Kicking off a new year – oh how it flies! dLook are back up and running with all sorts of exciting developments.

If you haven’t been, check out our YouTube channel on dLookAust – where we are hosting numerous customer promo videos. Getting tons of hits and increasing traffic to and from our dLook site.

We also are continuously updating our Facebook page. So if you want to see the latest promos, updates and more come and join the group.

iPhone Directory App

The iPhone app (phase 1) is now fully operational – dLook directory app getting plenty of hits and there’s more to come! Click to download the new iPhone app – dLook online directory.

dLook Social

Remember our Twitter feed @dLookWeb or @Directory.

dLook has a huge range of exciting developments underway, both on the website and new services coming soon. We’ll continue to keep you updated.

In the meantime, have a look at your listing – have you added reviews recently? Fresh content is key!

Also, check out the latest tips on SEO Basics: Backlinks.

Looking forward to a BIG 2012!

So closes 2011 and a big year of renewal for dLook.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our customers and look forward to continuing to work with you in 2012.

There are many exciting developments underway and you can hear about it first on our Facebook page. Follow us if you have Facebook.

Download the iPhone App

If you have an iPhone download the latest dLook’s app – we will be launching this in the new year publicly and offering a whole range of new specials. Click to download the new iPhone app – dLook online directory.

Get Social on Facebook

Remember our Twitter feed @dLookWeb.

Also, check out the dLook YouTube channel – big news to hit here very soon!

Merry Christmas and all at dLook are looking forward to a very big 2012.

As is quite obvious if you’re reading this on your report … dLook Monthly reports now include statistical information with monthly reports highlighting each accounts performance both on a daily and monthly basis.

Also, check out your report for how to make the most of your dLook landing page – with suggestions on optimising your profile including adding reviews, a coupon / promo, photos and more.

But wait there’s more! Log in to your dLook dashboard and get daily and monthly reporting anytime you like.

dLook will be overhauling our User Interface in the coming months to make managing your dLook profile much easier to navigate and so … more effective!

Increased Coverage with iPhone App

Do you have an iPhone?

Check out dLook’s new iPhone app – our online directory has gone mobile.

We’re always looking for ways to improve our search and reach to attract the most hits to your page and the iPhone app is the next cab off the rank … search “DLOOK” in the iPhone App Store for your free download.

Get Social on Facebook

Hey, if you haven’t yet, follow us on Facebook.

You can also get updates, news and tips through our Twitter feed @dLookWeb.

Of course, if you have a Facebook, Twitter or a YouTube video please let us know – we’d love to add it to your dLook profile.

Best Tip for November

Reviews are a great way to add fresh content to your page – get customers to regularly add reviews – it will improve your integrity and relevance.

We’ve seen phenomenal growth in the level of awareness of small-medium sized businesses of the importance of creating an online presence.

The last 12 months or so has shown a surge in the popularity and adoption of two social networking tools for businesses.

Facebook Pages

You may be quite familiar with Facebook as a tool to help you stay connected with friends and family, but Facebook has evolved into much more than that for businesses.

Last year they introduced Facebook pages as a tool to help businesses engage with their customers. While I don’t foresee Facebook replacing a business’ need for a website and/or other optimised forms of internet advertising (ie a dLook premium listing), Facebook pages have unique benefits:

1. Enabling you to engage with your customers
2. Ability to easily inform your customers about current promotions & events
3. Create a social presence, which can speak volumes over solicited testimonials
4. Create the appearance of being “hip” and keeping up with the times

Twitter

So too, Twitter has gained a lot of popularity amongst businesses, with the similar purpose of engaging directly with customers (in case you’re asking what is Twitter?). Twitter probably explains the benefits for businesses best:

Twitter is a communication platform that helps businesses stay connected to their customers. As a business, you can use it to quickly share information with people interested in your company, gather real-time market intelligence and feedback, and build relationships with customers, partners and other people who care about your company.

In order to facilitate our advertisers to keep in touch with their customer base, towards the end of April we silently tested a “social” layout for new premium advertisers.

This new design encompasses both Facebook and Twitter widgets, as well as some other enhancement. So it doesn’t matter if you are a fitness trainer in Brisbane, selling Australian made jeans, self adhesive labels or romance books online, dog washing in Perth, or a bookkeeper in Brisbane you can benefit from combining social networking with your dLook premium advertising.

