ElementsDaily » Tips & Tricks

7 Steps to Creating a Local Online Strategy

Jeremy LaDuque — Fri, 07 May 2010 16:51:59 +0000

More often than not, people want to ‘buy local’ if they can find local. Customers might want to support their local stores just to keep money in their community, support businesses that help out the local community, get their hands on a product immediately and sometimes people just don’t want to pay for shipping. But in order for potential customers to ‘buy local’ they first need to know about your business and that’s where a strongly branded local website can work wonders.

Below you’ll find seven strategies that ELEMENTS has implemented to bring local traffic to local websites with great success. This list is a basic primer of best practices for local online strategies that both small and medium sized businesses can use to jump start their own local campaigns.

Build Your Website

Obviously you need a website. What’s not obvious to first time business owners is how to build a website that users will want to come back to once they have found your site the first time.

Simple is Ok. There’s no reason to create a mega-site with more pages than you have content. Start with just a handful of pages that include important information about your business like hours, location, types of services or products and be sure to include a bit of personality in your pages to give a potential customer a glimpse of your company’s culture. Get a good designer to make a website that is easy to navigate, has good typography and exhibits optimal image placement as all of these are vital to keeping web surfers on your site once they have found it.

Optimize for Your City

Search engines like Google are putting greater emphasis on local results. That means if a surfer types in the word “haircut” the search engine determines the surfer’s geographic location and then displays a result of businesses relatively close to where that surfer currently is that give haircuts. Those local results are your target so let’s make sure the search engines know where your site is located.

There are two ways to best optimize your website for local results. The first is something a lot of people do without even thinking of the benefits, which is including your physical location on each and every page of your website. Another very valuable way to achieve good local search engine results is to include the name of your city actually in the domain itself (i.e. denvercomfortinn.com).

Get Listed

Getting your physical address added to online directories is a step many local businesses tend to skip because they are worried about it being difficult. It’s not that bad. To get your site listed in Google Places just go to http://google.com/local/add/ and click the word “add”. See that wasn’t that bad. Now go do the same exact thing to Yahoo! Local & Yellowpages.com. Now, your phone number and address will appear on their maps and business listings.

Add a Google Map

One of the main goals behind your local online strategy is to get customers to your store. So why not make it easy for them to do so by adding a Google map with directions on how to get to your location right on your website. Your website designer should be able to integrate this into your existing website and as it’s really not that difficult it shouldn’t take them very long.

Interact With Your Customers

Social media is the latest buzz in online marketing, but there’s a reason for that, it works. Interactive tools like Facebook and company blogs allow you to interact directly with your customers to provide customer service, expose your company’s culture and offer up incentives to bring customers back in. Having a slow business day? Use Twitter to tweet out some immediate incentives to drive customers back to your door immediately. Keeping up with customers does take some effort, but your business will be better for it because people like to buy from businesses they trust.

Watch Your Stats

Even if you aren’t running a local campaign, watching your traffic statistics is critically important. From your stats you will get information on how visitors are finding your website and what they are doing once they get there which will allow you to make data driven decisions about your website. Is there a specific native dialect near your location and are you using it effectively? What keywords & phrases are working and which ones need to be pruned? These are questions that only your traffic statistics answer.

Go Offline

This is probably the best advice anyone can give you about your online local business strategy, get out there and be part of the community. Mingle with customers, join service organizations or support a local athletic team. These kinds of efforts don’t go unnoticed. You will gain contacts who can offer referrals to your website, turn contacts into followers of your social media campaigns and when you receive recognition for being a good citizen your website’s domain name can sit right there below your physical address.

These tips will drive more local customers to your website which is good because people want to ‘buy local’ if they can find local.

Do you have your Title and Company listed after your name on your LinkedIn Profile? If so, CHANGE IT!

Jessica Lamore — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 22:22:09 +0000

That space underneath your name in LinkIn is your “Professional Headline”. If you’re like most people who simply put their job title and company in that space, you’re missing out on a great opportunity to pitch yourself and the company you represent. Your “Professional Headline” is one of the most important pieces of information on your profile because it shows up whenever people search for you and after any discussion you participate in. Use this space to include a much abbreviated version of your elevator speech or to include your company’s tagline .

5 Tips for Effective Email and Blog Titles

Jeremy LaDuque — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 23:01:50 +0000

Have you wondered why some of your blogs get a lot of readers and some fall short? With all the information out there on the internet, your blog title and email subject line are more important than ever. Here are some tips that have been proven effective when it comes to titles:

1. “How to” titles clearly present solutions to common problems. Also, when you conduct keyword research, you will find that “how to x, y,z” ranks better in the search engines

2. “5 Ways” Blog Titles: Research shows that when a title contains a number it gets more attention. What’s also interesting- odd numbers are more effective than even numbers. People want to know right away what your blog contains and if it is worth their time to read it.

