Local Business Online Marketing

Some business owners skeptical if the long-term payoffs are worth the cost

You’ve seen the emails and heard the radio ads. Internet-based “daily deal” coupons are becoming a large part of the online advertising industry. But are such offers worth the cost for an auto repair shop or other small to medium-sized business? Some say no, while other business owners report they are gaining new customers–and profits–from the venture.

A June 2011 survey of small businesses by MerchantCircle finds that the leading reason companies like daily deals is customer acquisition (58%). At the same time, the top reason for not offering a daily deal again (42.4%) was their failure to attract new customers. Hmmm, perhaps more data will help answer our question.

Two surveys back up the belief that daily deals attract new customers. The first, a survey conducted by Utpal M. Dholakia at Rice University, found that new customers made up more than 77% of deal buyers. All of them spent over the value of the deal offer and, on average, about 20% became repeat customers. The second study, done by ConsumerSearch.com and The About Group, discovered that an overwhelming majority of those who had used a daily deal returned– even without another discount. Fifty-three percent of redeemers went on to become regular customers.

Businesses who were skeptical about the value of daily deals expressed concern about giving discounts to consumers who would have patronized the establishment anyway. According to a ForeSee Results survey, there is some basis for this concern. The largest share of daily deal users – thirty-eight percent—said they were already loyal to the business offering a deal. However, nearly a third of those taking advantage of a daily deal special were new customers, and the same percentage were customers who had either visited only occasionally or had stopped patronizing the establishment altogether.

So what’s the answer? Are daily deals worth it? Looks like the jury is still out. But one thing is certain. As this graphic demonstrates, an on-going search engine advertising campaign will put in front of people who are ready to buy, when they’re ready to buy – not when your “daily deal” happens to hit their email box. This is especially important in the auto industry, where people who need services or products typically need them right now.

WebVisible has more than 10 years of experience helping local businesses establish an effective online marketing presence through fully-managed online search advertising programs that generate predictable results. Contact WebVisible today for more information on how search advertising can help grow your auto-related business.

According to a recent Affinity Express survey of small to medium businesses (SMB), it appears the importance of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is often overlooked. As shown in the following chart from the survey, 77% of SMBs are using websites and landing pages to market their businesses, but only 31% are using SEO to assure customers will easily find them online.

There are probably many reasons as to why the use of SEO is rather low in comparison to website and landing page usage (ie. limited resources, lack of knowledge, or perhaps businesses feel their products or services will speak for themselves). Whatever the reasons, SMBs need to realize that in today’s market, SEO is an integral part of any online marketing effort. It is not an option, it is a necessity.  Since most consumers today are searching online to find potential products and services available, a business must optimize the chances of their website being found on major search engines by using SEO.

SEO can be challenging for any business, especially smaller ones with limited resources since keeping up with the competition, popular search terms, and the ever-changing algorithms search engines like Google and Bing use is a continuous process. To meet this challenge, many businesses find out-sourcing this task more efficient. WebVisible is a Software as a Service (SaaS) company and leading name in local online advertising, known for being a true expert in bringing the Internet as an advertising and customer acquisition medium to small businesses around the world. WebVisible’s award winning Geneva software platform (named 2008 Internet Product of the Year by the American Electronics Association) contains a powerful optimizer – a rules-based campaign management algorithm that continuously learns and improves the placement and results of our clients’ advertisements. With over ten years of experience, WebVisible offers proven SEO results.

To learn more about how WebVisible can provide SEO solutions and other Internet marketing services, please feel free to contact us.

As part four in a six part blog series, WebVisible is providing a reality check for some digital marketing predictions for 2011, offering the perspective of small businesses and what to expect – or not – from them in digital marketing in the coming year.

Trend:  “Mobile will finally take off.” 
From:  SEM Trends for 2011


SMB POV:   Sure, mobile has taken off for consumers, and recent stats suggest that about half of all mobile search is local in nature, but other stats report that almost 40 percent of small businesses still don’t even have a website!  While large companies with “Digital Media Directors” on staff may allocate a good chunk of advertising budget to mobile this year, SMBs are in the early stages of making sense of all the digital marketing options available to them.  They need to crawl with an effective online presence before they can sprint with a mobile ad strategy, and they need service providers who can simplify that progression before SMBs can give serious consideration to mobile marketing.

