How Google Related Can Help/Hurt Local SEO

September 2, 2011 By

Google introduced a new tool bar that actively shows consumers ‘useful’ information on the bottom of their screen while they surf the web or browse a website.

For instance, if you’re browsing a page about a salon in New Jersey, Google Related will assist you by displaying useful information about this salon such as the location of the salon on a map, user reviews, related restaurants in the area, and other webpages related to New Jersey hair salons– all in one place.

From the consumer experience, this can be really helpful. From the local salon’s experience, this can be really hurtful.

Consumer Reviews More Important Than Ever Now

One of the key factors now that can make your business sink or swim with Google Related is the number of consumer reviews your business has.  Consumers can post reviews about your business online with Google Maps, Judy’s Book, Yelp, etc.  A proactive Internet Reputation Management strategy would consistently encourage customers/clients/guests to write positive reviews about your business online and reward them for doing so.

Take a look at Google’s snapshot below.  This is a mock-up of a consumer experience visiting the restaurant of a local website. Notice the bottom of the picture.  There are multiple options for this user to learn more about this restaurant…or others. The first tab is a map of where to find the restaurant, the second tab lists their consumer reviews (3 for this restaurant) and the other tab lists other ‘related’ restaurants in the area.

If you don’t have a massive amount of consumer reviews praising your business, what’s stopping them from taking Google’s assistance and checking out what other businesses Google recommends? Perhaps these other buisnesses have rave reviews posted about them online. Guess what? If they do….you’re done.

Is everyone using Google related?  No.  Should you still be concerned? Yes.

google local seo

How to Maximize Google Related for Your Business

The best thing to do is to implement a customer review strategy asap.  We can help.  There are a few ways.  One is to add a button to your existing website that says ‘reviews’.  We will create a page that has direct links to anyplace online where customers can review your business.  To get customers to post reviews, we will design a postcard that asks them to review your business online in return for a small reward. The postcard will direct them to your website…..JaneSmithSalon.com/Reviews

Once they write their review, they email you a copy of the review and you either send them a gift certificate or whatever small prize you had promised.

This works excellent for salons, spas, restaurants, doctors, chiropractors, car dealers, etc.

Simple!  Effective! 

Call me if you want to start.  732-757-7944.

Filed Under: Advertising, Local Google SEO Tagged With: , ,

Webwire Improves Press Release Submission Features

August 15, 2011 By

webwire.comOne of my favorite cheap press release sites, Webwire.com, has recently made their PR submitting services even more powerful. I usually use the $19.99 option for my Internet Marketing clients who want great exposure on Google as well as media attention.  The benefits of Webwire.com are that it only costs $20.00, often appears on Google Page 1 for many search results, allows unlimited live links (don’t go overboard or your PR will look like an advertisement and NOT get published) and incorporates social media tracking into the stats.

Now Webwire.com has stepped it up a notch to include the ability to hyperlink text to live URLs as well as basic formatting function for the body of the PR (bold, underline, etc).  A new option has also been added to include a summary/teaser for your PR. This is important because this is another opportunity to utilize your keywords to get you noticed.  You can also add bullet points or a numbered list much easier now.

If you’re looking for an inexpensive press release newswire to submit your company’s news and announcements, you have to check out Webwire.com. If you draft your press release properly, you will be impressed with the results!

 

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,

Local SEO: How to Time Your Strategies for the Seasons

August 9, 2011 By

freelance seo njThis is an excerpt from an article on Search Engine Land…a great source of Digital Marketing and SEO information.

If you are a business that plans SEO strategies around the holidays or major events, these tips are worth reading.  Much of it is common sense but you’d be surprised how much of common sense gets lost in the garbage.  It’s to no fault of the business owner who is usually running around wearing multiple hats.  That’s why it helps to have a local SEO company to help with the planning phases of your marketing tactics.

