Local Marketing Online: Part 2: Web & Map Listings

Maintaining consistency across the web is absolutely essential if you want to take advantage of the local marketing opportunities online. Unfortunately, there are hundreds of web directories and map listing services on the internet that have acquired your business information from either a contacts list provider or an outdated, cached web page. More often than not this information is inaccurate and simply does not reflect your current business strategy. Why is this important? For two very important reasons which I will explain.

First of all, search engines are now aggregating information across the internet from a variety of sources in an attempt to accurately identify the relevant companies whose web pages they are indexing and delivering in search results. So, for example, if you cannot easily be identified because your address and/or phone number information is different in the web or map listings from your website, or the listing contains either no link or a dead link to your website, or the Profile Description doesn’t match up with your website profile, search engines will not feel confident to deliver your listing as a relevant match to the search made.

Secondly, inaccurate or misleading web and map listing information may cause you to lose prospective customers. I have told this story once before but it remains relevant. We helped a high end, local brick-and-mortar retailer client claim web listings that not only inaccurately categorized and described his company as a charity but also listed a phone number that was no longer in service. How did the web directories get the wrong information? They probably found it on a list of companies that had donated money to a charity.

Claiming and strategically managing your web and map listing information is a critical component to your success. Here’s what we typically find when we claim listings for clients:

  • Phone numbers that are wrong or incomplete
  • Addresses that are wrong
  • Inaccurate or incomplete company name
  • Listed in wrong categories
  • Inaccurate Profile Description or none at all
  • Information missing
  • Irrelevant images or none at all
  • Dead links to web pages
  • No link to website
  • No listing or wrong listing in Google Maps or Map Quest

You get the picture. So how do you know where to find these directories and how do you go about making changes? Well, that’s going to take a lot of your time so get a big cup of coffee for yourself and a comfy chair! But before you go online to search for the gaggle of directories in which you are listed, you have to work out your business strategy. The goal is always to achieve and maintain consistency across the internet so that you can begin to develop your online profile across multiple web directories and map listing sites.

What you will need to do to prepare:

  1. Conduct a comprehensive keyword research and development to determine the terms that accurately identify what you offer as well as reflect the language used by your targeted audience groups to search for what you offer. The keywords you select will be used to develop your listings and should correspond to the content you present on your website and elsewhere on the web. They are the foundation for the development of your online authority.
  2. Write out your Company Name exactly how you want it to appear on each directory site.
  3. Using one or two search terms from your keyword research, develop a highly focused Profile of no more than 150 characters.
  4. Develop another one of no more than 200 characters.
  5. Prepare 1 to 10 professional, web-ready digital images that accurately reflect what you offer and name each one using one of your search terms from your keyword research. Although each web directory or Map listing site has different requirements, typically each digital image must be smaller than 1MB (and 1024 x 1024 pixels), and must be in one of these file formats:  JPG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, BMP. Since Logos are images, follow these same guidelines.
  6. Although each directory has its own naming structure for Categories, using your search terms from your research as a guide, identify no more than 10 categories under which you would expect prospective customers to find you.
  7. Make a list of your hours of operation for every day of the week.
  8. Write down each location address. Indicate which one is your principle location.
  9. Write down each telephone number, clearly identifying the principle phone number. Something to consider if you are using a toll-free number is local listing results prefer local numbers with area codes that correspond to the locale.
  10. Write down the fax number.
  11. Write down each email address, clearly identifying the principle one.
  12. Write down your web address.
  13. List each of your services exactly as you want them to appear.
  14. List your principle product categories exactly as you want them to appear.
  15. List any special items you want your prospective customers to know such as the principle Brands you represent, special Qualifications, Certifications, Professional Memberships, Awards, or other relevant information.

The above list represents the information you need to Claim Your Listings and ensure the information you present is consistent across all collateral web directory and map listing sites.