If you have premium dLook advertising and would like to incorporate our new social template on your listing, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

In the many conversations I have with business owners every day I often hear one say “sure, I’m easy to find on Google. Just search for P Smith & Sons and there we are, number one on page one.”

Ummmm okay but no cigar.

If P Smith & Sons are plumbers in say The St George Shire they should be coming up on a search for plumbers in that district (example). Or if they specialised in fixing Commercial Dishwashers in Melbourne then THIS SEARCH is what they need to be found for.

In other words it’s WHAT YOU DO rather than who you are that’s important as far as sourcing new business through the internet is concerned.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is how most websites get found online for the terms they need to get found for. Your website is probably NOT coming up for ALL the terms it needs to come up for and as a result you are losing business to your competitors. BUT you can change all that.

The first thing you need is a powerful and targeted link(s) from a business orientated website like dLook (example of a highly optimised listing).

Secondly you will need to ensure that your website has been properly “introduced” to the big 3 search engines. Here are 3 links which can help you do this; Google, Yahoo, Bing.

Thirdly your website NEEDS to be user friendly. Ask yourself these questions;

• Does someone visiting my website for the first time know what it is I do within 10 seconds of arriving?
• Would a first time visitor easily navigate my website?
• Are my contact details easy to find?
• Are my goods or services easy to find on my site?

If you answered NO to any of the above questions then you are DEFINITELY losing customers, no ifs, buts or maybes.

The biggest mistake most business owners make with their websites is “assumption”. They assume that just because their website is acceptable to them then it SHOULD be acceptable to first time visitors. Nothing could be further from the truth! Always, always, always get a fresh pair of eyes that have NEVER seen your website before and ask their opinion. If you have a shopping cart on your website get someone who has NEVER been to your website to go through the purchasing process while you look on without helping, suggesting or interfering.

Buying & selling online has become the norm rather than the exception in Australia and the sooner your website becomes more in tune with your prospective customers the sooner you will increase sales, providing of course those prospective customers can find your website.

The publication continued to grow across Australia gaining exceptional circulation figures in all Australian states. So much so that in 2004 Sensis purchased the business for $636 million, a tidy sum by any standards.

Telstra has confirmed that the Print version of The Trading Post has now been scrapped in favour of the online version. The decision to put The Trading Post exclusively online had nothing to do with saving paper or reducing the carbon footprint of the Sensis juggernaut. It simply came down to numbers.

Sensis reports that whilst there has been a 30% increase in the number of online ads placed on The Trading Post website, there had been a corresponding 50% drop in ads placed on the printed version.

And so the trend continues. Last January we saw another Australian printed icon, The Bulletin cease publication after 128 years of being a leading Australian news magazine. There have been many others and there will be a lot more as time goes on.

Why you ask……. The answer is one word…… Google.

I can just see the traditionalists damning the internet giant for changing the media landscape to the click of a mouse instead of the turn of a paper page. But it’s not Google who have done this – it’s us, the people who use the search technology that Google, and to a lesser extent Yahoo & Bing, provide which allows us to find what we want when we want it, online 24/7.

Be it news, the closest doctors surgery, the definition of a word or very sexy lingerie gifts. Google will deliver you a swag of results in less than a second and all you have to do click and read.

If you are a business owner and your products or services are not being found easily online then you really do have a serious problem. In most cases however this problem can be overcome for little or no outlay depending on your individual circumstances.

Contact the Search Engine Marketing specialists at dLook and let us show you how to get found online with Google, Yahoo and Bing.

Okay so how can a video help your business?

It doesn’t matter if you are a Limo Company, Electrician, Escort Agency or a Business Coach. If you can produce a ONE MINUTE video promoting you, your business or your product/service (preferably all 3), you have taken a giant step towards gaining the upper hand over your competitors with your online advertising.

Imagine being able to attach a link to your commercial or infomercial to every single email you send out. Better still if you are sourcing a lot of your new clients online the impact of a video on the web page your clients initially come to can increase the sales effectiveness of that page.

For example:

Stretch Hummer Limousine
Wedding Photographer
Magician Sydney
Wedding Video Sydney
Working From Home
Video Production Gold Coast
Hip Hop Dancing

If you are clever enough to produce your own commercial it will cost you absolutely nothing to upload and host it on YouTube. You can then embed (display) it on your dLook page and / or your website and link to it in your emails.

If you need help creating a commercial or infomercial, contact dLook Video Help and give us an approximate budget ($500 to $1500). We will then put you in touch with a video production house close to you who we can honestly recommend.