Here are a good few good tips from our friends at Search Engine Land to keep in mind:

For seasonal and locally focused SEO campaigns consider the following tips.

1.  Plan Ahead

If you want to rank for a seasonal keyword like “back to school sale” in your city, you’ll probably want to try to rank for the query ahead of time. While putting up a great piece of content and getting links at the time of the event can work, as people are more likely to link to something that’s current, I have found it’s more reliable to get your content indexed and linked way ahead of time.

During the actual time you want to have the best rankings, you can also add additional content that targets variations of the keyword and links back to the original page you are trying to rank. This can both bolster the original page as well provide an additional URL that can rank.

2.  Understand The Time Window

Planning for your New Years Eve party usually starts around December 1st. So if you’re a restaurant, you’ll want to rank for “New Years Eve menu” well before New Years Eve comes around.

3.  Understand The SERPs For Your Keyword

While Google and Bing update their various SERP displays regularly, having a handle on the different SERP inventory available for your target keyword is a good idea.

If Google is showing a lot of images, then you know you need to work on image optimization. If there are Shopping results as in the backpack example, you know you need to get your inventory in Google Shopping.

For event-based keywords like “Black Friday Shopping”, Google often shows relevant News links above the organic results around the time of the event. For the News results, consider writing an article on “Black Friday Shopping” for your local newspaper.

Often times, SERPs with News results also show blog results, so this would be an indication that you might want to add some content about the event to your blog. If it’s a hot term, update your blog regularly throughout the day, as Google will often update these links with the latest content.

4.  Create An Editorial Calendar

One of the challenges (and opportunities) with the Web is that it forces businesses to start thinking like publishers. But businesses should already know when their hot seasons are.

They also should know the types of products people will be looking for and the types of questions they will be asking search engines. Map out the seasons that effect you in a editorial calendar spreadsheet and start figuring out where your areas of SEO opportunity are going to be over the next year.

To help you get started, I have created a Local SEO Seasonal Calendar that shows some of the major events for the year, complete with relevant local business categories/keywords for those events and the window of time for each.

And remember, with local SEO, ’tis always the season.

For more information on Search Engine Optimization, send us an email or call 732-757-7944.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Don’t Turn Your Nose to Newspaper Advertising

May 18, 2011 By

Great article from NJ Press Media Solutions.  This research shows why it’s important for businesses to create an all-encompassing advertising strategy.  Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

New Research: Consumers rate newspaper advertising as primary shopping information source

Arlington, Va. – Newspaper advertising is the leading advertising medium cited by consumers in planning, shopping and making purchasing decisions, according to data from a Frank N. Magid Associates survey of 2,500 adults. The findings paint a strong picture of the unmatched value newspaper advertising continues to deliver in today’s media landscape. “This important new research reaffirms the power of newspaper advertising to engage consumers and drive them to take action,” said NAA President and CEO John Sturm. “More than all other media, adults continue to turn to newspapers to inform shopping decisions that lead to purchases. They are an opt-in media in an opt-out world, making newspaper advertising an ideal and effective choice for advertisers who want to reach consumers ready to shop and spend.”

This study, titled “How America Shops and Spends 2011,” is the latest in an ongoing series of NAA research investigating consumer shopping habits and the influence media has on shopping today. Highlights include:

Four-in-five adults (79 percent) of those surveyed said they “took action” as a result of newspaper advertising in the past month, including:

  • Clipping a coupon (54 percent)
  • Buying something (46 percent)
  • Visiting Web sites to learn more (37 percent)
  • Trying something for the first time (20 percent)

More than half of all adults (52 percent) identify newspapers as the medium they use to help plan shopping or make purchase decisions

Almost three-fourths (72 percent) of all adults regularly or occasionally read newspaper preprints; For Sunday inserts, this figure increases to 90 percent of all adults. Over the course of 30 days, 8 in 10 adults (79 percent) acted on newspaper preprint advertising.

