Small Business Archives - Peter Grandstaff

One Step to More Local Search Traffic

There’s one easy thing business owners can do to increase the amount of local traffic they get from Google, and many aren’t doing it. I’m talking about claiming your listing in Google Places. Those are the listings that show up in Google Maps and, increasingly, in location-specific search results.

Often times when someone searches for a local business, or category of businesses, Google will show a “7 Box” of local results along with a map. The normal results generally come after this. For example, here’s what I found after searching for [chapel hill coffee].

Example Local Search Results

If you click on the name of the business you will go to their website. To the right of the name is a tally of reviews and “Place page.” That’s a link to their profile in Google Places.

The Place page is a collection of all sorts of data that Google has collected from around the web like reviews, hours of operation, and pictures. The more information Google can find on the web about a business, the more authoritative that business is, thus bringing it higher in those local search results. In local search, mentioning a business, it’s address and telephone number is like a vote of confidence in that business, just like links are for websites in normal search results.

You’re not at the mercy of what Google can find about you, though. Business owners can claim their listing and manually add content. The more content you add, the more Google likes you. So, get out there and claim your listing, and add as much to it as possible. Do a Google search for your business name and city or find yourself on Google Maps to get to your place page. Then, just click the link at the top right that says “Business owner?”

Example Google Places Page

To prove yourself, Google will call the phone number associated with your listing and have you enter a code. It only takes a few minutes. Plus, once you’ve claimed your listing you’ll be able to see statistics about how often your listing shows up for searchers and how they interact with it.

One caveat: These listings are non-transferable. So, don’t have an employee claim your listing while signed in with their personal Google or Gmail account. Generally, the easiest thing to do is create a new Google account to use for the business, and claim the listing with that account.

How To and Why You Should Issue Press Releases

You should be issuing press releases regularly for two reasons.

To get increased media visibility and coverage, giving you better brand recognition, trust and authority.
For increased traffic and links for your website, giving you more sign-ups and revenue.

Now, media visibility is a very different ballgame from 15 years ago. Back then, press releases were just for the press. Hardly anyone outside the media and PR firms ever read them. Now that everything is online, press releases show up in people’s search results, in Google News and Yahoo News, and on industry websites.

So, I say it’s okay to depart from the traditional style of release. I’m in favor of adding more background info and color to releases. Now, that doesn’t mean you should think of it as sales copy. Oh no. Keep it objective, but interesting.

If your release can stand on its own as a well written article then it’s more likely to make a splash. An editor may decide to run it with only minor edits to fill some space. Consumers who find your release online will be more likely to read through, and then click through to your website. News websites and blogs may syndicate your release.

I’m not going to teach you the format for releases, but when you’re ready just google [how to write a press release] and you’ll find plenty of sites to tell you the proper formatting rules. Stick to the standard format.

Spend plenty of time on your headline. That’s what will make or break your release. Remember that reporters and editors will respond to headlines differently than general readers. You can tailor your headline for pick-up by established media, or for general readership. Ideally you’ll write a headline that appeals to all of your audiences.

Write it about anything new: new products, new services, new facilities, new charitable efforts, new management… you get the picture. Your release needs to be newsworthy. It does not have to be ground breaking or amazing, just fresh.

Once you have your release, and compelling headline, it’s time to actually distribute it. If possible, post it on your website first. That way search engines know you had the content first.

Then you can e-mail it to all relevant media outlets. (Visit their websites and look for the “Newsroom” link.) You can send your release in email format – no attachments! – to the main Editors’ address, but it’s even better to hit the specific departments and reporters that cover the subject of your release.

Finally, you’ll want some form of online distribution. This is what will get you into Google News and relevant websites. Reporters and editors also comb the feeds from online distribution, so it’s a double whammy combined with your e-mail to them.

There’s a great and free press release distribution website, PRLog. I suggest you start there, as the paid distribution options can get expensive quickly. PRLog will let you set up a company profile with full contact info and logo. Your release can include a photo and up to three links, depending on its length. One of my favorite features is you can schedule your release. So, set up your online release ahead of time.

You should try to send your release out on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. Mondays are too busy. People are just trying to finish the week on Fridays. Releases are often released first thing in the morning, but you might have fewer competitors during lunch time.

You might get a call from the media for more details and such, so be prepared. Have some good pictures at high resolution on hand to send upon request.

Now the fun part: you can sit back and watch. Search Google for your headline or random sentences from your release to see where it shows up! Your distribution service should also provide some data on how many viewers you had there.

Hopefully someone will come in holding a newspaper with your picture and story in it. That’s what happened to J & J’s Deli after the release I wrote went out. Here’s the article.

Get those releases out. Do it every few months. Don’t have time? Hire me. Call 919-636-0953 or e-mail me.

Conversion Tracking You Can Do Yourself, Cheap

This is a follow-up to Is your business converting as well as it could?.

To figure out your conversion rate you need two numbers. You need to know how many total times you had the opportunity to make a conversion – e.g. website visitors, phone calls, or walk-in customers. I’ll refer to this number as impressions for the sake of clarity. You also need to know the number of successful conversions.

