newsletter – Page 24

Ring, Ring… Part I

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

At Prospect Genius, we’ve created a handful of tools that allow us to analyze the performance of our clients’ lead generation campaigns. One of the primary tracking tools used to indicate a campaign’s efficacy is the call report, which provides us with statistics about when and how the customers of our clients are searching for their business. These statistics are broken down by day of the week, hour of the day, and length of the call.
We recommend that every business owner take a few minutes to compile data about each day’s incoming customer calls. Here’s why.

Some Days Mean More Calls

After taking a peek at our Calls by Day of Week tracker, we found that many businesses received a major increase in incoming calls on one particular day of the week.
Since many businesses receive the most telephone traffic on a specific day of the week, this means it’s extra important to be available to take calls on that particular day!
For example, across the paving industry, Monday had the highest volume of calls, at nearly 30%.

However, for the roofing industry, Tuesday had the greatest number of calls, with 27% coming in on that day.

With Saturday and Sunday being the two slowest days for call traffic in both industries, people seem to be waiting for the beginning of the work week to call and schedule their service needs (likely to avoid emergency/weekend service fees). If you miss calls on Monday or Tuesday, you could be missing out on a ton of appointments! Potential customers aren’t likely to leave a voice mail or to call back—when you don’t pick up your phone, they are probably calling your competitor next!
Your particular business might be experiencing different results from the roofing or paving industries, so it’s important to keep track of your incoming calls to understand what your specific call patterns look like.

Strategically Managing Call Volume

Are you too busy to answer the phone? Hire a receptionist! You could bring someone in part time to answer the phones and schedule appointments on your busiest days.
Every business is different, so you should be keeping track of the day and time of all of your customer calls. These metrics can help you determine not only which days, but also what time of day you’re receiving the most incoming calls, so you can plan accordingly to maximize your company’s success!
Be sure to stay tuned for more details on how you can apply this data to help your business get ahead. Our next blog post will be Part II of this discussion. We’ll take a look at a case study to help you understand how to make business decisions using information like which days and times you receive the most calls.
As always, if you have questions, please contact us. We’ll be happy to talk to you about your call data and what it can mean for your business!

Ring, Ring: It’s Google Calling

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

If you have a Google+ Local listing, chances are Google is going to call your business—or they already have. That’s because when Google isn’t able to verify information about your business with their own resources, they pick up the phone to confirm that info with the owner. In particular, specific things, such as alterations or updates to your listing, can often trigger a phone verification. So if you’ve recently changed your business’s name or switched phone numbers, be prepared for Google to call.
Sounds easy enough, right? Well, when it’s Google on the other end of the line it’s not exactly that straightforward…

So What’s the Problem?

Well, the issues stem from the fact that the Google representative making the call is based in India. The caller may or may not even mention that he’s connected with Google (from what we’ve heard, he probably won’t) before bombarding you with questions. The unfortunate result is that most business owners receiving these calls assume they’re from telemarketers, and immediately hang up.
Check out this scenario playing out for one Memphis company.
This is unfortunate simply because if you hang up, and Google can’t verify your business’s info on the phone, your listing is in trouble. It will be replaced with the dreaded “We do not support this location” message. And when your Google+ Local listing is down, you are going to miss out on boatloads of customers!
To make sure this doesn’t happen to you, just ask who’s calling before hanging up. The caller should tell you that he or she is calling regarding your Google Maps or Google+ Local listing. He or she should only ask about the info in your listing, such as your business name and location. So if the caller starts asking what you do for online advertising or otherwise questioning you on subjects outside your listing, it’s not Google!

The PG Solution

When you first start a lead generation campaign with Prospect Genius, there is a lot of information to remember, but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Our team makes a point to touch on the important information throughout the beginning of your campaign to make sure you’re familiar with your CallTrax™ number, LeadTrax™ URL, and more.
To help with that goal, we’ve recently rolled out a welcome package that gets sent out to each new client. Inside, you’ll find a Prospect Genius Wallet Card that has all of your campaign’s essential information on it. We’re hoping that its convenient size means this card will go straight into your wallet, offering you an easy reference so you can be prepared when Google calls.
Here at PG, our team spends a lot of time working hard to make sure your Google+ Local listing is accurate and ranking its best. By answering Google’s phone call and verifying the correct information, you can be a tremendous help to us in achieving that goal. The end result is a more successful online advertising campaign—and ultimately, a more successful business!

