newsletter – Page 30

Facebook and Success for Local Businesses

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

Facebook and Bing Team Up

As you may have heard, Facebook and Bing (Microsoft’s search engine) announced a new partnership last fall.
This new collaboration may change the face of search results by connecting Bing search results and info from Facebook. Now, in addition to displaying the most popular local results when you search for an item or service on Bing, you will also see any relevant information posted by your Facebook friends. Here’s an example: if you search for “local plumber” in Bing, the results will display the most popular webpages, but they will also show particular plumbers that your Facebook friends “Like” and any reviews they may have written about local plumbers.

As you might guess, this new partnership makes customer service even more important! Just imagine: a new store opens up in your town, but their service is so poor that customers are not showing support on Facebook. From simply not liking the store’s page to posting negative reviews, these dissatisfied customers’ actions on Facebook will affect how the store performs in Bing searches. As a result of this new feature, the new store won’t be able to gain traction in the Bing search results pages.

Improve Your Facebook Page

However, this feature isn’t all bad! The good news is that Prospect Genius creates a Facebook page for each one of its customers—this puts you one step ahead of any business without a Facebook presence.
Now, to capitalize on the new Bing search feature, all you need to do is get out there and have folks “Like” your page. Check out Aztec Solar Power’s Facebook page as a good example of this.
If you’re a Prospect Genius customer, you already have a Facebook page for your business. You can contact PG for the link to your Facebook profile and start sharing it with local friends and happy customers—and they can start “liking” your business. Customers past and present can even use your Facebook page as a convenient place to write glowing reviews about your company and services! And to get the most value out of those reviews, the PG team can even repost them to various other locations across the web.

Get Your Customers Involved

Getting your customers involved can be the key to getting those coveted reviews and “Likes.” For a great example of how to get your customers involved on your Facebook page, visit Kenny’s Homework on Facebook.
As you can see, one of Kenny’s customers wrote a rave review on his Facebook Wall. You can also encourage satisfied customers to write reviews in the “Reviews” section that you see on the right-hand side of the page.
But what if you’re having trouble getting people to write reviews or “Like” your Facebook page? You’re not alone! Many local businesses struggle with this issue, but you don’t just have to let your business suffer because customers are reluctant to write reviews, etc. Instead, why not take a cue from Ace Appliance Service. This appliance repair company provides customers with a $10 Subway gift card if they post a review on the Ace Appliance Service Google Places page.
Incentives like this can help your company in two ways:

First, it illustrates that you have great customer service.
Second, it can help your Google Places page gain extra traction in the search engines.

Why not try offering customers a $2 Dunkin Donuts gift card for writing a Facebook review or a Google Places review, and maybe a $5 card if they post reviews at both locations? Sometimes all it takes is a little encouragement to get your customers to write online reviews, and by helping your company get a little extra traction in the search engines, it can really pay off.

What Google’s Been Up To…

Because it was reported widely in mainstream media, you may have heard about Google’s recent update. Google has reconfigured their algorithm to change the way in which they rank websites—and subsequently what you may see displayed on a search results page. Dubbed the “Farmer Update,” these changes are designed to eliminate low-quality webpages from Google search results.
As soon as the Farmer Update rolled out, Prospect Genius started working on assessing the implications of the change and how it will impact you, our loyal customers. If you’ve recently noticed that your microsite is ranking higher, lower, or swinging back and forth, it’s likely a result of the tweaks we’re making because of the changes in Google’s algorithm. We’re working to compensate for the Farmer Update, and we’ll keep you posted as we gather more information. But don’t worry, we’re professionals: search engines update their algorithms all the time—it’s our job to work with the updated system to make sure your microsite is ranking the best it can!
If you’re curious about more details of the Farmer Update, check out this article.

Don’t Forget Our Referral Program

Remember, Prospect Genius offers a discount for every additional client you send our way. You’ll get $10 per month (paid quarterly) off your bill for every referral that signs up with PG.
Send your friends to 1-800-689-1273, and make sure they mention you!

