Here, we like work with other agencies and specialty publishers, providing valuable hints, tips and services to raise your online and offline profile. From August, we’ll be featuring short articles in the new Start-Up Magazine. A new easy-to-read technology magazine for small businesses, who often struggle coming to grips with, and take advantage of new technologies.

This is a superb publication with some fantastic contributors including Debbie Mayo Smith, who many will know from her Friday business articles in the Herald and numerous books on e-marketing.

Our own articles will look at innovative tools for the startup business. Key topics we’ll cover this year will include:

• Get more out of Google’s Search & Business Apps
• Super-effective Business Websites using WordPress
• The Hidden Gem for Small Biz – Mobile Marketing! 

Also in this incredible magazine you’ll find loads of other money-saving articles on new software, PC security, email marketing, social media, the best telecoms options, online accounting, new networking / partnership opportunities, legal tips, small business marketing roadmaps and more…

To learn more, email the editor, Duncan Campbell, or phone them on (09) 973 5957

• Over 75% of purchases for products and services, start with a Google search.
• There are now 32 billion searches a month on Google, up from 2.6 billion in 2007.
• Yet 90% of people will never go beyond the first page of a Google search result.

Getting found on Google’s page one has always been a huge challenge, especially for small businesses. Google has recently introduced some new tools specifically for small business owners to make it much easier  -  Google’s small business listings, now called Google Places.

Places is perfect for those wanting to find more customers, locally. It’s probably now easier to get on page one if you’re selling locally, than if you’re selling products or services nationally or internationally. This is a big, welcome change.

How does it work?

Firstly, when searchers put a local modifier on their searched term it has 100% “local intent”.  Google “gets this” and this is why they then automatically serve up their Google Places listing, as shown below, with a local map.

All we have to do is make sure your business details are being listed with Google and displayed properly for those types of searches. When combined with a search-optimised small business website, you will be guaranteed laser-targeted leads.

Do not underestimate the importance of these types of searched phrases used by customers. If you are say a plumber in Auckland, it’s best for you to show up for a searched term like “Auckland Plumber” that has a search volume of around 1,000 per month. This healthy figure is typical of most services tied to home maintenance, hair/beauty services, pet care, printing, car parts, accommodation and professional services like Doctors, Dentists, Accountants, Lawyers.

No surprises to find that the king of the local google search (over 40,000/mth for Auckland), is around our leisure time, seeking out good restaurants, bars and entertainment.

Mobile-ready too!

A recent Google Places feature is full mobile-compatibility. And you don’t need to download any special app to your smartphone. Checkout their video, right.  Remember unlike Yellow, Google doesn’t charge for this listing service. It’s just needs someone like ourselves to enter the right information, optimise the descriptions, photos and related links.

Part of our service is to help optimise your website as well as get you listed in other directories. This is important to Google, since it’s a validation of who you are, and your online business profile. The better your online business profile, the higher your ‘places’ listing.

These are Hot Leads – These are Buyers!

The bottom line is keyword phrases with local city modifiers have huge buying intent – They have already done their searching and now they are ready to buy LOCALLY.  Something broad like “Plumber” could mean a million things like a kids school project, that is not directly related to specifically plumbing services in Auckland the way “Auckland Plumber” is.

It’s a really great service by Google and we want to ensure you get a piece of the action.

“My web site isn’t working! No one is visiting and I’m not getting any new clients. What’s the best way for me to get found on the Internet; should I buy GoogleAds; start a blog?”

A business blog is a very good idea and Google’s amazing services help too – but consider this:

Just about every professional we meet is under the mistaken belief that all you need is a great looking website. Not only that, many are in some stage of “re-doing” their websites, usually at great expense and with long delays. Unfortunately, the revised website alone rarely brings better results. The secret is to get people to the site and those looking for a business or service provider use Google. And Google doesn’t care less what a site looks like.

Expertly optimising your website or blog so the Google Search engine (and hence customers) can find it is the real trick to more sales leads. This is referred to as Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO for short.

