Ever since it has been experimenting with how, and where these results are blended (top of the page or middle) , and how they appear.

The most recent change is the appearance of local search results in the so called “one box”.

The contents of the onebox are determined by Google and can contain content from any of the Google services/search engines like Google books,images,maps and of course local. A full list is here

If google determines that the search request is for local information then the one box contains local search results taken from Google Local/Maps.

You should note that just because you have a website and are listed in the main index doesn’t mean that you are listed in Google local/maps.

A Goolge Maps listing is seperate and you need to add yourself to it. You will need a Google account to do so (its free) and you will find the add link on the maps home page:

• USA Google Maps
• Uk Google Maps

Google now displays ten local listings instead of the prvious thre which gives more exposure for local businesses.

Here are the search results for seo Shropshire

In this case it is the forth listing but can be the first listing displayed. In either case you can see how prominent it is and no doubt  has a very good click through rate.

Therefore it is very important that as part of your search engine optimization efforts that you get a listing in Google maps, and monitor your position for local search results.

If you are confused by the changes to the search results page take a look at Google  help

It’s interesting beacuse it clearly shows how businesses are becoming integrated into the digital world.

Most people interact with local businesses either personally or via the telephone (mobile or fixed). However the trend is clearly to use text, email and chat on the website.

I recently took out a new hosting service and I had a few questions so instead of emailing or phoning I took advatange of their online chat service, and had my questions answered in minutes.

It is only a matter of years before I go online and book a table at my local restaurant via their website. I will even get to choose my seats, and I can do it even when the restaurant is closed.

To take advantage of the growing trend to the internet your business, regardless of how small, needs to consider how best to use the Internet to interact with your customers.

The first step is to make sure your business gets found on the Internet and that involves Search engine Optimization. But it doesn’t stop there.

You will need to interact with them using email, text, chat etc.

So if you haven’t thought about it yet maybe it’s time to start. The good news is that it’s still early days for small businesses but as they say

The early bird catches the worm

The Magellan’s Maestro Elite 5340+GPRS auto navigation unit featuring Google Local Search enabling users to search the Internet for businesses and services in a local area and providing information about those businesses.

Local search makes an ideal partner for mobile phones and GPS devices and I would guess that these device will probably account for most of the local searches in the future.

If so the email was sent manually, probably using an email client like Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express and the sender  didn’t know or forgot the differnence between To, CC and  Bcc

The sender had forgotten the number one rule of sending to a mailing list– Always use the BCC line.

This problem arises  often when trying to manually manage a mailing lists using email programs like Outlook, Outlook Express etc.

Although these programs support distribution lists or groups they simply weren’t designed for email marketing.

The  use of these email clients should be limited to very small lists only and for larger lists and for a professional look you should consider using an autoresponder.

Autoresponders/Automatic Responders

Autoresponders are specifically designed for  for mass or bulk mailing.  A professional autoresponder :

1. Eliminates Common Mistakes- like not using the Bcc line

2. Ensures Compliance - Ensures that any email you send follows various Spam and Good Practise guidelines.

3. List Management- Provides the ability to automatically manage your lists including automatic subscribes and unsubscribes etc

4. Tracking- provides tracking reports that enable you to determine the success of your email marketing campaigns.

So don’t give away your mailing list by making silly mistakes get an autoresponder and do it correctly.

I will use the two providers Get Response. and VerticalResponse
.

Getresponse price is a per month cost with discount if you purchase the service in advance.

The standard price is approx $18 per month and if you get the  maximum discount (1 year subscription) it reduces to approx $12.

There are no extra costs and you can send as many emails as you want.

 I recommend this for medium to large lists and frequent mailings.  

For Smaller lists and infrequent mailing there is Vertical Response. They offer a pay as you go option. 

You can see from the above chart that at 800-1200 messages per month then then subscription model is cheaper and far easier than the pay as you go model.

If you are sending 10,000 emails per month then the cost is $150 with the pay as you go model.

Switching Autoresponder Providers

If you are unhappy with your current provider then it’s possible to switch. How much work that will entail depends on what you have currently set up.

However the main thing you will need to transfer is your email lists which is generally done by exporting and importing them as .csv files.

The main use being for auto acknowledgment of a sale or request for information/support.

They are still used for this purpose today. But they have evolved to become more like mailing list managers and today they are the main tool used in permission based email marketing .

Their uses include:

• To acknowledge receipt of technical support requests, sales information requests etc. In any situation were the customer needs reassuring that his request, order etc is being dealt with.
• They can be used to send prospective customers fixed information like price lists or FAQ.
• They can be used to send email course modules, newsletters, special offers.
• They can be used for email capture ( creating mailing lists).

