How to Market Online on One Page
My new WebNova.Net Affordable Website service is online as of today. There seemed to be a crying need for a quick-and-easy website service, for the large number of business folk who know they need a website, but just don’t have the time to follow the step-by-step in my book, and who don’t have the resources to engage me for a full-blown marketing design for their business.
Since so many customers do a search of local business before visiting or calling — and this trend is accelerating with the growth of smartphones — it’s become *essential* to have a location online. Even if it consists of nothing more than What You Offer, some prices or a FAQ, and contact information, you *must* be there, because to the searchers, if they can’t find you … you just don’t exist.
The Affordable Websites service is something I worked out that will do just that.
Get a Website for $99, 3-Day Turnaround
It’s just that simple. Check out WebNova Affordable Websites, and share it with your friends.
And, for those people who need a simple solution like this, I also created a simple one-page summary that describes what works today in online marketing.
Read it here:
The LOCAL Business Marketing Online Boom in 2012
Something odd is happening online, which greatly affects local business marketing online methods. Here are the facts …
Most people search online, even when they’re looking for a LOCAL business … especially with the ongoing tidal wave of smartphone use.
Smartphone Consumers Search a Lot
Statistics from the Google report “The Mobile Movement: Understanding Smartphone Users,” 2011:
- 95% of smartphone users have searched for local information
- 61% of users call a business after searching …
- … and 59% visit the location
- 90% of these people act within 24 hours
The Three Waves of Google
Google, and other search engines have generally gone through three modes of operation, all with the intent of delivering up to the searchers the information that’s most likely to satisfy –
- In the beginning, google simply used title, keywords and meta description .. but it was subject to abuse, and became completely unreliable as the sharpsters got wise and gamed the system
- Then google began to rely upon inbound links, thinking that if external sites thought the current site was important, then that was a ‘vote’ and this worked until sharpsters got smarter and smarter about how to game the system by manipulating external sites
- And in 2011, and in 2012, google is turning toward two other things as a way of gathering votes, on the expectation that these new ‘vote-gathering’ approaches will be harder to manipulate
The Increase of Mobile Phones
Right now, there are about 1.25 billion computers in the world … and 3 billion cellphones. And the trend within the cellphone users is to migrate overwhelmingly to smartphones. By 2013 there will be more people searching via smartphone than via normal desktops and laptops. (Sources: Gartner, 2010; Google Internal Data, 2011; Cisco, 2011)
Since Google’s prime directive is to make happy the searchers, Google is already rewarding folks who have a specialized mobile site, and penalizing those who don’t. People who buy Google’s ‘adwords’ advertising now pay less for their clicks if they have a mobile site, and pay more for their clicks when they don’t. And you can bet your bootie that search results are working the same way … ESPECIALLY google’s mobile search results, which is growing in importance every single day.
The Increase of Social Marketing
As described in my book (“Marketing Online, Clear and Simple,” available on Amazon), making money using the internet only happens when three essential steps are done.
If you are a local business marketing online, here are the essential steps: First is having a location online, a website. Second is some METHOD of engaging visitors in a conversation … otherwise, statistics tell us they visit once, and then never ever return again. And third is a METHOD of increasing traffic to the site.
Guess what?
Social sites like Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In, Digg, and Redit all provide a METHOD of engaging visitors into a conversation, and they all provide a METHOD of increasing traffic to your site.
And social site usage is booming.
The Rise of Local-Business Online Methods
Most local business owners are too busy handling the alligators of daily operation to engage in the rather long and changing learning curve of effectively learning online methods that actually work. Some of them “get a website” but never do the other two essential steps, and then wonder why “the website” doesn’t make a dime.
However, this is going to shift a lot in 2012.
The increase in smartphone usage will provide more local-business searches. The increase in social marketing, including people who run local businesses, and the local “chatter” from their customers … will increase search methods leading to greater foot-traffic into local businesses.
Further, the hijacking of first page search results by online sharpsters will become more difficult, and less profitable. That business model usually amounts to the sharpster seizing google results with the intent of grabbing the results, and then sending the buyer to the seller’s website, while extracting some profit in doing so. That model will become more difficult.
However, the “local” searches for a local business marketing online, such as “divorce attorney in pittsburgh,” will still be effective, and the rise in smartphone searches will make this kind of search more effective. Google development of Google places and local search results will support the accuracy of this kind of search.
The Result: A Boom for Local Businesses
And this represents two opportunities …
- If you are a local business, it will be worth your while to (a) get an effective website, (b) create a conversation system, (c) engineer a traffic-building system.
- If you are an online consultant or web-builder or marketing expert, you will most help your clients with their local business marketing online if you can help them with the “Three Step Marketing” Formula (described in my book), and especially with traffic and promotions using a mobile site, a facebook business page, and the new QR-Codes to snag even more smartphone users.
