The Demise of Traditional Advertising And the RISE of Internet Local Business Advertising

So, you are a small business owner and you are in need of a new business marketing strategy, right?  Why?  Well, frankly because your current marketing method is not brining in new customers…  customers which turn into buyers…  buyers which turn into cold hard cash for your business.

It’s this missing cash flow which has you reevaluating your current small business marketing method.  Well, you are truly lucky that you have found this article in your quest for the ultimate local business advertising solutions.

Check it out.  What follows are the four local business advertising methods to never use:

Yellow Pages

Let me ask you a question.  The last time you needed the phone number and address to a local Italian restaurant, what did you do?  Did you waste over 15 minutes hunting your phonebook?  Once you found that phone book, did you waste three minutes searching for “Italian restaurants” only to be redirected by the phonebook to look under “restaurants”?

Chances are, if you haven’t been living under a rock, you got on your computer and did a fast Google search for “Italian restaurants Buffalo, New York”…  And you instantly got a list of local Italian restaurants to call.

Or perhaps you were driving around town with your spouse, and you both had the urge for a large pizza pie smothered in mushrooms.  What do you do?  Travel back home just to search for Italian restaurants in your phonebook?  No.  You’ll take your smart phone and do a fast local search for local Italian restaurants.

You see, 97% of your customers are looking for your business on the Internet.  Only 57% of your customers are using the Yellow Pages to find your business.  So, isn’t it obvious?  Yellow Pages are dying!

Newspaper

How do you get your daily dose of news in this modern age?  Do you drag yourself out of bed every morning at 6:00am, turn the coffee maker on, head out into the cold dewy dawn to check the mail and grab your local newspaper on the wet grass?  Or, do you get up… put some warm cumfy clothes on… turn on the coffee pot… get out your Kindle or iPad and surf your favorite news websites with the simple click of a button?

Most of your customers are doing the latter in this technological world.  In fact, there are several major and local newspaper companies, well, not printing newspapers any more.  Instead, they are posting all of their news items directly to the Internet and charging subscribers modest fees for premium news access.

Once again, 97% of customers are finding your business via the Internet, and only 53% are using your local newspaper.  The obvious?  Your local newspaper is dying! 

Television & Radio

Have you heard of XM Radio?  What about TiVo and DVR?  Well, what’s the purpose of these services?  To mainstream the user experience and bypass commercials…  This means your local business advertising.

Not to mention, more and more people are viewing all of their favorite television programs and movies on Internet services like Netflix and Hulu.

Let’s run by it again, 97% of your customers are finding your local business via the Internet, and only 49% are using television and radio.  What does this mean?  Television and radio are dead!

Internet Marketing

If you have not figured it out, the one method you should use for your own local business advertising is — the Internet.  Using the Internet, you can take advantage of affiliate marketing, PPC, Facebook marketing, local search marketing and so forth.

But how?  Well, you could spend years and thousands of dollars discovering what the experts already know well — how to get you more customers and money via the Internet.  So, hire yourself a local marketing company today, and get started on your very own local business internet marketing campaign today!  

Let the experts do what they do best, and you do what you do best — run your business.

