The bad news for those with no website is that search engines are making your business invisible. As smart phones grow in popularity, more and more people are turning to the Internet to find local businesses. A phone book is too labor intensive when I can search for anything on Google and it shows up on my iPhone and with another touch I can call the number. The good news is that even if you don’t have a website you can be found online. It’s fast, free, and painless to register your business with both Google and Yahoo!.
Register with Google Local Business Center
Register with Yahoo! Local Listings
Google allows you to edit keywords and tags. Make sure you check out this video to get the most out of your listing.
Don’t take this as my endorsement to skip having a Web presence, but an encouragement to take control of your Internet destiny before you disappear.
Many are paralyzed about all the changes in the marketing world, and I understand. It’s hard to keep up. I have some good news, though. I have boiled down these changes into a single question. If your marketing addresses this one question consistently, you will get results. Are you ready?
How do you get more people to like you? Really. From small businesses to large corporations, the question is the same. Your marketing needs to get more people to like you and your brand. It also needs to feel personal and human. But you say, “Liking me is not relevant; I just want them to support my organization and/or buy from my organization.”
Most prospects have a very defined personal network that is easy to access and connect with. I don’t know about you, but I am now updating people with whom I had not kept up (my freshman roommate, a colleague from a job 10+ years ago). I am also looking to my network for help in navigating decisions. Why? Because it is easy and I trust them. The reality is, so are your prospects.
Looking for a new dentist? Ask your Facebook friends to provide recommendations. A big dentist ad in the yellow pages isn’t really going to do that much. Looking for a new place to eat? Maybe that place someone tweeted about the other day will pop into your head. Is the restaurant attracting customers by flooding the area with a 10% off coupon? Even if you think these examples don’t apply, think again.
Your marketing needs to be focused on getting prospects and strangers to connect with you and join your network (there are many ways to define network). They will get to know you by reading your LinkedIn recommendations or by finally grasping your service when they read your email newsletter. Drip, drip drip. The more people like you, the more likely your name will come up.
Are you responsible for marketing? Every marketing decision should answer these questions: How will this get more people to like me and my brand, and how can I do it in a personal and authentic way?
As I wrote this, a prospect from 5 years ago sent me an invitation to join his network. Amazing. Do you think he likes me?