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Mobile Marketing No Longer Means Slapping Your Ad on a Bus
Imagine you just pulled into the mall parking lot with your three antsy children who are complaining that they are hungry, need to go to the potty and want to go to the Disney Store… Amidst all of the chaos of getting them out of the mini van and making sure you have your purse (and your sanity), you accidentally lock your keys in the car. And, the car is still running. This is so not what you needed! But, fortunately, you have your smart phone in your purse! You quickly log onto the internet and search for “locksmith.” You come across the first listing – A company called 911 Super Ultra Emergency Locksmiths. You get them on the phone and they are in the mall parking lot within minutes to save you!

Or, {a less dramatic scenario}… You and a buddy are at a conference out-of-town and you have a break for lunch. Where is the nearest place to grab some sushi? Thank goodness you have that smart phone to look up “sushi restaurant.” Ten minutes later, you and your buddy are pigging out on some tuna sashimi and crunchy rolls at the local sushi hot spot!

With the continuous advancements in technology today, small businesses need to stay abreast of the emerging ways to reach their target market. One of the new ways that small businesses can connect with their customers is Mobile Marketing. According to Google, “You can easily expand your reach to customers who are on-the-go. Audiences are increasingly stepping away from their desktop computer and searching and browsing the web from their phone.”

In this blog post, we are going to introduce Mobile Marketing rookies to some interesting facts and ideas to consider when budgeting for your next campaign.

In a recent study conducted by comScore that was featured in an article by Jason Kincaid on TechCrunch.com, it was discovered that “45.4 million people in the United States were using smartphones” over a period of 3 months ending in February 2010, “which is a 21% increase” over the 3 month period of time studied ending in November 2009. In layman’s terms, that’s a whole lotta potential customers…

Google – Go Mobile! recommends some strategies that small businesses can utilize to better reach their ‘local-mobile-searching’ potential customers:

1. Create a version of your website that can be used and viewed more smoothly by a mobile device. The ‘regular’ version of your website might not load as quickly or be as easy to view and use on a mobile device.

2. Think local by offering information on local events in your area and maps showing locations nearby where customers can purchase your products.

3. Engage your customers by offering a game that they can play while waiting in the doctor’s office waiting room or an application that they can download and use on their mobile device.

4. Make them an offer they can’t refuse. You have to know who you are competing against. Give your small business the competitive advantage. “Including an incentive, such as a coupon, really does make the difference when searchers are looking for local businesses,” says Anthony Coleman, Search Influence’s resident Paid Search Marketing veteran. He further explains, “It is also a good alternative, because many local businesses don’t have the resources to create games or applications.”

5. Go viral. Create a way for your customers to easily share your business’s information with friends via the click of a button. As they say, the best publicity and marketing is by word of mouth (or by the click of a button 🙂

6. Get found with mobile advertising. Create ads that show up when a customer searches for something relevant to your business on their mobile device. “With smart phones becoming more integrated with local search, Google Adwords is allowing advertisers to display paid ads into mobile searches – by appearing first in a local search, you increase your exposure.” explains Anthony Coleman. “They are even offering a ‘click-to-call’ option, which allows searchers to call phone numbers listed in paid ads, making it easier for leads to connect with advertisers.”

* A great way to think local, offer specials and get found for no cost is by participating in applications such as FourSquare. According to FourSquare.com, “Foursquare aims to encourage people to explore their neighborhoods and then reward people for doing so… As a business owner, you can use foursquare to engage your increasingly mobile customers with foursquare “Specials,” which are discounts and prizes you can offer your loyal customers when they check in on foursquare at your venue.” All you have to do is “claim your venue” and get started!

You can even keep track of how many users are finding your business by searching via their mobile device, as well as where they are located, what they are searching for to find you and much more!

In the blog post, “How Much Google Traffic Comes From Mobile Devices – A Quick Study” by Tim Coleman of A Second Opinion, Tim studied a set of local small businesses’ Google traffic from mobile devices. He wanted to determine the importance of mobile search in relation to his clients, as well as the “percentage of traffic that came from mobile” and if “the percentage of traffic from Mobile varied in different parts of the country.” He looked at 7 garage door companies across the nation over a span of 2 months and made some conclusions of importance:
- “The small data set follows the general pattern that people in bigger cities (more population) are going to use mobile devices a higher percentage of the time.”
- “Interestingly, Westchester County is the oldest population in this set. Could be that age trumps income when it comes to selecting a small business on a mobile handset.”
- And, “For different types of businesses Mobile is going to be more or less important but overall it’s likely to be less than 5% of overall traffic. Again, this is a small study but Adwords and Google Analytics both provide easy segmentation of mobile traffic. Look in your analytics or call your PPC provider to see what percentage of your traffic is mobile.”
So, the amount of traffic that your site gets from local search via mobile devices depends upon variables such as the age, location, income, etc of the user and, all of this can be tracked and documented via tools such as Google Analytics and Google Adwords.

