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Local Business Advertising & Google Adwords

"I don't need the Internet to advertise - I'm a local business!"

Okay...

If you could spend £0.04 (or $0.05 in the US) and have a new customer - what would you do with your local business advertising budget?

I hope you would spend that money again and again!

Granted this is the ideal example and you are likely to pay much more then £0.04 per customer you acquire, BUT - herein lies the rub for local businesses:

An internet presence announces your business to the world.

When you are online, you have little control about where traffic is coming to you from (if you are not actively driving traffic that is), but what if you could make sure that people who lived in your area, who buy your goods and would make ideal customers could be targeted!

Google Adwords can help you target local people, not people from New Zealand if you live in the UK - but people close to you.

Pinpoint geographic targeting of prospects is an optimum use of your local business advertising budget.

Is it 100% foolproof?

Alas no, but it's a good start.

How do I do it?

Well the easiest way to do this is as follows:

Create a national campaign with your search terms and your location terms - eg: If you're a plumber in Poole then "plumber poole" would be a good keyword.

Create a geo-targeted campaign (this can be done in a couple of ways - I'll leave the nitty gritty details out for now) which means your ads are served to local people when they search for your keywords.

So in the plumber example if a local person types in "plumber" and doesn't mention anything else, your advert will be shown.

So goes the theory anyway.

Does it work all the time?

Like I said - Not always very well.

This is because Google uses IP addresses to determine location and this method is somewhat of a cleaver when a scalpel is required.

It all depends how diligent ISP's are when allocating IP addresses to their customers, the only way you can know is through empirical means.

What if the regional targeting is producing no results?

If this is the case then a national campaign with location terms included (as mentioned above) is your best bet.

If you were to run a national campaign on the same keywords without the location terms, you will be competing with other players who have a national presence for your particular product/service which could prove very expensive.


Your local business advertising budget spend should at the very least give Adwords and PPC advertising in general a tryout. Remember there are an infinite number of keywords in any target market.

Just because the big boys may have a stranglehold on the 'obvious' terms does not mean your market is saturated.

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Looking for Free advertising, here it is!

There are lots of ways to advertise for free but they are time consuming so I guess technically, they are not free because your time is worth something! But if you have the time and not the money this is for you.

I posed the question of “free advertising” to a few forums and they all can back the same, but with new links to check out. It’s basically what I already knew, but it’s nice to try and find new ways of doing things.

For this article that has helpful links in it, Please go to my Website and click on Free Advertising.

Link Popularity:

This is the most important thing and in doing any or all of the below things, you will gain link popularity. Links to your Website, wither you link back or not, gets you ranked good with search engines ( the best free advertising of all) and you will get visitors from other sites that are “targeted visitors” that are interested in what you have to offer, and that my friend is your “MAIN GOAL”

So here is what I know about free advertising and what I have recently learned in no particular order:

Articles:

Writing articles and submitting them to different Website will get you the exposure you need and also build your credibility. It’s not so difficult to do this, just give good advise on a subject you know a-lot about, hopefully it is somehow connected to the product/service you are selling on your Website. Make sure in your signature that you have your URL or a way to contact you. When you go to submit your article, they usually give you a step-by-step way to do this. You can always go to one of the site first to get an idea of what you will need to write and publish your article. You can also go to my Website and see how I have written them.You can go to Google or Yahoo and search on “Submit your article for free”.

Classified Ads:

Classified Ads are another way of getting free advertising for your business. In this you can highlight the benefits of your site and/or offer a special to get people to come to your site. These have limited space, so you need to make it short-n-sweet, and to the point to get them to your site. The key is to have a headline that sells, I can’t give you my source because I buy a program to get this kind of info., but you can do a search on Google or Yahoo for “Headlines that Sell” and it will give you some resources. If you would like to know what program I received my sources from e-mail me and I will give you the link.
Again, you can search on “Free Classified ad submission” to find places to place your ads.

Forums:

Forums are not only away for free advertising but you can also ask questions from people that have different way of looking at things or just plain have the answer to your questions. You can also answer question for other; it builds your credibility up and gets you exposure for your business. The way to find forums that relation to your Website is to do a search for “______ forums”, example: it could be video games forums, cb radios forums, Internet business forums, etc…

Press releases:

Sounds so professional, but you can do it, I have faith! A press release simply tells the World about your company and that you are ready to do business. Most sites you go to will have a temple you can go by to do this, I will be providing that soon, maybe by the time you read this. It’s pretty straightforward and anyone that can type can do this. You can do a search on “ Free Press release submission”

Link exchange:

Link exchange is a good way to get free advertising and looks good for the search engines. You can do this in a couple of ways but you need to do what is right for you! There are link exchange programs out there that are for free and some you pay for. Stay away for ones that you cannot pick and choose which sites you want to link with. Link farm are very bad for your site and can go against you with the search engines. Link farms are from companies that upload, let’s say 100 links to your site and those same links will be on all the other sites as well. It’s like a generic links pages, way not good. It defeats the purpose of links and shuts you out of search engines.

