Local Business Marketing Blog

April 28, 2010 – As I mentioned in one of last week’s posts it makes sense for local businesses to add “hyperlocal” content to their blogs.

Why? Because this is a way of branding your blog as being primarily concerned with local readers. After all, these are your customers. If you are a real estate agent your biggest concern is reaching people down the street and across town with content they are interested in.

Whether you are a real estate agent, a restaurant owner or a landscaping contractor, a lot of hyperlocal content applies equally well. Here are some suggestions:

Local golf course in early April

1. Local photos – last week I suggested taking photos of interesting things in your community or neighbourhood and turning them into a contest. They don’t have to be part of a contest to be interesting. People are interested in photos. Some of the most avidly read blogs consist mostly of photographs with short captions.

2. Find local videos – Search Youtube for videos about local events, people, attractions and embed them in your blog. You can use these to make connections. Contact the people who created the video and mention that you’re embedding it in your blog.

3. Local newspapers and other publications – Don’t just reprint material from publications. Summarize or review articles. Link out to the originals and let the author know you are linking to them if you want to make that connection.

Remember, you can’t have too many local connections. There are people in your community who want additional exposure and places to publish their material. You can provide that opportunity to them.

Resource: Hyperlocal Blogging in Marin County CA

April 20, 2010 – A “hyperlocal” blog is one that focuses on one or more specific neighbourhoods within a region. In a hyperlocal blog you publish material of specific interest to people in those neighbourhoods. We refer to these neighbourhoods as “communities”.

Why specific communities? Why “hyper” local? One reason for this is to gain search engine traction for those specific communities. Keywords such as “Lakeshore Village Kingston” are much less competitive than “Kingston”.

But this is really a secondary reason for focusing on the smaller community. The truth is you will get very little search engine traffic from hyperlocal keywords, even if you dominate them in the search results. As I have said in many other places, relying on SEO to get local blog traffic is both frustrating and disappointing and it is doomed to failure.

The far more important reason is to focus on hyperlocal communities is to become a resource for the people of the community – to become an online destination for people interested in reading about or seeing photos and videos featuring people and events in their community.

And, of course, in the process you build your own profile as someone active in the community.

What is a “community”?

In the case of real estate blogs a “community” within a city will usually be a subdivision or neighbourhood. If you are a real estate agent you know exactly what I’m talking about.

In a rural area like I live in, my township (Woolwich, Ontario) has a fairly strong identity, but most people in the township more closely identify with the specific village or town they live in. So the communities one would focus on with a “hyperlocal blog” about Woolwich township would be villages such as Conestogo, St. Jacobs, Breslau, Bloomingdale, Linwood, Elmira, etc.

What does a hyperlocal blog look like?

Some real estate agents active in hyperlocal blogging feel it is best to create a separate blog for each community or neighbourhood they service. For an example and discussion of this approach see the series by Matt McGee called Starting a Hyperlocal Blog: The Series.

Frankly, this seems like overkill to me. As long as you have clearly identified sections within your blog for each local community you service you will accomplish your goal.

In fact I would say it would be much easier to manage if you had just one blog dedicated to the city or area of the city you want to focus on, and then sections within that blog for each “community”.

In Wordpress you can manage this by creating categories for each community, and/or a separate “page” for each community with links to the appropriate posts.

Content is what matters

Regardless of how you approach the organization of your hyperlocal blog it is absolutely essential to remember that this exercise is not about impressing the search engines. If that works, then fine. It is much much much more important to publish items that will interest the people in your communities.

Photographs are the easiest – Take a few hours and drive through your communities taking photographs of interesting buildings, schools, churches, playgrounds, community centers.

Take off your real estate agent hat for a few hours and think of yourself as a photographer or reporter. Shoot some pictures from interesting angles.

Then run some simple little contests – possibly one a week for each community – “Identify this building/person/tree/bird house/window/etc. and win a prize”. Get a local coffee shop or restaurant to donate some $5 gift certificates, or if they won’t donate them, buy them.