Small businesses have a lot on which to stay up-to-date, and online marketing and mobile marketing are no exception. More and more people are buying and using smart phones and it is worth your time and money to consider marketing to your potential customers on-the-go. There are a plethora of tips to choose from to get your website “mobile device ready.” And, you can see where your customers are coming from and how they are locating you! How can you not be interested?!
Resources:
- Google for Advertisers
- comScore
- “comScore: Android Market Share Continues To Gain On The iPhone” by Jason Kincaid on TechCrunch.com
- Google – Go Mobile!
- Foursquare + Your Business
- “How Much Google Traffic Comes From Mobile Devices – A Quick Study” by Tim Coleman of A Second Opinion
Images:
May 4, 2010
Pace Yourself. Online Marketing Messages: When Less is More.

“Everything in Moderation,” the saying goes. This can be attributed to everything and anything, almost. It’s important to acknowledge this, especially with such easy and immediate access to your audience. The only thing that comes to mind that this would not apply to in online marketing is link building and networking, if done sincerely.

Over saturation seems to be all the rage and it’s not helping anyone. Like that friend that talks too much- it starts off good, you’re interested and responsive… and then after a while, it’s just noise.  You nod, smile or frown accordingly and pray they shut up.

A few sources that come to mind immediately are Email marketing, Facebook and Twitter. Recently I’ve received so many messages from the same sources I stopped reading them. They are no longer effective. They are annoying. On the other hand, there are so many others that I never hear a peep from. This can be a challenging balance. You need to communicate enough to be seen but not so much that you reach that point of oversaturation.

Here are a few things to consider in the repetition of your message presented in the stylistic fashion an antiquated and overused joke:

You might be reaching over saturation if

1. You loose fans, subscribers and followers like your account was the origin of the plague

2. Your fans, subscribers, and followers walk in your place of business point at their phone and sneer at you (obscenities and other gestures count too)

3. The effectiveness of your message on a bar chart looks like a sliding board

4. You get public responses like “I don’t care” or “Stop it”

5. You can message something completely absurd and no one bats an eyelash

6. You’re used as an example of oversaturation in an article by some smart alec. (If you just looked for yourself in this article you’re probable guilty.)

7.     The folks that run the email blacklist organizations know you by name.

8.     The United Spammers Association nominates you as next years president

9.     Guy Kawasaki is jealous cause he can’t pump out as much as you.

Sincerely, it is a difficult task at times to understand at what point effectiveness weans off. With proper analysis you can get a better view of how to take corrective action. You are tracking everything, right? Hopefully you haven’t lost or lost the attention of too many fans, followers and subscribers.

Stay tuned for Part 2: How to Do it Right (title to come)

April 29, 2010
For the Rookie Jet-Setter: 10 Tips to NOT Being Late for an Early Morning Work Flight
(… and some things to know if this does happen to you)

Imagine you are a new hire for a company. Your boss schedules your first work day-trip for an important meeting with a client – and even better – it is to New York City (oh…and you have never been there before!) You are so excited and ready to show your boss why he/she hired you!

The night before your 7:00 a.m. flight, you create the meeting agenda for the next day. You get your briefcase packed. You iron and lay out your outfit. You take your shower. You set your cell phone alarm clock for 4:00 a.m. You are set and ready to go, so you head to bed.

6:08 a.m. your spouse wakes you up from a deep sleep frantically saying, “Do you know what time it is?!” Your first thoughts: “WHAT HAPPENED?! Why am I not sitting in the airport waiting for my flight to board?!”

This is a true story. This exact situation {unfortunately} happened to me.

“What did I do next?” you might be asking yourself…

The very first thing I did was call my boss and let him know right away what happened and what was going on. He seemed pretty optimistic that I would make it to the airport on time (even thought I live a half hour away from the airport on a good day.) I brushed my teeth, tossed my makeup bag into my briefcase, threw on my clothes and ran out the door to my car. I sped all the way to the airport (I am not promoting speeding. I am only giving you a play-by-play report of exactly what happened.)

