Attracting Customers the New Old Fashioned Way.

 

As I sit here preparing to write another article outlining the fall of the local Yellow Page directory, a call comes into my office and is routed to one of our Internet marketing consultants.  The caller is interested in learning more about our Internet marketing services. Potential leads calling my office is a fairly common occurrence, what’s uncommon about this particular caller is the way in which he found us - the local Yellow Pages. Talk about timing, I didn’t even realize we were in the Yellow Pages!

 

 So, does this change my opinion of the big yellow lug? No.

The Yellow Page directory is a paper dinosaur and not long for this world. Yes, we did get a lead from it today, one lead, not a very good one and the first lead from the yellow book in seven years!

 

Are the Yellow Pages completely useless? Not completely, even dinosaurs served a purpose. If not for the mass extinction of the dinosaurs what would all those paleontologists do?  Speaking of extinction, if you market or sell to senior citizens the yellow book may prove to be of some value in attracting customers however, this as well will be short lived. As today’s seniors move on to greener pastures they are being replaced by aging baby boomers. Boomers make up a third of all internet users and they are bringing their Internet know-how with them as they enter their golden years. The one thing these boomers are not bringing with them is their big yellow book.

 

Another nail in the yellow coffin has been the generation every business is talking about, the “Millennials”.  Millennials are those born between 1980 and 1995 (give or take a year or two) and their numbers on the Internet rival those of the boomers. And guess what? More than three quarters of them don’t remember a world without the Internet and a large percentage of them have never picked up a Yellow Pages directory in their life!

 

So what’s a local business to do when looking to market to a local audience?

 

Just like the dinosaurs the Yellow Page directory has evolved (assuming you buy into that evolution stuff).  The powers-that-be at the Yellow Pages believe that SuperPages.com and Yellowpages.com (referred to as “IYP”, short for Internet Yellow Pages) are the vehicles to keep them out of the tar pit.

 

Don’t go waiving your terrible towels in praise for the yellow mammoth just yet. IYP’s are still fairly new to the online search game and they face some pretty stiff competition. Mega search giants Google, Yahoo! and MSN have invested heavily in developing local search tools and they’re playing to win.

 

Search volume within the IYP’s for local products and services pales in comparison to the searches done in the major search engines (Google, Yahoo!, MSN etc.). Does that mean IYP’s have no value? Depending on your customers and your offerings marketing with the IYP might be a huge success or a miserable failure.

 

Here’s an example.

I have a client that operates a small regional chain of NJ car audio stores. They have been in business since the 70’s and have always advertised in the Yellow Pages. Recently they shifted to an IYP marketing solution to the tune of $1,800.00 per month.  Once my company took over the development of their new website and Internet marketing services we began to measure where there website visitors were coming from. We noticed that they were consistently getting 47 visitors per month originating from SuperPages.com. We compared that number with the visitors they were getting from Google and it wasn’t even close. Google consistently delivered over 7,000 visitors a month compared to the 47 from SuperPages.com.

 

Maybe the 47 visitors per month were high quality leads and worth $1,800.00 per month? We did the math. 47 visitors at $1,800.00 per month is $38.30 per visitor. Their average conversion rate from website visitor to lead is 10%.  Out of 47 visitors they can expect to be contacted by 5 potential customers (rounding up) which makes the cost of acquisition $360.00 per new lead. An average gross sale for one of their retail locations is $300.00 with an average gross profit margin of 20%. If they turned every lead into a sale they would have a net loss of -$300.00 per customer. In this case, SuperPages.com is clearly not worth it.

 

The success of any Internet marketing solution whether local or global is commensurate with the economics of the products or services you offer. I have another client where IYP works very well.  This particular client is a NJ Mercedes Benz dealer. They generate roughly the same amount of visitors from their IYP marketing as does the NJ car audio dealer however they sell a much larger ticket item not to mention the enormous lifetime value of a Mercedes Benz buyer.  

 

How can you get the most out of local search advertising?

Marketing in general is not for the faint hearted. In order to prevent your head from exploding you need to be more than a little risk tolerant. I’m sure you’ve heard the old adage, “you win some you lose some”? I have a slightly different mantra, “You lose some to win some”.  Failure is a pre-condition to success. Don’t be afraid to try something new, step out of your comfort zone and you just may be surprised with the results.

 

The great thing about Internet marketing is that EVERYTHING is measurable. If something is working you can tell. Adversely if something is not working you can try and make it better or cut your losses and shift budget to a program that you know works.  The only way you can truly fail is if you don’t take the time and effort to measure and manage your local marketing. If you have a set-it and forget-it mindset, Internet marketing is not for you.
Go waste your money on billboards.