Most of the trend predictions offered by industry experts don’t take into account the perspective of the small business owners – who usually don’t have the time, expertise or resources to keep up with activities or marketing initiatives that might be expected from large corporations.

Small business online marketing experts at WebVisible are providing a reality check for some digital marketing predictions for 2011, offering the perspective of small businesses and what to expect – or not – from them in digital marketing in the coming year.  This will be Part One in a six part post where WebVisible responds to 2011 predictions in Online Marketing trends.

The predictions are based in part on data from the Q4 2010 WebVisible Report, to be released the week of January 24, which examines trends among more than 21,000 small business advertisers in the US, UK, and Australia.

Trend:  “Don’t forget YouTube!” 
From:  11 Search Trends for 2011

SMB POV:   Certainly, YouTube is a popular channel, but a video on a small business’ landing page or website is also effective in driving new business and helping customers decide to buy from or hire a small or mid-sized local business. According to the Q4 2010 WebVisible report, 26 percent of all advertisers included video on their landing pages, up from 19 percent of advertisers using video a year ago.  Viewing video was the second most popular conversion action after clicking through to the SMB advertiser’s website.  In other studies, we found that search landing pages with videos convert visitors to leads 8.3% better on average than those without videos, and for some verticals (such as Physicians) the conversion was 40% higher.


Stay tuned for more trends...

Blogging live from Interactive Local Media 2010 in Santa Clara, CA, Carla Fitzgerald, WebVisible's VP of Marketing gives an update:

Topics today addressed a variety of local content channels:  Local News, Local Radio, Local Search, Local Deal-of-the-Day offers.  With so many options to reach consumers, advertisers have tough decisions to make about where they should invest and what will deliver the best ROI.   Along these lines, the partner from Google Ventures (investment arm of Google) said there is a huge opportunity for companies that provide analytics to small business that helps them to understand which customer acquisition and retention programs work.   SMB’s need “visibility and actionable information” to manage their online investments because it’s overwhelming.  I was happy to hear that since “visibility and actionable information” is exactly what WebVisible is offering with our Merchant Center application for advertisers. 

 

There was a lot of talk about the fact that “local” is not a static, geographic radius from a business or service area.  What the consumer sees as “local” depends on what they are looking for:  if it’s a regular purchase, like dry cleaning, then local needs to be convenient to work or home;  if the need is for a special event like a concert or show, then “local” can be a lot further away and the price or offer really matters, and if it’s for a critical service like tooth replacement, then the location and price are only part of the decision – the credentials and reviews are just as important.  Again, this multi-dimensional view of “local” is something our founder, Kirsten Mangers, has been talking about for years.  (WebVisible is validated once again!)

 

The hot topics of Social and Mobile get “merged” when discussing “mobile location check in” services like Gowalla and Foursquare.  (Google Ventures said they’re looking at 35 different companies that offer this type of technology!)  These solutions can help advertisers with brand awareness, reputation management, generating more foot traffic, loyalty programs, and promoting onsite deals.  These are not specific to small business, but definitely focused on driving local business, and in some cases, driving loyalty to big brands.  What’s the SMB message?  Most importantly, understand what your customers care about and how they like to engage you.  If you’re a local bar targeting hip young adults, then location check-in may be just the right thing for you, but if you’re an attorney, probably not… unless you’re trying to stir up a class action of some kind!

 

There is an explosion of digital marketing technologies and services being developed, and even the experts at this conference are not sure which approaches will pay off for advertisers in the long term.  Regardless of the sexy new technologies available, the message was still clear that small business still needs simpler, measureable ways to promote themselves today.  We couldn’t agree more!

Blogging live from Interactive Local Media 2010 in Santa Clara, CA, Carla Fitzgerald, WebVisible's VP of Marketing gives an update:

 

So far today, key reoccurring themes brought up by speakers such as Jeremy Stoppelman, the CEO of Yelp,  revolve about customer relationship building and efficient messaging. Some key points I find interesting:

 

1.      Analysts here feel that TRUST is the key factor that will define success for businesses in the future.  Makes sense, since the Web has created an environment of transparency where reputations spread like wildfire.  From vendors to SMBs, and SMBs to their consumers, creating a trust relationship is how business grows.