After parking my car and running all the way into the airport, I arrived to the airline’s check-in counter at exactly 6:50 a.m. (panting and sweating profusely, of course.) The not-so-friendly man at the counter pretty much told me that there was no way in hell I would be getting on that 7:00 a.m. direct flight to NYC. The last text I got from my boss before the flight (that I was supposed to be on) took off read something like “Do whatever you have to do to get there.”

Ok. The pressure is piling on. Next, I begin running to every airline counter (in heels) begging to let me onto a flight that will get me to NYC in time for the client meeting. From one wing of the airport to the next, I am having no luck. {This is a scene straight out of a movie, if you ask me.} There are airport employees rooting for me and trying to help me out. Finally, the last airline left (who’s workers were not at the counter until now) agrees to get me onto a flight that has one layover. At least I will be getting there at a decent time. Things are looking up!

Until I realize that I have no cash, no debit card, and only one check left in my checkbook. In the hectic rush I was in this morning, I must have left my debit card at home (and I never carry any cash on me, ever.) Luckily, the airline agreed to take my check! Little did they know, I did not even have enough money in my bank account to cover the check! However, I was aware that my boss graciously planned to reimburse me for any of these unnecessary expenses that I was incurring because of these desperate circumstances. I planned to deposit the money into my account before the airline could even cash the check. (I later found out from my hubby that this act is considered a felony – so please do not try this at home!)

I have my new (one-way) ticket, made it through security and I am in the sitting area waiting to board my flight. Now I am noticing that my cell phone battery is close to dead. So, I am emailing my hubby and my mother to let them know what is going on. My mom insists that I cannot go to NYC with zero cash. So she took a collection of cash from her charitable coworkers and got her boss to (once again) speed her to the airport. She jumped out of the car and went up to the security guards near the exit of the terminal. She asked if she could give me the cash, and the security guard took it from her, inspected it and then handed it over to me. What can I say?…My mom is the best!

Now I am really all set to make it to the client meeting! I had never flown alone before. And I actually really enjoyed it, once all of the running and worrying was over with. I turned my phone off for the flight (because they make you and because my battery was dying.) Once I landed in NYC, I turned my phone on and had a text from my boss with a phone number and confirmation number to a town car company. The driver knew exactly where to take me. My boss said that once I got there, to call or text him and he would come down and pay for the fare.

The whole ride there, the driver was pointing out landmarks to me and explaining the 5 Burroughs of the city. When we were nearing the client’s building, I began calling and texting my boss. He wasn’t responding. Thank the good Lord for my mom! If she had not rushed me that cash, I would have had to sell my soul to get out of that town car! I finally made it up to the meeting and all went well. What a day!

Thank goodness for:
A) My hubby for waking me up when he did. I still have no idea what happened with my cell phone alarm and why it did not go off. And, maybe it did, and in my sleep I turned it off…who knows?!
B) My mother and her coworkers and boss for donating and rushing me some cash.
C) My boss for being completely understanding and admitting that he has gone through similar circumstances. He reminded me that no one is perfect and that it can happen to the best of us.
D) And, last, but certainly not least, God – for getting me through the whole fiasco!

In the end, this was a great experience because I learned a lesson. Here are some tips so that you do not have to learn the same lesson I did…

1. First of all, if you know that you are not an early morning person and it is in your control to choose when to take your flight, do not choose an early morning flight that requires you to wake up at the break of dawn.

2. Set 2 alarms – Give yourself enough time to arrive at the airport about 2 hours in advance of your flight. If your flight leaves at 7am and you get to the check-in desk at 6:50, they are not going to let you on the flight. Airport security can take a while to get through, especially if it is an early morning flight. Think of rush hour on the highway. The same concept applies to flights.

3. Ask someone to give you a wake-up call, who you know will already be awake – a parent, a friend, or even a coworker that you may be traveling with.

4. Get to bed early so that you are not tempted to hit the snooze button on your alarm.

5. Take your shower the night before. It takes me a solid 40 minutes to blow dry my hair (I know – high maintenance.) Can you imagine if I had not taken a shower the night before my flight?

6. Have everything laid out for you ready to go in the am: Your outfit, briefcase, etc.

7. Make sure you have enough gas in your car the day before so that you do not have to make a stop in the morning before your flight.

