I’ve argued for a long time that most people are not natural marketers, and while it takes great courage to start one’s own business, most entrepreneurs are more passionate about “doing” their business, craft or trade, than they are talking about or selling themselves.

Marketing is not a natural act to most of us and may feel cheap or desperate. More likely, though, it’s just hard. Thinking about potential customers, their needs, what will inspire them to act, how to differentiate from competitors – these are all challenging projects.

Marketing is also where many resort to their opinions, or those of their friends and colleagues, rather than relying on data to provide the answers. Especially in the Internet age, consumers are actively providing useful data – their search queries, their social network activities, what they say (good/bad) about businesses with reviews and ratings. Business owners of any size now have built in market research.

Marketing tools, especially on the web, are more prevalent than ever before. However, to many business owners, those tools are daunting and further dissuade them from acting. I like Jantsch’s recommendation of a monthly marketing theme and specific actions to take. Just taking the actions, though, doesn’t mean that they will be done right nor impact the business. Finding a partner who can provide some marketing education, recommendations and best practices is a good first step.

Search engine marketing is still critical, though, so businesses can at least be in front of the people who are specifically looking for the products and services they offer. In a market this tough, local online advertising is a requirement for survival, and will separate the businesses that thrive and grow through this downturn, and the ones who fade away. Focus on the opportunities!

http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2405

In a yellow pages world, we would call a business during the research process, giving them an opportunity to sell us while also helping us in the research phase. The merchant was a key part of the information gather process. As a result, more spontaneous consumers would buy faster. Online information and its transparency and access is great, but also increases the noise that consumer must manage. As a business owner, you should expect fewer information gathering and research calls, as more of that activity is self-served now. Thus, your website should try to aid the consumer in this process, so you still get the credit for the information. You also need to appear to consumers throughout their purchase cycle, not just when they are ready to buy.

We have been partnering with the industry for several years and probably serve as the biggest promoter of newspapers’ opportunity to leverage their local brands and relationships into the digital world.  The article does a good job of identifying the issues – training, compensation and broader sales focus.

To succeed in this new environment, educating the local market, reinvesting in the local community that has been the newspaper’s foundation for decades, adopting a more proactive sales approach to a broader local audience, and developing local multi-channel marketing consultants are the new imperatives.  Our most successful partners are marketing themselves and becoming a more active part of their local business community, explaining that the online world is a complex environment, and offering an array of online advertising solutions that fit businesses of all sizes (search, display, directory listings, video ads). 

Online advertising at this stage is a longer sales cycle as the article quotes Mary Lou Fulton in Bakersfield.  This is best explained this way – 90% of what’s known about a newspaper ad is shared between buyer and seller, so it’s simply a price negotiation on the other 10%.  In online, only 10% of what the Internet is or can be is shared, so 90% of the discussion is explaining options and determining the best solution for the buyer by the seller.  This is a lengthy, complex process, and requires education, patience and explanation.  To those willing to make the changes in their sales organizations and approaches will go the spoils.

We’re doing everything we can do to help – training, encouragement, marketing, education, solutions.  I look forward to sharing some big success stories in the coming months as I see the energy building.  There is no denying that online isn’t just the future.  It’s here now.

Comments from Greg Sterling on the article:
http://gesterling.wordpress.com/2008/07/31/wsj-on-borrell-report-newspapers-losing/

Creating a truly effective marketing campaign online takes a lot of work that consumes a great deal of time for small business owner. Simply having a website will be suitable to many, but this is hardly relevant if it is poorly designed, hard to use, or bland. The process starts with having a website but never truly ends. Maintaining the site, targeting an audience, tracking statistics of visitors and other factors have to be employed to grow your business in the information age.

Keep in mind though, if you’re not planning to dedicate the resources and time to testing and analyzing results, you probably should not even begin a campaign. Even with the virtually endless advances in computer technology over the last decade, testing is the only repeatedly proven way to learn what works and what does not. This mystery game is what makes online advertising so exciting because when done right, it forces you, the business owner to constantly innovate to build your client base and revenue. If done correctly, the sky is truly the limit.

1. Quality over Quantity—do not be misled by increased traffic.

With all the benefits that search engines bring to marketing a small business, they still leave much to be desired—after all, it is their job to sell their ad space, not to build your customer base. While your traffic may increase dramatically with search engine advertising, you might not notice a strong correlation with sales. Building traffic to your website is the first step to getting new customers, but enticing them to buy your product or service is the next so it is imperative that the traffic you receive is interested in your site and knows what they want. If you place all your marketing into increasing.

