• A Place Called Home - Local Search on the Web
• Five Benefits of Email Marketing
• What Makes People Buy?

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A Place Called Home - Local Search on the Web

Having a local web strategy is an important part of your company’s overall search engine strategy, but don’t wait too long to take action. The web is already the tool of choice for most shoppers today, and your company needs to be where the customers are – on the web.

The latest trend in web search is called “Local Search,” which helps connect people and places in local communities. For businesses, it’s a great way to reach customers close to home.

Customers today use search engines, online business directories, review sites, online communities, and follow links from other web sites or click on ads in order to find local businesses. This means there are many opportunities available for you to advertise your business on the web and target the local shoppers in your own geographic area.

Older types of advertising such as newspapers and paper Yellow Pages books are losing popularity with consumers, while online advertising is growing very rapidly. A recent report by Borrell Associates predicts that by the end of 2007, local online advertising will grow by 31 percent to $7.7 billion, and local paid search will grow by 86 percent to $1.8 billion. If you want your business to be found locally by the people in your community, you need to be found online!

Many small businesses think that search engines like Google and Yahoo are the key to online success. But unless you have your web site professionally optimized to perform well in the search engines, it’s pretty unlikely that you will see much in the way of search engine results. Local search and local advertising, however, provide you with a variety of opportunities where you stand a much better chance of being found by the shoppers who are already looking for you – on the web.

Five Benefits of Email Marketing

If you’re already using email marketing, then you know that it is a very cost-effective way to communicate with your customers and prospective customers. Email is fast, inexpensive, and quite easy to use as a marketing strategy, which could be why it has become so popular with companies of all sizes. There are many tangible, measurable benefits to email marketing, but here are five benefits that are particularly noteworthy:

• Boost Your Bottom Line – Studies show that the average consumer needs to hear or see your message about seven times before he or she will buy from you. That’s a lot of repetition! With email marketing, you can create marketing campaigns consisting of a series of emails to reinforce your message and build your brand so that when they are ready to buy, they think of your company first.

• Name Recognition – Using email marketing is a great way to generate name recognition and stay in front of your customers regularly. You can send newsletters, special offers, coupons, announcements, or anything else that might be of value to your customers.

• Keep ‘Em Coming Back – A happy customer is a loyal customer, which often means more repeat business for you. Happy customers also tend to refer their friends and family, generating new customers for you as well. Use email marketing to keep in touch with customers, offering them special discounts or add-on items, or letting them be among the first to know when a sale is coming up. Email marketing is a great tool for enhancing customer retention and satisfaction.

• Two-Way Communication with Customers – With email marketing, it’s pretty easy to get feedback from your customers just by sending a quick follow-up email after the sale. It’s a good way to find out what they think of your products or services, and gives them another opportunity to interact with you, too.

• Generate Extra Sales Offline – Lots of people use the web to research the products and services they need, then make their purchase locally from a store in their community. In fact, a recent survey by MarketingSherpa found that more than 60% of web users do this on a regular basis! Email marketing can help you stay in touch with the customers in your area, creating awareness for your company and bringing more shoppers through your door.

Be consistent with your email marketing efforts and they may become even more effective than some of your other marketing activities. Email marketing is cost effective, measurable, trackable, and easy to do – what more could anyone want in a marketing strategy?

When companies try to figure out “what makes people buy,” they often begin with a set of assumptions. Unfortunately, these assumptions usually come from the viewpoint of the business, and not from the perspective of the customer. Thinking like your customers can help you communicate effectively with them, and can help you deliver your message in a way that will resonate with them. The closer you can come to really connecting with your customers, the closer you will be to discovering what makes them buy.

Here are five basic questions to help you identify how your company communicates with its potential customers:

1. Are our web site visitors satisfied enough with what we present that they actually make a purchase (or contact us for information)? Paying close attention to your web site statistics and log files should answer this question for you.

2. Does our web site present an image of professionalism and credibility? Pay attention to the way your competitors present their web sites, and make sure yours is at least of the same or better quality. An amateurish or outdated web site will send all the wrong messages about your company, and will give customers a bad impression of your business.

3. Do we provide the right type of information so that customers who are not ready to buy will eventually return to make a purchase when they are ready to buy? Your web site statistics will show you how many visitors are repeat visitors and how many are unique. You may also want to consider offering web specials or coupons as an incentive for visitors to return to your site.

4. Do our marketing priorities match up with the way in which we spend our time and marketing dollars? If you are serious about achieving your marketing goals, then you must be committed with your time and budget as well.

5. Are our marketing messages and value proposition consistent, or are we confusing our customers? Consistency is key if you want your customers to understand the value that you provide, and what differentiates your company from the competition.

The way in which you market and present your company is important, and if done well, can motivate people to buy from you instead of your competitors. When you truly communicate with customers and address their needs, your overall marketing efforts will be more successful.

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