8. Make sure you go to the ATM the day before so that you do not have to make a stop in the morning before your flight.

9. Check-in online or on your smart phone. According to Delta.com, “Mobile check-in saves time at the airport by letting you check in and get your eBoarding Pass right from your PDA or web-enabled phone within 24 hours of your departure. It’s the fastest, most convenient way to check in.”

10. Have all of your identification and tickets in a handy place so that you do not have to spend time searching through your things.

*If you do happen to miss your first flight of your round-trip ticket, do be aware that some airlines will cancel your entire itinerary. This means – do not try to purchase a 1-way ticket to your destination, assuming that you can still use your original ticket back. Check with the airline first. You may need to purchase a whole new round-trip ticket. (I discovered this important piece of information on my way back to New Orleans from New York City.

**Know where you are going once you get to your destination airport. Waiting for a taxi may add to your late-ness. Have a list of phone numbers on-hand to local town car services. These companies sometimes cost less than cab fare. Call and make a reservation before your flight takes off.

I hope that these tips come in handy for you. Have you had a similar experience? Do you have any additional tips? Thanks for reading!

——————-

PHOTO CREDITS:
April 27, 2010
Will Scott Interview on Search Engine Journal

A quick thanks and a link, for your information, to an interview Mat Siltala did with me on Search Engine Journal.

Picture of Mat Siltala and Will Scott at SMX West

Mat and I often speak about search, local, social media and his favoriteviral marketing. I appreciate the opportunity for the exchange of ideas and am always happy to spend time with Mat.

In the interview we talk about some of the Top Local Business Listing questions we receive.

For those who don’t know Mat Siltala, his Internet Marketing Firm Dream Systems Media is one of the best in the industry. With customers ranging from small businesses to some of the biggest names on the Internet, Mat and his team are a worthy choice for any business, seriously thinking about online marketing who recognizes that Investment is the first part of Return on Investment.

Again, a big thanks to Mat and the Search Engine Journal team for helping spread the word about the value of Local search for small business.

Written at 38,000 ft somewhere over Indiana

April 24, 2010
Twitter SPAM can get you BANNED!
No one likes SPAM! I’m not talking about the canned meat product. I happen to like the stuff myself. It reminds me of camping when I was a kid. What I am talking about is that which clogs our inboxes, dilutes and degrades the integrity and usefulness of … well, pretty much every new form of communication that arises.

In Twitter’s blog post “State of Twitter Spam” they identify

Twitter SPAM as “behaviors that range from insidious to annoying. Posting harmful links to phishing or malware sites, repeatedly posting duplicate tweets, and aggressively following and un-following accounts to attract attention”

Their progressive and aggressive approach to taking down the spammers has been a good fight. I’ve had numerous odd accounts follow me who seems to disappear due to “suspicious behavior” before I even got around to seeing who it was. I don’t know about you but I like that, a lot. It gives me confidence that I won’t be completely inundated with crap – I mean spam.

Some forms of Spam as identified under Twitter’s rules are (as quoted from their forum):
- If you post duplicate content over multiple accounts or multiple duplicate updates on one account;
- If your updates consist mainly of links, and not personal updates;
- If you repeatedly post other users’ Tweets as your own;
- If you have attempted to “sell” followers, particularly through tactics considered aggressive following or follower churn;
Here are a few perfect illustrations of Twitter SPAM “duplicate content over multiple accounts”

and the next one ….

And another….

And another…

If you were to partake in this sort of evil for yourself or on the behalf of clients, the consequence could be an immediate termination of the account or accounts in question.

Obviously, as marketers we need to consider the consequences of what we do for our clients. Ignorance of rules and policies does not exclude anyone from the repercussions of not following or understanding them.

If your client’s account is terminated, you put them at risk. Your efforts to create your Twitter brand awareness and embrace their customer base will alienate those customers and tarnish their name.

In the least, a lot of time and effort is lost. All of your building then has to start from over step one. If you did this in a client’s name, I would say it’s a safe bet their Twitter rebuilding efforts will be with someone else.

As users and viewers we can practice vigilance. If you see this type of behavior, flag it! Let Twitter know. If you’re not sure how, find out here. By all means, don’t follow the links or buy the products. Sometimes it’s hard to spot, but it’s important to be prudent in your clicking and buying.