 

No matter what online service you use to market locally be sure the service you choose offers statistics and reporting on the activity generated by your advertisement.

 

Measurement statistics you must have at a bare minimum:

 

·         CTR or Click thru rate. This will give you a percentage of how many people viewed your ad and then clicked on it.

·         Actual clicks. You need to know how many people in a given period clicked on your ad and visited your website.

Any online marketing service worth it’s salt (what does that even mean)should be able to provide you with these stats and if they can’t don’t  use them.

 

Measurements you can do without:
Impressions. Ad agencies (my favorite people in the world) and online advertising sites are famous for touting how many “impressions” your ad had. This is how many times your ad is viewed by a searcher no matter if they click on it or not. This number is always large and in any search scenario, irrelevant. No one ever remembers what they don’t click on.

 

A few tips for succeeding in local search advertising:

 

·         Get the absolute most out of your advertisement space.  Make sure you put as much information into your ad as allowed. Google Local allows hours of operation, pictures (a logo goes a long way here), videos, links to your website, multiple categories, payment types and more. Use everything offered to you, you never know what will connect with a potential customer.

·         Use as many listing enhancements as budget allows. Most local search sites offer enhanced listings such as bold text, colored background or even preferential placement. With all the choices today’s connected customer has you need to do whatever it takes to get your marketing to stand out in the crowd.

·         Think like a customer. Remember, customers search for problems not solutions so be sure to address their needs in your ads and speak their language. Forgo the industry jargon in lieu of the problems you can help a customer solve.  The better you connect with their needs the better your chances they will connect with you.

·         Utilize your peers and their experience. See what works and doesn’t work for others in your industry. People love to talk about their successes and adversely complain about poor services. Just be sure to take everything your told with a grain of salt (two salt references in the same article) and try to get details. Should your peer have the set-it and forget-it mentality the service was doomed from the door.

I know this looks like a lot of work and that’s because it is but the effort pays big dividends. If you think showing up properly and productively in local search isn’t worth the effort, then gather up all of your employees for a moment of group prayer and pray that your competition thinks just like you.

Larry is the best selling author of the marketing book, “Mommy, Where Do Customers Come From?” and is a renowned professional keynote and conference speaker, speaking 30 times per year to organizations across the country.

I recently had the opportunity sit down with him and talk about the Internet Marketing landscape.
Here is the transcript of part two of a two part interview:
(If you missed part one click here)

Steve: One question I get from people thinking about starting an online business is “do I need an Internet marketing plan”? What is your philosophy on this type of thing?

Larry: That’s an easy one. 100% yes. A plan is crucial. You would not build a bird-house without a plan why would you not take the time to create one for your business? The Internet is now and will continue to play a critical role in every company’s ability to attract qualified customers. There are few companies out there that are not adding Internet marketing to their overall marketing strategy. You leave it out and you get left behind. We live in a clickable culture and to ignore that fact would be foolish.

Steve: As a follow up question, what are the typical types of Internet marketing services involved in an Internet marketing plan?

Larry: That would vary depending on the type of business and where potential customers can be found for your offerings. Some people would have you believe if it exists than you need to do it. I could not disagree more. I only want to be where my customers are. If my potential customers are on Facebook I’ll be there. If I cannot identify that there is opportunity for me on MySpace than I will move on.

You need to investigate everything and only take on the solutions that have the opportunity for return. Take note, I said opportunity for return not guaranteed return. If you’re looking for guarantees buy a car.

The one constant that every marketing plan should have is a focus on the website. A company’s website is the center of their marketing universe. Everything points to your website, social networking, blogs. Brochures, whitepapers, email everything. Even handing someone a business card leads to them saying, “I’ll go check out your website”.

Just having a website is not enough. You need to be 100% convinced that it will attract, connect with and convert potential customers. We have taken good websites and made them great by insuring that nothing is left up to chance. Every element, line of text, hyperlink and image exists for one reason, to persuade a potential customer.

If your marketing plan does not contain a hard focus on creating a customer centric website you are short changing every other marketing solution you put forth.

Steve: Since you are both product and service-focused clients, are they different in any way? What are some distinctions in how you focus their Internet marketing strategies?

Larry: Primarily product and service companies are different only in their sales processes and by that I mean the last part of a sale. Product sales are more transaction oriented. Services are more relationship oriented and utilize a consultative selling model.

Contrary to popular belief there is little difference between the two when it comes to Internet marketing. The reason for this is that the customer is the same. Buying behavior is very similar from product to service. I rarely change my buying habits based on what I’m buying. I still need to know I’m making the right choice which means you have to inspire confidence in your potential clients. We have to instill trust, professionalism and expertise. All three of these qualities are vital for both products and services.