3. The Worst Way to/ Mistakes to avoid titles: people want to know the mistakes they should avoid so that they can succeed faster.

4. Questions that pique curiosity

5. Powerful words that get readers:

Save (people always want to save time, money, failure etc.)

Avoid (people like to be warned)

Tricks/Tips (insider tips save time)

Discover (gives people an inside to something they were unaware of previously)

Shortcut (we always want to cut corners if possible)

Secret (another curiosity word)

Free Webinar Invite: 7 Steps to Simplify Social Media and to Socialize Strategically

Jessica Lamore — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:19:11 +0000

Do you know what words get retweeted the most? Do you know which post titles get clicked on the most? How about what to include or exclude from your profile bio to gain more followers?

There are hundreds of webinars out there on the topic of social media; however, it is very difficult to find a webinar that is more of “how to” rather than a “what is” when it comes to social media. That’s why we’ve developed a webinar that really demostrates how to implement a successful social media strategy. Please keep in mind, this webinar is NOT simply an introduction to the concept of social media, but rather a step by step guide with tricks and tips, do’s and don’ts, and lots of resources to help simplify your social media plan.

Date: Friday, December 18, 2009
Time: 10:00am PST
Register here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/896729841

The Inbound Advantage: Tips to Evolve Your Company’s Marketing Strategy

Jeremy LaDuque — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:36:48 +0000

“Companies should focus the majority of their marketing budget on inbound, not outbound initiatives,” said Jeremy LaDuque, CEO of Elements Inc., creator of ElementsLocal™, a new software solution for companies that increasescompany leads through maximized search engine results. “When you push your message out far and wide with little discretion, you’re essentially crossing your fingers that it will resonate with a few individuals. Inbound marketing generates leads that are more abundant and credible, as potential customers seeking your services have been attracted organically through search engines, blogs and social media.”

ElementsLocal helps company networks shift from traditional outbound marketing tactics like Pay-Per-Click advertising, which are costly and offer little lasting value, by bolstering the company’s Internet presence through the creation of local, autonomous and brand-compliant web sites for each company location.

For many companies who’ve become reliant on advertising, cold-calls and purchased e-blast lists, the shift to SEO and social media can seem intimidating. However, it doesn’t have to be, and in today’s economic climate, there’s no better time to make sure marketing dollars are used efficiently, says LaDuque.

He offers the following tips to help companies jump on the inbound marketing bandwagon:

Get Local. Instead of relying on just one national web site for the entire company network, provide cross-linked autonomous and brand-compliant web sites for each location. As the franchisor, you benefit from:

A “network effect” of hundreds of web sites, each displaying relevant content about the company, being seen by search engines, which increases rankings and visibility

An ability to leverage each company by allowing other branches to customize (according to franchisor specifications) their web site with local content and local e-marketing campaigns

1. Get Optimized. Some simple ways to get started with search engine optimization:

a. Focus the attention of each webpage to just a few keywords

b. Add relevant content about those select key words to that webpage

c. Add those keywords to the title and meta tags of that webpage

2. Get Social. Social media is the fastest-growing segment of the Internet, and best of all, it’s much less expensive than most other marketing tactics. Get your franchise on board by:

a. Participating in social media sites such as Facebook and You Tube. Start a corporate Facebook profile and seek out fans or upload informative – or even humorous – videos that have “pass-along” potential, such as an engaging company story or client testimonials. This will help attract more visitors to your web site, increase your exposure within a larger audience and boost your search engine ranking.

b. Using a blog and/or Twitter to publish information about your business. Gaining “followers” or subscribers not only increases the audience for your company message, but also helps you gain valuable insight from the comments consumers leave on your posts.

3. Get Efficient. Inbound marketing efforts are highly track-able, so employ various strategies to monitor the efficiency of your efforts. This will allow you to repeat what’s working, discontinue what’s not, and gauge what’s providing you with the best return on investment (ROI). Some helpful hints:

a. First, establish exactly what it is you want to track and make sure you have a way to measure what you want to track

b. Use statistical programs like Google Analytics to monitor web site traffic behavior – from number of pages viewed to length of time on the site

c. Use landing pages to track specific ad campaigns and/or marketing initiatives

d. Track throughout – from campaign to conversion to sale!

“As companies start to ‘think inbound’ in their marketing strategies, they’ll attract customers who are appropriate for and receptive to the company message,” said LaDuque. “This competitive advantage will not only save companies money, but will also help them build lasting and loyal relationships with clients.”