Jennifer Lind

Local Search is the focus of this upcoming Webinar, hosted by TMP Directional Marketing. I hope you can attend!

National Brands Marketing Local
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
- 1:00 PM EDT (10:00 AM PDT)

Speaker: Greg Sterling, Sterling Market Intelligence and Search Engine Land

The majority of consumer transactions take place offline, yet the Internet influences more of them every day. This is the true opportunity for “local search”: tying consumer Internet research to offline conversions.

In this webcast, Greg Sterling will discuss the latest developments in the Local Search landscape and how brand marketers — of any size — can take advantage of this evolving channel.

The implication for marketers is significant: how do you track offline conversions that began in an online search? How does a large, national brand take advantage of search at the local level? As consumers become more adept at searching online, how do marketers keep up with the shifting behavior? Are Internet Yellow pages the way to go - or should you consider a combination of print and online advertising to maximize your offline sales?

Other questions I hope will be addressed:

• How do website businesses (pure ecommerce) target local consumers?
• Besides print and Internet Yellow Pages, what other methods can be used to target locally?
• If given the choice to do a national yellow pages ad to cover every geography vs many local ads, which has the better CPA and how do you go about choosing those local geographies to cover?

Do you have any other questions?
To register please click on the following link: https://www.etouches.com/2481?reference=TMP

Update: to view the webinar recording, go to: http://searchmarketingnow.com/

A recent article from The Kelsey Group (okay, it was in May & I’m a little behind) discussed reasons why the Yellow Pages should develop “a platform for niche social networks since directories covers such a broad array of topics and content that can be related to highly conversational topics such as travel, music, legal, weddings, new mothers, retirement, interior design, home improvement, etc.”

The article goes on to explain that a Yellow Page owned social networking site has the power of a wide range of topics in any of their 5,000 headings, and could utilize its advertisers content as a source of adding revenue potential throughout each niche site.

The Kelsey Group says “the real benefit to Yellow Page owners would come in the form of increased traffic, narrow targeting opportunities for advertisers, additional revenue opportunities and leadership in the fast emerging social marketing space.”

So what would a yellow page niche social network site look like?

To really work, this needs to be a very innovative local networking site. It needs to get the local businesses involved in the content, and offer lots of applications for the users. It needs to be a mixture of twitter, squidoo, Ning, and facebook with a local business flair. Is that too much to ask for?

A local social networking site needs to have a minimum of the following features:

• mobile applications to upload posts and reviews
• user generated video & images
• pages that can be created by users
• the ability to allow users to create profile pages; the ability to save friends and certain posts as favorites
• many headings such as reviews, events, special offer commentary, where to get the best whatever, etc.
• allows the local businesses to add posts or have their own pages
• links in as an application with other social networking sites such as facebook, blogging sites, etc.
• rotating featured companies who have earned the right to get special attention through an innovative product or feature or community service, etc.

What other applications would you like to see on a local Yellow Page social networking site?

On Thursday I attended a Webinar from ZipLocal. On the call, our ZipLocal reps ran through their site, the products, and service areas.

ZipLocal is one of Canada’s largest local business search directories with over 1.3 million business listings across Canada.

Unique features of Ziplocal.com include:

• adding pre-populated, related keywords to your category searches
• BestPicks, which are generated by user voting that occurs on an on-going basis (rather than other sites who only update once per year)
• easy to view profiles of ZipPeople
• neighborhood & city search
• proximity search
• user reviews remain on for all advertisers. ZipLocal has not had major issues with negative reviews. Most people use reviews on their site as a way to promote the businesses they like.
• French bi-lingual site

ZipLocal Partners include: LavaLife, Astral Media, Urban Mapping, Careerbuilder, Sweetspot.ca, etc.

One comment that really got my attention - one of the ZipLocal reps commented that there is no tolerance for error in local search. ZipLocal prides itself on having the most relevant information. Their system searches the internet for any changes and quickly updates their site. I don’t know how many times I have found a business and drove to the store only to find nothing there, or called a number that was disconnected, etc. This is very frustrating and looks poorly on the business rather than the search tool.

Another comment I found interesting is that ZipLocal claims to have minimal duplication over major competitors. 98% of ZipLocal users do not visit Canpages.ca, over 70% of ZipLocal users do not visit Yellowpages.ca, and 55% do not use Google Maps to find local businesses. If you are a Canada business, and you’re not advertising on ZipLocal, there is a high chance you are missing potential customers.