• Local Marketing

  • Local Business Advertising
     The Demise of Traditional Advertising And the RISE of Internet Local Business Advertising So, you are a small business owner and you are in need of a new business marketing strategy, right?  Why?  Well, frankly because your current marketing method is not brining in new customers…  customers which turn into buyers…  buyers which turn into cold hard cash for your business. It’s this missing cash flow which has you reevaluating your current small business marketing method.  Well, you are truly lucky that you have found this article in your quest for the ultimate local business advertising solutions. Check it out.  What follows are the four local business advertising methods to never use: Yellow Pages Let me ask you a question.  The last time you needed the phone number and address to a local Italian restaurant, what did you do?  Did you waste over 15 minutes hunting your phonebook?  Once you found that phone book, did you waste three minutes searching for “Italian restaurants” only to be redirected by the phonebook to look under “restaurants”? Chances are, if you haven’t been living under a rock, you got on your computer and did a fast Google search for “Italian restaurants Buffalo, New York”…  And you instantly got a list of local Italian restaurants to call. Or perhaps you were driving around town with your spouse, and you both had the urge for a large pizza pie smothered in mushrooms.  What do you do?  Travel back home just to search for Italian restaurants in your phonebook?  No.  You’ll take your smart phone and do a fast local search for local Italian restaurants. You see, 97% of your customers are looking for your business on the Internet.  Only 57% of your customers are using the Yellow Pages to find your business.  So, isn’t it obvious?  Yellow Pages are dying! Newspaper How do you get your daily dose of news in this modern age?  Do you drag yourself out of bed every morning at 6:00am, turn the coffee maker on, head out into the cold dewy dawn to check the mail and grab your local newspaper on the wet grass?  Or, do you get up… put some warm cumfy clothes on… turn on the coffee pot… get out your Kindle or iPad and surf your favorite news websites with the simple click of a button? Most of your customers are doing the latter in this technological world.  In fact, there are several major and local newspaper companies, well, not printing newspapers any more.  Instead, they are posting all of their news items directly to the Internet and charging subscribers modest fees for premium news access. Once again, 97% of customers are finding your business via the Internet, and only 53% are using your local newspaper.  The obvious?  Your local newspaper is dying!  Television & Radio Have you heard of XM Radio?  What about TiVo and DVR?  Well, what’s the purpose of these services?  To mainstream the user experience and bypass commercials…  This means your local […]
  • Small Business Online Marketing
     The 3 HUGE Pitfalls of Small Business Online Marketing If you’re a successful business owner with annual profits over $1 million, congratulations! You’ve probably solved a number of core business challenges.  Such as, operations, finance, IT, customer service, sales, and so on. Regardless, however, of how well-oiled your business is…  It’s more than likely suffering from marketing cancer. While most all small business owners can sell, manage, and serve their customers… most of those small business owners express complete frustration and annoyance with their marketing efforts.  Is this you? “I do everything in my business.  I’m the CEO and I’m the customer support agent… Heck, I’m even the company’s marketing expert.  But sales are not what they could be.” If you’re like most small business owners, you’re trying it all your own…  And you’re failing BIG time.  The truth is, marketing done wrong will continue to hurt. For you, the small business owner, failed business marketing is either one or a combination of a few different problems: Strategy, Execution, and Accountability. Very few businesses get one right, much less all three right!  Strategy We all love choices, well, that is until there are too many choices. And when it comes to creating a small business marketing strategy, the options are simply overwhelming. You’ve got social media, like Facebook marketing? Then there’s local search marketing? Don’t forget about direct marketing? Email marketing? Local advertising?  And so forth. Where is your marketing plan?  Didn’t you sit down and write it up months ago?  Or was it put together last night? Within the last five years, the small business marketing community has experienced a HUGE shift. The old models of dealing on the golf course, pushing ads in your local newspapers, and waiting for the telephone to ring are no longer relevant. Fact is, the traditional local business advertising methods are dying: yellow pages, newspaper, television, radio and so on.  And the small business online marketing revolution is here! Your customers are no longer searching for your local small business in these older mediums.  They are searching for you online! Yet few small businesses have succeeded at adapting to the changing marketplace; many throw their hands up in frustration.  The solution?  Well, keep tuned to find out. Execution Once you have your strategy in place, then, you’re faced with the exciting challenge of how to get things done. Most small business owners are simply just too busy running their other everyday business duties…  and that leaves no time left to market their products or services.  You might be great at sales, but your marketing ship is sinking: that website design which was supposed to take two months is now taking over a year to get done; that new product logo still hasn’t made the simple leap from an idea in your head to the pencil and paper; your sales teams still lacks all of the tools they need to beat and outdo your competition. You can put a simple golden marketing plan in […]
