It seems silly to ask this question but it is so important to outline that your content must deliver value to the reader,or they may not visit you again or find someone else who provides the information they are looking for. It is like meeting someone for the first time on   the street  on  your blog and just finding out that all that is there  to them is a lot of marketing gobbledygook and b.s. . Great first impression, eh?

You have to entertain and entice the reader to read in the first place so why would you just try to promote all the time.  Tell your story to get the reader into your ideas so they can see what you do, how you do it and why it is important for them . Storytelling makes it easier because that is how we are conditioned to learn from our early years. “Classic story lines are what the movies and books are about” says Ann Handley, in her new book Content Rules,

And the reason the reader is at your site is they were looking for something related to your topic and may have been directed their by a topsearch engine ranking or another person commenting on their blog about what you do.

Whenever I first talk to a client about their marketing I go through a questionaire with them  which basically asks them the W5 of  their  business. Who,What,Where,Why and When . Most people like to talk about what they do and a good number will talk about why they do it, but I always ask them the reason why they do it and what excites them and gives them job satisfaction. It gives me part of their story and give it to mein their voice.

Ask the Questions Your Customers Ask

When you are generating content for your blog or business site, it is not all about you. It is all about what your customers are asking  about or searching for.  To provide the best content that educates ,you should think of the top 25 questions you have been asked about your business in the last year and rank the questions by the number of times they are asked.  Not a new idea. There are your first 25 posts or articles.

One of the most successful swimming pool companies in Virginia River Pools, led by The Sales Lion, Marcus Sheridan, does just that and it delivers a continous flow of buyers and leads to that business. Why because they have prequalified the buyer with a level of knowledge, likeabilty and trust.  This site is an excellent business site to model yours after. Another  super model is Hubspot which constantly provides a flood of free content and numerous whitepapers to download free of charge, Their  paid product is good but their “freemium” or high value content is outstanding.

This post is meant to encourage you to “think like a customer” and get out of your comfort zone  Develop a habit of content making and it will become second nature, after all it is your business and your customers or patients are talking to you.

Next Steps for Your Content

Go have a read of this blogpost by Marcus Sheridan. Succinct and Clear. Sheridan also works for Hubspot as a contributor.

Think of your Top 25 Questions your customers asks, and answer them , maybe with a short story blogpost.

Rinse and repeat my friends and you will be on the way to more leads, more notoriety , and satisfaction.

Drop me a comment and tell me about your success.

Infographics for business are becoming more popular daily in general use as a way to create information that is easily read and satisfies a strong visual identity.

For example the Infographic below talks about the Evolution of the MBA and is used by the University of North Carolina to give a visual message of what the MBA developed from ,who employs MBA graduates, what the starting salaries are and provides valuable content and context to the reader/viewer. Inherent in this infographic for business here is that it brings awareness to the UNC Online MBA and puts their product in context with Harvard,UWO’s Ivey School , and Dartmouth’s Tuck School by association. All are top MBA schools in North America.

Online MBA Program

We have been used to these images from the newspapers and media sites for a whie but it is now getting into the regular use by business and marketers to provide valuable content marketing.

Create Infographics for your Business

Below is a Business infographic I created with a free tool call Wordle. If you supply your URL of your site it will create, at no cost, an infographic or Word Cloud for you, in this case based on this site’s content. In a glance you should get what The Silent Seller is all about, small business and local search marketing

• Stat Planet
• hohli.com
• creatley.com
  
• New York Times
• Google Public Data
• Gapminder

To learn more about using Infographics I suggest you look at Make Use Of which has a section of infographic tools along with many other tutorials. Gapminder was founded by a renowned health scientist and statistician who describe infographics as “unveiling the beauty of statistics for a fact-based world view”

Study Others to get Business Infographic Techniques and Ideas

If you want a little deeper view several other blogs like The Daily Infographic and Cool Infographics or Visual.ly which shows samples, lets you look at others who excel at infographics, get comments on your own work as well as create an infographic with the data available.

Here is a sample from Visual.ly to give you an idea of the quality available to assist you.

Small Business Effectiveness Tips 2012

Text conveys a message but the ease for the reader or viewer of a visual increases awareness of new items and statistics, such as on mobile marketing. on the previous post.

Mobile Marketing is a new growth area for online advertising as well as communications with customers

Smartphone and tablet use are some of the largest drivers of this phenomenon. The biggie ,Google saw a 440%
increase in traffic from tablets on its AdMob network between Dec. 2010 and in Nov. 2011,according to stats posted on the Google Mobile Ads Blog.

According to the Google Ads Blog,
“Smartphones and tablets proved that they weren’t just for the geekiest – er, ‘tech savviest’ – among us. These devices are increasingly becoming the norm according to Nielsenand they continue to change how people connect with each other, and with businesses, everywhere.” While this service is a channel for online advertising it is an excellent tool for a local service business. Below is a screenshot of a Mobile Site for a Local Business in Toronto.

