Wednesday I listened to a webinar given by John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing called “How to Win the Local Search Game”. It was a wonderful information packed session as usual but before I talk about that, a little more praise of John.

I thoroughly enjoy the knowledge John shares  on the web and in his books  Maybe it’s because what he says always make so much sense.  Or maybe it’s because our philosophies follow along the same lines. I realized that when I read his book,  The Referral Engine. I honestly believe that this book should be a must read for anyone in marketing, old or new.  Referral networking is by no means new,  but John has managed to put it into words that everyone can understand.  And it doesn’t come from a year or two of experience but many years of experience. He’s not an overnight “expert”.  (Sorry John, don’t mean to make you sound old, just experienced) Most everything he as written is common sense but it’s amazing how many people don’t put it into use.  John does a wonderful job explaining it and even makes it sound easy.  But it doesn’t mean that an old dog can’t learn new tricks. ((BTW, I’m the old dog here, not John)

We put so much effort now into Social Media  Marketing (Twitter, Facebook etc.)  that sometimes we forget that referrals start with building relationships.   Quantity can be good, but quality beats it every time. At least  I think so.  I don’t believe because someone has the most number of followers that it means they’re going to make the most money. And because someone follows me doesn’t mean I’m going to refer them to someone I know.  I love giving referrals to my clients and friends and of course I love receiving them. It’s kind of like that pat on the back that we all want.  That only comes with building relationships.

However, that relationship has to start somewhere.  Sometimes it isn’t a referral. Most people like working in their own backyard, so to speak. That means local businesses. That’s what John talked about  Wednesday during his webinar . Finding those locals we want to do business with and them finding us for the same reason.  In the past we used  telephone directories to look up companies or as a business owner paid for a directory ad. At least, that’s where we went if no one could give us a personal referral.  Ever do any cold calling for your business? I’m sure it wasn’t your favorite thing to do., but it was a necessary evil  (still is in some cases)  The internet has given us so many new marketing methods with the ability to drill down and make it as local as we want. The choices are many, which is what John’s webinar was about.

Local Search is Where It’s At

If you having a hard time believing that statement John posted some stats that are pretty impressive. It has to make you stop and think…at least it did me.

• 90% of online commercial searches result in offline bricks and mortar purchases (comScore)

• 82% of local searches follow-up offline via an in-store visit or phone call or purchase (TMP/comScore)

• 74% of internet users perform local searches (Kelsey Group)
• 61% of local searches result in purchases (TMP/comScore)
• 54% of American have substituted the internet and local search for phone books (comScore)
• 35% of all searches are local  (DM News)

These numbers really tell a story.  When was the last time you pulled out a phone directory to look for a company? If you’re like me, I get so tired of having them all delivered to my doorstep. First, there are too many, but secondly, it’s so much faster for me to go online because I can also look at reviews.

I’m not going to go into detail about everything John talked about because he will be doing a class in DuctU soon on this very subject. But the purpose of quoting the stats above is to make you think about it a little. (ok, maybe a lot!)

Take a moment and ask yourself these questions:

1.       Is my web page local friendly? (If you aren’t sure the answer is likely no)

2.       Can I be found easily on the web by my local community? (Have you ever looked?)

3.       Have I “claimed” all of my local listings? (Do you know which ones are available?)

4.       Have I taken advantage of the review sites?

5.       Am I listed everywhere I can be listed?

If you answer no to even one of these questions, then you should be adding local search to your marketing priorities. Many or most of these options are actually free to use.  That’s always what we want to hear, right?  But there is a right and wrong way to do it.  You certainly don’t want to put a lot of time and effort into it without it bringing any results.

I have friend who I convinced to at least try using Google Places. He was very skeptical but finally spent about an hour one weekend claiming his page and putting it together. Imagine his amazement when he had a call the following week from the page. His company’s website had never brought him any traffic because it hadn’t been updated in years. (That’s another story) He now updates his page regularly and gets a couple of new customers a month in residual income. Not a lot but as he says, the small ones make up his bread and butter income. BTW, he sells printer cartridges so you can imagine the competition he has. He’s now considering increasing his local presence through other methods also.

If this is something you are interested in doing, please contact me and we can develop a strategy for you. SLEEN Group can help you with your local listings.

 

 

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Tags: Duct Tape Marketing, local search, Networking, refferal, Social Media

This entry was posted on Friday, February 11th, 2011 at 9:46 am and is filed under Local Search, Networking, Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.