Both types of sales end with a success transaction. The product sales ends much sooner as the success transaction is the purchase / ordering of said product. Service transaction success online is a different success transaction, typically a contact choice. At the point of contact the sales process for a service continues off-line.

Steve: To close our interview I would like to get a “Top 5” from you. Since we are facing some tough economic times ahead for possibly the next 12-18 months, what are the Top 5 things you would recommend to companies to leverage their Internet marketing strategy?

Larry: I recently spoke at an Affiliate Summit event in NYC. After the event I followed the chatter about my presentation online via blog’s, twitter, forums and across multiple social networks. My favorite quote was, “Larry Bailin is a brilliant non-traditional e-marketer”. That being said I’m going to apologize in advance because my top 5 are not the average picks I see others pushing such as, video, twitter, Facebook and alike.

1. Strive to put the marketing back into Internet marketing. I’ve watched e-business evolve into business and now I watch as Internet marketing evolves into marketing. Internet marketing is not a technology solution. The technology has become ubiquitous. True results will come from the connection your solutions make with potential customer. Making a connection is a core fundamental in order for any marketing to succeed.

2. When hiring any Internet marketing company you must be sure they do not build anything for you. You are not hiring them to build things to make you happy; you need them to make your customers happy. My company strives to look though our customers. Everything we build or develop is designed for our customers’ customers.

When an Internet marketing company can build solution that makes your customers happy, trust me, you’ll be happy.

3. Measure, modify, test, measure and repeat. Just because your solutions are producing does not mean they cannot be better, in fact I guarantee they can be better. There is no such thing as perfect. Even our country’s constitution alludes to a grammatical fallacy, “a more perfect union”. There is no such thing as, “more perfect” but the concept is sound, never settle for perfect.

Always measure, modify, test and measure again. Push your solutions to the limit. Now more than ever you need to insure you’re getting the most from your budget, nothing is ever perfect.

4. Step outside of your comfort zone. I did a podcast with eight (8) time Mr. Olympia winner Ronnie Coleman a couple of years ago. Ronnie is considered one of the best in the sport. He has won eight (8) consecutive Mr. Olympia titles in a row and is tied with Lee Haney for the most wins ever. No one has ever won nine (9) titles (consecutive or otherwise). When Ronnie went for his world record ninth win he lost to Jay Cutler.

When interviewed in my studio he was asked if he was going to retire. He answered, “no way! I’m going back to win number nine”. When asked if it was possible to be bigger and better than he currently was, without missing a beat he stated, “absolutely! I just can’t keep doing the same things that got me here and expect to grow. I have to add more weight to the bar”. As marketers we have to develop what I now affectionately call, “Marketing Muscle” and like Ronnie Coleman, add more weight to the bar.

5. Make time before all you have is time. More often than I care to hear I’m told by my customers that they do not have the time needed to do everything I recommend. My answer is always the same, “You need to make time before all you have is time. If your competitors find the time they will take your customers and then you will have more time”.

To read he original interview click here

Two of my favorite restaurant chains have fallen victim to the economy and possibly disconnected marketing. Bennigan’s and Steak & Ale have filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection and stores owned by its parent company will shut their doors.

The news appeared to be a shock to most of the company’s employees, but some may have had an inkling that the company was not doing well. Steve, a Bennigan’s waiter in Plano Texas, said he recently went from making $30 on a good lunch shift to only $10. “Business has been slow,” said Steve, who said he relies on tips. “I went from making a lot of money on a shift to making very little.

I’ve shared many a laugh and a meal within the walls of these two restaurants and I’m sad to see them go. I fear this is just the beginning for the restaurant industry unless a major marketing mind shift takes place.

At first glance the closing of these two casual dining mainstays seems to be indicative of the economy. Sure the economy has something to do with it but I’m not 100% convinced all the blame lies on the economic downturn.

I have been a keynote speaker for the New Jersey Restaurant Association numerous times and my Internet marketing company has prominent restaurant clients such as Charlie Browns Steak House, The Palm Restaurant, Glen Rock Inn and New Brunswick, New Jersey’s historic Frog and The Peach, I’ve been privy to conversations about the economic outlook and its effect on the restaurant industry, casual dining specifically.

Yes people are not dining out as much and when they are they are either going somewhere quick and cheap or making it special by going somewhere a bit more high end and memorable. Diners have literally cut out the middle man! Casual dining has taken a huge hit while their gourmet and fast food counterparts also feeling the effects of a slow economy are able to survive and even thrive.