Codefusion Communications on an Iphone

Mobile Marketing Infographic as seen by Google

This infographic presents the mobile market as seen by Google with an online advertising

Source Information: Google

Mobile Marketing Media

More detailed mobile marketing information can be obtained from Nielsen.

The use of a mobile marketing strategy in physical retail environments according to IPSOS was on the rise, eight in 10 smartphone owners said they use their mobile devices to help with shopping, from locating retailers to running price comparisons. At the head of the pack following this trend was online giant Amazon .

Amazon provided comparison shopping made easier this Holiday Season by offering consumers a discount for running a price comparison on its Iphone Price Check App. It also offerred it free as one of the free android apps in the Amazon Appstore.

Consumers understood this in a big way and used it to their advantage.

A full 70% of smartphone owners claim to use their devices while in stores, and 77% have used their phones to contact local businesses.

This was helped by emerging technology standards with less reliance on Flash and more on open standard mobile friendly HTML5 and MRAID (Mobile Rich Media Ad Interface Definitions).

Many retailers also redesigned their websites to optimize them for tablet and smartphone use by identifying the platform delivering a mobile experience where the query came from a mobile device. Your business could cash in on this trend and have their mobile marquee up and running to connect with these mobile consumers where they are on their devices

Mobile Marketing for Local Business and Professional Practices

Here are a couple examples of Mobile Websites that you can have done for your business. Note that they all take advantage of the mobility and allow the Iphone or Android user just to tap to call you from wherever they are.Probably easier for the buyer than carrying a Yellow Pages Directory in their car. But then most new cars are equipped with smart mobile browsers where you catch the buyer in transit to where you or ypur competitor is. Be first out of the gate with your complete mobile site, equipped with a map, directions and a tap to call button

Local Dental Office Site

Local Petstore Site

If yu are interested in having your own site done or having your existing website made mobile friendly please contact us.

My online marketing friend Oli Garder at Unbounce in Vancouver is one of the marketers that I like to follow because he is always providing excellent online marketing content that is informative and teaches. This process is in itself one of the best forms of marketing because it allows people to see who you are and get to know you.

Here is one little nugget that came my way by ways of an infographic.

Unbounce – The DIY Landing Page Platform

Along with Oli’s attractive infographic was a series on SEO Moz which further explains the gorgeous infographic and adds a lot of meat to the bones for this topic. This information is a great training in itself of all the elements and it is a classic example of good content or educational marketing.

Online Marketing via Educational Marketing

Online marketing is changing in that it was once the stuff of advertising agencies or Madison Avenue conglomerates. The new world of marketing advisors is gradually making these middlemen expendable and passing the control directly to the brand or small business. At the same time it is doing this a new generation of marketers is also sharing the keys to the kingdom. I intend to do this in a series of blog posts I will be starting in the new year to pass on the knowledge that I have learned in my years in the business to also assist you my readers in your education.

I listen regularily to Six Pixels of Separation the Twist Image podcast presented by Montreal Digital marketer and Six Pixels of Separation: Everyone Is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone.author Mitch Joel.

Mitch recently had two excellent podcasts which I encourage you to listen to because they provide so much information that can directly help you with your tasks.

Digital Marketing Top Guns Talk

The first an interview How To Be A Marketing and Sales Lion with Marcus Sheridan of the Sales Lion aired in December 2011 where Marcus talked about the necessity to change his marketing model as a small business person to survive.

The sales Lion

Moving up the food chain to the enterprise level the January 1,2012 episode with Avinash Kaushik and Joel who heads the Twist Image Digital Marketing Agency . Both of these guys are at the top of their game and serve brands with Global names and reach. The tactics that they talk about certainly will make sense to you. Mitch is the master of titles in that the episode is seductively entitled Marketing Orgasms With Avinash Kaushik (It’s Not What You Think) Kaushik is so passionate about his topic you can feel it.

Avinash

Your Turn Now for Online Marketing

Listen and read these items and think what you could do for your business in improving your marketing by using some of these ideas. Planning to do one post a week on your business blog that answers simply one of the top 25 questions you get in your business every week. Do it once and then use it many times. Use the post as content in any emails you send or whenever you get an inquiry. It will make you the natural market leader. By providing information about 80% of the time in your blog, tweets or postings you will become a trusted source of information for your customers and gain valuable digital marketing frontage.

i
If you’re a small business listed in Google Places who is looking to gain a dominant online presence in your local market – you’ve come to the right place. The Silent Seller prides itself both in its free information on this site – as well as the services we perform for our clients – to help you be at the top of the search engines for the terms your customers are searching for.