 

2.      CLARITY of offer is the key to effective marketing.  There is so much noise, and so much competition for eyeballs (both in content and channels), that selling to SMBs (and consumers) requires very clear, value-focused messaging with a very simple way to engage.  Self-serve models have fallen short due to the complexity of current systems, and high-touch sales organizations are still key to helping SMBs cut through the clutter.

 

3.      The majority of marketing spend is still on acquiring new customers, and woefully short on retaining current customers.  Using online services to engage customers, facilitate upsell, and reward loyal customers (particularly via mobile) is where SMBs should focus their limited resources.

 

4.      Social and Mobile….that’s what everyone is talking about!  Be there, or be…forgotten.

More to come soon!

I’m an expert at navigating my way through a new city. I’ve slept in just about every hotel in the nation. I know airports like the back of my hand. I’m a travel warrior, and collect frequent flyer miles like some people collect change. My name is Ambre Merendino, and I am the Director of Partner Sales Support working on WebVisible’s Partner Development team.

Unlike many people, I’m one of the lucky ones that can honestly say I love my job. I collaborate with exceptional co-workers, who all educate our partners and their sales teams about WebVisible’s local online advertising solutions.  We have great synergy with our partners; they bring their world-class branding and traditional advertising expertise to the table, WebVisible steps in with our online advertising expertise, and together we provide Small Business Owners a fully-managed marketing solution. 

As a member of the Partner Sales Support team, one of the questions that I get most often is, “What makes WebVisible different from competitors?”  With the technology enhancements we continue to roll out, and the close collaboration with our partners, this question gets easier and easier to answer.
      
    1. Merchant Center: This is WebVisible's interactive campaign manager for our customers.  It allows them to see exactly what is going on in their online advertising campaigns at all times, as well as being able to measure results and control the types of calls they get.  Other vendors provide reporting, but no other provider gives as much control, visibility and flexibility to customers as we do with Merchant Center.  The combination of Merchant Center and our highly-targeted ad management in Geneva (the underlying platform) lets our customers identify and focus on their highest value opportunities to maximize their ROI.

    2. Landing Pages: While other companies focus on driving leads to a Web site, we’ve found that highly optimized Landing Pages (LPs) convert searches into leads almost twice as often as Web sites do.  Our LPs are built to turn researchers into active buyers by answering all of the key questions within 4-6 seconds (location, phone number, special offers, video, email, map, etc.).  LPs also allow our customers to feature different promotions with different ads, and track results, without constant maintenance to their Web sites.

    3. Customer Service and Expertise – Direct or Indirect: We pride ourselves on being experts in our field, but customers can choose from a long list of well-known partners to provide our online advertising solutions as well.  When combining print, directories and search advertising, customers can have a one-stop-shopping experience with our partners, whose traditional marketing brand is one they know and trust. They get the added value of WebVisible’s innovative technology with a team of advertising experts to fully manage their marketing campaign across several media. Other search marketing companies can’t offer the network we’ve built, and can’t scale to support the tens of thousands of customers served by our partners.  We planned for this type of network right from the beginning!

WebVisible has nearly a decade of experience helping small and mid-size businesses advertise on the Internet. When you combine our expertise and technology with our expansive partnerships, our clients can be sure that they are receiving the benefits of a win-win-win situation!

- Contributed by Ambre Merendino, Director, Partner Sales Support

In a recent conversation with a local real estate agent about her business, I heard her utter a familiar line... "It's all about location! Location! Location!" She wasn't talking about my future housing needs.  Rather, she was commenting on all the changes within digital marketing that are affecting her business.  And, how consumers are increasingly using their mobile phones for Internet information - whether to find a new Thai restaurant, a local plumber, or, in her case, checking the listing information and mobile web pages of local real estate agents!