Remember, every action is a vote. Don’t vote in favor of spam …

… unless it’s the salty, occasionally delicious, when-sitting next-to-a-campfire meat product.

Related reading:

Internet Marketing for Plastic Surgeons – Less Scary than You Think

You Can Buy Brand Love on Twitter?,

The Secret of Small Business Social Media – You Must be Present to Win

(Thanks for the pics! “hegarty_david” and “pabo76“)
April 19, 2010
Top 10 For the Weekend

We’re constantly coming across interesting articles, photos, and links around here. Some are relevant to our line of work, some not so much, some are funny, some are informative. Today we’d like to share a few of the most practical and useful ones with you.

Check out this blatant use of buying Yelp! reviews. While they aren’t directly handing out cash to each customer that gives them 5 stars or writes something positive about their salon on Yelp!, this practice still goes against the ranking site’s terms of use.

Linking strategies change from time to time. The recent trends show a rise in content strategies such as using social media and syndication. The decline in link bait for content strategies is a strong move for the community but what happened to the outreach efforts?

As you’ve read in many of our other posts, managing a Facebook fan page can be a tricky task. Most people just don’t know where to start. This post by the Social Media Examiner walks you step-by-step through creating a strategic plan for your fan page, just as you would any other business or marketing venture… even if it’s just on a few post-its on the wall.

So you’re always hearing about how such-and-such company made it big in social media by using such-and-such tactic, but often times, you feel like that certain tactic isn’t quite right for you, your product, or your budget. This slideshow offers mini case studies on a number of different company’s successes and failures via social media. With a combination of these, you can hopefully evaluate what the tipping point could be for your social media tactics.

You can never have too much advice when you are planning your social media strategy. Once again, the heart of this post from Outspoken Media lies in creating a dynamic Facebook fan page, with a focus on what you are offering your fans, ranging from specialized content to great conversation.

Our last link for the weekend isn’t a tutorial or explanation about how to further your business, but just an interesting post regarding the changing nature of transactions in our everyday life. While the percentage of our daily transactions happening via technology is continually increasing, it’s important to remember there is still usually a human on the other end… a real person, a lot like you!

Thanks to puptoes74, and wordle.net for the nifty images!

April 16, 2010
Buying Yelp Reviews Is BAD for Business

Yelp is intended as a review site where users can write and read reviews for local businesses to help make informed buying decisions. It’s a powerful tool in that users trust the real opinions and feedback from their friends and neighbors. Yelp’s user-driven reviews allow everyone to add in their opinions of products and services at local clubs, restaurants, and businesses in all forms.

There is obvious value to a small business owner in getting users to leave positive reviews. The question is how much should a business pay for a review? No, no, no … I’m joking. The question really is how do you encourage customers to leave Yelp reviews naturally and organically without abusing the intent of the site?

To Solicit or not to Solicit

Yelp is clear about incentives for reviews: “Yelp has advised business owners not to offer incentives for reviews. For starters, paying people to write reviews about your business is another form of shilling and that’s just wrong. Second, very often you’ll offend a customer and the offer will be quickly outed in your reviews, resulting in unintended negative reviews and/or negative publicity. Finally, it’s typically a fruitless exercise.”

It’s a fruitless exercise because of the Yelp review filter. Yelp knows their site is a great opportunity for illegitimate behavior, and they have built tools to attempt to minimize the spam and attempt to maintain the authenticity of the site. They haven’t been entirely successful. Says Luther Lowe of Yelp,

‘It’s very tough to design algorithms that can tell the difference between the guy who’s cranking out a fake five-star review about himself, and the guy who’s flipped that laptop around and handed it to his customer and said, “Hey, write a five-star review about me.” So, you know, I know that businesses are going to ask people to write reviews. If you do that, you need to be prepared for pretty violent review fluctuation.”

From Yelp Common Questions: “Some reviewers are more credible than others. For the most part, users can decide for themselves which reviewers they trust the most. We remove some of the guesswork by filtering out reviews that are written by less established users. We do this in order to provide more trustworthy and useful content to our users and to help protect against fake reviews from malicious competitors and disgruntled former employees.”

Control Yourself on Yelp

Every small business wants testimonials to help drive traffic. Yelp is tremendously trusted by real world users. (Isn’t it more encouraging to try the new restaurant in town after you read 10 great reviews online?)