He Said, She Said: Reputation Management and Your Business

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

The simple truth is that businesses live and die by their reputations. In years past, word of mouth was the primary vehicle for circulating a company’s reputation, good or bad. But with technology today, you have practically a zillion more ways to get the word out about your business. While the Internet makes it easier for you to spread the word about your business, it also has a downside: unhappy customers can put negative information about your company all over the web. As you can imagine, this can have a severe impact on your reputation. That’s why it’s so important to manage what info about your business shows up in the search engines!

Fight Back Against Reputation Killers Online

To find out what’s out there about your business, you’ve got to think like a consumer: Start by searching for your company name in search engines like Google, Yahoo!, or Bing and see what comes up. If you see hits from RipOffReport.com or customer complaint forums, your reputation may already be in some hot water!
However, it’s not the end of the world. A reactive campaign can help you recover your good reputation online. The first step is to correct any inaccurate information about your company that might be floating around online. Reports on Google Reviews or RipOffReport might be inaccurate or incomplete, and these outlets enable you to address those issues. The second step is to promote positive information about your company online. By launching new and positive info in media like articles, press releases, and more, you can share what your company is really about with the online community. And by putting all that new, positive information out there, you can push the negative media farther down in the search results. The ultimate result will be no more nasty comments from unhappy customers showing up on page one of the Google results.

Be Proactive

Even if nothing bad about your business comes up when you search, you may want to start a proactive reputation management campaign. Focusing on getting the word out about the positive aspects of your company, a proactive campaign can promote your business in a positive way—before any negative stuff gets a chance to circulate. When people search for your company online, all they’ll see is fabulous reviews, stellar articles, etc.

Reputation Management Services

If your company finds itself in need of either a reactive or proactive campaign, Prospect Genius is available to help. We offer both services for our customers as well as an ongoing monitoring option that keeps tabs on your online reputation and lets you know if any negativity about your company does crop up.

The Inside Scoop

Keeping track of what’s going on inside your business is just as important as monitoring your online information when it comes to managing your reputation. Whether you’d like to monitor who is authorizing coupons or ensure that the office staff is answering the phone in the prescribed way, call recording can help monitor your staff’s interactions with customers. By recording and listening to all the calls that come into your office, you can make certain your clients are getting only the best possible customer service. Even easier, why not get those call recordings transferred into a text version for fast, simple review.
Prospect Genius has partnered up with the telecommunications company Bluestone for various projects in the past, and their newest product offering will be to convert audio recordings into text. Initially developed for car dealerships to monitor their sales representatives, Bluestone’s product enables you to record phone conversations and then convert the recordings into text for your convenience. This innovative product will even highlight the keywords business owners are looking for, which can enable you to easily track the types of deals your sales reps are closing and the various promises that are made.
This call recording-to-text feature will be available from Bluestone in the second quarter of 2011. A valuable option for your business if you have staff that answers the phone and communicates with customers, this is a simple, straightforward way to control how your customers are treated. For additional information, contact Bluestone at 518-690-0391 or by e-mail at jeffrobinson@bluestonetel.com. There’s also more information available on their website, http://bluestonetel.com.

Celebrate Customer Appreciation Month With Prospect Genius!

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

10% Off Additional Services

To thank our customers, Prospect Genius has declared February “Customer Appreciation Month.” We’re offering a 10% discount on additional services for our existing customers, making it more affordable to be more successful online. On top of our Lead Generation program, PG also offers a variety of online advertising services that can help boost the results you’re already seeing with the Lead Generation campaign alone. Some of our options include:

Google Places Optimization
Local Ad Blast
Social Media & Authority Site Visibility
Press Release Writing

We even offer add-ons to enhance your microsite and further improve the performance of your Lead Generation program. These include:

Photo Gallery
Call Recording
Custom Domain and E-mail
Auxiliary Metered Number

For more information on each of these packages, just go to the Client Portal at www.prospectgenius.com. Sign in and go to “Order Additional Services” on the left. You can check out the list of options and even place your order right in the client portal. Any additional services that you order during the entire month of February automatically receive the 10% discount!

Promote Seasonal Changes

Even though you might be up to your eyebrows in snow, now is the time of year to start thinking about spring. If your company is planning to revamp your product offerings this year or you’re thinking about doing a special promotion, now is when you need to start advertising those changes. For maximum exposure and effectiveness, you’ll want to start pushing the message in the next 30 days.
Our Ad Blast service is an easy, productive way to promote seasonal coupons. Does your business do something different when the snow starts to melt and the temperatures start to rise? Are you offering a new service in this upcoming year? Want to promote a coupon to advertise this new service? Prospect Genius’s Local Ad Blast is your solution for getting the word out. Many PG clients utilize this package again and again, month after month, because it can help bring in more customers and offers great return on investment.

