A Dozen Miscellaneous, Marketing No Brainers - Part I

When you’re busy running a business, it’s easy to overlook low hanging fruit. We don’t do some of the simple things that would make our lives easier, companies better, and marketing more effective. Here are 12 miscellaneous no-brainers.


1. Create a Facebook Fan Page

Facebook has passed Yahoo for traffic and is closing in on Google. It keeps users engaged more than three times as long as Google and Yahoo. You can create a fan page for your business for FREE. Why don’t you? Put coupons on the page every week. Recruit your customers, family, friends, and employees as fans. Encourage them to recruit their friends.


2. Collect Customer Emails & Market to Them

Everyone may be overloaded with email, but we still use it and still read it. If you can collect your customers’ email addresses, you dramatically reduce the cost of communicating with them. Unfortunately, some people will give you their social security number before their email address. You must give people a good reason.

Based on a member suggestion, the Service Roundtable created a great script and employee bio form for collecting email addresses. The call taker informs the customer she wants to send the customer a bio and a picture of the technician who will be coming to her house and asks for an email address. People usually provide the email address. The bio offers the added benefit of providing potential points of commonality with the technician (e.g., the homeowner who volunteers for the humane society will instantly connect with the technician who works with an animal rescue organization).

Other contractors simply ask for an email address so the call taker can send the customer a coupon she can use on the current call. In essence, the company is buying the email address with a discount.

Sometimes all you need is a good newsletter and people will give you their email address without much prompting. It works. The Service Roundtable is a seven figure company that largely evolved from the Comanche Marketing email list.


3. Complete Your Local Search Profile

Local search is becoming more prominent with Google and the other search engines (e.g., local.google.com). Claim your business name and location (it will be verified), fill out the complete information, and encourage customer reviews. It will give you better billing in the “ten pack” of local search results. Again, the cost is FREE.


4. Create a List of Your Prestigious Reference Jobs, Including Pictures

When we purchased our pool, the company we initially selected had done work for several local professional football players. It made the pool contractor seem like a safer choice. Work you’ve done for well known people in your community or on well-known buildings will make your company seem like a safe choice for equipment installations, remodels, and project work. When consumers are spending thousands of dollars, being the safe choice may make the difference between winning and losing a job.

Write up a list of your prestigious work. Include pictures as evidence. Make this a part of your sales presentation.


5. Make Everyone a Winner For Contests and Drawings

When you hold a contest or drawing to give something away at a home show or otherwise, give everyone “honorable mention,” which is a gift certificate with your company. A gift certificate is little more than a coupon that people keep.


6. Include a Call to Action

Any advertising or marketing you do should inform the prospect of the actions you want him to take. In other words, advertising and marketing should always include a call to action. Give the prospect specific instructions…

Visit our website…
Call now…
Ask for…

NEXT WEEK: Part II

Google Executive Offers Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tips.

This 10 minute interview was shot at a conference in 2007, so it's somewhat dated, but the advice is still relevant and clearly explained. A lot of search engine optimization (SEO) is really simple. Provide good content for users in a manner that the search engines can read.

Note the emphasis on local search through Google. At the Service Roundtable we've been pushing contractors to stress local search and have offered several tools to help.

Put Your Company on the Map

Note: I wrote this for Southern PHC Magazine and would normally link to it, but the article is not online, so I'm reprinting here.

As consumer yellow page usage wanes, local Internet search is becoming more important. Search for “air conditioning” and based on your IP address, search engines like Google will serve up local companies, including a map with locations. You want your company on this map.

Putting your company on Google Maps, which is Google’s local search, is simple. Visit http://local.google.com/ and click on “Put your business on Google Maps.” You will need to create a Google account, but that only takes seconds.

Your company may already be listed. If it is, Google will prompt you to claim it.

Fill out all information on your company. Make sure you incorporate product, service, and brand search terms.

Google verifies all local business listings. You can choose phone or postal mail. Pick the phone method. It’s faster.


The Ten Pack

The coveted placement for you is the “ten pack” of local businesses displayed next to the map during a search (the ten pack doesn’t always contain ten companies). Within the ten pack, you want to be ranked as high as possible. Here are five ways to improve your ranking…

1. Internet Directories – Get listed on every Internet yellow pages and business directory you can find. This includes the chamber of commerce, city directories, the Better Business Bureau, trade association directories, manufacturer dealer locators, NATE’s Consumer to Contractor Connection, InfoUSA’s database, Yahoo, Bing, DMOZ and other search directories, etc.
   
   
2. Keyword in Business Name – Including the right search term in your company name can make the difference between being ranked #4 and #1. Make sure you include “heating and air conditioning” in your listing.
   
   
3. Customer Reviews – If you increase the number of customer reviews, you will increase your ranking. Ask your customers to review your company on Google. Use a review guide like the one shown to encourage customers to complete the review. You can download this review by clicking on “Free Stuff” at www.ServiceRoundtable.com.
   
   
4. Social Media – Create a Facebook fan page that links back to your website. Create Linked In and Plaxo profiles with links to your website.
   
   
5. Full Address – Make sure your website contains your full address, preferably on the front page.

Here are three things to avoid…

1. Toll Free Phone Number – You should avoid using the exclusive use of a toll free phone number on your website. Local businesses should have local numbers according to search engine ranking logic.
   
   
2. P.O. Box – Do not rely solely on a post office box. Add your physical address as a shipping address.
   
   
3. Multiple Addresses – Limit yourself to one address on your website. Multiple addresses tends to confuse the search engines.

Focus On Google First

Why Google? According to comScore, Google not only commands 64% of all domestic Internet searches, but its share is rising. The volume of searching is increasing and Google is taking 90% of the increase. Last year, 85 billion searches were performed in the United States using Google.

Do not ignore the other search engines. Many people still use them. But more use Google than all others combined.

Putting yourself on the (Google) map only takes a few minutes. Spend a few more to boost your ranking and you will find your incoming call volume increasing without spending another dime.