Location Based Services is the fancy term used to describe a host of new online services that aim to bring more information to consumers on their handheld devices and smart phones.  FourSquare, Twitter, Yelp, even Facebook Mobile, are all very popular applications that consumers (and, even your B2B customers) are increasingly turning to while on the road, to find the services and products they need.

The challenge this poses to many small business owners - and also, of course, the opportunity - is to make sure YOUR company, or product, is positioned in these new location specific marketing channels.  To make things a bit more complicated, many of these new channels do not support traditional advertising or have yet to make it easy to get your business listed.  Instead, small business owners must often earn their way in, usually by spending time communicating with their customers within each application.  This can be very time consuming -- not to mention frustrating -- accommodating all the differences within each channel: using short 140 character snippets on Twitter, posting 3 minute "How to" videos on YouTube, cultivating fans on Facebook!  While difficult and certainly not free when you think of your hourly worth, all of this social activity CAN build your business an asset for the future - a loyal, mobile-empowered audience of potential prospects and customers. But, often times, it can also lead to a confusing array of sites, applications, and services that need to be updated. 

My advice to my realtor friend was to think of her business as a hub of information - advice, tips, promotions or offers, (perhaps a little humor or personality to give it a personal touch!) - and to view the various Location Based Services as spokes with which to push this information out to her customers or prospects.  A few tools can help simplify this process (And here at WebVisible we are furiously building additional ones!) so you don't have to spend all your time updating one service after another.  One of my favorites is a company called Posterous (http://www.posterous.com), because you can use regular old email to send social updates (perhaps a coupon mention or update on your business) and it will automatically post to all of the other Location services.  This can be a first step in taking a 360° approach to your online marketing - and something I will discuss much more in upcoming postings!

- Alan Edgett, Sr. Director, Product

 

As a small business owner, wouldn't you love to win 3 months of free online advertising?

Read on to discover how you can win!

 

After spending significant time with many small business owners WebVisible is proud to present The Great Divide, a video series depicting the trials and tribulations those small business proprietors experience in their quest for new customers. Recognizing the importance of having an online presence, our featured proprietors reflect on the need for exposure on search engines like Bing, Google, Yahoo; on social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn; and by using interactive/internet yellow pages (IYP) to connect with prospective clients. See how customers and business owners are working to bridge the divide that separates customers and businesses from each other!

 

How you can win:

 

Just watch The Great Divide and send us the answer to this question by June 30, 2010:

 

“What is the biggest challenge in growing your business?”

 

Answers can be submitted online at WebVisible.com/the-great-divide or on WebVisible’s

 

Twitter page http://twitter.com/webvisible

 

Two winners will be selected by WebVisible to receive our full service package, including search engine advertising on Google, Yahoo!, and Bing, a call tracking number, and a multi-function landing page that includes video, form fill, and SMS text lead delivery.

 

 

Episode 1 of The Great Divide presents the perspective of both business owners and the "consumer on the street" to illustrate the gap between how some proprietors view marketing methods vs. the sources employed by typical consumers to locate local businesses. If most prospective customers are using the internet to find the product or service they need, shouldn't those small businesses be using the internet to market their business? Some business owners "get it" and some are "a work in progress" as noted by the florist who refers to Facebook as "happy face!" She is working to connect with prospective customers on Facebook, but hasn't quite nailed the lingo just yet!

 

Don't miss your chance to gain valuable exposure for your business! Enter the WebVisible contest today!!

WebVisible creates great landing pages. But did you know that getting a visitor to your landing page is only half the battle? What happens after the click makes all the difference in turning a casual visitor into a repeat customer.