One way to get immediate customers is to get top ranking on Google places for local search terms.

First, what is Google Places? It’s a free service specifically designed to help local businesses be found in the search engines when users perform a local search as well as providing a digitally curated list of the best to the reader.

You can submit your Places business listing by going here –

http://www.google.com/local/add/businessCenter?hl=en-US&pli=1

Research Helps You Get a Top Ranking

Our Google Maps Places Rank

Now here are some tips that can help you optimize and get top ranking in your Google Places listings.
First, fill out every single detail you can. This will help you show up more often on the search engines and get more clicks. Simply put – Google favours local listings with MORE content. If this means making a simple slide show picture video so you can submit a video on your Google Places listing, so be it. If this means offering a 1 cent coupon just so you have a coupon listed on your listing, so be it!
You want to also put at least 10 photos – and you want to know those photos appropriately in ways that would get your more traffic via keyword optimization– i.e. keyword rich photo titles will increase your chances of getting more traffic in the search engines.

Our Listing

Let’s talk about keyword optimization a bit more. You have to optimize your keywords in your Google Places listing so more people can find you when they do local searches and develop a dominant online presence. So how do you know what keywords to go after? Simple. Find your competitors websites. Then right click -> view source once you’re on their website.
Next, look at the source code at the very top of the view source page for something called “meta keywords”. Most sites have their meta keywords set. If you can’t find meta keywords, move on to the next site. If you do, simply write down all the meta keywords your competition is using on that one site, then move on.

Do this for all your competitor websites and you’ll have a whole bunch of keywords to use when you create your Google Places listings and you will be on your way to top ranking. For more information on Google Places or Google Business + Pages , please feel free to contact us here at The Silent Seller!

This is a new service I am using that you might want to use for yourself if you provide information of value on the topic of your choice. It is a great tool for finding and curating items of interest to you and your readers.

Local Search marketing Ideas on Scoop.it

http://www.scoop.it/t/local-search-marketing-ideas

Local Search Marketing Ideas

I got this concept from reading noted Local Search commentator Linda Buquet of Catalyst E-Marketing, a no-nonsense San Diego practioner in this field. You will benefit from reading her stuff. She is direct and to the point and very knowledgeable.

Google Places Optimization & Local SEO News

http://www.scoop.it/t/google-places

You may also want to find her on her own Catalyst Marketing site.

The newest innovation and Local Search enhancement is is out of the gate from Google; Google Business Pages.

This addition in the stable for Google gives businesses and professional practices another tool to increase the online visibility at little cost to you, aside from the labor to do your listings. Another tool joining a crowded field of Facebook, LinkedIn,Google + Personal profiles,not to mention the location based services like Foursquare,Yelp, and soon to the party Oink from Kevin Rose.

The location based services give you an opportunity to provide your own content and keep a sharp eye on what your customers are saying. You can respond to useful suggestions,put your answer to erroneous comments and engage your customers where they choose to play in local search.

In Google Places and Pages we have the world’s most prolific search engine with according to Comscore’s Sept 2011 ratings :

• Google rose to 65.3 percent (up from 64.8 percent in August).
• Yahoo dropped to 15.5 percent (down from 16.3 percent).
• Bing remained at 14.7 percent.
• Ask remained at 3 percent.
• AOL is back up to 1.5 percent (up from 1.3 percent).

With that kind of lead in market share any Google activity in search that generates a relative spot-on answer for the searcher is one that Google will rank highly in its organic listings for the ite or keyword searched upon. So if you operate a Orthdontic practice in a particular location and have a Google Page for your practice, a personal Google + Profile, a claimed Google Places listing there is a good chance you will rank close to the top of the rankings. Furthermore if you also have a Facebook Page a Linked In business profile,and entries that have been optimized for your keywords in Yelp,Foursquare,Yellow Pages and Brownbook you should have a number of links with relevant content to quench the searchers needs.

Local Search is Popular with Local Customers

When local search is done often the searcher is looking for a query like “Redmond Dentists” or ” Buffalo NY Appliance Parts” it relates to some need that they have that you may be able to meet or provide a solution to their problem. Optimizing as many of the tools that you can is just good business and very cost-effective as well.

You may also want to link your keywords in pay per Click search on Google and Facebook based on the number of eyeballs that are out there. Local specific keywords may be cheaper in both advertising venues. But maximize your free stuff .This is what the good folks of Google put on their blog about Pages and Places.

“We want to help you make the same kinds of lasting connections with your customers online the way you can in real life. That’s why we are introducing Google+ Your Business, a collection of tools and products to help you get closer to your customers. At the heart of this is Google+ Pages, your business’s identity on Google+.