Paid vs free, Paid everything is done for you, all you have to do is accept links from other sites or go out and request a link exchange with another site with basically a touch of a button. The free link exchange you have to go out and request individual link exchanges manually. Then manually add their links to your site and there is not guarantee they will link back after doing so. It all depends on how much time you want to put into this.

Good Luck and Please contact me if you need help or have any questions. That is what I’m here for,

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Low Cost Advertising for Your Horse Business

As an ezine publisher I have discovered several methods to target "The Horse Industry" market. Through trial and error
this is what I have come up with. It worked for me and I know it will work for you too!

Ezines or newsletters are simply- electronic newsletters delivered by email. Chances are you've subscribed to a ton
of them yourself. They're quick info blasts usually containing articles or some other relevant information pertaining
to the subject of the email. For instance, if you're interested in homeopathic remedies you might subscribe yourself to
a Homeopathic ezine or a free newsletter offered by one of the thousands of Homeopathic sites online.


Ezines purpose is? For the reader, it gives them information relevant to their interests. In our case that would
be The Horse Industry. For the company, it builds an opt-in base of potential customers who are interested in what
they have to say.

Ezines or newsletters are a great way to get the word out about your interests, business or products which you want
to share or sell with others.. Why are they so great? Because they went out of their ownway to subscribe themselves to
a particular ezine. They actually eagerly await each issue. Now imagine what they could mean if they saw your message
or advertisement.

So here's what I did...and you can do it too!


First I compiled a list of ways I could advertise in a particular ezine. Methods such as:


- Placing a classified or sponsorship ad in a newsletter:


I discovered many ways to advertise (Free in some cases) or very inexpensively in others using text ads
in relevant ezines.
This was the perfect way to reach my targeted audience and test my ads to see how good each one pulled in
potential customers, without spending a fortune.

- Promoting using solo advertisements

This, by far, has to be the best paid advertising I have ever done. I found that a lot of my targeted
customers were subscribed to ezines that would allow me to run a full-page sponsorship advertisement
introducing my own products. My response was phenomenal. I could get as many as 700 or more unique or
targeted visitors and at least 15-20 orders a visit with some of the bigger lists. If I sold a $40 product
and the ad cost me $100, I made at least $400 each time. What's more, once I used the ad and got such a
tremendous response I knew the ad was a winner and I could use it over and over.

- Ad swaps:

This is a great way to advertise if you are on a tight budget and these days, who isn't. I simply wrote
to several ezine publishers and requested an ad swap, my ad for their ad. My response was tremendous and
it was a great way to get my ads out to a targeted audience! Who wouldn’t want free advertising with
their targeted audience! This way I could reach allot
more potential targeted customers and it is totally FREE advertising.

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Make a first impression with advertising banners

You may have found the most up-to-date help relating to banners.
When you're after top advice about banners, it will be hard extracting the best information from unprofessional banners suggestions or guidance so it is wise to recognize how to moderate the information you are offered.

Advantage Trade Show Displays - Banner Stands
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Here's several guidelines that we think you should use when you're seeking information about banners. It is important to remember that the advice we offer is only applicable to internet advice about banners. We do not give you any direction or assistance when you are also conducting research in books or magazines.

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Full color banner/billboard production. Fast pricing & ordering. Upload artwork & proof online!



An excellent piece of advice to follow when you are presented with information and suggestions on a banners web page would be to confirm the sites ownership. Doing this could reveal the owners banners credentials The easiest way to work out who is at the back of the banners website is to look on the 'about' page or 'contact' page.

All highly regarded sites providing information about banners, will always have contact information which will provide you with the owner's details. The info should make known some specifications about the website owner's expertise. This permits you to make an informed assessment about the vendor's insight and appreciation, to give recommendations about banners.

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Positioning in Small Business Marketing

Positioning is another one of those marketing jargon words that everybody throws around and is important to understand. It's also important to understand how positioning specifically applies to your small business marketing.

Basically a marketing position describes your unique place in the market. The key word here is unique. What makes you different from your competitors? What features and benefits do you offer your target market that the other players don't?

Here are a few things that may go into your positioning:

-Price Point - This doesn't necessarily mean you have the lowest price. You may be the most expensive in town, and that's OK if you convince your customers you're worth it.

-Service - Almost every business claims they have great service. If you can provide exceptional service compared to your competitors, your customers will remember you. I'll never forget calling a surly plumber to try to get him to my house for an emergency on a weekend. he acted like he didn't want my business and then told me it was going to be $200 for him just to show up, no thanks. I called roto-router who gave me amazing service, a guarantee, and the whole bill was less than $200. I now use them for all my plumbing.

-Features and Benefits - Positioning is not just about what makes you different, it's also about what you emphasize. Folgers announces to the world that it's "mountain grown coffee" ( a feature). Guess what? All coffee is mountain grown. Folgers just claimed this feature first. What's something that none of your competitors are talking about?

-Credibility - Legal Seafood's clam chowder is served at every presidential inauguration. Many products get celebrity endorsements. Many companies tout how long they've been in business. All of these things build trust in the mind of the consumer. What trust-building factors do you have that the competition does not?