Note: Be sure to measure these over the same time period!

Then there’s a little math. Don’t worry, I’m a professional. Whip out your calculator and key in:

Conversions [divided by] Impressions [equals]
That will give you your conversion rate. Bump the decimal place to the right two spaces and you’ll have it as a percentage.

Example: Your website got 328 visits and you made 16 sales. 16 divided by 328 equals 0.04878. Bump the decimal over and you have a 4.878% conversion rate.

Okay, that’s the math. What about getting those numbers? Obviously, if you have an ecommerce site it’s pretty easy to figure out the number of visitors and the number of sales. It’s a little trickier if customers visit your website, then call in an order or visit the store.

The answer here is training. Train your staff to ask callers how they found you. Train your clerks to ask while they ring someone up. You can keep a clipboard by the register and the phone where your staff can mark down the answers. Heck, you could even use a fancy spreadsheet.

Spend some time figuring out how to phrase your question. Be specific. You probably don’t want to ask your regulars “How did you hear about us?” You’ll do better with “How did you find us today?”

If you’re tracking phone conversions be sure to tally how many total calls there were in addition to the number of sales made on the phone and how people found your number.

Another option is to get an 800 number that forwards to your main line. Then put that number on your website instead of your regular number. Now you can track the number of calls that came from your website. Of course, that’s another monthly expense.

Now, on the web there are a lot of ways to track conversions. For instance, you can define goals and funnels in Google Analytics or use Google Conversion Tracking. There are great click-tracking systems you can install like Crazy Egg or ClickTale. That’s a separate article though.

This post first appeared in my e-mail newsletter.

Stand Out to Take the Lead – Newsletter 9/2009

The Sun is a Master of Standing Out

I have a question for you this month.

How many marketing messages (commercials, phone calls, junk mail, web ads, everything.) do you think the average American encounters every day? Seriously, stop reading for a second, and take a wild guess. Once you have your guess, read on for the answer.

Marketing is everywhere. Can you think of a single website that doesn’t have marketing in it? They are few and far between. You can’t drive down the street without seeing some marketing. Check your mail or pick up the phone, and it’s there.

Our brains have learned that there are many many distractions in our lives that will lead us to parting with money or at least wasting time. We’re used to it. So we tune the vast majority of it out. We are all skilled at ignoring the noise.

Ready for the answer? First, let me guess what you guessed. I bet you guessed somewhere between three hundred and a thousand. The actual number is a bit hard to measure as you might imagine. According to Bill Glazer (A very successful marketer for those who don’t know the name) the average American encounters 3,191 marketing messages and ads per day. According to J. Walker Smith of Chapel Hill, NC based Yankelovich, in a 2005 USA Today article, the number is between 3,500 and 5,000. Today, it’s likely even higher.

So, why did I spend all this time just to get to that number? Because, I want you to understand just how vital it is for your marketing messages to break through the noise and get noticed. Before long you’ll be competing with ten thousand other marketing efforts every day. To really get that, it helps to think about the question before you learn the answer.

You have to stand out from the competition to take the lead. That goes for websites and search engine marketing in addition to everything else. When your website uses the same looks, lines and messages as your competitors you stay a part of the background noise. When your page comes up in search results it has to grab the searcher’s attention to get clicked. (Being the first result is a great way to get noticed!) When your pay per click ad shows up it will be right next to other ads. It has to stand out.

Get the point?

So, how do you stand out? I say be creative, bold, and real. Bill Glazer will tell you to be outrageous. Don’t be afraid to do something different. Make bold statements. Never underestimate the importance of an eye-catching headline. Whatever you do, be real. We’ve all learned to expect phoniness and misleading statements from marketing. Stand out by being yourself: honest and human.

One last tip. Stop copying your competition’s marketing strategies. The best that can come of that is that you’ll keep pace, a little behind the rest. The worst case is when they’re copying you too. You’ll end up with marketing about as effective as a photocopy of a photocopy is pretty.

As usual, if you’d like some help making your business stand out, get in touch with me. You can hit that reply button right now and get your message straight into my primary in-box.

Know someone who might benefit from this message? Forward it on!

To the Success of Small Businesses Everywhere,

Peter Grandstaff

PS: Hang Gliding is amazing! I can’t recommend Kitty Hawk Kites strongly enough. They also provide a nice example of standing out. Once you pay for your lesson you get all of it, no matter what. If you can’t make it, the wind won’t cooperate, or you just chicken out they will give you a ‘wind-check’ to come back and get whatever you missed at no additional charge. Wind-checks never expire, and they are transferable! Have you ever heard of such a thing!?

SEO & PPC Case Study: Success in the Recession – July 2009 Newsletter

As promised, here is the web version of my July e-mail newsletter. Read on to learn how a small business is making more sales now than before the recession! Thanks to SEO & PPC advertising this dog trainer is selling out his high-end program

I bring news of success in this recession. Best of all, the methods used are accessible to all of you. If you’re not up to reading all this, scroll on down and at least check out the pictures. Then, imagine what this could do for your business.

SEO & PPC Case Study: Canine College of Chapel Hill

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