So, I am sitting here at a local automobile inspection facility waiting for my turn ….
With my Droid phone…. and some free time on a cloudy Sunday afternoon.
I’m wondering, have you ever noticed that you don’t see these guys advertising much in traditional print yellow pages phone books. I bet I know and can tell you why…. and do it without all that fancy technical jargon that creates so much darn confusion!
Location,
location,
location,
and necessity…..
You see, we must get our vehicles inspected in order to drive on Texas roads, just like the necessities of eating at restaurants and going to movie theatres to see the latest blockbuster. When you use the phone book to find something near you, it by most parts, is far from easy and convenient to see the reviews, wait times, pricing, comments, news, and latest discounts from these local vendors. A mobile application not only identifies what is nearest you via geo-location, it also answers all the questions you may have related to the current state of your environment and surroundings. I recently read that just over 120 online mobile coupon apps exist on the iPhone Apple Store. Mobile is growing. Mobile search and digital marketing will continue to impact traditional print yellow pages. I believe that print media is just now being disrupted by online media. 2010 is the year that local catches up with national trends.
Penetration of Online Media Surpasses Traditional Media for First Time Among Small-Business Advertisers
Over the past few years, I have noticed that what you see in the marketplace does not often speak for what you see in trends. Trends are just that… TRENDS. They are patterns and show movement. Folks have asked me about “Social Media” marketing for local businesses. Social media should not be an effort. Social Media is more about protecting, promoting, and connecting with your brand than it is advertising. Great social media marketing efforts and communication complement your “advertising” efforts.
Social Media: Over the past few years, I have recommended to clients to create a company Facebook presence. I also recommend that they consider “Facebook Ads” as a means of promoting company Facebook Fan Pages (what I call great corporate “news” rooms.) Often the next question local business owners ask me is, “Do I need to be on Twitter?” My response is often dependent on the companies unique needs, frequency of communications, style of communication, and number of messages the client wants/needs to inform prospects, customers, and friends (fans.) It costs around $500.00-$700.00 to create/setup a social media presence or improve an existing one. This is a one-time fee and you should own the work produced.
Next question, “What should I do about my website?” If your website was created prior to the middle of 2007, odds are you need a website update. The reason most sites are outdated is because of the changes in web browsers, scripted language, social media content, and other trends in (what I like to call) Web 3.0 technologies. I strongly recommend clients utilize a content management system. A content management system (CMS) makes publishing content, updates, and sharing information on your site much easier and less costly. A content management system also offers the flexibility of “website changes after you fired your web developer.” A few of the growing open-source web development platforms include Joomla, WordPress, Drupal, ModX, Zen Cart (ecommerce,) phpBB (forum) and many others. The most popular website CMS’s are Joomla, WordPress (btw, I love http://www.CopyBlogger.com) and Drupal. Not only does a CMS make it easy for any web novice to add text content, it also makes it easy to add videos and image content. Would you like to plug your YouTube channel into your site? How about your Twitter “Tweets?” With a CMS it is very simple. Here are a few other reasons why you need a new CMS:
- Own your website. Never allow someone other than yourself to control your online brand.
- Edit your website from anywhere, anytime and remove the hassle for content distribution.
- Access restrictions to your site can be set with assigned roles and permissions.
- Website design consistency.
- Stored content within the database.
- Updated for the latest browsers (IE6 Must Die!)
- Dynamic Content – cool plug-in stuff and widgets that do more cool stuff!
- Non-Technical author friendly…. anyone who can use Microsoft Word is capable of content publishing.
- Customizable banners and landing pages without the big expense! (this is a big one for PPC advertisers!)
- In the event you fire your web guy…… finding a new one in the “open-source” community is easy.
and the biggest reason: Forever Upgradeable……… never be left behind again!
Websites cost around $1200.00-$5000.00…. which is a one-time fee. This fee depends on the level of detail and amount of content you need to get started.
