The Little Book of Google Maps for Businesses
Over 20% of Google searches now contain a location (e.g., “lawyers Victoria BC)), and this number rises to over 40% of mobile searches. This means that it’s more important than ever before for local businesses to optimize themselves for local search, but how to do that? To help you out, Google has published the Little Book of Google Maps for Business.

Here’s a video to help you get started:

Google has just launched a new site www.whenisamap.com/retail aimed at showing the ways in which mapping can be put to work for retailers, and the site has examples of great implementations ranging from classic store locators, to promoting in-store events, and even indoor mapping.

6 Tips for Getting More Retweets
Here are the 6 most interesting data-backed tips that you can apply to your own Twitter efforts to get more retweets … and by extension more site traffic, more leads, and more customers.

Bonus links:

• The Best and Worst Times to Share on Facebook, Twitter
• 5 reasons to schedule your tweets

3 Tiny Tweaks to Help Improve Your Website Conversion Rate
What kinds of changes can you make in just a few minutes in order to keep squeezing out more “conversions” and more sales on your website? Read more here.

If you’d like to know lots more about the fundamentals of making your landing pages the best they can possibly be, check out 101 Landing Page Optimizations Tips.

Bonus link: How to Boost Your Email Conversion Rates

Humor helps when marketing content

10 awesome marketing infographics
Infographics are a great way to quickly catch the attention of customer and ideally get them to share your content – thereby promoting your business to their friends and other trusted contents. If you’re looking for ideas, here are 10 awesome marketing infographics from 2012 – read more here.

New Twitter update makes it easier to market your content
Thanks to recent changes (again!) to Google’s algorithm, content marketing – creating content such as blog posts, videos, how t0-guides and infographics that provide valuable information that help your customers solve problems – is establishing itself as a key tool for promoting your business. Social media such as Twitter plays an important role in getting that content out there, and in turn driving customers to your business’ website. Twitter has a new update that makes it easier to market your content. Learn more here.

Social media marketing predictions for the near future 
Over the past 18 months or so, businesses have had to adjust to the new reality of social media and content marketing. But change is constant in the world of online marketing – how can businesses be prepared to benefit from the social media marketing landscape of the next few years? To find out, read more here.

8 ways to get the biggest marketing bang out of Slideshare
Salesforce.com’s Jennifer Burnham calls it, “a library in the cloud.” JESS3 co-founder, Jesse Thomas describes it as, “Wikipedia mixed with Delicious and Vimeo.” However you want to characterize SlideShare, remember this: It’s big. More than nine million uploads big. Twenty-nine million monthly unique visitors big. And, according to LinkedIn, $119 million big. To find out more about how Slideshare can help your online marketing efforts, read more here.

How some Olympians use social media to overcome limited budgets
Despite limited budgets, little-known Olympians have to get the word out somehow in order to attract the sponsorships that can help advance their sports careers. Over the past few years, social media marketing has transformed how these athletes brand themselves and attracting funding. Read more here.

Nevin Thompson writes for JumpStartWeb, leaders in content marketing in Victoria BC.

Have your heard of these 5 “local” search engines?
Many “local” businesses tend to focus on getting listed on Google Maps and Google Places, simply because it’s relatively easy to get listed on these sites and doing so usually produces results. However, there are other local search engines you should know about in order to reach your customers: Twitter Search, Facebook Search, FourSquare Search, LinkedIn Company Search, and Pinterest. Read more here to get more details about each.

Why your email subscribers are your most loyal customers
According to one marketing writer,  of all the customers you have, people who subscribe to your email list are probably your best customer. Why is this? Generally speaking, email marketing is “permission-based”; your customers have indicated that they want you contact them with offers (along with highly valuable and relevant information). Email subscribers also tend to open and click on links, which is important when you;re trying to sell a product or a service. To learn more about why email subscribers make loyal customers, read more here. Bonus link:  7 clever email campaigns that get customers buying again

How to turn your business into a referral-generating machine
For local businesses, why can referrals seem so hard to generate? According to the Globe and Mail, there’s an art to generating referrals: you need to be systematic in your approach.  Here’s a step-by-step process to follow each week. Read more here. Bonus link: Ten simple ways to generate leads on Twitter

Google’s Mobile Playbook Aims To Educate, Simplify Mobile For “Busy Executives”
Something that should be of great interest to local business: earlier this week Google launched its “Mobile Playbook,” a simple but comprehensive guide that explains what  ”mobile” is and why anyone hoping to sell anything to anybody needs to embrace the channel asap. Google’s document is full of data and case studies that illustrate why it’s so important to have a mobile strategy, website and/or app. Read more here.

Content strategist Nevin Thompson “curates” a weekly collection of online marketing links for JumpStart Web, a Victoria online marketing agency specializing in local search marketing.

32 ways to get people to link to your website
While many local businesses resort to a variety of desperate tactics to get other sites to link to them in order to improve search results, there are actually many “white hat” and reputable ways to build up your online presence. For example, if you’re a source of great content and you get it in front of the right people, they’re going to share your bussiness’ website with others, and send customers your way. Read more here.

