learned that lesson the hard way this year with their Superbowl ad that said Ford drivers didn’t make it through the Mayan apocalypse, but Chevy drivers did. While it generated some buzz, it didn’t do anything to help the brand at all, and Ford released a statement taking offense to the ad as well.

Let us know of any other Superbowl commercials you enjoyed in the comments.

The Explosion of Mobile Search

Posted on February 9, 2012 by Andrew

Mobile paid search is set to increase in 2012. Already this year, mobile made up 15.9% of paid search traffic in January, and mobile made up 21.5% of all paid search clicks. Meaning click-through rates were higher for mobile than desktop.

According to a forecast by Perfomics, an online analyst firm, mobile click share may rise to 28% of all search clicks over the next six months.

Click-through rate is also higher on the mobile platform. Mobile CTRs were 45% higher than their desktop counterparts.

Also, cost-per-click is lower on mobile as well, coming in at 40% below traditional computers.

So what do all these numbers mean? Well they mean you need to get started with a mobile campaign – and fast.

Conversion Logix is a full-service digital ad agency in Seattle. We can help you get your mobile game off the ground.

Check out some of our other posts on the importance of mobile marketing.

Facebook Ad Impressions Increasing

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Andrew

Have you tried doing Facebook ads in your latest display advertising campaign? Facebook is getting huge, and they own about a third of the U.S. display ad market. If you want to get the most out of your display campaign, forgetting about Facebook would be a huge oversight.

Does Your Website Promote Conversions?

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Andrew

How much of your web traffic do you convert? The chances are, not very much. In fact, most small business’ websites achieve only a 2% conversion rate. That means 98% of your web traffic is leaving without taking any action.

So why does this happen? Consumer behavior has changed. With the introduction of the search engine, consumers shop around before making any purchase decision.

This means that you might get a lot of web traffic, but if all your traffic does is poke around your website for a few minutes and leave, your website isn’t doing you any good.

A conversion is either a sale (hard conversion), or a lead (soft conversion). To maximize your conversions, you need to alter your website to promote both types of conversions.

Examples of ways to promote hard conversions would be a feature where users could buy online. That way, for those visitors that are ready to purchase, they have the option right in front of them.

The only problem with promoting hard conversion is that barely any of your website visitors are ready to make a purchase. Thus, trying to convince your traffic to buy right away isn’t very successful.

Soft conversions are a better way to convert your users. Because a soft conversion usually consists of only contact information, your website users will be more willing to give out their information, allowing you to contact them later.

Examples of a soft conversion would be an offer to join a mail list, or using a conversion driver to give a special to your website visitors.

Also, because they are willing to fill in their contact information, soft conversions are further down the purchase funnel than the average website visitor, as they are already considering your product or service.

Your website can’t be a passive page. The Internet is dynamic; use the ability to change deals on the fly and host mini-sites with your special offers to help increase conversions.

Check out our mini-sites and conversion drivers today and see how to use your existing traffic to create more leads.

Online Listings Bring New Opportunities to Local Businesses

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Andrew

I consult a search engine about local businesses almost every day. You probably do, too. If I’m looking for the nearest bank branch, gas station or restaurant, I type it into Google Maps on my iPhone and away we go.

Research from eMarketer confirms my personal anecdote. They found that more than 70% of consumers check an online source before going to a local business or restaurant.

That’s a huge number. If you don’t put a lot of stock in your online presence, then you should.

Out of that 70% of people, 43% said they visited Google to find out information about a business. By far and away that was the most popular way of discovering new business. In a distant second place, with 30% of the vote, was yellowpages.com.

This tells us that the majority of consumers look for local businesses in the same spots, meaning it’s fairly easy to get noticed.

One of the easiest ways to appear prominently to searchers is to optimize your Google Places listing, and appear in hundreds of online directories with Local AdsUpNow. These two things alone will get you exposure to 73% of the consumers who search online for local businesses.

If you have any questions, sound off in the comments, or contact us for a free digital marketing consultation.

An infographic On the History of Google Places

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Andrew

Fellow Local Search Marketer David Mihm put together an infographic showing the history of Google Places changes over the last few years.

If nothing else, this graph shows the importance of diligence when creating a Google Places listing. It’s not something that you can just set up and forget about – it requires maintenance.