Video:….. YouTube is the #2 Search Engine on the Planet. In 2010 you want to show up in Image Search, Mobile Search, Google Search, Yahoo Search, Video Search, Yellow Pages Search, Map Search, Coupon Search, Bing Search, Reviews Search, and all the other tons of different types of search platforms in existence…. (such as Auto Search, News Search, Blog Search, Ebay Search, Wiki Search, Amazon Search, AOL Search, etc.)
Professional YouTube videos typically start about $1,000.00 each professionally edited, produced, and filmed on location. The videos are optimized for YouTube on the clients YouTube channel. The client owns the channel. The video shows up on YouTube searches.
Logo:…… $300-500 for the coolest options! Fresh logos! Too many folks skimp out on the appearance. Look bold. Look fresh. Get “fresher” clients (no recommended for Reverse Mortgage folks, lol.)
Local business listing packages….. create accounts on all the directory sites. Claim listings. Google Page Places/Maps etc. Bing Local, Yahoo Local etc. Fun stuff… tedious and time consuming, but necessary. Should cost about $300-500.00 one time fee for hours invested. You should own the accounts that are setup.
Google AdWords PPC: I do not recommend hiring the services of a “national” company or yellow pages publisher to manage your online paid search marketing programs. After personally working for a Yellow Pages Company who was horrible at servicing the sales and working with Yellow Pages sales consultants who are not accountable for making sure the ads are working (not blaming them, but the business model) since they are not educated or permitted the time to ensure proper fulfillment and management. Too many issues exist when you give complete control of your advertising budget to firms that use proprietary systems to place a large amount of ads into Google’s platform.
- Management fees can not be discontinued during a contract with the Yellow Pages
- Costs per Click and Keyword Reporting does not include distribution (content network vs search network etc)
- Management fees are $500-1000 more than what they “SHOULD” charge for them. (over $300.00/hr!)
- Landing Page Optimization is not offered or focused on.
- Google Analytics is not offered.
Here is an example of an analytics account detail: (You Can’t Manage What You Can’t Measure)
Notice what percent is organic.... this client spends big bucks on SUPERPAGES.com! But no traffic!
RSS (real simple syndication) Feeds……. yeah… those things! Great tools to utilize to create ideas for content!
Content Writing….. I would budget around $40.00 per article and do a minimum of 2 per month! Each one needs to focus on a different keyword phrase! Overtime the content you pay for will compliment the content you provide and you will become an authority on Google!
How many websites do you need? This is a tough question to answer… it really depends on your businesses products, services, and service area! The general rule of thumb is that the only folks that need one website are location based or referral only. If you value online search traffic, you really need more than one. This has been proven over and over!
Last but not least, SEO!.…… this is when the fun begins. SEO is voodoo magic. It is a big secret. It is scary. It ….. alright.. I am kidding. SEO is 80% common sense, and 20% effort! Once you learn the basics, from that point it is strategy, trial, testing, and experience. It becomes an effort to create great content, optimize and distribute that content, and then do a similar thing all over again. Content exists not just as words and text, but also as videos and images. Video Search Engine Optimization is just as important as Search Engine Optimization. SEO is about links. SEO is about keywords. SEO is about research. SEO is about ranking factors. SEO…… well, SEO is something that few internet marketing agencies with big huge profit margins can offer local small to medium-sized businesses. SEO is something that I can offer you! SEO is what I LOVE!
- You be investing in organic search results the same as you do paid… just save on PPC and spend the $$ on SEO!
- If folks can’t offer a holistic solution to search engine marketing…… they are just www.YellowCrooks.com!
Mobile Coupons………. Big Opportunity for 2010.
How should you plan for the future? You should educate yourself. This is technically FREE… but finding the right instructor to guide you is what you should invest in!
I am going to continue editing this post as new ideas and thoughts, as they enter my head…..
Let me know what else you would like to learn!
Cheers,
Mike Stewart
Creator of the Dallas Local Search Engine Marketing Agency dedicated to Small and Medium-Sized Businesses, SMB SEO.
Posted by Mike Stewart 
Dallas SEO & PPC Google Advertising Expert Mike Stewart 