-Negative Features - Is there something you don't have that annoys customers of your competitors? I'm not saying use negative advertising, but just mention the feature and tie it to a benefit. I'm annoyed when I have to pay for parking to go shopping at Mall. Instead of touting free parking, a mall that wants to speak to me might declare, "you'll never have to pay for parking". This drives home the pain of shopping with a competitor without going negative.

-Anything Else - Literally anything that differentiates you from your competitors can be part of your positioning strategy - your location, your hours of operation, the way your office smells. Small business owners need to think creatively here.

In a great article by John Jantsch he states that a positioning strategy must answer the question, "why should I buy from you?" This is brilliant in it's simplicity; it cuts through all the strategic junk that complicates marketing. If you can't answer this question, your customer is not going to do the work to figure out an answer on his own.

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Buy a Flower Shop: Serious Considerations

You've always liked flowers and you think the idea of turning emotions into floral expressions sounds like tremendous fun. You are between careers and have been investigating business opportunities in your community. Yesterday, while perusing the real estate magazine in your county, you notice that the family owned, downtown flower shop is for sale. The ad says it's a turnkey operation. This is your lucky day. Or is it?

Let's look before we leap, OK? Here are some factors to consider:

What is the current state of health of this business?

You should be able to see the financial records and consult professional help if needed.

What is the reputation of this business in the community?

If there are negative feelings about the business in the community, you need to consider a name change and making a big show of the change in management. Factor in the cost of a face-lift on the façade of the physical facility.

What assets are included in the selling price?

If you are buying the building, equipment, coolers and inventory, you need to carefully assess the age, condition and viability of these items. For example, there may be $10,000 worth of inventory in the store, and the seller may be able to document the value by showing invoices. However, if the inventory is shop worn, out of date or not in keeping with your business plan, the value of that inventory to you may be quite a bit lower than that $10,000.

Are you also buying the Accounts Receivables as an asset? If so, you should do some serious research into the exact state of these accounts. Many traditional florists have struggled with house accounts. They have extended credit as a matter of tradition, rather than good business sense and have found themselves in extreme cash flow trouble.

What liabilities are you buying?

You'll need to be very clear about any debt or bills you will be taking over. Be sure that you hire professional help to outline any such debt in your sales agreement. Because of seasonality of the flower business and the existence of house accounts, many retail florists have difficulty with cash flow; you should avoid any situation where you will be paying bills run up by the previous owner.

Also, you should take time to consult with the Wholesalers that you will be buying from. Discuss your payment terms and lay the groundwork for a healthy business relationship with a reputable Wholesaler or two.

What about the business name?

If the name of the business is valuable in your market, you probably won't want to change the name of the business. In any case, consider a clause in the bill of sale limiting the use of the name by the previous owner in the future. This can be very sticky in the case of an owner's own name, for example "Smith Florist".

Will you need to hire all new staff?

Sometimes a previous owner chooses to stay on and work for the new owner. This can pose tremendous difficulties for all involved, so tread lightly on this territory. It's an extreme analogy, but think about the difficulties in open adoptions between birth and adoptive parents. Everyone has their own style and it can be difficult to accept change or let go of something you have worked very hard to build.

That being said, many valued staff members at successful florists have weathered the change in ownership of their place of employment. Do make every effort to retain good people. Just be sure to be clear about your expectations so that the separation can be as painless as possible should that become necessary.

What is the correct timing?

Take the holidays into account when you plan your purchase of a flower shop. Valentine's day is the single largest day, but Christmas is more of a marathon. Mother's Day, weddings, proms, graduations and anniversaries team up to make the spring months a nice busy time. Depending upon your market, the summer can be a difficult time to make ends meet.

Ideally, you'd take over a shop with enough time to get your feet wet before a holiday, but not with so much down time that your funds dry up before you can get going.

What other opportunities exist, and at what cost?

Here's the acid test. Take the time to sort out the options. Let's work on the assumption that you WILL own a flower shop in the next year. Take a big sheet of paper and draw a line down the center. At the top of the left column, write "Buy and Existing Flower Shop". In the Right column, write "Open a New Flower Shop". Now draw a line through the middle of the paper, so you have a top and bottom. The top is for pros and the bottom is for cons. Fill in the grid with as many items as you can figure. Ask your trusted business friends and floral professionals for help. You'll be considering such items as the finances and the marketing plan of your business. When you have completed this exercise, you should have two things. One is a good tool to help you make a decision. The second is the beginnings of a business plan.

Whatever your decision, a business plan is essential. It is your roadmap for success and will be necessary for a business loan. It is worth the extra time at the onset of this journey to compare the options and make the best decision you can.


About the author:
Karen Marinelli is a Floral Industry Professional with nineteen years of experience in the academic, retail and wholesale sectors of the industry. She believes the common goal should be to sell more flowers to more people, more often. For information on How to Open a Flower Shop,


This article may be reprinted without permission under the following conditions:
Article must be printed in its entirety.
Author information and links must be printed exactly as above.

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