Setting up a Google Places listing and a GoogleAds ‘pay per click’ account is essential too, which involves a wide variety of specialist techniques and tricks, but each paying huge dividends.

And don’t go one of those cheap sites, the very worst being those offered by the NZ Yellow Pages. These not only look bad, but have very low rankings, since they can’t even be indexed by Google, meaning you’ll never be found! As is often said about the internet and websites:

If you can’t be found, you don’t exist.

What else? Keep the site content interesting, relevant and updated

Another major factor to keep a high listing is to understand that Google ‘likes’ sites that have regularly updated, relevant content. If your site provides no easy way for you to update content each week, then you’ll quickly disappear off the Google search result. And it’s not just Google that will start to ignore you, your regular clients will too!

Setting up a low cost, expertly optimised business blog helps, since these sites encourage you to change content. Microsoft provides an amazing free tool call Windows LiveWriter that makes updating a free or business blogsite a breeze. (An old review video, right)

And much to the horror of professional web designers, these simple, cheap blogs usually get a far higher search result, in less time, than most fancy [expensive] corporate websites. This I guess is great news for small businesses trying to compete against the big Corporates or retail chains.

Today a $2,000 customised and branded business blog competes well against the $20,000 sites!

Become Mobile-friendly

The other little-known benefit in having a blog style website using WordPress.org or similar technology, is that these simple sites are technically much easier (and cheaper) to make mobile-compatible. i.e. Better for those that visit your site using their mobile phone browser.

This is important, especially if you sell products in the 15-35yr old marketplace where 3G and internet-compatible phones are the rage. More and more people are now using their mobile phone to surf the net, not their bigger laptop or PC.  This means a smart mobile-optimised website is vital today and can give you a real edge. These days you don’t even have to spend much to get a good 3G phone with internet capabilities. Nokia and Vodafone have models starting from $150.

A ‘standard’ html website expertly created by most web designers can take 30-60 seconds to load on a mobile phone browser. Yet most people will ditch you after waiting just 6-8 seconds. There are easy ways to get a report on your current website and methods to upgrade it – Example report above.

Friends in high places

Having connections in bigger companies helps too. i.e. If you’re part of, or have an agency from a major brand, ensure you get a link from their site to yours. Likely their website has good traffic and a high google ranking. This alone not only helps your traffic, but your own ranking and website grading.

It’s not about spending a lot of money to be found on the net. It’s about being a little smarter how you go about it. This is where we can help…

We already know that email isn’t perfect and is constantly battling with spam filters. Delivery is a big problem and for a while, I really thought this technical issue was the main reason that email open rates were so low, typically 10-30%.

Yet email experts tell us that the subject line is critical too and fine tuning this did provide some modest improvements pushing up rates as high as 35-40%.  Then  I noticed a couple of my clients individual campaigns achieved over  65% open rates, which for email marketing is almost unheard of. Obviously my old emails were getting through, but people were simply deleting them, since the focus was, quite naturally, on a new product offering or service. So, which campaign ‘subjects’ got opened at these high 65% rates?

Well, it wasn’t those messages about new products, services, business opportunity or even [surprisingly] how to save money. Clear winners were those where the subject line and content was more on helping others, charitable works or personal interest stories. (These were often added as an afterthought). Yes, it seems even your customers may want to know if one of your staff is getting married, having children, celebrating an achievement or more often, know more about your charitable efforts or a local children’s fundraiser that you (and they) could help out.

It’s not just about selling – It’s about how messages make us feel

My own theory is that this type of message creates a tiny bond between the recipient and your company, or rather, your people. The lesson here is that your email communications should focus more around topics people can actually relate to, are relevant and perhaps makes them feel better as a person. Invoke an emotional response, which is something top marketers and psychologists have told us for decades. Its been proven that buying decisions are nearly always made from the emotional, not logical side of the brain. Feelings, it is said, is the language of the soul. Invoking feelings means you become less of a big corporate, and more a human being. It obviously builds trust and a closer relationship, which if nurtured will help build your business in the long term.