  • Local Marketing Company
     3 Reasons Why You Need To Hire A Local Marketing Company Today It’s now a fact that the Internet has completely changed small business marketing landscape. Online local business advertising and promotion has become a business tool need, no longer an option, for local small businesses hoping to remain competitive in today’s modern world. But how exactly is your business benefiting from local business internet marketing? Going at it all alone in this dynamic field of small business online marketing can prove very expensive, frustrating non sustainable for most business owners. Reaching a large number of potential customers via local business marketing is the easy part…  Knowing which people to target, and getting those targeted prospects to actually visit your store and buy your products or services is the tricky part. It calls for a skilled and experienced local marketing company. Here are three reasons why you need the services of a local marketing company: Targeted Traffic As any experienced local marketing company will tell you,  you don’t need thousands of website visitors every sing day to make it online. It’s the quality of your visitors which will truly matter. For instance, if you sell cars in Atlanta, website visitors looking for a car manufacturing job will not help you make any sales. You have to reach the people whom are interested in buying a new car…  Those are the people that will increase sales revenue. A good local business internet marketing company will know what is involved in attracting new customers who are more likely to convert into actual buyers. By not hiring the services of a local marketing company, you may be wasting valuable local advertising dollars. Online Small Business Marketing Management Managing all of your local advertising online campaigns to ensure maximum efficiency and effectiveness can only be done by the experts. This “management” is not limited to just your business marketing budget, but also to your business’ brand management. A professional local marketing company will know exactly which marketing tools to use, when  to use them and how to make the most of your ROI. If you went it alone, you could double, even triple, your local marketing costs…  And you would waste valuable time. And time is lost dollars in potential customer sales.  Solution?  Simply hire yourself a good local marketing company. Higher Conversion Rates A reputable local marketing company will always give more emphasis not only on attracting new targeted traffic but also on converting that targeted traffic into actual buyers — sales. You could have a ton of traffic, but a low conversion rate.  What does this mean?  You are wasting dollars on busted traffic which does not produce.  What does that mean? You are lowering your ROI, and not producing a cash flow. It’s essential to create and maintain a good landing page.  A landing page will aid in converting your targeted website visitor into a paying customer. Apart from building your online brand, the only other justification for local business internet […]
  • Local Business Internet Marketing
     3 Extremely Easy Local Business Internet Marketing Tips for Chiropractors For Chiropractors looking to improve their online presence and local business advertising efforts, whether it’s through search engine optimization or Pay Per Click, it is important to know the different ways you can market via Google.  So, we are going to break down the three primary components of Google search…  the three primary elements which can help your Chiropractor practice improve your local business internet marketing campaigns. Google Places Optimization Google Places results have become very prominent and very popular recently in Google search.  It offers it’s users a nice map to browse, and the Google Place’s business page itself is totally unique.  It’s actually a separate entity from the Google Place’s website, and it can take on a life of it’s own.  And your business Place page is the main contributor to better local listings within the Google Places results. Optimizing a Google Place business page in order to improve your search rankings takes a unique approach.  Similar to how a website is ranked in the organic search results, website popularity has a major role as to how well a Google Place business page ranks.  There are a few simple techniques that can enhance your Google Place page and increase it’s popularity. Reviews: When you get strong and quality feedback… that will enhance your credibility with customers AND the search engines.  The more better reviews you get on your business’ Place page the more trust and higher rankings you will get. Napping:  Napping is simple to do!  