Google+ Pages: Have real conversations with the right people

To get your business on Google+, you first need to create a Google+ Page. On your page, you can post updates and news about your business, engage in conversations with your customers, send tailored messages to specific groups of people, and see how many +1’s you have across the web. Here are a few features of Google+ Pages that we think will help you build relationships:

Google+ Pages are at the heart of Google+ for Business

Hangouts

Sometimes you might want to chat with your customers face-to-face. For example, if you run a bookstore, you may want to invite an author to talk about her latest novel, or if you market a cosmetics line, beauty specialists might want to hold how-to sessions for makeup tips. Hangouts make this easy, by letting you have high-quality video chats with nine customers, with a single click. You can use Hangouts to get product feedback, help solve problems or simply get to know people better, all in real time.

Hangouts let you meet your customers, face to face

Circles

Circles allow you to group followers of your Page into smaller audiences. You can then share specific messages with specific groups. For example, you could create a Circle containing people who are your most loyal customers and offer them a special discount.

+1 button and Google+ badge: Inspire current customers to recommend new ones

Google+ Pages also help you deliver your great content to users in a way that’s easy to share with their friends. We introduced the +1 button as a way for your customers to recommend your business across the web – on Google search, in your ads, on sites across the web and on mobile devices. Now, your customers can +1 your Page, recommending your actual brand — not just an individual ad or a site — directly to their friends.”

Local Search -Liking and Plus +

As the social web grows more and more local businesses are using the Like button on Facebook to gain their follower base as can be done by giving a Page a + in Plus. As consumers vote with their mouse clicks you benefit from the interest and activity you get to your page and enhance your local search value and footprint.

Just make sure that your Page looks ship shape and the information in it is consistent with your listings across the Web. For further on how to do this see our post on Universal Business Listings. You should also give the user something of value for giving you their support. This could be a discount coupon,a publication you have done or some other useful information. When you do this make sure you can capture the email of your user to deliver your item of value. Just think this way. What would you consider a valuable token if it was you searching or liking and what would motivate you, and then do a little better.

You will be able to use the Business Page and direct mail to continue to develop your relationship with this customer or prospective patient and grow your relationship.

Here is a link to the Business Page Site

“To learn more about how Google+ works for your business, check out the Google+ Your Business site. We’re just getting started and have many more features in the coming weeks and months. To keep up to date on the latest news and tips, add the Google+ Your Business page to your circles. ”

If you want to discuss your specific situation feel free to contact the Silent Seller for all your local search marketing needs by clicking on the Contact link above or by phone at +1 (226) 444-3820 or at +1 (716) 254-4907

As the internet continues to grow to newer levels, Facebook as a tool in local search will not get left behind. As the website is going through major changes, it is expected that the social network is geared to become a bigger part of everyone’s lives. Everyday there are millions of people all over the world glued to their Facebook page. Whether they are chatting with their special someone or just casually doing their “daily stalking,” people are on the website a lot. So it is definitely not a surprise that companies have definitely taken notice of social media and has definitely taken advantage. The fact that the number of people that are on Facebook will continue to grow in local search marketing which is what most small businesses or practice see as a way of marketing. In order for your small business to strive, you must learn how to reach out to your potential customers where they are.

Facebook is Connecting with People

If you are serious about building your business or professional practice into something bigger, you will have to connect with your customers. By creating a Facebook page for your company or practice, you will be able to learn more about your customers and clients by asking questions. Though it can be a little bit of a hassle, learning more about what your customers want is probably the best thing you can possibly do to help improve.

Like My Page and be seen

With so many people on Facebook, your page will definitely be seen. By having your family and friends “like” your page, your business will then show up on other people’s news feeds. If you are lucky enough, this simple fan page page can be the jump start that your company has always needed. By implementing Facebook marketing in local search, you will be targeting the customers in that particular area.

Be generous

If the instant “boom” does not occur, then there of course are other options. You can conduct a few contests or raffles to help intrigue people. Most people will see your contest offers and it will definitely lead them to your page. If your fan page is presentable, you can very well gain a good amount of customers simply from your giveaways. Though many companies do not like to take this route, it can easily be one of the best ways to get your business out there and the thing that FB users crave.

Wide Crowd

Though your business might be focused on a certain niche, you can’t help but have other groups of people find your company. This is one of the benefits of Facebook because everyone is on the same site, looking at the same screen. So if you were hoping to just target one niche, don’t be surprised to get customers from different people coming from different backgrounds.

It simply works

Social media is simply the best and cost-effective way to reach out to potential customers. If you are serious about taking your business to the next level, you will have to take this necessary step. By having and keeping your Facebook page updated and always running, you will never miss out on what your customers have to say. Let the page be a way for your customers to communicate with you and your practice or business will ultimately grow.

For a good view on current trends Stephanie Hobbs has an excellent article “Recent Trends Should Guide How Businesses Grow Local Search Strategies”