And Yelp is tremendously trusted by search engines, and being so trustworthy makes it ripe for abuse by some businesses and internet marketers. The prime example is Google Local map rankings, which are influenced by some degree by the presence of online reviews on select review sites.

But Yelp advises you to control yourself:

“Should I ask customers to write reviews for my business?

While we understand that there is a temptation to solicit reviews from your customers, it is not something we encourage. The most successful businesses on Yelp have had their reviews come organically. This is for a couple of reasons:

1. Potential customers can sometimes have an adverse reaction to a business that looks like it has solicited reviews.

2. Quite often those solicited reviews will be filtered out (see above) based on the activity level of those users within the Yelp community.

If you do ask your customers for reviews, please be prepared for the review number fluctuation that might follow.

Also, keep in mind — success on Yelp is primarily measured by the number of people who view your page and thus walk in the door or set an appointment, not the number of reviews you have. Yelp users are savvy: they care about quality — not quantity — when it comes to your business reviews.”

To be completely genuine, solicitation of reviews even without incentive is frowned upon. And incentivized reviews (buying Yelp reviews) are absolutely unethical …

This picture taken in the store suggests completing a review, and not only a review … but “as good as it gets” review, to get 20% off the next purchase. One reviewer complains on this business’ Yelp profile about the incentivized review request in the store; Mel T comments on Yelp:

“How would they base the authenticy of a Yelp review? What if I just claimed ownership of Jane D.’s (as in Jane Doe – I’m not trying to impersonate any fellow Yelpers here) review? How would they know if I was really Jane D.?

– Would I still get a discount if I had written a review, but it wasn’t “raving?”

Well, I’m sorry, Pure Beauty. You cannot buy a five star Yelp review from me. Instead, your blantant bribary is going to cost you two whole stars. Yep, that’s right; I’m knocking you down TWO full stars. Had it not been for your sign, I would have given you three stars – an A-OK for decent employees during my visits, a relatively clean shop, and reasonable prices.

But, again, I will not stand for your bribary. Hmph. (Hmm..wonder if I can get 20% off with this review..?)”

This beauty supply store has bigger issues than their Yelp spamming. There are quite a few reviews blasting their customer service. Perhaps, they should consider better ways to combat negative publicity.

Asking for Help on Yelp

One self-proclaimed newbie small business on Yelp asks help of the Yelpers, Greg “GSKChicago” K., asks, “I am relatively new to Yelp and still learning my way around … What do Yelpers look for from a business owner on Yelp?”

The answers:

Miguel “the Coach” R. says: “honesty!”

Lauren “Order” H. says: “if you do anything related to your own busines, disclose that you are the owner. and don’t use the talk boards or other parts of the yelp site as free promo or spam.”

nikki c. says: “just be real, honest and your own worst critic.”

Seems legitimate enough. This business owner wants to do the Yelp thing correctly, but Miguel “The Coach” R. comes back later to point out some problems, and all of Greg’s good intent evaporates:

Miguel “the Coach” R.: “Greg -No offense but after reading the reviews for your business, I am a little disappointed. Everyone who did a review on your business – only did a review on your business. So, that means that you either made several profiles, had your friends make profiles, somehow convinced your customers to make a profile and only rate your company – or – some combination of the three.

If you want my opinion. No company will EVER completely 100% satisfy each and every customer. And to see nothing but 5 stars for each review is flat out unbelievable.

As of right now I feel as though you have already been dishonest by doing what you did, and that will eventually hurt your business rather than help it.”

Using Social Media to Drive Fans over to Yelp Profile

(Some text has been edited from original post.)

If your small business has a strong Facebook Fan base, you can attempt drive Fans over to your Yelp profile and hope that some percentage of them will actually leave reviews. These businesses on Facebook are technically soliciting reviews but offering nothing in return, so their Yelp review building may be considered more legitimate. They are still soliciting, but they aren’t buying Yelp reviews.

This Facebook-er is more blatant. The Lone Star Salon tells Fans if they leave a review on a review site, Lone Star Salon will give them $10. Totally buying a review.

And ….

And …

We’re talking about pretty low value transactions here – a water bottle, a free cookie, etc. – but any incentive can be enough for a reviewer to take a few moments to drop a review into a Yelp profile that they would not have done if not incentivized.

Raffle Your Incentive … is Still Incentive

Another way to buy a review is a little more subtle, but it is still crossing Yelp’s guidelines for good Yelping. Essentially it is offering a chance to win a free product or gift certificate in a raffle. It’s not a direct exchange like Lone Star’s program, but these are still incentive for leaving a review.