Online Presence: Keep It Consistent

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

As most companies with an online presence already know, your Google+ Local listing is a vital part of your web advertising campaign. But, unfortunately, it’s one of the trickiest to handle. With Google’s quality guidelines undergoing constant revisions, your listing is at risk for receiving a violation—and all the negative consequences that go along with it.
At Prospect Genius, we deal with Google each and every day, and, with the help of our in-house Google expert, we’re able to stay in the loop about all of Google’s updates and how they might affect your online advertising efforts.
Perhaps one of the most important steps you can take to ensure your Google+ Local listing is active and displaying the correct information about your business is to make sure that your online presence is consistent elsewhere. How can having the same information on other sites affect your Google+ Local listing? Well, because Google uses information from all over the web to check your business’s listing. That’s because if Google only used the info submitted through business accounts, they’d end up with a ton of false and spammy listings. To guard against this, they gather data from all over the web. If this process doesn’t give them a good enough picture of your business, they might even call you up to verify the accuracy of your info!
So, how can you work to make certain your online identity is consistent?

The first, and most important, step is simply ensuring that you’re promoting all the same information online. That means using a consistent URL, phone number, company name, and address in all of your web marketing and online advertising efforts—and making sure that your online advertising company is doing the same thing.
You’ll also want to make sure that the information displayed on your website and the information on your Google+ Local listing is the same. It may sound obvious, but you’d be surprised! We come across this problem with clients all the time!
Stay on top of company changes. If your business has moved, changed its name, switched phone numbers, etc., be sure to update that information everywhere it appears online. Having conflicting info on the Internet will only undermine your chances of online advertising success.

It’s for these reasons that we routinely emphasize the importance of having the same person or company managing your website, Google+ Local listings, and directories. Many businesses run into problems with inconsistent information when they hire more than one online advertising company or switch from one to another.
Don’t know what type of information is floating around about your business? If you’re like many companies, you’ve worked with so many different online advertisers, you don’t know what info is out there about your business, or where to start to find out… The first step is actually pretty easy: search for your business right in Google! But if you don’t have the time to sit down and seek out what info is floating around about your company online, Prospect Genius can actually do it for you. Our convenient WebFax® Report combs the web and creates a report of all the listings related to your company. Rather than sifting through pages upon pages in Google to find this info yourself, you can let us do the work and then just look over one simple report.
Dealing with a mess? If you’ve discovered that your online presence is anything but consistent, it can be hard to know how to go about cleaning it up. Unfortunately, the process of removing inaccurate information from online business listings can be a huge drain on your time. Many directories don’t allow you to simply delete old listings, and others use a written removal request process that can take weeks. But you can save yourself time and hassle by letting PG do the leg work for you. With our CleanSlate™ Program, often used in conjunction with a WebFax Report, we will slog through all of the necessary steps to remove your business’s old or inaccurate information from the web. Once we have completed our job, we’ll even provide you with a report summarizing the results.

Why It’s Worth the Trouble

Sound like a lot of effort to go through just to maintain a consistent online identity? Wondering why you should bother?
Well, the answer is easy: Not only will a single online identity help your Google+ Local listing, but it will also assist your customers, so it works doubly to help your company.

Once you have a single online identity, Google will give your business more value. That’s because they’ll have less trouble verifying that your Google+ Local listing is accurate and that your website is a quality resource for searchers.
By maintaining consistent information everywhere on the web, you’ll also benefit because potential customers will no longer be directed to old phone numbers or dead URLs. Think of all the business you could be missing out on!

With a single, consistent identity on the web, your online advertising tactics—and your company as a whole—will simply have a greater chance of success!

Newsflash: Press Releases Can Help Spread the Word About Your Company

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

From new coupons and promotions to staff expansions to equipment upgrades, the things that happen behind the scenes of your business don’t always feel fresh or exciting. However, did you know that these seemingly small events are actually perfect opportunities to get the word out about your company? Our clients have found tons of success using press releases to make their news known.

So What Exactly Makes for a Newsworthy Item?

Virtually any recent change or announcement pertaining to your company that might be of interest to your community could qualify as “newsworthy.” You might not consider a new discount for veterans or the recent hire of an installation technician to be riveting news, but if it has the potential to impact local consumers, then it’s the perfect subject for a press release.
Here are a few examples:

– Hiring employees
– Sales promotions or coupons
– Completion of training or certification
– Moving locations
– Opening additional locations
– Adding new services or features
– And more!