Get the Word Out

Even beyond seasonal changes, news and events at your business can be leveraged in a way to bring your business more presence and more profit. The Prospect Genius team can use our Press Release Writing and Syndication package to help you achieve these goals. In fact, we leverage this package for that purpose all the time! Many of our clients capitalize on the press release package year round, helping keep a steady stream of traffic coming to their microsite. Our press releases also have a very positive impact on your search engine rankings, so let us help you spread the word. Even if you take it for granted, any small change or event at your company makes a great topic for a press release, and we can put that info to work for you. Our Press Release Writing and Syndication Package will get the word out and the customers in!
For more information about these options, visit our website or call (800) 689-1273 to speak with a PG team member.

Online Advertising and the New Google

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

The New Google

In a past blog post, we looked the different parts of Google: maps, organics, and sponsored (pay per click). But since then, Google has changed its look—and its game. Now, when you search for a local company or service, the results display as a combination of the maps and organics, with a small map off to the right side that covers the sponsored results as you scroll down.
Here’s a short-and-sweet look at how things have changed: the new search results page is on the left, the old is on the right. You can see the sponsored results highlighted in yellow, the maps listings in pink, and the organic search results in green.

Advertising in the New Google

Now that Google has reorganized its search results, it may be time to freshen up your advertising strategies a bit. The SEO specialists at Prospect Genius have hypothesized—and observed to be true—that having both an optimized organic search result and an optimized map search result is advantageous. Moreover, having the two tied together (i.e. including your optimized website in your optimized maps listing) is even better. This way your site will show up prominently in Google whether a prospective customer is searching in Google Places or just in Google itself.

Keyword Stuffing: Fast Track to the Back

To put it simply, keyword stuffing your company’s name or location is the leading way to get yourself rejected from Google Places or Google Maps. And that’s a serious problem, because with Google’s new blend of the maps and organic results, a rejected listing could set back your organic placement as well. Remember, as we discussed in the previous post, Google’s spam department can inflict wholesale penalties across the board, no matter which area of Google they find that you’ve committed bad behavior in. Don’t forget, these “penalties” are more than just a slap on the wrist: punishment can even include completely banning your website from Google!
For example, this type of keyword stuffing can get you in major trouble with Google: say your company is called “Bob’s Services,” but you list your business on Google Places as “Bob’s Appliance HVAC Plumbing Heating Cooling and AC Services of Houston Plano Ft Worth and Sugarland.” This strategy is almost guaranteed to backfire. It certainly won’t fool Google and will definitely keep your listing from being activated.
Why? Because Google compares what you entered in your listing with the info it has in its database about Bob’s Services, essentially trying to verify what the real information about the company is. When the information in all of the other online directories lists the business as “Bob’s Services,” Google will see that the keyword stuffed name entered on Google Places is just that, bogus. And when it uncovers a spammer (keyword stuffer or other rule-breaker), Google flags the listing for manual review, by an actual person. The end result is generally a major penalty for your website, including consequences that can extend to both your paid ads and organic results, not just maps listings!
Think you’re safe just because you’ve never listed your business anywhere else on the web? Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. The simple truth is that the Internet is one giant recycling center. Information on websites is routinely harvested (plagiarized) by automated programs and used on other sites. So even if you haven’t personally included your company in an Internet directory or anywhere else on the web, your info—including business address, name, and phone—is probably still out there somewhere. Additionally, a company you hired to promote your business may have created listings that you don’t know about. For example, your local yellow pages directory may have posted your information on its website as well as printed it in hard copy.
According to Google’s Guidelines, all of your business information must match (especially your business name and address) everywhere it appears on the web. This will gain you the best placement for your services once they are well optimized and help ensure that your listings won’t be rejected.