Important Autoresponder Features

To be useful for permission based email marketing the autorsponder software/service must offer the following:

• Subscribe/unsubscribe web forms
• Email Tracking
• Scheduled sending
• Personalisation Options
• List segmentation
• List Import and export capability
• Easy Message Editing
• Good deliverability
• HTML and Text messages

and desirable options are:

• HTML templates
• Postcards

Autoresponder Service or Software

There are two main types of commercial Autoresponder:

• Autoresponder Software- You buy the software and install it on your own server. This solution requires that your host supports the necessary features and requires more work/knowledge on your part.- Not recommended for the small business owner

• Autoresponder Service- Here the autoresponder software resides on another server and you simply subscribe to the service. This is by far the most common method used, and although it generally works out more expensive it is far easier to set up and more flexible. This is the recommend option for small business owners

Which Autoresponder?

There are many companies offering autoresponder services.

If you have a large mailing list (>250) and send frequent messages then you should take a look at Get Response.

If you have a small mailing list and send infrequent messages then you should take a look at VerticalResponse

You may want to take a look at Autoresponder quick price compare.

An Email address Mailing List is usually assigned/created for a specific purpose like a newsletter, new product releases etc, and is may also be known as a distribution list or distribution group.

Any email sent to the list is sent to all the members of the list.

Building Your List

There are two main methods used to build a list: They are offline and online.

Offline Email Collection Methods

• Ask for it when you talk to your customers on the phone. This strategy is particularly useful for consultants, restaurants, cinemas etc. In short any business that currently asks for a return phone number can ask for an email address.
• Ask for it when making a sale. Again especially useful for businesses that ask for an address (making deliveries).
• Use competitions and notify via winners email.
• Ask/encourage your existing subscribers to forward your email to a friend.

Online Subscription

Many visitors to your website will leave and may never return. They may rely on the search engines to re-locate your site when they need your service.

However if you have their email address you can contact them. However they normally wont just give you their address they require a reason. The most common methods of capturing email addresses are to:

• Offer free download (ebook, report etc)
• Free Competition
• Free Consultation
• Free Newsletter
• Free Software /tool
• Coupon

The method(s) you choose depends on your business. For example a computer consultant can offer a free report/white paper, a restaurant owner a discount coupon, a shop a special promotions newsletter.

Address capture is usually accomplished using an online form into which the visitor enters his email address and name.

There are also two subscription methods used they are:

• single opt-in
• double opt-in

each having it’s own advantages/disadvantages and discussed in permission based email opt-in methods.

Single opt-in

With a single opt-in the subscriber fills out an online form or sends an email to a subscription address and they are automatically added to the email address list.

Advantages

• More email addresses captured
• Easier for the subscriber
• Easier to set up

Disadvantages

• Address list quality generally low
• People can use someone else’s email address

Double opt-in

With Double opt-in the subscriber first subscribes by using the online form/email address, and then confirms the subscription by replying to a subscription confirmation email.

The subscriber is not added to the email address mailing list until he confirms the subscription.

Although not mandatory the double opt in method does have numerous advantages over the single opt-in method:

• Reduces number of dead email addresses drastically
• Reduces the chances that you will be sending email to someone that hasn’t really subscribed and getting accused of spam.
• Qualifies the subscriber as interested, as he has to do something extra.
• Can command higher advertising fees.

Double opt-in is the preferred method to use

* Using Client Based Software
* User Server Based Software
* Using a Email Mailing List/Autoresponder Service.

Client based Mailing List Software and Solutions

Managing a email mailing list from a client machine using either your existing mail client or mailing list software has several advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages:

* Very easy to do
* Mailing list is kept very private
* Cheap
* Easier to setup
* Don’t need a website
* One off software cost

Disadvantages

* Not always online making Auto response difficult unless implemented separately.
* Need to ensure that list is backed up and secure
* Subscribing/ Unsubscribing is email based unless you have a website in which case you need an unsubscribe/subscribe form and for best results scripting support on your website.

Client based mailing list software tends to be used when the existing business either doesn’t have a website or the website is not the main source of email addresses.

It is also very common where the web host doesn’t provide support for the server based software or where the expertise required to install and configure the server based software is not available.

Client based systems can be completely stand alone or they can integrate with you existing email client. It is also possible to use your existing email client like Outlook Express/ Outlook to manage your email mailing list or distribution list.