Be sure to run your contests on the level. Plan them carefully, make sure the winners are selected in a fair way, and be sure to award the prizes as you said you would. Ask the winners for a photo of themselves and publish them along with the names of the winners each week.

The whole point is to get people involved and show your face in the communities to a broader audience. You want to get people coming to your blog and participating.

This is just one idea among many that others have successfully used. If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment.

April 18, 2010 – There’s an interesting article in today’s Financial Post about the morphing of blogs from amateur and “personalized” to commercial and professional. The three blogs featured in this article are crushable.com, thegloss.com and blisstree.com – all aimed at young women “fixated on sassy information about celebrities, fashion, health and well-being.”

Together they pull in more than 3 million viewers a month. They have discoverd that the old off-the-cuff, amateur, personalized model of blogging was not translatable into commercial success – mainly because the quality of the writing in amateur blogs is generally poor and it is impossible to build reader loyalty with that type of content.

If that is the case, how can a part time blogging real estate agent, or local business person compete for viewers? The answer is pretty obvious once you get past the experimentation stage…

1. Don’t try to compete with the big boys. Unless you want to go into the publishing business you don’t need 3 million viewers from all across the continent. Learn from them, but don’t try to compete with them.

2. Focus on specialization. Don’t try to be all things to all people. Concentrate on providing quality content for one (or maybe two or three) narrow niches.

3. Focus on hyperlocal content. This is something a large publication or blog can never adequately cover. Publish local features about local events, places of interest, people, schools, libraries, churches, sports teams, companies, and so on.

4. Make your writing as interesting, competent, professional as you can without making it tedious. Give your content character – your own character.

Almost everybody who knows anything about online marketing knows the importance of search engines – especially Google. In fact Google has become so dominant it is almost impossible to talk about the internet without immediately discussing the role of Google.

The process of systematically trying to get the search engines to drive (“free” not paid) traffic to your website(s) is called Search Engine Marketing. SEM, as it is often rererred to, involves different ways of trying to influence search engines – especially Google – to give you high ranking for searches done on your most important keywords.

For example, if your most important keywords are “Toledo Real Estate”, SEM involves trying to get high ranking in Google searches for the phrase “Toledo Real Estate”. This way people will click on your link in the Google search results and be taken to your blog or website.

Voila. Traffic.

The two most important techniques used in SEM are

• “Optimizing” your content for specific keywords. This is usually called SEO – short for search engine optimization. SEO involves choosing the most promising keywords, and then making sure those keywords show up in your web content in the most important places.

• Link building. Getting links from other sites pointing to your content is a good way to get the attention of the search engines. They consider inbound links as “votes” by other online bloggers and publishers that your content is worth looking at.

Generally speaking, the more your content focuses on your primary keywords, and the more inbound links you have, the better your website or blog will rank in the search engines.

But there are problems with SEM…

• It is indirect. You are relying on Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. to determine who is or is not a good candidate to visit your site or blog. This can be a very frustrating experience – especially when you are in a competitive market.

• It takes a lot of time and effort (usually) to influence the search engines. Typically you will have to wait at least three months to see any lasting results from SEM and SEO.
• It is unpredictable. We have seen clients rise to #1 for their search terms, and we have seen other clients drop off the map. It is hard to know if this is ever the direct result of a concerted SEM/SEO effort. You do your best to give Google and Bing what they want, but you just don’t know for sure it is going to work.

SEM is just one part of the marketing puzzle

SEM is a valuable long term strategy which every serious online marketer should adopt. But don’t count on immediate results. Eventually as your blog gains credibility you will consistently draw traffic from the search engines. But it can often be a very long and tedious process.

Even more important, SEM will only take you so far. It is what we call a “passive” method of marketing. It is like Social Networking in this regard. Social networking – being active in Facebook, for example – will introduce you to many new “friends” and prospects. But it will generally not do much direct selling for you.

For example, if you own a restaurant and you want to run a one week lunch special, SEM will be almost useless. To generate traffic to your offer page you will need other promotional techniques. These will be discussed in future posts.