Everyone can take a nap, and when you take a nap on your Google Place business page you will increase your page’s ranking.  But what exactly is napping?  Here it is: N.A.P., or Name, Address and Phone number.  When you enter your business’ personal information it gives you more credibility, and that results in a higher ranking. Honesty: Never “keyword” your description area.  Optimizing your Place page is different than optimizing your website.  Keywords are irrelevant.  Just be honest with your audience, and provide good details what your Chiropractic business is about. You can also perform some awesome local advertising utilizing Facebook marketing techniques.  See, Facebook also has it’s own places feature.  With it you can improve your overall Google listing, and you can also secure customers via Facebook Places searches, too. Express Pay Per Click Bidding on general Chiropractor local keywords for better search exposure is no secret, however, only a few business are taking advantage of the power behind Google Adwords Express. It’s actually quite neat!  Express Google Ads will feature a BLUE pin on the Google Place results map.  The normal pin is a red pin, and what’s the key to marketing?  The ability to stick out and be noticed.  The blue pin does this easily.  Also, these special and unique PPC ads are tied to your Google Place business page. This is a new improvement to Google Adwords, and it offers your business another easy way to stand […]
  • Business Marketing
     3 Super Simple Online Business Marketing Tips There are a number of ways you can market your business today. You can advertise your small business with your local newspaper, on bulletin boards located near busy interstates, utilize the local radio station and even your local television network.   Local marketing still has it’s hold in the market place, but it’s becoming outdated and not used as much by the consumer.  More and more people are getting their news from the Internet.  This is why some major newspaper companies are changing their business model to solely online. That’s not all.  Less and less people are watching traditional television, and those that do are not viewing your commercial ads.  Why not?  Well, consumers are either watching their favorite shows online today, or they are TiVoing their shows and skipping your commercials.  So, what should you do?  Well, follow the market of course.  If everyone is leaving the traditional media sources for the Internet…  Then, it only makes sense to move your small business marketing to this new marketing medium. Even then, you have different ways in which you can market your small business online.  You can utilize local search marketing, Facebook marketing, affiliate marketing and so forth. Well, in this article I am going to reveal a few good tips for your local business internet marketing needs.  Let’s get started! Tip One What’s the goal of marketing your small business?  It’s to get customers banging down your doors.  Right?  Well, what good is internet marketing IF you reside in New York and you’re reaching consumers in California? Sure, the advent of the internet has opened the doors to easy and instant global marketing, but if your business model is not setup for national or global business, then, you need to utilize local search marketing. When you use Google Local or Facebook Places, you will be able to target only those customers whom reside in the same area as your business.  This will bring a flood of new local customers knocking down your door. Tip Two Take advantage of organic search results.  What’s the number one task people do online?  That’s right!  Search.  And what do they search for?  That’s right!  Products, services and information that interest them. So, take advantage of Google’s search results. Sure, you could take advantage of Google Adwords and pay for a front page ad spot on Google, but you can accomplish the same with better end results by utilizing organic search engine optimization techniques. Going this route, you will get a HIGH search engine ranking for free, and you will get more customers for your dollar. Tip Three Do what you’re good at, and let others do what they’re good at.   Let’s say you’re a printing company…  This is your forte.  You’re the BEST printing company out there.  When it comes to flyers, business cards, posters and so forth, you know EXACTLY what type of paper and ink to use. Well, don’t try to take on […]
  • Small Business Marketing
     3 Reasons Your Small Business Needs Internet Marketing Millions of people around the globe are using their computers and mobile devices to find products and services which YOU offer online.  Who will they find?  Will they find you or your competitor, whom is using internet marketing and SEO techniques? Chances are the latter, unless you take this article into heart. You see, you could do all the business marketing you can offline.  You can pay $500 per month for a non-converting bulletin board on the interstate.  You can spend several thousand dollars a month to have your advertisement listed with your local newspaper.  You can spend tens of thousands of dollars a year for other small business marketing services: yellow pages ad, radio ad, television ad and so forth.  But those old marketing techniques just no longer work… not the same way they used to.  Why? Well, it’s simple really.  Consumers are no longer using these mediums.  