More importantly customers who are online looking for a product or service are also looking for comments other people have made about that particular product or service.

Many business owners see this as a threat but the truth is that there is no business which can boast that ALL their customers are happy and contented with the product or service which they purchased. EVERY business has its share of unhappy customers and that’s just the way it is.

Some complaints are totally justified whilst others are from customers who make a career of complaining about everything and everybody. We all know the type. No matter what you do there is simply no pleasing some people and everyone else is to blame but themselves.

Be that as it may, everyone has the ability to express their satisfaction or otherwise online and business owners had better start coming to terms with the fact that what happens in the shop no longer stays in the shop.

Now let’s assume that your business has received some bad feedback what can you do?

Firstly, if you are a shonky business then get used to it. There will be a lot more bad comments coming and frankly, it serves you right.

However if you are like most Australian businesses and are in business to do the right thing, customer feedback good or bad can be one of your most potent marketing tools.

Let’s assume that a customer writes a comment like;

“I went to this restaurant with my family and had to wait over an hour to get our meals. We certainly won’t be going back. JT”

How would you as the restaurant owner/manager deal with an ONLINE comment like that? Just as importantly how would you even know that comment existed online?

What if, using exactly the same forum as the complainant, you submitted a comment like….

“Hi JT. My name is Gordon Ramsay and I am the manager of Pay Up Or Else Steak & Seafood. Having read your comments I would like to personally offer you my apologies. Unfortunately sometimes due to unforeseen circumstances we slip up and the result is an unhappy customer. Regardless of the reason however, I assure you that it is our policy to ensure the total satisfaction of our customers both with our food and our service. To that end I invite you to call me personally on 12349876 and allow me to extend you and your family a special offer to help compensate for our tardy service on the night in question.”

Now the people who read the complaint will no doubt read the managers reply as well. That restaurant has not only redeemed itself but has made public the fact that they acknowledge their mistake and are willing to make amends. They have turned a single negative into a double positive and have told all and sundry that their policy is to “ensure the total satisfaction” of their customers.

Encourage your clients / customers to leave feedback for your business.

How Do I Know If Someone Has Written Something About My Business?

I just knew you were going to ask!

Google offer a fantastic FREE service called Google Alerts. Whenever Google picks up an internet entry with your business name or website they send you an email with a link to the article.

How easy is that?

With over 4 million searches being conducted on dLook every month we thought it would be interesting to publish the top 10 searches averaged out over the past 12 months to 1/6/09.

The medical profession is the clear leader with an increasing number of searches for specialists. We have also noticed a significant increase in the number of searches for various trades. Over the past 12 months these have increased by over 200%.

It’s easy right?

Ummmmmm no, not quite.

It seems that although there are literally millions of Australians eager to shop online there are many retailers, wholesalers and online stores who are determined to make your online buying experience as difficult as possible.

Mind you there are many online businesses who excel at selling online and the growth of their online traffic and reputation bears witness to the increasing demand by Australian consumers to buy online.

The good sites know who they are and their advertising often includes testimonials from satisfied customers and even customers who were initially disappointed with a product or service but had it rectified by the seller without getting ACA or Today Tonight involved.

So What Are The Do’s & Don’ts of Buying & Selling Online?

Sellers:

• Do display an address and phone number of your business.
• Do maintain an accurate list of your products / services.
• Do include photos of your products.
• Do display prices and postage or delivery rates.
• Do accept credit cards, PayPal & Direct Deposit.
• Do NOT charge EXTRA for credit card payments.
• Do maintain a tracking system for ALL orders.
• Do quote an achievable and realistic delivery time.
• Do invite potential customers to CALL or EMAIL you with any queries.
• Do not have slow loading websites which take forever to display pages.
• Do deal with complaints quickly and fairly. You will get the occasional DH but that’s life.
• Do not use bait products which are always “out of stock”.
• DO have a HTTPS (security page) for personal & financial details.
• Do test each webpage & buying procedure regularly to make sure all is working.
• Do ask people NOT familiar with your website for feedback.

Buyers:

• Do NOT buy from overseas sites unless it’s Ebay, AMAZON, Herbalife etc.
• Do not accept the bona fides of sites who do not display at least a phone contact.
• Do not provide credit card details on a page which is not HTTPS (the S is for secure page).
• Do provide accurate contact and delivery details.
• Do read the Terms & Conditions of the site you are buying from, (yes it’s painful but necessary).