Do you have a mobile marketing strategy yet?
Analysts report that mobile devices such as iPhones and other smart phones, will overtake Local Search by 2015. This means that local businesses must be prepared with a mobile marketing strategy if they want to remain competitive. Read more here.

Tips for leveraging social media in email marketing campaigns
Permission-based email marketing is an incredibly powerful tool for connecting with existing customers, generating leads and making new sales. However, as we all know, due to social media the online landscape has shifted dramatically in recent years. Here are some tips about how to integrate social media with email marketing, in order to create powerful, integrated campaigns. Read more here.

How to measure your social media success
Social media can be very labor-intensive, which is a problem for local businesses needing to prioritize where they spend limited marketing budgets. While it can be difficult to immediately show results in social media marketing campaigns, it’s also difficult figuring out just what to measure. Here are a few tips to for determining how to measure social media success. Read more here. Bonus link: Integrating social media into your integrated marketing communications plan

Have your heard about AdWords’ new “local” features?
Local campaigns are a focus for many businesses–from finding directions to looking up a phone number, more people are going online to find local information. In fact, according to Google, more than 20% of searches on Google are related to location, and people often act quickly on local searches. Research shows that using smartphones, 88% of people who search for local information take action within a day. To help businesses with local ad campaigns this spring, Google is introducing three new features in AdWords to help create ads that are more relevant to local customers. Read more here.

Nevin Thompson works on content marketing campaigns for JumpStartWeb

15 things customers hate about your website
Why do so many websites feature elements that visitors (that is, potential customers) absolutely hate? Poor user experience can cause high page abandonment rates, low visitor-to-lead conversion rates, poor organic search listing positions, and a bad reputation. Here’s a list of the 15 most annoying things on websites, sort of a guide for what not to do when designing your website. Read more here.

5 highly effective landing page tips
It’s safe to say that many local businesses are still way behind in their landing page improvement efforts (a landing page is a single web page that appears in response to clicking on an advertisement. The landing page will usually display directed sales copy that is a logical extension of the advertisement or link). This can lead to lost sales opportunities, which no one wants! To help you out, here are 5 highly effective landing page tips. Read more here.

Learn better email marketing for local businesses
Local businesses often can exploit their closer relationships with customers and ability to quickly take advantage of trends to beat out big box retailers, who traditionally dominate online marketing. However, local businesses often forget to implement simple, strategic tool such as email marketing, that can help them increase sales. Read more here.

How to create a great content strategy for an established website
Establishing a comprehensive content strategy for existing pages on your website is a key piece of the search engine optimization (SEO) puzzle, especially considering Google’s ongoing Panda quality updates. But what is “content strategy”? And how do you implement it on your business’ established website? Read more here.

Quick tips for marketing on mobile devices (video)
Mobile will take over local search and online marketing for local businesses within the next year or two. While mobile may seem confusing for local businesses, it’s an effective, powerful, and actually simple way to connect with customers and boost sales on a limited budget. Here are a few tips on how to seamlessly move content into a mobile environment. Read more here.

Nevin Thompson prepares a weekly feast of links for JumpStart Web, Victoria’s leaders in web marketing for local businesses.

What businesses benefit most from creating mobile websites?
Thanks to the continued and sustained exploding growth in consumer adoption of tablets and smartphones, there is an uptick in “mobile first, desktop second” business strategies. Are there certain types of companies that can benefit more than others by retooling for mobile? According to this article, consumer-facing businesses stand to gain the most direct and immediately measurable benefits from going mobile. Read more here.

Video boosts brand engagement, site visits
Users not only click on more ads with video or rich media, but also tend to visit brand sites long after seeing the associated ad. Read more here.

What is “Content Curation”? And how can it help your marketing?
 Content curation is about collecting and grouping relevant information together in a cohesive and manageable package. Not only can it help bring visitors to your business’ website time and time again, these same visitors will be more inclined to share your website with others, which makes for great marketing. Read more here.

Insights and tips for marketers about how brands use Facebook Timeline
A new eye tracking study by SimpleUsability highlights a number of challenges and opportunities for businesses using Facebook as a marketing channel. The result is 5 Facebook timeline brand page user insights to help grow your business. Read more here.

How to use email to re-engage sleepy subscribers
What if there was something you could do to re-engage subscribers who actually are still interested in your company, but have just suffered a case of inbox overload? Learn why people disengage from email, and how to bring them back on board (and hopefully back to buying your products). Read more here.

Nevin Thompson works as a content strategist with JumpStartWeb, which has recently achieved a lot of success with mobile websites in Victoria.

Here’s a collection of the best online marketing links from the past week. If you have any you would like to share with us, please let us know!