The benefits to maintaining consistency across web directory and map listing sites are many and include:

  • Supports the building of your online authority
  • Search engines can easily index and deliver your listing in search results
  • Prospective customers can find you and are clear about what you offer
  • Reach mobile users searching on portable phones and devices

In my next installation of the Local Marketing Online series I will take a close look at Google Places. You will learn why it is important to claim your account and how to take full advantage of all it offers.

Read the Series:

Local Marketing Online: Part 1: Intro
Local Marketing Online: Part 2: Web & Map Listings
Local Marketing Online: Part 3: Google Place
Local Marketing Online: Part 4: Search & Social Media
Local Marketing Online: Part 5: City Sites, Reviews & Recommendations
Local Marketing Online: Part 6: Share Content
Local Marketing Online: Part 7: Email Marketing
Local Marketing Online: Part 8: Pay Per Click Integration
Local Marketing Online: Part 9: Mobile Marketing
Local Marketing Online: Part 10: Optimized Web Design

Local Marketing Online: Part 2: Web & Map Listings

Google Global Market Finder and Ads for Global Advertisers – Business Development Tip

With the consistently expanding online market currently serving over 1.9 billion consumers, Google offers a set of tools to help businesses expand and market globally.

Launched recently, the Global Market Finder is a free tool to help businesses identify foreign markets in which there appears to be “high demand for their products and services.” Familiar to those who have used the Keyword tools in AdWords, The Global Market Finder helps you to evaluate new markets by showing you the following information for each market:

  • Volume of local searches
  • Estimated price for keywords
  • Competition for each keyword

The numbers give you an idea of how competitive the market is, how demand is in one country compared to another, and the cost to start advertising in the new market(s).

Here’s how it works:

First you enter your country and principle language (US and English); then enter the keywords related to your products and services. From the drop-down menu, select the global market that interests you (Africa, Americas, Asia, Emerging Markets, Europe, European Union, G20, Middle East, or Oceania). The Geographic Distribution results identify the Location (country), a bar graph that indicates strength of Opportunity, total number of Local Monthly Searches (12 month average), a Suggested Bid Amount for your associated keywords, and a bar graph indicating level of Competition.

Next you can opt to make use of the Google Translator Toolkit that allows you to upload a document (your intended ad landing page, for example) or specify a url and select the language from which and to which you want it translated. Next you can create a “TM”, or translation memory file where the translated document will be stored.

All of the above tools are accessible from the newly launched website Google Ads for Global Advertisers, which “pulls together resources for businesses to find the right market for their products and services, translate their websites and ad text, find new customers with relevant online ads, and understand options for international payment, shipping and customer service.”

What “Do Not Track” is Really About

A press release issued in the beginning of December 2010 by the FTC announced its proposed “Do Not Track” policy governing the use of cookies – little packets of text sent back and forth between a web browser and the server it accesses to collect web browser user information. Just like the consumer opt-out “Do Not Call,” the proposal is intended to give consumers the right to block cookies that collect information that is used to profile them for the purpose of ad targeting and other uses not specified.

FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz stated that “the FTC wants to help ensure that the growing, changing, thriving information marketplace is built on a framework that promotes privacy, transparency, business innovation and consumer choice. We believe that’s what most Americans want as well… This proposal is intended to inform policymakers, including Congress, as they develop solutions, policies, and potential laws governing privacy, and guide and motivate industry as it develops more robust and effective best practices and self-regulatory guidelines.”

Considered a misnomer, the “Do Not Track” proposal (read Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change) is really raising a number of questions for which it is seeking comment. For example: “One question is whether there are practical considerations that support excluding certain types of companies or businesses from the framework – for example, businesses that collect, maintain, or use a limited amount of non-sensitive consumer data.” This would include Google Analytics. As Google explains, “Google Analytics tracking (and most web tracking software) uses cookies in order to provide meaningful reports about your site visitors. However, Google Analytics cookies do not collect personal data about your website visitors.”