Server Based Email Mailing Lists

Server based email mailing lists are maintained on a server that is permanently connected to the Internet. Sever based mailing list implementations have the following advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages:

* Auto responses are sent almost immediately
* Email Address Mailing list is backed up by the web host
* Easy subscribe/unsubscribe via web forms
* Can be easily integrated into the website.
* One off software cost. Free Scripts are also available!

Disadvantages:

* More difficult to install and setup
* Requires a website
* Requires Sever scripting Support (usually PHP)
* May require a Database (usually MySQL)

Server based mailing list software tends to be used when the main source of email addresses is a website.

Server based email solutions require usually that the server supports some form of scripting (PHP is the most common) and often a database like MYSQL.

Using a Email Mailing List/Autoresponder Service.

If you don’t want to install and maintain your own mailing list software you can opt for a mailing list service. Here the software is hosted on a third party server and you just need to manage the lists themselves and not the software.

This tends to be the more expensive option although free, usually ad supported, options exist. It is however easier to implement if you are non- technical and your website host doesn’t need to support scripting or databases as this is all handled externally.

Advantages:

* Tend to be easy to set up
* No software to install/maintain on server or client.
* Offer very rich services and usually newsletter templates
* List/lists are backed up by the service provider
* Legal compliance requirements are taken care of by the provider
* Mail delivery rates are better
* Mail delivery statistics available

Disadvantages:

* More costly as have monthly fee (varies considerably)
* Some Limits exist usually on number of emails/lists.

This is the solution I would recommend you use

Mailing List Backup and Security

It can take years to build a good mailing list and it is important that you:

1. Don’t Loose it
2. Don’t disclose it.

Regardless of which method you implement you should always ensure that you have a copy of your email mailing list and keep it separate from your main database.

You should also ensure that you keep the list confidential by restricting access to the list and any copies you may have.

Related Posts and Resources:

• Manual Email Mailing List Management

Although it can be used for any sized list it is only really only practical for small/medium semi-static mailing lists.
Here I will look at using Outlook Express but the same procedures are applicable to any email client.

Mailing List Maintenance

Email List Maintenance involves adding and deleting contacts from the mailing list, either by request, or because the email address becomes obsolete. Outlook Express supports only manual list maintenance which means that you need to manually add/remove new/old contacts.

Processing List Subscribe/Unsubscribe Requests

Regardless of whether the new contact requests to join the list via a web form or by emailing a particular address, it is usual to request that the new subscriber indicate this by using certain keywords in the subject line.

So as to make sure that he does it, is normal to pre-fill the subject line accordingly, rather than rely on the subscriber to do it. Where it is not practical to pre-fill the subject field of the email, like with offline promotions, then it is normal to use a special email address like subscribe@abc.com or unsubscribe@abc.com.

Often both methods are used together.

In order to auto process the request you simply create a message rule that moves messages with the correct criteria to another folder. For example you could create a message rule to move all messages addressed to subscribe or containing the word subscribe to the subscribe folder and likewise for unsubscribe.

Once the messages are in the folders you then need to manually add or remove the contacts from the address book.

Managing the Address Book

Firstly it is a good idea if Outlook Express in used solely for this single purpose. If you also use it for ordinary mail as well then you either, need to configure a separate Identity , or use a separate logon account.

When you receive a subscription request all you need to do is to right click the message and click add sender to address book to add them to your email list.

Once they are in the main address list you can either add them to a mail group or alternatively move them to a separate address book folder. Outlook Express Address Book folders are particularly useful for managing address lists, in particular new subscribers.

Once the new email address have been verified you can then add the email address to the main list folder (e.g. newsletter). Once in the main folder you can subdivide them if you wish. I would suggest using blocks of 50 addresses which you assign to mail Groups.

For Example 250 contacts would be split into 5 groups each with 50 members. The reason for doing this is that it is easier to select the 5 groups when sending the email than all 250 contacts.

Sending A Message to the List

Because you are sending an email to multiple recipients it is not a good idea to send a single message to the entire list. The first thing to do is to create the message and save it as a .eml file. To do this choose file save as option.

Now the list is split into two:

1. Unverified email addresses- These are new subscribers that you haven’t yet emailed.
2. Verified email addresses

Note: Always, Always, Always send to the list using the bcc line.

Open the save email and send it to all the contacts on the unverified list (using the bcc line).

You may have to repeat this several times after removing any bad emails. Once the email succeeds the list is semi verified.

You now need to wait a couple of hours to see if any of the emails get bounced. Remove the addresses from those that do from the list.

The list is now verified.You now open the message again and this time send it to the members of the verified list (using bcc line).

Once sent you can now move the addresses from the unverified to the verified list.