Take my Internet marketing client The Frog and The Peach for example. It is one of the best restaurants in NJ and saw the economic writing on the wall. Its management began to shift marketing efforts from offline marketing to online marketing in order to target diners looking for, “something special” on which spend their hard earned money .

In a few not- so- easy steps (nothing good ever comes easy) they were able to take advantage of an opportunity that came from the economic fallout.

Step One
Create a new and improved professional website development strategy that let diners looking for that special experience know that the Frog and The Peach atmosphere, customer service and cuisine is exactly what they are looking for. A place where they can satisfy their appetite and their need to feel their money was well spent.

Step Two
Use search engine optimization strategies to target core search phrases hungry diners are searching for when they want the best. Type (without quotes) “Best Restaurants in NJ” into Google and you’ll see The Frog and The Peach on page one.

Step Three
Keep a strict diet of regular fresh content, delicious events and scrumptious news to entice previous diners and keep the site intriguing to search engines that are driving valuable dining masses.

These steps illustrate how a high end restaurant is working harder and smarter to stay ahead of economic failure. But what about the struggling middle market, the casual dining restaurant? After all, they are the ones that are hurting and in need of an Internet marketing strategy.

Charlie Browns’ sister establishment, The Office is hoping to attract new and existing clients by leveraging the informal social atmosphere of their brew pub while at the same time touting their affordable but delectable menu to patrons at their exact time of need. Here are the steps they have planed to incorporate in order to avoid the effects of the economic slump .

Step One
Create a professional website development strategy that allows diners to take advantage of the social interaction the Internet is becoming known for. Patrons will be able to upload pictures of their friends enjoying a drink at the brew pub right from their cell phones. Allowing friends to comment on these images on the restaurant’s website when they get home will help to create a much needed viral component for the restaurant.

Step Two
A mobile version of the restaurant’s website will allow a potential customer to use their mobile phone not only to search for an area restaurant, but peruse restaurant specials and events. This is a great feature for those leaving a movie looking for a local hot spot to grab a bite with friends.

Yes the economy is terrible and there seems to be no end in sight but the companies that have succeeded in tough times historically were the ones that sought out opportunity while their competitors whined about how tough things were.

The Frog and the Peach and The Office Restaurant are two restaurants that are hungry enough to make a change and prove that they have something to offer no matter what the economy throws at them.

Happy marketing and Bonappetit.

Let’s file this under “how not to convert a website visitor”. I’ve been toying with the idea of buying a new home. As 90% of all people in the market for a new home do, I went online to view homes in my area. I was happy to see all the helpful features real estate websites offer such as virtual tours, tons of detailed area information, maps and even the ability to save properties I like for a later visit. This feature in particular interested me as it allows me to narrow down my choices over time, print a detailed list and show it to a realtor when I’m ready to select one.  When I am ready to choose a realtor my guess is that I would have called one whose website I’ve established the best relationship with. That’s right, I said establish a relationship with a website. When a site makes a connection you inevitably establish a relationship. You see websites are like virtual sales people (in this case virtual realtors). In sales terms, websites are “openers”. They find the leads and build report. Once report is built a “closer” needs to step in and make the deal happen.  A website builds relationship by allowing me to find what I’m looking for easily, giving me great content that fits my needs and all the tools I need to research and make an educated decision as to what my next steps should be. 

Now no matter how good a website is at establishing a relationship it can all go wrong in the blink of an eye. The sales process can go sour if the relationship is abused. I mentioned tools that allowed me to save my searches. In order to use these tools you inevitably have to give some information up. I’m okay with giving my contact information in order to use this helpful tool. 

I expected an email to come at some point letting me know that when I’m ready to choose a realtor they are ready to help me. That email never came instead I got a phone call from “Juanita”. Juanita left a message on my voice mail telling me exactly which properties I’d looked at and that she wants to show them to me right away before they are sold because of course, they are HOT, HOT, HOT! 

Well Juanita, you’ll never get to show me those properties because you abused the relationship, you took it too far and quite simply made me feel like my privacy was invaded. You see the great thing about the web is anonymity. Everyone is a supermodel or a rock star behind the keyboard but once someone takes that from you, you quickly realize that you’re just fat and naked typing with two fingers. 

Don’t abuse the tools you offer your clients in good faith. Don’t take the relationship for granted. Give your potential clients the respect they think they deserve and it will pay off in the long run. Juanita didn’t respect her potential client and lost a big fat commission check. Maybe next time she’ll buy me dinner before trying to get me in the sack? –There’s a process for everything.