Most people who venture into web-based marketing begin by doing a web search for “online marketing” or some similar phrase. It doesn’t take long before they are diverted down the trail of the “business opportunity” seeker.

This is what I refer to as the BOM – the “business opportunity model”. An entire online industry has grown up around the idea of providing people with the opportunity to make money online, working from their homes. No 9 to 5 grind. No daily commute. No “boss” to answer to. And presumably no limit to how much money you can make.

Unfortunately most online “business opportunities” are blind alleys that end up leading nowhere for the vast majority of people who get involved with them. Business opportunity promoters are like the snake oil salesmen of the 1800s. They make all kinds of fantastic promises, but their systems rarely if ever deliver results – except for the promoter himself.

At their core most “business opportunity systems” are pyramid schemes that depend on a large base of gullible and often desperate people. What these schemes claim to sell is the “opportunity” to make lots of money by doing as little as possible.

The business opportunity model has virtually nothing to do with the real world of business. So it is important not to get sidetracked into thinking these promoters can teach you something about using the internet to market your own car dealership or coffee shop or sports bar. They can’t. Marketing real businesses online is a completely different animal from marketing to business opportunity seekers.

It may be true that the Business Opportunity Model can teach us things about the psychology of online buyers, or technical aspects of making sales online. But on the whole if you operate a legitimate business and want to do marketing on the web it will do you more harm than good to study the BOM or try to apply its methods to your own business.

To repeat, that’s because marketing concepts used by the business opportunity promoters are not addressing the real business world. They are not about real products like toothpaste, automobiles, vacation cruises or legal services. They are about selling illusion and deception and so they are best put out of your mind and forgotten.

Let’s imagine that you already have a business selling things to local customers. Or perhaps you want to develop one. It doesn’t really matter what the business is. You could be a restaurant owner, or you might make signs for real estate agents, or you may be an accountant.

Now let’s say you decide you want to promote yourself using the internet. Do you have any idea how to go about it? Is there a source of information that will tell you the alternatives, or the most important steps? Or is the “correct method” different for every type of business?

What you and millions of other local businesses would really like is a web-based marketing model that works for all types of local businesses. You want a strategy that outlines the steps in clear language that every local business person can understand.

You need a simple approach that any local business can apply – whether that business sells tires or kitchen appliances or home renovation services. You want to hear someone say “Here is how you go about marketing your business on the web. Follow this system and you can’t help but get good results.”

Does such a “system” exist? Unfortunately, most people who begin the search for online marketing advice end up wasting months and often years experimenting with schemes that simply don’t work.

Next in this series: The BOM – Business Opportunity Model

Many online publishers are paranoid about “duplicate content” and go to great lengths to avoid the “penalty” they think Google levies against them if they happen to publish material published elsewhere on the web.

In a blog post from Google’s Webmaster Central Blog called Demystifying the “duplicate content penalty”, Google staffer Susan Moskwa tries to set the record straight. She says,

Let’s put this to bed once and for all, folks: There’s no such thing as a “duplicate content penalty.” At least, not in the way most people mean when they say that.

To make a long story short, Google is not opposed to you publishing content found elsewhere, as long as you are not trying to manipulate search results. They just won’t feature multiple instances of the same text in their search results.

For example, if you publish an original article word for word in three different places, they will not list all three of those instances in their search results. Usually just one. You might consider this a penalty (that content not being listed in search results), but it is not a penalty in the sense that such content will degrade your entire website. At least that is how interpret this explanation.

What Google wants to feature in their SERPS is content that adds something unique to searchers. In another Google blog post the staffer says “During our crawling and when serving search results, we try hard to index and show pages with distinct information.”

In a response to a comment on the same Google blog mentioned above, Susan Moskwa goes on to say about duplicate content, “…remember that, if you are providing content that a) you didn’t generate, and b) is available elsewhere, it’s important to add some sort of value of your own.”

