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A couple years ago I built a small site that a local building maintenance business uses strictly as a brochure (to avoid printing and direct mail costs). I couldn't interest them in any online marketing.
Now the manager tells me they have lost a lot of failed dotcoms as customers and are feeling the pinch.
So, I'd like to pitch him on doing location based online marketing, probably starting with inexpensive Google AdWords Select.
Never done local web marketing before so:
1. Any general tips?
2. Any Google tips?
3. How do people do geographic location searches? Google has no tips on that in their online docs. Most searchers are novices and may not know how to combine search terms for topic and location. Any way to help them out?
4. What local web resources do you usually use?
TIA!
If the are a Mom and Pop store in back woods Arkansas selling potent potables it may not be the best idea. On the other hand if they are a company or corporation in Kalifornia that sells an item that is in demand it would be a good idea, but it all comes back to the customer;
Are they going to make the money spent in Ad words back or do they just want to spend some money?
If they dont see a need to be on the net I would not waste my time.
Most of my clients are california based. I'm surprised at the number of searches I see in the stats that are either city or state specific.
Targeting the proper regional categories in Yahoo! and the ODP is essential in promoting these types of businesses.
When it comes to Google, here is a little insight that has really helped my clients to inch their way into the top positions for regionally specific searches...
I use an include at the bottom of every page that has the clients address, spelled out, not abbreviated! Almost every time that I do a search for regionally specific terms, those terms are highlighted in the address at the bottom of the page. Having that address on each page helps to establish a regional theme also!
miles: The building maintenance company services the whole county and is the biggest in the county (30 employees? 10 trucks?). Certainly bigger than a mom 'n pop. They have a dedicated sales staff that can handle many inquires per day. This is a county just north of San Francisco and has lots of small to medium businesses and a few multi-nationals. They already do local advertising. They have no interest in obline marketing, but I think that's just because of ignorance.
pageoneresults: Thanks, good tips! And I always but address, phone and email link on the bottom of every page. That should help.
For a building maintenance company, you could set up a "clients' area" where existing contracted clients can log in to place emergency service requests, or whatnot... If you had an office with a computer and someone to staff it 24-7, you could offer a 24 hour-a-day online emergency service reporting. When the person in the little office gets the emergency service report email, he/she dispatches someone to deal with it.
Many companies dont know enough about the internet to know how to use it for advertising so they are afraid. They are a large company so they understand the importance of marketing, the internet is one of many ways to market a product on a national level and local. I am sure that if you pitch it right they will swing at it. If they dont you could just let them sit in their cave and be done with it. Dont give yourself headaches if you dont have to.
Local California client builds a brochureware site. Within 60 days incoming visitors are over 2,000 per month with 40% of that coming from search engine queries.
Within 60 days of that, client secures a $100,000+ contract to provide their equipment to a local company who searched for their product using a city specific search query. That city name is mentioned at least one on each page of the site in the footer include. We also have sections set up that target each city and provide maps of the areas that are on regular service routes.
Another example...
Client launches new regional web site. Offers a manufactured product that is in a niche market. Within 120 days after the sites launch, the web site has generated over $60,000 in sales. Not through online ordering, but through the online contact form and incoming phone requests!
It is very important that you have that static footer at the bottom of each page. In that footer should be the companies legal name, physical address (no abbreviations) and contact numbers including local, toll free and fax numbers. I also include the info@ email address.
There is one thing that I am very good at; convincing companies that an online presence is mandatory! If they ever have any doubt, I usually show them the results of a few clients and also share the above stories with them.
It sounds like you have the perfect opportunity to shine in this case. You just need to convince them that their initial investment will most likely pay for itself with 90-120 days if promoted properly.
Oh, and by the way, all those trucks? Plaster that web site address on the doors, rear and anywhere else where it would be highly visible. My one client has 15 trucks and all of them display the web address next to their toll free number. Those trucks are out and about 24 hours a day!
We put together some local sites to see how well one could promote a "local" business on the web. We found that this was something we should tried long ago.
Even with highly competitive keywords, it is relatively easy to get good rankings when combined with your local city and state.
When I design for the SE's, I don't even try to optimize for the generic keywords. I don't want someone outside the area tying up my resources.
I only optimize for product, city, county, state.
-Marty
If there are any good local web directories, make sure you get listed.
Part of my responsibility as a consultant in this industry is to help my clients understand how to track the leads. For example, I have a client who I'll ask every now and then how the site is doing. He'll tell me that he doesn't see that many requests. I'll then ask him if he has spoken to the specific departments within his company. How about the receptionist?