For instance, when they need to know what’s going on in the world… They don’t go buy a news paper or wait for the five o’clock news feed…  They get on their Blackberry or iPhone and do a Google search. The same is true when they need a product or service.  No longer do they use the phone book to look up a number… Instead, they are using their laptops or iPads and doing a Google Local or Facebook Places search. The old is out, and the new is in.  And what is the new?  Internet marketing. You see, you can still perform local search marketing with the Internet.  Fact is, you can target your local prospects even easier with local business internet marketing.  Check it out!  Here are a few good reasons you should be using internet marketing for all of your local business advertising. Traffic There are over a billion people using the internet today, and I would even go as far to say EVERYONE in the United States has used the internet.  Don’t believe me?  Just ask everyone you know.  Ask them if they have ever used an internet search engine before…  Ask them if they have ever bought something on the internet before…  Ask them if they are part of a social network like Facebook. Chances are, everyone you ask will answer yes to all three questions above. Well, the best way to build a flood of customer traffic is to go where that traffic is, and that traffic is on the internet. Competitiveness The internet levels the playing field for small businesses, like yours, with large multi-million dollar corporations.  No longer can the those big guys manhandle the small business owner.  Using small business marketing tactics online, you can easily reach the EXACT same customer those big guys are targeting. And it does not matter if they are throwing millions of dollars into their marketing department…  Why?  Because of the next reason. Cost Reduction Utilizing small business marketing online, you can reduce your overall advertising costs.  No longer […]
  • Local Advertising
     The Demise of Traditional Advertising And the RISE of Internet Local Advertising First, what’s traditional advertising?  Well, let me ask you a question.  What do you currently use for your small business marketing?  Let me take a guess: Yellow Pages Radio Newspaper Television Am I right, or am I right?  Oh, I forgot to mention flyers!  But why are these methods of advertising dying?  It’s simply because your customers are no longer looking for your business via these traditional mediums. You see, 97% of businesses are being found via the search engines.  Only 57% are being found via the yellow pages and even less via the newspaper and television. Your customers are going online to find you!  Where are you going?  If you are not searching for your customers online, then, you are looking in the wrong place. But isn’t the internet a global system?  Yes.  And if I market on the internet I won’t be able to target JUST my local community…  Right?  Well, no. You see, yes the internet is a global system, and it allows you to purchase products and services from California, Florida, New York or even China.  But it is also a powerful local business advertising system. You can create a website or blog for your small business, utilize local small business marketing tactics online and bring in a flood of new customers through your doors. Here’s how it works.  You create some local search marketing campaigns.  You can do this via Paid Per Click (PPC) campaigns, organic search engine optimization (SEO) campaigns, and even optimize online business directories, like Google Local. Once you have that under control, you move onto the next phase…  This is social marketing at it’s best.  Here you can do some Facebook Marketing techniques.  You create a Facebook Fan Page and a Facebook Places Page.  Utilizing both of these Facebook tools you will be able to reach out to and engage your local market. But it doesn’t end there.  You can utilize Facebook Ads, a form of PPC, and further target your prospects via their interests and via where they live. So, if your business is all about selling dog leashes…  Why not setup a Facebook Ads campaign, target all those people 30 miles from your shop that LOVE walking their dog.  This is all possible to do on Facebook. How easy is that?  Because Facebook is local by nature… It was developed to connect people of similar interests and from the same area.  All Facebook has done is extended this functionality to businesses.  Now they can connect and engage with their customer base. So there you have it!  The demise of old newspapers and the rise of local search marketing and Facebook marketing.  All you have to do now is take advantage of the tools already given to you. You have a choice: continue to get less and less return on your investment utilizing traditional methods or hire out a professional local marketing company to perform all your small […]
  • Facebook Marketing