Internet advertising, and especially local online advertising, aims to accomplish 3 goals. The first is getting your business ad to show when a person is searching for the products or services you offer. The second is getting that visitor to click on your ad by using ad copy that is relevant to the keyword and offering a compelling promotion. And finally, using a relevant landing page to entice the prospect to engage with your business. Then the second half of the conversion process starts: generating more business by securing this customer and encouraging repeat buying.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself regarding your landing page:

• Does my landing page present a clear identity of my business to the prospect? Make sure your company logo is visible as one of the first and best graphics that the visitor sees.
• Does my landing page copy and graphics relate to my ad - and ultimately, the keyword -  that the visitor originally typed into the search engine? The more relevant your landing page is to the original query, the better chance you have of converting that prospect into a customer.
• Does my landing page include a clear call to action? There are a plethora of ways a visitor can connect with you. The top two ways to connect to most small businesses is through a phone call or a form fill. Regardless, is it clear to the visitor what you wish their action to be? Make sure the phone number is large and near the top of the page. Make sure the form is above the fold and can be seen at first glance.
• Does my landing page present a compelling offer to my prospect? The generic 10% off is fine, but it's just that - generic. Offer something that addresses a core need of your audience. For instance, a cosmetic dentist might offer a free electric toothbrush or whitening procedure. A plumber might offer free slab leak detection when they perform requested repairs. These offers are more tangibly related to the service than simply 10% off.

Finally, the last item that will help your Internet advertising succeed is your response to prospect engagement. It is of the utmost importance that someone at your business is available to answer the phone when a prospect calls and that the prospect's form fill and email are answered promptly.  The quicker you're able to connect with a prospect, the more likely they'll find value in your business.  So remember, getting a click is good. Engaging a prospect with a relevant landing page is better. And converting a prospect into a customer is best.

-Contributed by Robert Voccola, Marketing Manager, WebVisible Inc

- Contributed by Debra Northart, WebVisible, Corporate Marketing 

Are you searching for a job in sales? Do you have a “winning personality” that can close deals? WebVisible is searching for 50 qualified and experienced sales persons that can reach small business owners, helping them be found online when local customers search for their product or service.

Join WebVisible on Tuesday, April 13^th from 4:00pm – 8:00pm for our first Recruitment Open House at our Irvine location. If you think you have the talents to be part of the WebVisible Direct Sales team, please RSVP by emailing your resumé, cover letter and salary history to openhouse@webvisible.com. Our recruiters will contact qualified applicants for a preliminary phone interview and formal invitation.

“We know there are a lot of highly qualified people out there looking for work and we know that the search itself can be the toughest job around,” VP of Human Resources, Veena Chillar, told the Orange County Register. Our Open House is being held to find candidates that can help WebVisible continue to excel.

Our Direct Sales Team consists of hard workers that have a concrete understanding of what it takes to sell to businesses, are comfortable making outbound telephone calls, and are passionate communicators regarding search engine marketing. They strive to help small businesses that don’t have the time or the means to successfully run their own online advertising campaigns.

We look forward to meeting you!

Owning a small business in this economy can be brutal. I keep driving around my community only to notice another business has closed without warning . . . paint store – empty, local market – closed, favorite dry cleaners – gone. With all this retail space, you could hear your voice echo. How are small businesses surviving? What kind of chance do they have when there are larger corporations in the same industry? What can these local owners do to make customers remember them? These are some of the concerns I continually hear from business owners. Can marketing make enough of a difference to help these businesses stay afloat in this economy – even thrive perhaps?

The answer is yes, but some research needs to be done first. Figuring out the demographic of your customers, understanding their needs, and asking for their feedback regarding your product or service can make the difference between a growing business and a stagnant one. Then use the new found information to communicate directly to them. Today, advertising online is not only an emerging market that is capturing more attention than any other medium, but recent years have shown it often provides some of the highest return on investment (ROI). Plus, customers are still buying, they’re just being smarter about how much they spend and where they spend it. In order to actually grow your business in a down economy, it’s crucial to spend your marketing budget targeting the exact clientele that is searching to buy exactly what you have to sell. There is no better way to do this than search engine marketing (SEM).

Knowing how tight money is these days it’s obvious there is not a penny to be wasted; which is why successful companies, while concerned with what the economy does, are not as affected because they’ve planned well and have the flexibility to roll with the trends and find the best way to keep moving full steam ahead. Putting your product or service directly in front of the people who need it at the best price possible will help ensure growth through these times and aid in establishing your brand as a solid, stable company that can always thrive; even in a tough economy like this.