So if you are republishing material and you care about search results, it is important to add some unique content to make it distinctive from other instances.

Just exactly how much “unique content” is an important and difficult question. In another response to a very insightful question about templated or syndicated content, Susan M says, “When in doubt, I’d do what makes most sense from a user perspective (what is most helpful to human visitors).”

Content for humans – This is an important point for people trying to do SEO to understand. When discussing these endless search engine optimization concerns it is easy to forget that your content should first and foremost be for the benefit of your actual readers – people, not computers.

In my estimation this means if you latch onto a piece of syndicated content that you feel will have value for your readers, you should go ahead and publish it.

For example, if you want to embed a Youtube video go ahead and do it if you think your readers will find it interesting.

It’s just that according to the above Google suggestions, the chances are that post will not show up in searches. Unless, of course, you add unique features to it: a unique title, a unique description, unique tags, or a unique review or commentary.

At the same time, that is not to say a bald “duplicated” video running on your site will detract from the search engine performance of the site as a whole. It just won’t help it very much.

Traffic from other sources – You should also remember when considering this issue that search engines are not the only source of valuable traffic.

In fact the traffic gained from Google or Bing may be quite difficult to get and spending all your efforts on conforming to their constraints may preclude you from getting traffic from other equally or more valuable sources.

Some of these sources, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, ActiveRain, other social networks, affiliate networks, JV networks and things such as email campaigns may be much easier to take advantage of and probably much quicker to implement than the long hard grind involved in getting search engine traffic.

Getting that type of traffic may in fact involve duplicating certain types of content in lots of different places – places where you drive eyeballs using methods other than search engines.

As always the first rule should be: “Give your readers something interesting and valuable.” Readers first, search engines second. Unfortunately many of us have been swept up in the search engine game and have our priorities turned around backwards.

Having a blog is just another way to get involved in social networking. But a good blog is more than that. It should be at the core of your social marketing strategy. It is where you can define yourself and your business in the terms you choose.

You need an objective for your blog, and I think the best one is to:
“Promote Your Corporate Brand”. Not just to promote your brand, but to actually fashion it the way you want it.

Of course promoting your brand will also include introducing, explaining and promoting your products and services. But most good blogs are not just a series of ads for the company. They present interesting and helpful information.

“Promoting Your Corporate Brand” is a fancy way of saying use your blog to give your business a distinctive personality – what used to be called your “image”.

First, consider how you would like your public (customers, contacts, prospects, site visitors, etc.) to think about you. For example, if you’re a real estate agent do you want people to think of you as

- the friendly guy
- the helpful guy
- the knowledgeable guy
- the smart guy
- the reliable guy
- the experienced guy

Do you want to reflect your area of specialization in what you do? For example, if you’re an internet marketer or online entrepreneur do you have a clearly defined area of specialization? Are you

- the blogging girl
- the video girl
- the affiliate sales guru
- the list building expert
- the link building professional
- the SEO guy
- the creative web designer
- the clever copywriter

Whatever you choose, this should always (or almost always) be reflected somehow in all your blog posts. Each of your posts should clearly say “This is the voice of experience speaking when it comes to commercial real estate” or “Our web design is not only creative, but it will give you an edge when it comes to convincing people they should deal with you” or “I will work my tail off to make sure I get the best price for your home.”

Often the decision about the character or personality of your business has already been made for you. It is usually a reflection of your personal character and is simply the way you conduct your business.

But don’t assume your people know this. Make it explicit in how you promote yourself. In other words, turn your persona into a “brand”. Because of the personal nature of blogging, that makes your blog the perfect place to refine and promote your brand.

Copyright Linknet Promotions

The other day I followed a link in one of the many internet marketing pitches I seem to receive on a daily basis. It offered me yet another reason why I should join a “fantastic new membership site” that would show me how I could get tons of traffic to my blog.

The pitch was in the form of a blog post and the claim was that if I received less than 1000 visitors a day and 300 subscribers then I obviously needed help. One of the topics was “How to write posts that get comments.”