Use Press Releases to Reinforce Your Online Advertising Efforts

Let’s say that you’ve just hired a new sales rep or you’re promoting a service that you only offer seasonally. Aside from announcing that small piece of news, what can a press release really do for your online advertising efforts?
Well, you’d be surprised at the punch that press releases can pack. Adding value to your online advertising campaign in a variety of ways, press releases:

Generate positive brand recognition. The more your company name appears, the stronger your web presence and power will be in terms of brand recognition.
Connect with hard-to-reach audiences. Usually the people who read your company blog or website have found you by searching for a specific service or your company name. However, if you want to reach people who might not otherwise stumble upon your name, then using press releases to announce the latest news is a great solution. You’ll be able to reach out to a different population and get the word about your business out to more folks.
Get the word out about important updates. A press release makes it easy to let potential customers know about immediate news items like expanded service offerings, address changes, and time-sensitive discounts.

And best of all, press releases are affordable, getting you a lot of bang for your marketing buck.
With the immediacy and convenience of online press releases right at your disposal, there’s no excuse for missing out on prospective customers because you neglected to spread the word about your company. The Internet is filled with consumers who need your services, and connecting with them is a vitally important way to capitalize on as many of those potential clients as possible.

Ready to Create a Press Release for Your Company?

Now that you’ve learned what makes an event newsworthy and how an announcement can help your marketing campaign, it’s time to actually go about creating a press release. However, it’s important to understand that an effective press release requires both a professionally crafted message and a proven syndication strategy.
Not confident in your writing abilities? Unfamiliar with the syndication process? Don’t fret: Here at Prospect Genius, we’re able to both generate and promote press releases about your business, so you can worry about brainstorming your next promotion while we trumpet the latest news from your storefront.
Our team of skilled writers can carefully craft an eloquent press release that will announce your news and represent your company professionally. Then, we’ll publish your press release on our meticulously cultivated selection of creditable syndication sites—allowing you to reserve your time and energy for more pressing business matters, while making sure your news is heard all over the web!

Goodbye, Google Places

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

Last Wednesday, Google rolled out some major changes: They did away entirely with Google Places, replacing it with the new Google+ Local. If you follow us on Twitter, you’ve already heard, but we thought it would be helpful to go into a little more detail to help folks understand just what this change means for their businesses.
(If you want to check out our tweet, you can find it here. It also includes a link to a CNN article covering these changes.)
Within two hours of this Google update rolling out, the PG team was hard at work to assess the damage. The next two days were filled with our entire team combing the Internet for information, brainstorming theories, and testing out these hypotheses. Now that we are confident in our understanding of the new Google+ Local, we feel it’s the right time to let you know what’s going on.

What Does All This Mean?

The short and sweet answer is that Google Places and Google+ Business Pages are being merged into a single entity. With last Wednesday’s rollout, they’ve just finished up step one of this process—essentially only visual changes. At this point, only how your information is being displaying to users has changed. No data has been modified, and only minimal functionality enhancements have been rolled out.
A number of our clients have called in wondering if they need to create a Google+ Business Page as a result of this update. We’ll tell you what we’ve been telling all of them: “Nope.” If you do already have a Google+ Business Page, Google will automatically be merging it with your Google Places listing. If not, that’s just fine. You can also sit back and relax. Your Google Places listing will automatically be converted to Google+ Local as well.
In the future, once the complete update has been implemented, your new Google+ Local listing will contain many of the features currently available on the Google+ Business Page, as well as contact info, maps, and reviews like on your old Google Places page. The new features will mainly impact the consumer experience by allowing users to more easily discover, share, and review businesses.

Confused Yet?

With all these names—Google Places, Google+ Business Page, Google+ Local—it’s easy to get confused and not a little bit overwhelmed. Don’t worry, though. You can rest assured that the entire Prospect Genius team is working hard to stay on top of these changes. Even as more updates roll out, we’re here to keep you informed of important news.
Google tends to roll out updates prior to fully testing them, so we expect that there will be bugs and glitches with this process. That’s just how Google operates. If you see your listing vanish or vary in rankings, don’t panic. These next few weeks are certain to be full of temporary challenges as the full update is put into action. However, Prospect Genius’s automated tools are still working to check your information every day, so if a problem occurs, we’ll be addressing it right away.

Prospect Genius

Contact Us

Business Hours

Let’s Connect!

What Drives Us?

Client Portal App

Helpful Links

Sign up for our newsletter!