-Contributed by Jacob Gardner

As we start this new year and embark on a new decade, it’s great to reflect a little at just how far we have come. Just think back for a brief moment…what comes to mind? It’s not like we are picturing mail being delivered on a horse and telegrams being the fastest form of communication… now it’s more like… remember when I got the newspaper delivered to my doorstep daily vs. my mobile device. Technology is advancing at a mind blowing pace and the speed of improvements that are being made seem to be growing at an exponential rate!

One area where we see this taking place is in the world of internet marketing. Some of you might have heard of it but don’t know quite what it means, while others are already utilizing this form of advertising and seeing huge results in the boost to your business.

WebVisible is an amazing company that is an absolute expert when it comes to local online advertising and I want to give you all a quick look at what I do here since I’ve joined the Account Management Team.

Ah, the life of an account manager…Here at WebVisible I make sure that accounts are performing and business owners are happy! It’s a perfect fit for me as what I enjoy doing is simply helping people do what they like to do best and be a part of ensuring their success. As an account manager I get to take the customer (Business Owner) and really focus on what their business goals are. The cool thing is I get to be a part of directly helping them achieve those goals. From the background setup work such as getting them logged in to the Merchant Center, our proprietary online customer service center, to keeping them posted on how well their online advertising campaign is performing, through connecting customers to them, my objective is to monitor the success of a campaign through the amount of “connections” that we provide for a client through phone calls, emails, and other methods the client uses to be contacted. Every day I keep a close eye on how well the campaign is doing and constantly work to improve it to generate the best results possible. I’ve got to admit that our Geneva Technology Platform is award winning for a reason. It really makes my job pretty easy, but all in all, as an account manager here at WebVisible, as long as customers are happy and able to focus on doing what they do best, then it’s a winning relationship that will continue to grow and achieve success!

-Contributed by Jacob Gardner

If the future is local and hyper-local, then the future is search

By Kevin Ryan, CMO WebVisible

New research from Unisfair finds that for 2010, 60 percent of online marketers will be focused on new customer acquisition. The same study found that toward this goal, 75 percent of marketers will be increasing spending in social media, while 51 percent will be increasing spending in SEM and SEO. A 75 percent increase in social media marketing? Really?

Search engines are the first place consumers and business owners turn to when looking for any product or service, including those that are local—and local is the fastest growing segment of online. Marketers know this. And despite this fact, it appears for 2010, there will continue to be a large disparity between consumer purchase decisions and how marketers think they should reach consumers. Which is too bad because I think social media marketing so far is unproven.

Is social media the best way to reach local consumers? While there are lots of new technologies out there, search isn’t going anywhere. Certainly not for local and hyper-local advertising—search is the cornerstone for both—regardless of what you are reading about social media. Nobody’s Facebook page or Yelp review, or Tweet is going to trump a quick Bing or Google search for local products and services.

Every year, consumers become more reliant on search engines—we’ve all seen the research. Close to 90 percent of consumers turn to the Internet first when researching local products or services. Local and hyper-local are the future of online. However, with all the hype about social media marketing, I am seeing a clear disconnect.

For example . . .

In the last year, Scott A. Bates, Co-Owner of Christopher Scott Homes, a WebVisible client, ran a 30-day Internet advertising campaign. During the course of his campaign, Bates received 569 local visitors to the website and eight calls regarding new business. These are outstanding results for the first month with any kind of advertising campaign, far exceeding Bates’ expectations.

In 30 days, during the worst housing and new-construction-start economy since the great depression, Christopher Scott Homes (CHS) received several new leads and closed a new custom home contract. CHS spent a total of $510. This means the average cost for each person who saw the CHS ad and went to the website totaled less than $1. With that one sale, Bates paid for his search engine marketing for the next 20 years.

For local advertising, reach, operational cost, and lead generation are everything. Local may be the fasting growing, untapped, interactive advertising vertical—spending on interactive advertising beat spending on traditional advertising in August 2009. However, the businesses that make up Local aren’t interested in funding a social media widget campaign—they want results. They want a search campaign that works.