I had a closer look at the blog and I noticed that the very post that I was reading had only two comments.

So how could this be? If this person is using her own strategy she should be getting at least 1000 visits to her blog every day. If she is applying her own strategies for generating comments how could a post have only two comments? Shouldn’t this post have hundreds of comments? It doesn’t make sense, does it?

Well, yes it does. Because she was obviously bending the truth. The 1000 visitors a day was just another figment of the fertile imagination of a “successful” internet marketer.

That single article entirely changed my attitude to this blogger. She could no longer be trusted. She was just another exaggerating, truth-stretching internet marketer.

Rules 1 and 2 – Be Truthful

If you are considering creating a personal or corporate blog you should give some thought to developing your own “code of ethics”. I’m not big on strict formal rules, but there is definitely a place for knowing what ethical principles you think are important. Here’s a start:

Rule #1 – Always tell the truth

Rule #2 – Don’t exaggerate your product claims (See Rule #1).

These two rules are a great place to start. The fact is your blog will (or should) become your voice, your channel, and to a large degree the shaper of your identity. So it is important that you think about how you intend to conduct yourself.

As with all channels of communication your first commitment should be to honesty and sincerity. That means there is very little room for exaggeration and misrepresentation – no matter how badly you want to sell your products.

Rules 3 and 4 – Don’t Copy Material Without Permission

The third and fourth rules have to do with creating content and using material provided (or previously published) by others.

Rule #3 – Don’t Use Published Material Without Permission

Rule #4 – Give Credit to the Author when Re-Publishing Material

Generally speaking, content created by other authors should not be copied or reproduced unless it specifically says you can do so. That goes for newspaper or magazine articles, and posts from other blogs.

Two good examples where you do not have to ask for permission (because it is assumed) are the use of articles from article directories, and the embedding of videos from sites like Youtube.

In these cases the creators of this content are making it available for republishing because they want increased exposure. That means you must give them credit as the author (and not act as though you created it), you must not change the content, and you must leave embedded links in place as they were put there by the author.

Rule 5 – Spread the Links Around

When blogs first broke on the scene one of their primary purposes was for bloggers to share links to content they found interesting. That way bloggers could create a rich web of interlinked resources. So this leads us to,

Rule #5 – Link to External Sources

This practice not only honours your sources, but also is advantageous to you. When you link to other bloggers or websites, or when you link back to resources you refer to in your own posts, you are identifying yourself with a larger community of bloggers.

Not only does this help generate traffic (for the blogs you link to), but it helps to generate inbound links from other bloggers (who return the favor), and it improves your standing in Google because you become associated with the other blogs you are inter-linked with.

Copyright Linknet Promotions

We’ve been promoting BlogEasy to Canadian real estate agents. One of the most frequent questions we’ve been getting is whether BlogEasy contains Canadian content.

While many initial posts have been dedicated to Canadian issues, the fact is, the US and Canadian real estate markets are quite different, and it is often not possible to apply US advice to the Canadian real estate environment.

So we’ve created a Canada-only version of BlogEasy.

The reasons for this are pretty simple. We felt it was sufficiently confusing not knowing immediately what information applied to which market – US or Canada. Not just for Canadian realtors, but for US realtors too. Many US agents have no idea that Canadian real estate rules and procedures are quite different – not to mention the fact that the markets are quite different too.

For example, the foreclosure and “short sale” market is quite hot in some parts of the U.S. right now, but virtually non-existent in Canada. As it has been explained to me, there essentially is no “foreclosure” market in Canada. Canadian banks usually sell delinquent homes using “power of sale” – a procedure that does not require out and out foreclosure or repossession. They simply sell this type of home out from under the occupants (the “owners”) without formally booting them out until the sale is complete. This means there are no firesale deals in Canada either.

Anyway, the bottom line is that we now have completely separate modules for Canadian and U.S. content.

To see samples of the new Can-Con (Canadian content) version go to BlogEasy Canada.

To see U.S. content go to BlogEasy USA.