     3 Reasons You Need Facebook Marketing Today Let me ask you a question.  How do you market your small business?  How do you spread the word of what your business is, and what it can offer your customer? Chances are you’re using traditional local advertising.  For instance, newspaper, yellow pages, local magazines and so forth.  But are those marketing mediums getting you results?  Is your local business advertising campaign truly bringing raving buyers through your front doors? If you’re reading this article, perhaps not.  Otherwise, you would not be searching for alternative business marketing methods.  But you know that the Internet has become a “mainstream” system today, and is an integral part of our social society. You see, traditional small business marketing as we know it today is dead!  So, why not start some sort of local business Internet marketing campaign?  Why not modernize your business marketing techniques by incorporating new Facebook marketing techniques. Let’s analyze the data.  Let’s see why you need a Facebook marketing campaign today. First off…  As mentioned before, traditional marketing is dead.  When customers need to find a service, product or business they are no longer looking that need up in the phone book.  Instead, they are going online with their mobile devices and doing a quick search on Google Local or Facebook Places for the business’ phone number and address information. You see, more than 350 million active Facebook users are accessing Facebook via their mobile devices.  They are “checking-in” at local businesses; they are “liking” local business’ Facebook Pages; and they are searching business’ information via their Facebook Places accounts. So, if your business is not on Facebook…  You are giving your customers away to your competition, because they ARE on Facebook. Second, traditional small business marketing is no longer the “most” targeted form of marketing.  Sure, you could throw a billboard up at the busiest intersection in town, and that might cost you a couple thousand a month, but how targeted are those “hot” leads?  The only thing you have going for you is that they are “local” leads.  That’s it.   You have no clue how many of those people are actually interested in your product.  But with local search marketing AND Facebook Marketing you can! You see, you can still target those EXACT same local leads as that big banner, and it will only cost you pennies on the dollar. Utilizing Google Adwords you can develop a local search marketing campaign which will target all the true hot local leads in your city that ARE interested in what you’re selling. How?  Well, these Google Adwords will show up right next to Google’s search results.  So, when your customer searches for Real Estate on Google…  Your Google Adwords campaign will show up at the top right of Google’s page.  You can’t get much more targeted than that, right? Wrong!  With Facebook Ads you can target your customer’s via Facebook.  You see, Facebook has over 800 million active users, and you can […]
  • Local Search Marketing
     How to Get More Paying Customers with Local Search Marketing in 4 Simple Steps There are a number of ways you can raise awareness of your small business and get customers walking through the front door of your store.  The obvious?  Small business marketing using television ads, radio ads, newspapers and so forth.  These are all considered traditional and noneffective marketing. Why?  Well, consider it…  new technology always trumps old.  And with the advent of the internet, all these old methods are going away.  Not completely, but surely. It won’t be long until 100% of consumers use the internet to find their local businesses.  See, in 2010 it was reported that already 97% of all small businesses were being found online via the search engines.  Only 57% of businesses were being found via the yellow pages, and less were being found via the other traditional marketing methods. What does that tell you?  Well, it tells me that the old ways are long done.  Should you still use them?  Not really.  And here’s why.  Your customers are not using the television to find your small business.  If you are not an owner of a Fortune 100 company, then, you have no need to market via the television. Your customers are looking for you online, so you need to get online and find your customers.  Here are a few ways you can do just that: Tip #1 – Content and Distribution Have you heard the expression, “If you build it, they will come.”?  It’s an old expression, and it actually rings true with content creation.  You see, content is one aspect of local search marketing. Let’s say you own a dog grooming business, and you have a website and blog.  Well, if you never post any new posts on your blog about dog grooming, then, you will not get a higher search engine ranking. When you write new articles and publish them on your blog, it will send a signal to Google saying, “Hey, I have new content… Come and index me!”  When Google does come to index your newly published post, then, it is available to all of your customers. So, when they are searching for your products and services on Google… They will find you. But that’s not all.  You can also submit articles to article directories.  These websites will act similar to your blog, as in they will alert Google when a new article is posted.  Google will index that article, and your customers will be able to find you BECAUSE of that article.  So, as you can see creating content is essential to your local search marketing efforts. Tip #2 – SEO Traffic This falls back onto the whole “create content” idea, but it goes further than just creating content.  It involves optimizing your website for the search engines. Yes, solid new content rich in keywords will have a lot to do with bringing in new search engine traffic, but there are also other elements.  For instance, meta […]