Nearly four-in-10 (38 percent) adults who identify themselves as newspaper “non-readers” recalled other forms of engagement in the past week, including checking sales in local stores, clipping coupons, comparing prices, checking movie or TV listings and classified, and also various forms of editorial content. Altogether, this unofficial exposure overall adds another 13 percentage points to the newspapers’ weekly reach among all adults and so may be considered as a bonus beyond the “normal” audience.

Advertising on local newspaper websites ranked second (behind only e-mailed store or product information) among online options for advertising sources, beating general interest websites, or portals, paid ads that appear on the right side of the search engine screens, ads on social network pages, and ads on mobile devices.

Source: NAA

Filed Under: Advertising Tagged With: ,

YouTube Embed Code

May 3, 2011 By

YouTube has made it a bit more tricky to copy and paste the ‘embed’ code from a video. Usually if you are posting a YouTube video onto your website or your blog site, you would want the embed code so that the actual video appears on the page, and not just a link to the video.

In the past, the embed code was very visible, right below the YouTube video that you were watching.  You can still access the code by right clicking on the video itself and selecting ‘Copy Embed HTML’.  That will copy the code to your clipboard.  Paste it right into the website or blog you are working on or if you want to save it for later use open up a Word doc or Text Edit/Note Pad doc and paste it there for later use.

Filed Under: YouTube Tagged With: ,

Using Foursquare for Business

February 15, 2011 By

Do you want another venue besides Facebook to promote your business online?  Foursquare is easy, free and very visible!  The steps below will help you get your business on Foursquare and give you some tips on using Foursquare to promote your business online.

What is Foursquare?

In a nutshell, it’s a location-based social media platform that allows your friends to ‘check-in’ at various locations and tell you where they are.

Why Foursquare for Your Business?

foursquare marketing consultantVisibility.  Major visibility.  When someone ‘checks-in’ at your business online using the Foursquare app, all of their friends on various social networks are alerted to where they are.  Where they are is at YOUR place of business.  So what does that do? Puts your business name in front of hundreds of potential customers who perhaps never heard of your business.

The alert shows up on their Facebook wall or Twitter page as “Jane Doe just checked in at Eat and Greet Cafe in Green City”

You can promote specials on Foursquare and also reward repeat ‘check-ins’ at your place of business through Foursquare. In that sense, think of Foursquare as your virtual customer loyalty rewards program.

There is a lot more fun to Foursquare from a consumer standpoint, but for businesses, that’s the gist of it…in a nutshell.

Getting Started with Foursquare

Read these directions FIRST

1) If you want to add your business to Foursquare and start promoting yourself online for FREE, it’s best to be at your place of business when doing so…you’ll see why in a minute

2) Go to www.Foursquare.com

3) Click ‘Join Now’ on the right

4) Go through the application process–use your personal name, email address, etc (this is just a log-in for you so you can eventually access your account)

5) Once you have created your account and are logged in, do a search for your business name

6) When it comes up, click  where it says ‘do you manage this place, click here’  ***(If your business doesn’t show up in a search, scroll all the way to the bottom and click ‘add new venue to foursquare’ then proceed with directions)

7) this will allow you to become the ‘manager’ of this place. To verify that you actually are allowed to manage this page on Foursquare, the application will ask to call the place of business and an automated system will give you a code to type in (this is why its best to join while you are at the actual place of business)

8) Your business is on Foursquare now tell the world!  Share the news on Facebook and with your mailing list.  Hang a sign in your window that says ‘Check in on Foursquare here!’ (Fourquare will make these signs for you for free)

9) Create check-in rewards…for every 5 check-ins you get a free XXXX or a gift certificate for $xx.xx…encourage your customers to come back regularly

10) Create specials on Foursquare

HAVE FUN!