When will ZipLocal start servicing the US?

Yelp is a great local search site, that is really focused on customer reviews. As a Yelp user, you can connect with friends, become part of the Yelp Elite Squad, have a local conversation, tag your favorite reviewers, add bookmarks, and add a list of favorite businesses. You can also use Yelp on your mobile devise to find businesses on the go.

Yelp has strict guidelines for writing reviews and gate keeping which advertisers they allow to post on the site. This is very appealing to users because they know that reviews are being written by real people and not managed by the business owner who asked friends and family to post a review.

Yelp will remind you of Citysearch, but is more trustworthy because of their strict advertising policies. Yelp also has a better layout and has a more personal look and feel, with pictures of the reviewer and better descriptions on the lookup page.

Advertising on Yelp

As a local business owner, all you need to do is claim your business. You can then see how many people are viewing your profile and update your business information. Also, since very few businesses are promoting on Yelp, you have a good opportunity to make your business really stand out. More info on Yelp for Businesses.

Yelp has some options for sponsored listings, which allows you to add a large image slide show or announcements. This will also move your listing to the top of the page under your relevant category.

Yelp Syndication

Yelp is prominent on many social networking sites, including Facebook and Squidoo.

Info on Yelp’s Facebook syndication:

Facebook has recently launched a new feature called Beacon which allows Facebook to request information you might want to share with your Facebook friends from sites like Yelp. If you are actively logged into Facebook, your Yelp reviews can be shared with your Facebook friends automagically.

One of the new directions that Local Search is taking us is pay per call advertising. This option is now available with main providers Ingenio (owned by AT&T) and Free411 (aka Jingle).

What is Pay Per Call Advertising?

Basically the same as Pay Per Click, but the url link is replaced with a link to call. The call number is tracked, and you pay by the number of calls you receive during your pre-set day parting hours.

Who Should Look into Pay Per Call Advertising?

Service based local companies such as plumbers & contractors, restaurants, financial services, travel companies, auto repair and sales, and telecommunications.

What About the Average Bid Costs?

Obviously, if a customer sees your ad and decides to call you, that person is going to be highly relevant and will be ready to stop in your store or request your services. The high conversion rates you receive means you will pay slightly more than your typical PPC campaign. An average pay per call bid price will be around $8-$10.

Where Can I Find Pay Per Call Ads?

• Yellowpages.com (tile ads at the top of the page)
• Dex
• Switchboard
• Local.com
• AOL
• Mobile Search Engines: MSN Mobile, AOL Mobile, Mapquest, Traffic.com
• Directory Assistance calls: AT&T, 1-800-Free411
• LowerMyBills.com
• plus more!

The main thing to remember if you are placing a pay per call ad online is to design your creative accordingly. You want to use a call to action that will entice the user to pick up the phone, such as “call to get promotion.”

Local search… is it the new way we search or the old way? It’s both. Local search connects us to our community and to our neighbors. The old way of search is now online and it will continue to develop further than it ever could in the traditional means.

Instead of pulling out the yellow pages book to find your local salon, you can now find the salon just before you boot down your computer for the night. Just jump online to Google Maps, MSN, or Yellowpages.com and search by the town or zip code and type in salon. Within 2 minutes you will have every salon at your fingertips, and you will be able to see their website, print a coupon, send the address to your mobile phone, and read what others are saying about the company.

So in a world where I can now buy clothes from New York while I am sitting here in Minneapolis, why would we still rely so heavily on local search? There are many reasonable answers to this question. At the core, I think people will always like the feeling of going into the store, seeing the behaviors of the company’s employees and the customers in the store, and touching the product for themselves before making a buying decision. The need for community will never disappear completely from our society.

So what is next for local search? Even more interaction with the customer. The employees of our local Panera Bread live here in the same town. They know the community, they breathe the same air, they drive the same streets. The more that our local businesses get involved with the community, with the internet, and specifically with their customers, the better our communities will be (and the more loyal customers they will have!). I would love to see a local business with their own blog, tell customers about a local event related to their products or services, asking customers to vote on their favorite products, opening a discussion to help the customers understand the product or service better, etc.

Customers want to be involved! (And they want to be the center of attention!)

Local search sites and general search engines will eventually adapt to changes, especially changes brought on by their searchers. Next time you are out driving in a new part of town, you may see a message from Superpages.com on your mobile with the nearby location of your favorite coffee shop chain.