The fact of the matter is there is a prevailing theme within the proposed “Do Not Track” policy and it all stems from the notion of one’s Right to Privacy. The report includes recommendations to improve the transparency of information collection practices, including ways that enable the public to compare information practices of competing companies. The leading web browsers including Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Microsoft IE9, have each taken their own approach to providing users with the ability to block, all or certain types, of cookies.

The “Do Not Track” proposal is a wake-up call to the industry that consumers want to be in charge. The FTC is seeking to “guide and motivate industry as it develops more robust and effective best practices and self-regulatory guidelines.” As AdAge pointed out, “A Do Not Track law could only be enacted by Congress, suggesting that this report is an appeal to whichever party — industry or Congress — will act more quickly.”

The FTC is really looking to each business to put into place practices that demonstrate to consumers what they are doing to protect them. In a nutshell, here’s what they expect:

  • Let them see the data you are collecting
  • Let them opt-out of your ability to collect all or some of that data
  • Tell them how you will use the data
  • Respect their right to not receive unsolicited communications from you
  • Give them a way to choose to receive communications with you

We are in the Age of the Consumer. They have more control now then they have had in the past and they are exercising it with the support of some pretty powerful backers like the FTC. It is important to recognize this and do what is necessary to ensure consumers that their interests, particularly privacy and security, are being carefully protected.

Holiday Greetings and the Importance of Customer Communications

In business, Holiday communications are really about saying ‘thank you’ and ‘we really appreciate you’ to those who have helped you by giving you business. They are a simple but very effective way to demonstrate your corporate values, reinforcing to your clients the good feelings they have about you.

Oftentimes it is easy to forget to include on your client / vendor recipient list those within an organization who play a smaller, albeit important role. Considering how people advance in their careers both within an organization and by moving to another organization, you want to make sure you don’t exclude anyone.

Effectively managing client communications is an essential part of relationship building and maintenance. Here are some important considerations:

Develop a Communications Plan: There is likely more than one person within your organization who is communicating with clients. Each one of your people may also be communicating with several representatives associated with a single client. You can see now how complicated it can be to keep track of the myriad of people who come under the classification of “client” (or even “prospect” for that matter).   You want to keep contact with all of these people because each one represents a potential opportunity, either today or at some time in the future.

Segment and profile your contacts so you can create appropriate content and a ‘send’ schedule for:

  • Marketing Communications
  • Holiday Communications
  • Project Communications
  • Events
  • Corporate Announcements
  • Personal Greetings
  • any other communications important to your business.

Establish Contact Rules: You want all of your employees who have contact with clients and their representatives to understand

  1. what information they should be collecting
  2. how often it should checked for accuracy and updated, and
  3. where it is to be stored.

Decide what criteria you want to track such as Name, Company, Job Title, Project(s) they contributed to and their Project Role, Project Dates, Basic Contact Info, Social Networking sites such as LinkedIn or Facebook, Communication Content and Date Sent, Reciprocal Communications, and so forth. To manage contacts effectively, you need all of your employees to be on the same page.

Use a Professional Contact Manager: Once you understand how complicated keeping track of communications can be, and how unreliable basic email programs can be (think about the difficulty you experience when a client you worked with a few years ago calls you out of the blue referencing a specific aspect of a project for which you have to locate the particular email – good luck!), you will want to use a professional Contact Manager.

Whether you need a custom Extranet, which offers you the most flexibility and control, or a store-bought “off-the-shelf” product, it is an investment well-worth making.

Business development is an on-going endeavor that is based to a large extent on relationship building. From your initial contact with a person, you have the opportunity to establish and maintain a relationship that could last for years and result in continued business with your company. The important thing is to develop your communications plan, establish your rules, and implement a way to ensure everyone sticks to it.

So make your list, check it twice, and send a Holiday Greeting to everyone with whom you and your employees have had a business relationship you’re looking to maintain.