Have you had a thought along these lines: “Wow, if I could have seen the internet boom coming in 1994, I would be a billionaire!”   While I can’t promise you private islands or tuxedo’d butlers, I can help point you in the direction of growing your business far and away faster than your competition.

While the internet has been around for seemingly ages, only recently have people started turning to it to make their purchasing decisions, from where to eat lunch, to who cleans their teeth, to where to buy a house. Potential customers trust online reviews of your business second only to word-of-mouth references and more than they trust your advertising. They go to the web to decide between you and the 50 other Crystal Lake Dentists. And they’re doing so in droves.

Local Business’s Response? In 2009, less than half of local-based small businesses had a website. Many have no clue as to the importance of online reviews. And far far far fewer are reaching out to their customers via social media.

This is the opportunity that has presented itself today.  In 5 years, it will be painfully obvious that those that adapted to the changing landscape of how local businesses get found will have done very well for themselves. They will have seized this opportunity to build a lot of trust with their customers and will have taken a big chunk of the marketshare that was up for grabs.

In the coming posts, I will do my best to share with you the facets of this opportunity.  In the mean time, there’s a lot you can do to impact your online foot print, with not a lot of time or money.

Maybe I should title this post “Blatant Conflicts of Interest,” instead.  I suppose someone like myself writing this article and trying to be objective, is like McDonald’s publishing a guide entitled “How To Have A Delicious Lunch,” but I feel I have some important ideas to add to the subject that are easily and often overlooked by anyone without some specific foreknowledge about search engines and websites.

With the above caveat/disclaimer in place, I’ll proceed with these three ideas that are crucial to choosing a web professional to work.

1. Will your finished site be search engine optimized? The basics of search engine optimization should always be built into a website. A basic search engine friendly framework is easily accomplished by any website designer that knows how to do so and is willing to take the time.  Search engine optimization can become very detailed, however the basics are simple by comparison and go a very long way to helping a website earn top rankings.

2. Does your designer want to know a lot about your business and your industry? If this answer is “no”, you can probably count on the answer to question one being a “no” as well. To be at the top of search engines, one must know what your potential customers might be searching for.  This idea goes beyond the general industry and city in which your business is located. Searches are becoming more and more specific.  For instance, while many searches are for “Buffalo Grove dentist”, there are many other specific searches like “Buffalo Grove dentures dentist” or even “Buffalo Grove emergency weekend dentist”.  While the more granular searches may individually have very small numbers, the aggregate is very very important.  Thus, whatever web designer you choose should want to know about your business in great detail.

3. Will your website be easily editable? Unless you would like to have to call up, wait, and pay your web designer every time you want a modification to your website, he or she better have a simple solution to allow you to make changes to the content of your website. This comes in handy for keeping customers up to date and allows you to use your website as a marketing vehicle rather than simply a static page with basic information.  (More on that later.)

You may have noticed that I didn’t cover some very basic ideas, such as “Do you like their other work?”  Well, that’s because you already knew about that.  You wouldn’t go see a movie if the preview looked awful, and you wouldn’t hire a web designer with an unappealing portfolio.  My hope was to cover some easily overlooked details that make a big difference in the long run.

As always, please leave a comment and let me know if you have any questions or other ideas.

-Craig

Previously, I talked about the importance of online reviews on sites like Yelp. Yet, Yelp has even more to offer which I’ll be covering right here, right now!

If I had to choose, I would say Yelp is closer to Facebook than it is to Yellowpages.com.  Yelp allows reviewers to create profiles detailing everything from their favorite food to their second favorite website.  Reviewers can become online “friends” with each other and give out “compliments” (colorful little badges that serve as decoration and recognition on your profile).  Yelp even sponsors local events for frequent reviewers.

How does this relate to local small business marketing?  Well, this group of local people eventually get to know and trust each other quite well.  Studies show that about 20% of consumers write 100% of reviews online, and those in the Yelp community are the ones that make up that 20%.  So, if you can establish a good reputation with the few consumers that decide your online reputation, it will go a long way to building up some making it great.

What to do? It’s easy—Get involved!  Here are a few tips:

1. Create a Yelp reviewer profile—You already (should) have a Yelp for business owners account, now go to Yelp.com and create an account to become a part of the reviewing community.  Create a profile, include a picture (of yourself!), and be sure to put something about your business in your tagline.
2. Review every single local business you frequent! This will get you noticed by other reviewers and other business owners.  They’ll see you, see what you do, and talk to you and about your business.
3. Give out some compliments! As I mentioned above, Yelp allows users to give each other public props.  People love to be complimented and they’ll love whoever does the complimenting.
4. On your Yelp business account, Respond to EVERY review on your business—this point is last, but certainly not least.  I can’t stress how important this point is.  Did a customer have a bad experience? Find out how you can make it right.  Did they rant and rave about how you’re the only dentist they’ve ever loved?  Thank them for their kindness and let them know that you appreciate their business and the review.