Any reviews on Yelp from these campaigns are not the natural and organic reviewing that is Yelp has struggled to maintain. From Yelp Terms of Service:

“You agree that you will not, and will not assist or enable others to: use the Site in a manner that may create a conflict of interest, such as trading reviews with other business owners or writing or soliciting shill reviews”

And there are a few abusers on Twitter too …

Again, offering a chance to win free product or discount is not directly buying a Yelp review, but it is definitely incentive for the reviewer, warranting the review as forced. Not natural behavior for Ramona Family Naturals.

They tweeted on the 14th and got 2 5-star reviews on the 15th. (I wonder who won the box of organic produce? They should tweet that.)

And The Spot Yogurt in Santa Monica appear to be naively direct in their request.

And before that, they requested on March 31^st too.

Of course, we know that ignorance of the rule is not exception from it. Yelp says of this type of false reviewing:

“very often you’ll offend a customer and the offer will be quickly outed in your reviews, resulting in unintended negative reviews and/or negative publicity”

Luther Lowe on business owners aggressively soliciting reviews from customers: “it just looks spammy and decreases the authenticity of your overall presence. That can turn the customers off to you.”

Charles Grumblemouse O. has a more virtuous Yelper attitude. He says of being Paid to write reviews:

“… the impetus for writing reviews is surely different if you’re paid than if you were just doing it for the love right?”

And finally, it’s important to be creative and sincere. Here’s a great case study of a New York Locksmith. He’s got a great perspective on how to get Yelp reviews without direct solicitation.

Image credits: Thanks to “twonjosh,” “Silver Smith,” ZDNEt, and Steve Rhodes for the images!

April 15, 2010
Local Business Marketing on Foursquare

While many companies are still figuring out Facebook and Twitter as a means of local business marketing, a whole new social media is beginning to break into the mainstream. While the underlying idea is to keep you connected, just as other social media networks, foursquare takes it to the next level.

It’s also similar to other outlets in such ways that you connect to people you know by adding them as a “friend,” but past that, this new location-based app sets itself apart by integrating the service into everyday activities, being primarily mobile-based, and serving as a “tap and go” app, with which it doesn’t take much longer to interact than it does to send a text message to a friend letting them know where you’re having your coffee.

Foursquare’s goal is to make you more social, not less, by encouraging users to go from place to place by way of “checking in” to each restaurant, bar, coffee shop (or even doctors’ office, store, airport) that they visit. Upon checking into a venue, a user sees who is currently the mayor (who has checked in here more than anyone else), and who recently checked in to that location. At any point in time, a user can see a list of their friends and where their friends have checked into recently, with an emphasis put on friends in your city, and pushing those in other cities to the bottom of the list. The idea behind this is that seeing where your friend in Denver is checking in doesn’t contribute to your foursquare community if you’re in Savannah.

Users get “badges” for certain behavior such as checking into the same place three times a week (“local” badge) or going to four different venues in one night (“crunked” badge).

So, what does all of this mean for your local business marketing? Some larger businesses at this point have had the opportunity to have badges related to check ins to their business added to the system. While we haven’t found if this feature will be available to small businesses in the future, we hope that it will, because badges are one of the big ways users can be encouraged to patronize and check in at YOUR business.

For now, though, the local business marketing benefits are still great, and, most importantly, FREE! By going to foursquare.com, you can sign up your business to offer a foursquare special. So, when a user checks into a business within a block or two of your location, a “Specials Nearby” icon will pop up, on which they can click to see that your nearby business is offering a free bottle of wine on someone’s fourth check-in on foursquare, or a free pizza for the mayor. This means you get to market directly to people who shop and do business near your location already, who are already more likely to hit up your location than they are a similar business across town. Foursquare specials are also a way to reward loyal regulars. You can offer “free upgrade on every fourth check in” or “complimentary dessert on your 10th check in.”

Each time an individual checks in to your business is a little free slice of marketing pie. By way of check-ins, users are telling their friends “I love the coffee at The Daily Brew!” and most of the time, users literally are telling their friends exactly what they like at a certain business by adding a comment that says something like “Iced Vanilla Latte – best in the city!” Small businesses can encourage patrons to pass the word on foursquare about a certain product by offering something to those who add a comment to their check-in or leaving a “tip” for a particular business.

