Frequently I meet business owners who are looking for the silver bullet to their marketing woes. I like to jump in and say “Well do I have the cure for you! were looking for,” however my cure comes in the form of long hard work and commitment, rather than a magic potion or silver bullet. I know lots of tactics, tips, and suggestions on how to optimize a marketing campaign, but any of one tactic on its own will not deliver monumental results overnight. The secret to almost all succesful marketing programs is a steady program of well thought and executed strategy.

Home runs are sexy, they put fans in the stands, and the players who hit them are well compensated. Unfortunately a home run in business, followed by a several quarters of strike outs will lead to some serious cash flow problems. Success in business comes through delivering predictable profit over an extended period of time. When it comes to online marketing you can use tricks to temporarily improve results, but just like steroids, quick gimmicks will catch-up with you sooner or later.

Increasing traffic, building trust, and increasing conversion rates each require multiple steps and a commitment to improving and adjusting over time. Just like baseball, just learning the basics will make a major immediate improvement to your performance. Once you know the basics it takes lots of practice, hard works and a dedicated coach to get to the big leagues, or just to make the varsity team.  Great leadoff hitters occassionally strike-out, but striving to make small improvements over time will prove more valuable than trying to make one big splash followed by continued silence.

• GetListed.org
• How local search data providers impact local listings
• Why the consistent use of Name, Address, and Phone Number is critical.
• Keep a list of the usernames and passwords you create on each of the local listing sites so you can make changes in the future.
• Choose your categories wisely. On Google you may choose up to five categories, make sure to use all of them. It is okay to change your categories to reflect the seasonality of your business (Deck Repair – Spring/Summer, Christmas Lights – November/December).
• Add Pictures to your profile. A 60 x 90 logo image, loaded into the first image position, is optimally sized for display throughout Google Maps.
• If you don’t upload your own image, Google may insert content from other sites, which may not always favorable, as demonstrated in the image below.

• Add videos to your profile
• Encourage customers to write reviews of your business
• Monitor your businesses reputation
  • Create a Google Alert for Business Name, Phone Number, and Address
  • Marchex Reputation Management Tool
• Claim your listing on Bing
• Claim your listng on Yahoo
• Claim your listing on Best of the Web (Free version)
• You can only do so much to optimize listing with the elements you control. A good rule of thumb is that 15% of optimization comes from things you can control on page, the remaining 85% of your ranking comes from off page elements such as, links, citations and third-party reviews.
• Remember the silver bullet to Local Search Engine Optimization is doing a lot of little things right. Just like your business success is achieved by keeping your eye on the ball every day and continually monitoring and reviewing your progress. If you have further questions, please submit them using the contact form.

• Pre-Session The State of the Internet
• The Conversation Prism
• Google Alerts
• Marchex Brand Management
• Twitter Search
• Mr. Handyman on Twitter
• Mr. Handyman on Facebook
• Mr. Handyman Blog
• Most Reviews are positive
• All Photos in my presentation were Creative Commons licensed via Flickr

If you have any questions or feedback about my presentation or the session in general, feel free to leave a comment below or submit them privately via the contact form. Thank you for the privilege to present at your convention and keep in touch.

Craig Baerwaldt