If you do these things, you’ll be a Yelp superstar.  I’ll close with a story regarding the all important point number 4.  I had a bad experience at a local establishment and left a 2-star review on Yelp saying as much.  A few days later, I received an apologetic message from the owner saying that she wanted to make it right.  My opinion of the business went from “awful, I will never go back” to “maybe I could give them a second chance” with one simple message.

Now, get Yelping!

At one time or another, you have been handed a little piece of card-stock and a golf pencil and were asked to fill out a survey, and leave some comments about your experience as a customer of whatever business you just patronized.

With enough of these completed surveys, the business owner found out what went right and got some ideas about what needed fixing. Getting candid customer feedback is certainly valuable information to any business and can tip off a business owner to a brush fire, before it becomes full blown forest fire of bad customer experience.

Old School: Comment Cards

Mostly, these cards are kept to the eyes of those on the inside, but what if we gave your potential customers a peek as well?

Today, customers get more than a peek—they get an eyeful. And it’s not up to you to decide who sees what, for better or worse.

That is because the new comment cards are online customer reviews. In case you are not familiar, online reviews are essentially comment cards for any business, posted on one of many popular internet portals that anyone can write and anyone can see.

While that may be seem a bit frightening at first glance, I think there is actually an awesome opportunity under the surface.

One study showed that about 50% of consumers used online reviews to begin their buying process.  Unfortunately, many businesses have little or no online reviews, leaving customers in a position to either guess or go somewhere else.

Personally, that is what I do.  I recently chose a shop to get my brakes fixed at, based on nothing but online user reviews.  Tons of places had no reviews, and I did not bother looking into them any further. I have not chosen to go to a restaurant that had less than 4 stars on Yelp in as long as I can remember. (4 & 5 stars are not the traditional kind of stars where more stars means more $’s—Mexican, anyone?)

Some business owners are nervous that a negative review will ruin their reputation. My advice? Do not worry so much. You know that your business provides a great service and that in general, your customers are happy and loyal. If one malcontent posts something bad, do not sweat it. With enough reviews, your true reputation will always come through.

Convinced?  Here are some tricks I use to encourage customers to write reviews:

1. Just Ask! – Do you have a friendly relationship with some of your customers?  Would they be glad to do a favor for you?  If someone compliments your service try responding with this, “Thanks!  Would you mind letting other people know?  I am trying to get some reviews online and if you think of it, would you mind writing one?  I would really appreciate it.”  This tactic is also likely to render a good amount of positive reviews.

2. Review Cards – This one is easy and requires only a little work.  Just get some business cards printed up that say something to the effect of “Like our service?  Let others know and review us online!”  Be sure to provide detailed instructions. (Go to maps.google.com, search for us, click write a review.)  Just set the cards out, or better yet, staple them to some paperwork that you regularly give to customers.

3. Make It Easy – One of my clients actually came up with this one!  Spend $200 on a netbook and setup a “review station” right in your place of business. Ask satisfied customers to write a review while they’re in the store.  They will not forget or get distracted by the other 10,000 things online and off, that are constantly vying for their attention. Plus, the experience will be fresh in their minds.

4. Incentives – Provide a discount or freebie to anyone willing to write a review. Promote the fact that you will be giving a discount to anyone that writes an online customer review. The owner of a restaurant that I often frequent gave me a free breakfast after he saw my glowing online review.  It only made me even more of a loyal fan.

That is all for now.  I would love to hear some more ideas or field any questions—So, post a comment!

Thanks for reading.

-Craig

Driving down I-290 yesterday, I noticed a billboard from Google. It was advertising their “Google Apps” for business program (which is great, by the way) and it made me think: what other tricks does Google have up its sleeve that most businesses ought to know about?

The first thing that came to my mind is a big one and it’s really simple: register your business with Google. For some reason, Google has not made much effort to get the word out. Any small business owner I tell is always surprised. And one thing is certain, it is not unknown because it is not helpful. Registering with Google is a major step toward increased visibility on the web.

How does it work?

Google’s Local Business Center allows a business owner to confirm and correct certain details about his or her business such as address and phone number. First the owner must “claim” the business, a process in which Google verifies contact information via a postcard or phone call.  Once claimed, the business owner is also allowed to add a wealth of other information including operating hours, a business description, pictures and videos which can be continually updated indefinitely.

Why does it work?

This process helps both parties: Google’s results are more complete and relevant, and the business owner knows that when someone sees his business, the information is accurate and provides more information than the lusterless listings of his competitors.

Of course there is one major benefit that really makes this tip worth the effort: Google gives your listing a real ranking boost, sometimes determining the difference between a #16 ranking and the #2 spot.

So, get to Google’s Local Business Center today and verify your business. Like any other tactic, it is certainly no panacea to getting found, but it is a great place to start.

-Craig