Well, come to find out, the receptionist is fielding an average of 6-10 calls per day from the site. 80% of those are outside of their service area so they've developed a list of referrals that they feel are qualified to handle those requests.
We also came to find out that the direct department phone numbers and e-mail addresses were getting anywhere from 1-5 requests per day. Add that to any other phone calls that came in that were not documented and you've got yourself a mess!
The client needs to be educated on how to track their online success. Each and every person answering the phone or e-mail who is dealing with a prospect, needs to ask the questions relating to how that prospect found you. They should keep a log with dates, times, company name and contact information along with how they found the site. This can later be used to document that the site is performing as it should be, if not performing above what was expected.
Mivox brings up a great point about adding interactivity for the user. An online workorder request, live help, etc. will all assist in driving new and existing customers to the site. You'd be surprised at the percentage of the population that performs work after hours and typically will utilize online forms to get this done!
Does that company have a traditional printed mailer that goes out to its clients? If so, build a contact form with a specific address and you can track the success of that mailer based on the hits to the form. The form may offer ways for the client to request more information, have a rep contact them, or even allow them to sign up for your new monthly newsletter.
Sorry, this is a topic that I enjoy very much. Since most of my clients are regional, I've investigated just about every avenue of marketing their web sites. I even have one client who took my advice of using a full wrap fleet graphic on their three VW Bugs. The day those Bugs hit the streets, traffic spiked and has not been the same since!
Short funny story about the above Bugs. The client and I went to lunch the same week the Bugs were finished. We had lunch at the Orange Circle which is of course a circle surrounded by businesses. I had the client drive around the circle for 15 minutes on the inside lane. This was prime time for lunch and the exposure was incredible. I checked the stats later that evening, viola, a major spike in traffic!
>>>I use an include at the bottom of every page that has the clients address, spelled out, not abbreviated! Almost every time that I do a search for regionally specific terms, those terms are highlighted in the address at the bottom of the page.
>>>Having that address on each page helps to establish a regional theme also!
2 great points, pageonresults! I am a firm believer in themes and a regional theme is one of the easiest you can do.
[smacking forehead}I never thought about putting the spelled address at the bottom of every page. That sounds like a great way to re enforce a regional theme. I will be adding those tomorrow, thanks!
Instead of a title like this...
<title>Blue Widgets from ABC Company</title>
Maybe it would read like this...
<title>Blue Widgets in California from ABC Company</title>
Or...
<title>Blue Widgets in Orange California from ABC Company</title>
The combinations and possibilities are endless. I can only share what has worked extremely well for me in the past six years.
This is very encouraging!
Hehe... but have you experimented with the effect a different model of car might have on your ROI? Or is a VW Bug uniquely suited for the client's target demographic?
Definitely though, mixing traditional, web and not-so-traditional media into a coordinated advertising effort is key to making a locally targeted website a success. I had one food franchise client who had an online order form built for their local deliveries, and then they launched a major local TV advertising campaign for it...
The national office at first told them the site was a waste of time, but within two years had a national website set up so that any of their franchisees could enable local online ordering through the national's central website. (Of course, that meant 'my' ordering site was taken down and replaced with a link to the national site... but hey, it sounds good nonetheless, eh?)
Don't know how much 'my' local site had to do with the national one being built, but my client did say the corp office was shocked to hear how many orders he got through the original site, once the TV campaign got going. He was very happy with the business it brought in.
People may not automatically search the web for local business info, but if they see a local ad car, tv/radio commercial, billboard, etc., with a local business URL they absolutely WILL visit the site.
If I wanted to learn how to groom a dog I'd look under dog grooming (for information and instructions), but if I were looking for someone to do the service, I'd want a local dog groomer, so I'd look under dog grooming los angeles, or more likely, dog groomers los angeles or dog groomers in los angeles. Maybe the singular, that's always a point in question.
The difference for a tough term:
data recovery - 2,120,000
data recovery los angeles - 165,000
hehe..
dog grooming - 209,000
dog groomer los angeles 545
dog groomers san fernando valley - 32
There aren't many referrals, but the ones that come are legitimate. I haven't had one that isn't serious from my local listings.
I try to think of the wording as how they'd type in a question if they were asking Jeeves.
I have a service oriented regional business and do very well with it on the web. The best tip I can give is list the services they perform and the area they service on your index page,keywords,and description etc. You stated they service a county. Make sure they list their "Service Area" including cities within the county. You are welcome to look at the site in my profile and do a search on google,msn etc for our services and our service area to see what I mean. This site is only three months old and is the first "advertising" we have done in over 12 years. It was just a pet project of mine to put our company on the web but turned into a very lucrative advertising medium.