It perhaps reminds us that we are in fact human, not just another sales opportunity for someone….

Maybe it’s also the fact that we’re being bombarded with clinical, impersonal sales messages every day, and these little personal interest stories suddenly stand out. A tiny light in the darkness called marketing. It reminds us that we are in fact human beings, not just another sales opportunity or prospect for someone.

Where is Emails Sweet Spot?

I think even using the term email marketing puts us on the wrong foot today. Maybe email should be less about ‘marketing’ or selling, and all about educating, communicating and relationship building at a more personal level. It’s certainly what our readers seem to want.

Copywriters who write for all media channels have long noted that email alone is not good at pure lead generation. In fact it’s a very bad choice. Too many like to use it this way purely because it is perceived to be cheap and easy to do. But even if you’re able to find or build an email list (which isn’t a cheap process),  sending out a product-focused email blast, like you’d put an ad in a magazine, to those you have no prior relationship with produces very poor results and likely to antagonize people. In fact they’ll probably blacklist or filter out your companies email address so that future emails are never seen, even if they do have some real benefit.

However for existing clients we already know and have permission to communicate with, email appears much more efficient and more cost-effective than other media – Ideal for nurturing that relationship and keeping your clients loyal.

Considering that finding a new client is 5x more costly than retaining (or regaining) one, this puts email in a very powerful and critical position in any company’s business strategy. And keeping a more human face on our email messages ensures that they’ll be opened, read and treasured.

It’s a sign of the times. Many more people go online to find a new product or business service provider. In some countries, the old Yellow Pages book is on it’s last printing in 2010. However when we look logically, where are most people going when looking online for a business or home service provider? Is it Yellow Pages or Google?

Studies tell us that Google is king here, with many more people using them to find local businesses than Yellow.  In some sectors over ten times more people. Googles services do more for business and for a fraction of the cost of any Yellow Pages listing – Book or online. don’t believe us? Here’s a view from another online marketer in the US. This trend is global…

It’s the end of an era for Yellow Pages books and for urban business, a listing in their yellow books is hard to cost-justify.

However, we don’t recommend dropping your Yellow Pages online listing. In fact if you don’t have one, organise it asap (after canceling your yellow book listing).  Spending $100-$200 (max) per month on their Gold online listing is still worthwhile, and those who have made the change from paper to online report 2-3 times more leads per month, for a lower monthly cost.

Google + Yellow.co.nz  -  The Dynamic Duo

But if most people are going to Google.co.nz instead of Yellow.co.nz then why keep yellow? Somewhat ironically, Google sees you as more credible and hence worthy of a higher (free) Google search listing, if you’re appearing in large third party trade directories.  i.e. Just having a Yellow Pages website listing, can get you a higher result in Googles free organic and places listings, where most people search!

Strange but true. It’s something your Yellow Pages rep won’t know about or even believe…. To avoid crushing their ego and getting into arguments, best keep this gem to yourself.

It can be used for automatically distributing instant coupons or offers, plus sending out texts as a reminder service to existing clients. It’s not spam, simply doing them a great service and most people really appreciate it.

Mobile text services are ideal for Restaurants, Retailers, Car service companies, Dentists, Doctors, Beauty Salons, Event marketers, etc. Anyone that makes booking for clients and wants a reliable, affordable way to send out special offers or reminders on the day. The ROI is amazing in terms of bottom line and customer loyalty.

 For those in many small businesses this feature has immense benefits and often saves the cost of paper and stamps and it’s instant. And unlike sending individually from your cellphone, or even emails, sending of these text reminders using an online service is more automated, reliable, able to be pre-programmed, expertly managed and everything tracked. Better for the accountants.

Mobilise Your Business Today

Our TEXT messaging services start from under a $100 per month. The systems provide a complete online text campaign management and scheduling service, with reporting. Start your own smart business text messaging service today to distribute reminders, information or coupons.