Location, location, location

If the rise of Internet search has taught us anything—like all good real estate, location means almost everything. Search has become the digital equivalent of the local market place. If your store is not located on Main Street where the buyers are actively looking, no one will come inside to buy. Sixty-five percent of online searchers expect local business results to be within 20 miles of them. The key to growth in any business is marketing where consumers are looking. While that also means local businesses should not ignore new media marketing—search is still king.

The benefits of search marketing

From my perspective, it is marketing malpractice not to advise your local media clients to spend on search engine marketing; here are three reasons why:

SEM is measurable

In this economy when every local business is closely tracking operating costs like marketing, SEM is a must. With newspaper readership dropping an average of three to four percent every six months, we know that print ads are losing value because fewer consumers see them. With SEM you can track exactly how many people saw an ad, how many visited a website, and how many called that business.

SEM can be geographically, locally targeted

If you work with hyper-local clients, they need to know that consumers like to research online and buy local. SEM allows local businesses to run inexpensive seasonal and geographically relevant advertising campaigns. Consumers searching locally for specific goods and services are predisposed buyers—they are already looking, all your hyper-local clients need to do is make it easier for consumers to find them.

SEM is flexible and predictable

SEM allows local businesses to budget advertising costs on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis. With search, businesses receive a steady flow of leads, enabling them to predict sales over the course of the campaign. When local businesses have a better idea of how many consumers are purchasing their goods or services, they can think about other things—like expanding their business.

As the Internet has evolved, the popularity of using search engines to help make purchase decisions has skyrocketed. Search marketing is now more powerful than ever and by far the most efficient way to get your message in front of consumers. Take it from Scott Bates—when search campaigns pay for themselves in one or two months, there is no reason why any business should fail to have Search as a primary component of their marketing budget.

If you didn’t believe me that SEM can be a more valuable endeavor for small business marketing online than SEO, there is new data that shows visitors arriving on a site via search engine PPC advertising are more likely to purchase.

According to according to a new study by Engine Ready based on traffic to e-retail sites, visitors who arrive from paid search ads are more likely to buy than those who come from clicking on a natural search link. The conversion rate from paid search is 2.03% versus 1.26% from organic search, according to the study as reported by Internet Retailer.

And, as reported in the New York Times, the study found that paid listings had an edge over organic traffic in terms of customer value, spending an average of $11 more per purchase. In spending, traffic from paid online advertising even outperformed those visitors that arrived from a bookmark or direct entry of a URL.

Although this study concentrates on e-commerce sites, I’m inclined to believe the same principal applies to consumers looking for local products or services like yours!

  -- Contributed by Jeff Werner

A lot of things can go right when launching a new small business Internet marketing campaign. And some can go wrong. Here are two simple, but easily overlooked, mistakes that when avoided can help your local online advertising campaign take off.

In a nutshell: Your site content should reflect your business, and your ads should reflect your site.

Mistake #1: Not matching online ads to the content of your site
Sometimes a new advertiser will write ad words that do not necessarily closely match the content on the Landing Page. This can confuse visitors. And search engines will place your ad higher if it has direct relevance to the content of the destination URL. If the landing page is text-heavy, prior to embarking on an online advertising effort, you can analyze your Web site’s text with a free online tool like the Keyword Density Analyzer to show the most frequently used words on any single Web page. Multiple landing pages can even be used to draw different customer groups to different pages based on their searches. (Study word choices on competitive ads also!)

Mistake #2: Web presence that doesn’t play into the consumer sales cycle
New advertisers often focus solely on getting clicks to their site, but forget the importance of the customer experience and guiding them through the sales cycle. A slow economy and the increased usage of the Internet as a comparative shopping tool are increasing the length of sales cycles. Smart advertisers will design their Web sites to fit.

Web sites that seek to educate consumers and assist them through the sales process. Your Web site is an ideal place to tell potential customers compelling stories, educate them on products and/or the field in general, entertain them and engage them in a two-way dialog – all building loyalty and firmly establishing the advertiser’s brand in the process.

Does your site seek to educate the consumer on your products/services in order to help them through the sales cycle? User reviews, customer testimonials and competitive reviews, product videos all can be valuable resources to establish credibility and a rapport with visitors that will bring them back and provide the best opportunity to turn them into customers.
 