Filed Under: FourSquare, Social Networking Tagged With: , ,

Facebook Announces Changes to Business Fan Pages

February 10, 2011 By

facebook marketing njFacebook just rolled out changes to business fan pages and I couldn’t be more excited about the new features.  As a Facebook marketing consultant, I am often the main ‘admin’ for many of my clients’ pages.  One thing I hated was that as an admin, I couldn’t comment on posts as myself to get conversations started and encourage interaction.  As an admin, Facebook automatically would make my comments look as though they were coming from the page itself.

All of that has now changed for the better.

The new Facebook fan page upgrade now makes fan pages look more similar to personal profile pages–more user friendly.  Most recent photos are posted along the top of the page and navigation links are on the left, same as your personal page.

Page admins have the option to comment on the pages they edit as themselves.  The default setting is that admin comments will still show up as if the page is commenting about itself, but it’s easy to change. Just go to edit page–your settings–and de-select the first option, Posting Preferences.

You can now comment on your fan page as yourself.

Another cool feature for Facebook page admins is that you can now get email alerts when fans comment on your posts or interact with your page–just like you do on your personal profile.   This is another great feature added by Facebook to make the lives of us admins much easier.  Now we don’t have to check several times a day for any comments or posts that were made to the wall of a page.  Email notifications tell us as it happens.   To manage your email alerts go to ‘edit page–featured’.

If you have any questions about these new Facebook fan page features feel free to send us an email.

Filed Under: Facebook Tagged With: , , ,

Why Companies Lose Facebook Fans, Twitter Followers & Email Subscribers

February 10, 2011 By

(source: ExactTarget.com)

An astounding 95% of US consumers use email and 73% of consumers have set up a Facebook profile.  So it’s not surprising that one of the most popular methods or marketing to today’s consumer is online.  Many businesses are eager to join the Facebook revolution and create Facebook fan pages or gather up customer emails and press the ‘send’ button in a frenzy.  But untrained business owners  just shooting from the hip when it comes to updating their Facebook fan page or sending out E-blasts could actually be doing their business more harm than good.

An insightful study called ‘The Social Media Breakup’ released from ExactTarget (www.ExactTarget.com) gives more detail on how consumers are ‘breaking up’ with businesses through social media.

Here are some important figures from the study:

* 91% of consumers have unsubscribed from opt-in marketing e-mails.

* 77% of consumers report being more cautious about providing their e-mail address to companies versus last year.

* 81% of consumers have either “unliked” or removed a company’s posts from their Facebook News Feed.

* 71% of consumers report being more selective about “liking” a company on Facebook than they were last year.

* 51% of consumers expect that a “like” will result in marketing communications from brands, while 40% do not believe it should result in marketing communications.

* 41% of consumers have “unfollowed” a company on Twitter.

Email Marketing Breakups- You’re Coming on Too Strong

With 91% of consumers saying that they have unsubscribed at some point from email marketing that they had previously opted-in to, it’s important for businesses to understand why.  An opt-in email list does not give us carte-blanche to blast daily messages to a list.  When asked why, consumers said the #1 reason they opted out of receiving emails from a company they once were interested in was because the company sent too many emails.

Overuse of the email channel is the biggest reason SUBSCRIBERS pull away. 54% of consumers say they unsubscribe when emails come too frequently from a particular brand.

email marketing nj

Photo courtesy of ExactTarget.com

Facebook Friends….Or Not?

How effective is your Facebook marketing? You’ll be surprised to know that most consumers (51%) say that after ‘liking’ a business fan page, they never visit that page to check for updates, sales, etc.  According to the ExactTarget study, “More than half of consumers (55%) have “liked” a brand, only to decide later that they no longer want to see posts from that brand. Of that group, only 57% bother to formally “unlike” the company. The rest either ignore unwanted posts or delete the posts from their newsfeed. So more than half the time, the company receives no direct feedback about the consumer’s desire to stop seeing their posts.”

So, makes you wonder….who is hearing your message…if anyone?