John Jantsch, the small business marketing expert behind Duct Tape Marketing, has done it again. This time, he shares a valuable lesson about how to get your customers to market for you through the power of word of mouth. But this isn’t a typical business self-help book…

For starters, The Referral Engine begins with a physiology lesson about how the hypothalamus, a tiny section of our brains, is hard wired to make referrals in order to build credit in the community and connect with others. The book then goes on to explain how you can leverage this psychological need to grow your business.

But the book is so much more than a psychology lesson. It also offers a systematic approach for growing your business through word of mouth marketing, including proven strategies for establishing a referral program and practical tools for putting the system in place. Some of these strategies include:

• Talking with your customers, not at them. Thanks to social networking sites, companies of any size have the opportunity to engage with their customers on their home turf as never before—but the key is listening.
• Leveraging your sales team as a marketing tool. Sales people are the company’s main link to customers, who are the main source of referrals. Getting them on board with your referral strategy is critical.
• Educating your customers. Referrals are only helpful if they’re given to the right people. Educate your customers about whom they should be talking to.

Most obviously centres around digital technology and the net, which is good news for the small business owner, since the costs are generally much lower than marketing via traditional channels. However although Google, email and your website are the most important,  for some businesses, they will still need to allocate some annual budget for traditional print, broadcast and direct mail campaigns.

Marketing guru Dan Kennedy once noted “We’re in a war, and ALL channels are important today.”

The Human Factors

Oh, and let’s never forget the human factors. Here we talk of the tools of marketing. But people buy from people and your business and personality needs to be reflected in every communication you chose to use. Referrals and networking events are especially important for small business growth. But ensure before you leave you encourage everyone there to check you out online, subscribe to your business keyword, email newsletters, Facebook or Youtube channel. The incentive could be to go into a prize draw or a special offer. Once you’ve captured their details online, it’s easy to keep in touch.

Make the connections relevant and memorable. And have a good follow-up system in place. There’s now ample online tools we use that makes this task easy and painless.

We mentioned earlier of using industry-standard website technologies like WordPress, being a stunning, affordable, super-reliable technology that enjoys the support of thousands of developers, and millions of users worldwide.

What’s especially neat is the ability to bring in a new ‘look’ or extra function in minutes through it’s amazing plug ins

There is a plugin specifically for WordPress to handle online shopping. Best of all, it’s been developed by a New Zealand developer, Instinct. Considering that 99% of WordPress developers are based offshore, then we’re especially blessed to have these guys here.

Instinct don’t normally build a shopping site for you, but provide the low cost toolsets for people like ourselves to quickly add a slick shopping card to an existing WordPress-based website. Generally just a day’s additional work is all that’s required to set it up.

Amazing.

We were discussing the fact that the only reason I knew the place existed was because I’d walked past the storefront window and had gotten curious about what was inside.

"No." His face twisted in an uncomfortable grimace of shame. "I wanted one, but… we’ll be announcing in the local newspaper," he perked hopefully. "Soon. We haven’t really done anything yet…"

I notice this problem all the time with brick-and-mortar businesses – lawyer offices, boutiques, clothing stores, restaurants… Owners pour their money into traditional advertising and ignore the internet, or they treat it like an afterthought. They don’t think a website is useful, and they’re all about direct marketing in the ways they know best.

Newspaper ads. Fliers. Brochures. Word of mouth.

And maaaaaybe, if they’re really avant-garde, they had their sister’s 19-year-old son build an amateur website or perhaps one of those nasty $20/mth jobs from the Yellow Pages or web hosting company.

Yeah. Mistake. Big one. Huge.

I see the same mistake happening all the time with new freelancers coming to the internet. Writers, designers, marketers, consultants… No site. No blog. Just some email and uncomfortable squirming. And they wonder why they aren’t getting business.

The problem is that people used to the "real world" or who have physical businesses just don’t know about the power of using the internet as a marketing tool. And even when I explain how much more business they could get out of having a website (or even better, a blog) and get them all excited about it, they don’t have the first clue what to do, or how to do it.

That’s where we can help, putting together a simple online strategy to help brick and mortar business get more customers, and keep them.