Is this only for big businesses? Or folks with lots of money?
Not really. Sure, big businesses will have web-gurus, but that’s unchanged from the past, and LOCAL searches won’t be much impacted. Local businesses will either have more money and less time to spend, like attorneys and doctors and hardware stores, and they can hire out the work … or they’ll be smaller and have less money and more time for smoozing on Facebook, like a musician and a hair salon and a local coffee house.
Need Help with your Local Business?
Contact me for a free 15-minute Discovery Session.
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CopyDragon Mobile Site now online!
The CopyDragon mobile site is now online.
When surfing with your mobile phone, just go to CopyDragon.com as usual. Our website will immediately know that you’re using a mobile device, and route you to an optimized website that’s easier to navigate on the phone.
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Note to google (only): the CopyDragon webwriter’s mobile site is located at http://copydragon.com/mob/
Does Your Local Business Need a Website?
[Article By Roy H. Williams , September 19, 2005, reprinted with permission from Entrepreneur.com]
If you want to attract customers, the answer’s a no-brainer.
Websites are perhaps the most overlooked vehicle of advertising for local, owner-operated businesses. Yes, every retailer needs one. Every dentist, lawyer, accountant and minister needs one. Every café, restaurant, coffee shop and nightclub needs one. Every wholesale supply company needs one.
I’m not suggesting that all these businesses need to actually transact business online. I’m only saying that everyone listed in yesterday’s Yellow Pages needs to also be available on the internet today–it’s where your customers expect to find you.
If you’re thinking you might not be able to afford putting up a website, think again. For a simple website, a budget of $2,000 to $5,000 for construction and $100 to $400 for monthly maintenance and updates should cover it. Robust sites with streaming video, opt-in subscriber functions and other, more complicated features can run between $12,000 and $20,000 for construction and $500 to $2,000 for monthly maintenance and updates.
How a Website Helps a Local Business
Properly constructed, a website allows your prospects to gather the information they need from the privacy of their own computer monitors. What are the questions your salespeople answer virtually every day? And how, exactly, would your best salesperson phrase those answers on his or her best day? This is the information that needs to be available 24/7 on your site.
Think of your site as a relationship deepener, a half step between your advertising and your front door. Do you suppose it’s easier to convince customers to visit your web site or to convince them to get in their car, drive to your store, park that car and walk in your door?
The internet is heaven on earth for the 49 percent of our population who are introverted. That’s because introverts strongly prefer to gather information anonymously. They’re unlikely to dial your phone number, except as a last resort. Even more unlikely is that they’ll choose to walk into your store and engage a salesperson. Introverts aren’t necessarily shy–they simply like to gather all the facts before they put themselves in a position where they’ll likely be asked to answer questions. Forty-nine percent of your customers strongly prefer to know what they’re coming to buy before they walk in your door. And even the extroverted 51 percent of your target market will appreciate an informative site that functions as an expert salesperson during all those hours you’re not open for business.
Don’t think for a moment that your customers aren’t already online. Several times a month, I speak to groups of at least several hundred people. And I always ask, “How many of you have used a search engine within the past seven days to research a product or service that you were considering purchasing?” I raise my own hand as soon as the question is finished. The hands raised in response have never been less than 85 to 90 percent of the crowd.
The most interesting of these situations happened about a year ago in Las Vegas. I was the keynote speaker for a trade organization whose 1,600 delegates had been gathered from around the world. I was there to deliver a speech on the keys to more effective advertising. The trade organization published a full-color magazine for their members, and prior to this conference, the executive council had been complaining to me privately about the high cost of publishing and shipping that magazine. I was waiting offstage while the emcee introduced me when the chairman leaned over and whispered, “Almost all our membership is over 55 years of age, so you probably don’t want to mention the internet.” Just then, the emcee finished his jabber and barked, “Roy H. Williams!” I opened my mouth and asked this roomful of oldsters, “How many of you have used a search engine within the past seven days to research a product or service that you were considering purchasing?” You guessed it, about 95 percent.
I think maybe that chairman is still standing offstage with his mouth open.
Roy William’s is Entrepreneur.com’s “Advertising” columnist and the founder and president of international ad agency Wizard of Ads. Roy is also the author of numerous books on improving your advertising efforts, includingThe Wizard of Ads and Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads.
The “Zero Moment of Truth”?
Marketing, and selling things, changes over the years. These days it changes quickly.
In many cases, the deal is … your business either adapts … or dies. I’ve had a couple of businesses die, where I failed to find a way to adapt to the changing market. I’ve felt the pain, first hand.
The search behemoth, Google, has published an interesting view about marketing. I’d never heard of this before. It’s called the “Zero Moment of Truth.” This idea came from Proctor & Gamble, the soap barons, who know a thing or two about marketing. They apparently came up with this idea in 2005.
Here’s what the “Zero Moment of Truth” means … Read more
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