8 Frequently Missed Lead Gen Opportunities for Your Homepage
While most businesses have a website, more often than not, that site isn’t optimized to generate leads. Research shows that 78% of people conduct product research online, and nearly all of those people will decide whether or not to stay on your site within the first few seconds of arriving. That means you have a very short window to capture their attention, deliver your message, and encourage them to complete a conversion activity. Read more

4 Facebook Features Marketers Can’t Afford to Ignore
Facebook offers powerful community management components that are unmatched by its competitors, and often overlooked by marketing pros. Here are the four that simply can’t be ignored.   Read more here

4 Key Reasons To Reconsider Today’s Yellow Pages For Local Marketing
Without a doubt, the Yellow Pages space is in a state of transformation. Research has found that fewer people are using print directories in both numbers and frequency than they have previously. What does this mean for your local business? Read more here

Opt-In Email Offers a Lesson in Loyalty Creation
Lessons learned from email marketing—where permission is critical and consumers have come to expect valuable offers—can help marketers get the most from their other digital touchpoints with customers. Read more here

5 common mistakes in SEO (and 6 good ideas!)
Google covers the five most common errors she finds in SEO, and then concludes with six quick tips to make sure you’re on the right track.

Kony 2012: lessons for video marketers
Im just one week, KONY 2012 had been shared more than 7.6 million times on Facebook,  embedded in more than 6,200 blogs, and according to Google News, 4,950 news sources have written stories about the video campaign aimed at bringing a rogue African warlord to justice. The Kony 2012 campaign provides lessons for video marketers. Read more here.

Winning the Content Marketing race
This great article provides plenty of links, plus suggestions on how to prioritize content creation and content marketing in order to efficiently deliver customers to your website. Read more here.

10 tips for driving more mobile traffic from Facebook
50% of  Facebook’s traffic is driven by mobile devices – that’s about 5x more than the average website - which can mean great benefits for your business if you can get visitors to your Facebook page to travel to your site. Here are a few tips to optimize your Facebook to drive more likes, friends, reach, and engagement with mobile users  Read more here.

9 excellent examples of brands using Facebook’s new page design
If your business has a Facebook page, you should know that you have until March 30th to play with the design before your page is forced live. Take a look at how these brands are making use of the new Facebook page design, and use it as inspiration to get your own page up to date. Read more here.

Understand “personas” to sell more
Personas have been used in marketing and advertising for years and are the foundation of any user-centered marketing plan.  PPC advertisers have a lot to gain by completing the persona exercise and leveraging that information when managing and creating new search marketing campaigns. Learn more here.

 Nevin Thompson writes for JumpStartWeb, leaders in video marketing in Victoria BC.

Everything you ever wanted to know about online marketing for Local businesses
In the era of the Smart Phone, and when more and more people are using the Yellow Pages as a monitor riser, it’s more important than ever before for Local businesses to master online marketing. Want to learn more about conducting keyword research? Want to know more about the differences between an organic campaign & a Google Places campaign? That’s just the tip of the iceberg in this excellent link. Download the interview here.

How to use content to drive referrals and upsell customers
Your customers are an untapped vein of new revenue. Consider these tactics to help you leverage your already cranking inbound marketing efforts to drive referrals and sell more to your existing customers. Read more here.

9 ways to integrate email and Social Media marketing
Are you wondering how to add social media to your email communications to reach more customers? They both can be effective on their own; however, when combined, their (super) powers can save the city and exceed your marketing goals. Read more here.

What you need to know about using hashtags on Twitter
By creating your own hashtag, you can use it to drive conversations about your business. If you’re hosting a business event, you can create a hashtag for it, too. Encourage attendees to use the hashtag when tweeting about the event. This will help organize the Twitter conversation while also promoting your brand. Read more here.

7 new Facebook changes impacting businesses
Facebook pages are changing. And that means your business strategy may need to change. In fact, Facebook has made many new changes that will impact anyone with a Facebook page. Here is an overview of the changes and how brands can take advantage of some of the new features. Read more here.

JumpStartWeb specializes in online marketing for Local businesses

Interested in Mobile Marketing with QR codes? Let’s start with a few of the basics…

A QR code (as pictured) is a “scanable” graphic that links smartphone users to a web page.

The process is quite simple. A smartphone user opens their QR app, scans the code, and are immediately taken to the web page that the QR code links to.

As such, QR codes are a great thing to have in situations where you have a printed piece but want to offer people additional information. Good examples include posters, brochures, flyers, traditional print ads and point of sale materials.

The good news is that it’s incredibly easy to create a QR code. My favorite tool is Bit.ly (or Bitly.com) which shortens urls, tracks clicks and automatically creates QR codes. To access a link’s QR code in Bitly, you just need to click on “Info Page +” next to the appropriate link.

BTW, the first reader to contact me and tell me what’s wrong with the example QR code in this post wins a digital copy of The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott.

- Rob Cooper is the founder of PlusROI Online Marketing and JumpStartWeb in Victoria, BC. When he’s not mountain biking or driving his kids around he spends time thinking about the future of mobile marketing.