  -- Contributed by Jeff Werner

As a small business owner trying to balance your options for marketing on the Internet with your time (and budget), eventually you'll ponder the question of whether you should dive into the task of optimizing your Web site for better placement on the search engines.

Search engine optimization (SEO) can be valuable, but can take considerable time and work. And, for most small business Web sites, a full SEO effort may not help improve 'organic' rankings simply because the site is too small.

When competing on the engines for keyword dominance there are many of factors that come into play, but content is ultimately king. Your plumbing business site may have a few pages of copy, but is probably competing with the likes of George Brazil, Adee, RotoRooter, etc. (with pages and pages of content on plumbing, water conservation, seasonal tips, videos, tutorials, educational forums, and so on).

You want to compete and get your share of the local online marketplace searching for your services, but you don't want to make SEO a second career either. Luckily for most small business Internet marketing, a simple but effective formula can:
   - help boost your search engine visibility
   - help convert visitors to leads (and paying customers)
   - increase your Internet presence
   - improve your SEO rankings

Step 1: Get a targeted Landing Page
A 'mini Web site,' the landing page is a targeted snapshot of your business. The simple and intuitive template design layout guides interested consumers to the information they are looking for and provides a focused call to action to drive actions and maximize the potential of turning visitors into customers. And it provides mechanisms to track just about everything that happens when someone is interested (calls, emails, page/map prints, coupon downloads, etc.)

Step 2: Determine your best keywords
What words would someone use to find your business? If you could select only three words to describe the core of your business, product or service to a potential customer, what would they be? Now expand that to ten words; then a short paragraph. By the end of the exercise there should be a short list of the most likely candidates. 

Step 3: Start a search advertising campaign
Many books have been written about this form of business advertising on the Internet. Shortcut: it works; so find a great search marketing firm and save yourself 30+ hours a month. You'll also get lots of keywords that you never thought of, written in the way an actual Internet searcher would actuall use them, and the aforementioned Landing Page.

Step 4: Create a blog
Remember content is king? You know a lot about your business - start putting your thoughts down on paper (err, computer). There are lots of simple blog-building sites (blogger.com, wordpress.com, etc.). Link to your blog from your Landing Page. Put lots of you keywords in your blog posts and include links to your Landing Page. Over time you will create enough content that will help you rank well for those keywords.

Step 5: Get social
This is another book. But a good place to start is getting your business up on Facebook and driving traffic between your Landing Page and Company Profile. Some getting started tips here.
 
  -- Contributed by Jeff Werner

When using social media and blogs to conduct small business marketing online, its important to be careful not to cross that tempting line into posting shall we say 'embellished' reviews for your company.

Last week, the state of New York settled with a cosmetic surgery firm after the they allegedly published fake consumer reviews across the Web. It will cost them about $300,000!

According to DMNews, this case could raise questions about the FTC's investigation into word-of-mouth marketing. Back in April, the FTC released a proposal to revise its Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, which could make things more difficult for paid bloggers conducting business advertising on the Internet.

Under the proposal, bloggers and brands would be held accountable for false statements they make about products on blogs and social networks. “Those who are compensated to promote or review a product using these techniques are not exempt from the laws of governing truthful advertising,” said Richard Cleland, assistant director, division of advertising practices at the FTC.

  -- Contributed by Jeff Werner

Forrester Research just released an interactive marketing forecast. While overall budgets are predicted to decline, there is good news around Internet advertising for small businesses.

Search continues to lead the pack among online tactics. Spending on search in 2009 is expected to total 15.4 billion, or 59% of the overall interactive pie. It is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 15% to $31.6 billion in 2014.

“Marketers can't get enough of search's direct response value,” said Shar VanBoskirk, VP and principal analyst at Forrester. She said search continues to be a cost-effective and targeted way to drive sales.

Social media and mobile are predicted to be the biggest growing sectors between now and 2014.

2014 is a ways off, and the dynamics of search will certainly change dramatically in the next five years. But a key takeaway for successful Internet advertising is that search remains the strongest tactic for local online marketing with tangible return-on-investment, and the leading analysts expect it stay that way for quite some time.

  -- Contributed by Jeff Werner