Can we be friends on Facebook?

facebook marketing nj

Photo courtesy of ExactTarget.com

Social Media Marketing–Show You Care

In conclusion, the most important aspect for businesses to remember about marketing to consumers, whether through Email, Facebook, Twitter or anything else, is to care about their customers.  Businesses must show that they actually care about their consumers and not just market mass messages to them. Here are a few tips to making the most of your marketing campaigns:

  • Follow Through: Don’t create a Facebook page if you don’t have time to respond to people who leave questions or comments.  Show you care by responding to inquiries from your fans promptly.
  • Engage: You don’t just have to talk about the new $100 jeans that just arrived at your boutique or the latest scarves on your shelves. Your ‘fans’ have other related interests like ‘fashion’ in general.  Give tips and ideas for great fashion looks instead of just trying to sell your products. Engage your fans to learn more by coming to your page.
  • Don’t be too self promotional: This relates to engaging your fans.  Fans expect some level of self promotion, but they don’t want it forced in front of their faces 24/7.  Talk about more than just yourself and your business.
  • Show restraint: Especially with email marketing.  Don’t send more than 2 emails per month and make them relevant and different.  With respects to your Facebook fan page, I usually recommend 1-2 updates per week and NO MORE.

For help with your social media marketing, give us a call at 732-757-7944 or refer to our contact page to get more information.

Filed Under: Email Marketing, Facebook, Social Networking Tagged With: , , ,

Using Facebook to Market to Baby Boomers

January 27, 2011 By

Baby Boomers are flocking to Facebook and loving it!  According to Deloitte data, 2009 was the year that social media bloomed for Baby Boomers, with nearly 47% of them actively maintaining a profile on the social web, which is up 15% from 2008.   The numbers continue to rise in 2010 and will do the same for 2011.  Not only are Boomers on Facebook but they are interacting and taking advantage of all that Facebook has to offer.

If your business markets to Boomers, you need a Facebook presence.  Your Facebook business fan page should engage your audience with interesting facts, quotes, information and even specials and discounts on your product and service.  The page is a way for you to capture the attention of your desired audience without the presence of competing businesses.  Once you gain a fan base you have a captive audience.  Don’t abuse this audience though.  Post too often and you could turn away fans.  Keep your Facebook fan page informative but unobtrusive.  Posting updates about once a week is acceptable.  In the event of a big announcement, it’s fine to add additional posts.

Help With Facebook Marketing

The good thing to know is that TCR Marketing can help you create your fan page and keep it up to date with weekly posts. If you would like us to help you with your Facebook marketing, please send us an email.

Learn more about Facebook marketing.

Filed Under: Facebook, Social Networking Tagged With: ,

Facebook for Your Business

December 8, 2010 By

facebook fan pageFacebook is not becoming, but already is one of the hottest marketing tools for businesses.  Whether you are local or national, your business can benefit from a Facebook fan page.

Businesses have fan pages, people have profile pages. There are differences between the two. Creating a Facebook fan page for your business is similar to creating a mini resume for your business online, only the resume is much more interactive and exciting.  Imagine being able to get important messages about products, sales or services to hundreds of people who have specifically shown an interest in your business.  You might be thinking that you can just send an Eblast, and you can.  Email marketing is still popular and effective, but you are up against spam filters and those who don’t check their emails for days on end.  Most people who connect with you on Facebook check their Facebook account daily, sometimes several times a day.  So you truly have a captive, live audience at your fingertips.

Facebook For Businesses

Do it right the first time.  Let TCR Marketing create a Facebook fan page for your business and help you acquire fans and make your page engaging and memorable.  We can also update your Facebook page you as often as you like with posts, photos and videos.

Here are examples of Facebook pages we have created and/or maintain for our clients.

McCann Systems

Isabelle Grace Jewelry

Ultimate Fitness Training Center

Ferraro Spine and Rehabilitation

Citroen Import Services

Monmouth County Restaurant Specials

Filed Under: Social Networking Tagged With: , ,
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