2. Style and usability should work together—your website must be attention-grabbing and easy to use.

Americans like to be impressed, so when they find your page, make it excite them. Think about it: when you casually land on a generic website, do you spend time on it or just hit the back button to try to find something better? Your customers will probably click the back button as well if your website is sloppy, uninspiring, or just bland. Have an interactive menu or advertise online-only specials to keep customers open to what you can provide them. Some of the best websites combine professionalism with inspiring, relevant graphics or descriptions to maximize conversions from casual browser to new customer. At the same time, always assume that it is the user’s first time trying to do business online. It has to be easy to navigate; if it isn’t, your potential customers may feel hassled and will look to send their business elsewhere.

3. Be proud to be local—make sure your ad and targeting reflect the true local nature of your business.

Chances are high that many people who find your website are locals, so make them feel at home on your website. You’ll capture the interest of more qualified prospects if they know where you are located, when you’re open, and your contact information. Don’t be afraid to share some of your history or give a statement about your goals and your mission as a company. Not only will this differentiate your business from non-local firms, but the convenience factor of you being near them can give customers a sense of insurance. Consumers who are ready to buy are more likely to be trying to select a store from which to buy and not searching for the product itself (which has already been determined). Be personable and friendly on your site and proudly declare your locality! They already know what they want or need and now it’s up to you to do business with them.

4. Use statistics to your advantage—install tracking code on your site that helps you determine which search engines, keywords, ads and campaigns are driving the best and most profitable conversions.

As was mentioned in the first secret to success, building traffic is only one element, so what happens next? Once customers are on your site, you need to know where they go, where they spend their time on your site, and what they click. If you install tracking code into your website, you can narrow down exactly what keywords lead specific customers to specific areas of your website. Through this, you can begin to learn the demographics and the interests of your website’s visitors and modify your advertising plans accordingly. After you have this data, you can better target your audience by modifying keywords that you use on search engines and fine-tune your advertising campaign based on the general demography of your audience. With statistics and tracking code, you’ll also be able to learn what parts of your site are stagnant and which are highly active. Once you know this, you can capitalize on the most profitable areas and either change or eliminate the less profitable areas.

5. Keep your advertising dynamic—use your data and acquired learning to make changes to your campaigns.

Nothing is worse than throwing money into a bottomless pit. Many small business owners feel that advertising on a search engine is the only way to advertise online, but fail to realize that this is just the beginning. You have to be dynamic. If you’re spending money without earning new revenue and continue to do so, your resources are working against you when they should be working for you. Achieving this isn’t as tough as it may see. If your business is seasonal, modify your website accordingly, or if you notice trends in your local market take action to utilize these trends. These short-term solutions will produce long-term dynamic results.

Final Thought

The long-term effectiveness of online advertising is more complex and requires a bigger time investment than most choose to accept Setting up a campaign is the easiest part, but because it’s so easy, everyone does it. Reviewing, tracking, testing and changing require not only proper setup and analysis (which is often done incorrectly), but also regular follow-up modifications. All of this becomes a fairly technical undertaking, but because it is hard, not many are willing to dedicate the extra effort even if it means sacrificing income and future clients. To be honest, if you value your time and money, you probably want to find an expert to help you with all the fine-tuning and analysis. By working with an expert, you’ll virtually guarantee that your resources will be used with high-efficiency and will attain results that you could do on your own after a great deal of frustration and many hours later. Once you have an effective website and strong online marketing campaign, you won’t have to chase customers; the customers will come to you.

Technorati Profile

I just did a search on my family’s business on Google.  In the first 3 pages of results, I found directory listings on ECNext, SuperPages, YellowBook, Switchboard, MerchantCircle, YellowPageCity, InsiderPages, AllPages & MyPages – and all of these listings has slight variations among them.  How could anyone keep this information accurately updated, and keep up with any consumer reviews, comments or otherwise that shows up on these sites?  And why did his business not show up in Local.com, YellowPages.com, Yahoo Yellow Pages, Google Local, Judy’s Book, TrueLocal and others?

Data quality has been a topic raised by some people in this industry, but it has not been adequately addressed for usability by merchants.  With more sites embedding comments, reviews and opinions every day, it’s become impossible for the plumber, retailer or other small merchant to monitor and see what others are saying and doing – to the detriment or benefit of her business.

Centralized data management, monitoring and interactions will be very relevant topics in the coming months.  More to come on this topic for certain.

I found that the majority of the participants and discussions were focused around technology and tactics, versus truly discussing what issues face local merchants.  During my panel, very little attention was paid to how local merchants view the Internet, and what they are willing to do (or not do) to make the Internet help their businesses.  While we are innovating and finding the new platforms and media outlets, most local merchants are left with their small, traditional businesses and basic problems.  While we see slow adoption of online advertising and technology by small businesses, we spend less time learning from small merchants and educating them, than we do talking about keyword auto-generators, meta tags, click-through rates, and XML data feeds.

Consumers have moved to the web in a massive way, and they’re asking for their merchants to be there.  Most merchants have not made that leap in their mind, and it’s our job (and opportunity) to educate them.

Technorati Tags: Search Engine Strategies | small business | local | search marketing