If you don’t want to solicit tips or check-in comments, you can still use them to your advantage by going to your business’s page on foursquare and seeing what people are saying about your business, its products, its atmosphere, etc. It’s your ticket to un-biased reviews! The most important part of this is to make use of the information you discover. Even the simplest thing as someone mentioning “bring a power strip if your planning to use your laptop,” can help you make your business more comfortable for patrons that enjoy working at your business, who are most likely to become regulars, if they aren’t already.

While foursquare’s website and this post may allude to foursquare being geared towards the food and beverage industry, it really can be used for all places of business. Think retail customers leaving tips about sales, patients leaving comments about how quickly and smoothly their visit to the doctor was, or guests talking about how helpful the concierge service at your hotel is.

No matter who you are or what you offer, you can put foursquare to work in your local business marketing plan!

Thanks to dpstyles and psmith for the great images.

April 8, 2010
How much does SEO cost?

In this business, just like any business really, one of the greatest compliments we can receive is a referral. We love referrals and we were delighted when one of our clients referred a fellow colleague over to us. The potential new client had a practice in a very competitive and fairly large market. When she inquired about our SEO cost, she was a bit surprised to hear that our proposed monthly fees were more than what our existing client had been paying – $300 more. No, no, we were certainly not trying to pull a fast one on her or take advantage that we had been highly recommended as being “worth the money”. We explained that what set her monthly fees apart from her friend, our client, was her location. We do offer different level of services at different pricing points, but one of our lower pricing points would not impact her website’s ranking as we collectively desired.

To further explain, take a look at this map. Let’s just say our client was located in one of the orange-circled cities and her friend in a green-circled city. Naturally, the competition is much greater in a larger city where you generally have more of everything – more gas stations, more restaurants, more options. You also have to consider the characteristics of the targeted market in the particular city. Sure, San Diego and St. Louis may appear to have a similar sized population, but I get the feeling there are probably a greater number of plastic surgeons in the So Cal area than there are St. Louis Plastic Surgeons, just as there are Taco Trucks.

Simply put, we could not put the same level of effort on her website that we had been placing on our established client’s, who is in a smaller market, and have the same fantastic results. More effort would be required.

Do keep in mind that while location is a huge factor in our pricing, there are several other important factors to be considered such as how long a website has been established, how much content is currently on it, images, etc.

On the topic of competition and SEO cost, we recently stumbled upon a proposal sent to one of our clients by a competing SEO company. When comparing a similar package that we offer at $1200 per month, our competitor was offering it at $2100….hmmmmm…speaking of economical search engine optimization…did I mention we love referrals 😉 ?

Thanks to stevelyon for the image!

April 6, 2010
New Website Allows You to Directly See the Effect of Your Donations

There are a ton of reputable charities out there and donating to anyone of them is admirable, but many of these organizations have no way of showing you the effect that your donation has had on the life of its recipient. SeeYourImpact is a network that enables visitors to make small donations to reputable charities and directly see the impact they have made on the world through the use of testimonials, photos and videos.

Their goal is to impact billions of people one donation at a time. The technology they use transforms giving into a joyful and fulfilling experience by enabling charitable organizations to show the connection of each donor’s gift to the actual end beneficiary in an authentic and transparent manner. 100% of your donation goes to the charitable organization of your choice. As of now, their reach extends only to India, but as they grow will make their services available to Africa, Latin America, and the rest of the world.

I really admire and respect not only what they are attempting to do, but also the means in which they are achieving their goals. Gone are the days of Sally Struthers and mail-in updates. SeeYourImpact utilizes current technological advances to deliver personal and real stories of the people who receive your much-needed donations.
The impact is vast, as you can see in this video of Madavan’s Story. Some of the causes supported are tuition fees for schooling, solar lanterns to provide electricity, Braille lessons for the blind, and even cataract surgery to restore someone’s vision. The donation size is also easily affordable to most people. I may be coming across as a salesman for these guys, but that’s just a testament to their impact and how much I support what they’re doing. I’ve never given to a charity before, believing I was a charity case myself. However, after reading how far simply $12 can go (a month of tuition for a needy child), I felt obligated to contribute. I mean, it’s twelve bucks. Who can’t afford to swing that? There I go being a salesman again. Just stop my ramblings and at the very least become their fan on Facebook. Even if you aren’t able to give directly, maybe you could indirectly inspire someone who can.

April 1, 2010