Be Proactive When Possible and Reactive When Necessary

Unsurprisingly, the best way to ensure you receive no penalties or rejections from Google is to do it right the first time! Of course, that isn’t always possible. Google’s guidelines do change and it’s easy to be unaware of some of the rules when you’re getting set up with Google. Or, if you made the mistake of working with an unscrupulous online advertiser, they may have engaged in underhanded practices on your behalf. Unfortunately, it’s not unusual for these companies to take verboten shortcuts in the hopes that booming results the first month will get you to stay with their company in hopes of continued success…
However, the good news is that Prospect Genius offers Google listing optimization services to help your company maximize your Internet marketing success. Our professionals are experts at fixing prior bad behaviors, and we can help you clean up your listings for the best results. We’ll make certain they’re working for you, not against you!
To speak with a Prospect Genius team member about any of our programs (including maps and organics optimization), pick up the phone and give us a ring at (800) 689-1273 or visit our website (prospectgenius.com) to learn more.

Catch More Customers with Coupons

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

Coupons Make You Money

It may seem a little backward, but adding a coupon to your website can actually help you make more money. You may be thinking, “Wait. How can I make more money if I’m offering customers a discount?” But the math really does work out. Sure, you will be collecting a little less money per customer, but enough individuals may like the gimmick to dramatically increase your customer base. That means if you’re charging each client a little bit less but you have 5 or 10 percent more customers, you’ll be making a lot more!
Adding a coupon to your microsite is also beneficial for advertising your services. Not only can the Prospect Genius SEO team publicize your coupon—and your company—on a whole new list of websites, we can leverage these sites to increase your microsite traffic. In short, we can maximize the benefit of a coupon to boost the number of calls and e-mails you get.
Here are a few coupon ideas to consider for your company (and why they’re a great option!)

5% Off for Cash Payment: When customers pay in cash, you won’t have to pay the credit card fees you might otherwise have been charged. That means this discount doesn’t really cut into your profits: you’re simply passing the savings along to your customer and generating interest in your business at the same time.
10% Off for Veterans, Active Members of the Armed Services, and/or Senior Citizens: Okay, so this coupon does mean you’ll lose out on 10% of your revenue, but many customers view senior/veteran discounts as a charitable donation for the people who have served our country. This generosity toward these highly esteemed groups can enhance a customer’s perception of your business and go a long way toward encouraging a prospective client to choose you over the competition.
10% Off for Existing Customers: Every business owner knows finding new customers is far more expensive than keeping the customers you already have. This kind of coupon encourages your current customers to keep your number on hand—the more customers you retain, the fewer new customers you have to find, and the savings add up!

And remember, fancy graphics are good and fine, but coupons are more about the message than the picture. All you need to create an effective online coupon is the offer itself. If you want to dress it up, go for it, but the discount is all that really matters.

Great Promotions Are All About the Gimmick

Among the more successful promotions we’ve seen from local businesses was an offer from a bathroom remodeler. He advertised at $5,995 complete bath remodel: using a one-page list of specifications regarding fixtures, counters, and flooring, the customer could select upgrades beyond the $5,995 base price.
Two things made this idea so effective:

It caught the customers’ attention. The advertised price for the bathroom remodel was so low that it jumped out at prospective clients.
All of the options were laid out simply and clearly. Bathroom remodels can be daunting, complex projects, but by reducing it down to four or five packages, the buying process is simple rather than overwhelming. Limiting options also limits both cost and confusion, making it straightforward and hassle-free for the buyer.

We’ve seen tons of coupons and promotional gimmicks over our years in the advertising business, but here are a few of the more popular ones we’ve come across: A free GPS system with the purchase of more than $3,000 in flooring; and $500 off more than 3,000 square feet of flooring. Pairing up a specific dollar amount with a particular service or product can help snag a reader’s attention when we’re promoting your coupon, so be as exact as you can about the details. Generating interest in the coupon—and making your phones ring or e-mail in-box overflow—is what it’s all about.

Getting Started

Have a coupon or special discount you’d like us to promote for you? Just let our SEO pros know. If you’re already signed up with the PG lead generation program, there’s no charge for adding a coupon to your site. We’ll even help you brainstorm if you’re looking for coupon ideas! Take advantage of our experts by making us do more work for you: call (800) 689-1273 or e-mail customer.service@prospectgenius.com to get your coupon up and start reeling in the customers!

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