Following our annual conference last month, “Search Starts Here,” – where we heard from local search marketing leaders from around the globe – many of you have asked us how best to stay up-to-date on the latest trends in our space throughout the year.
In addition to checking back here on Local Search Insider for industry and member news, research and other relevant topics, we encourage you to take a look at some of our favorite go-to news resources. These blogs deliver high quality news and research on local mobile, online and print marketing.
Be sure to add these to your reading list!
NetNewsCheckcovers local media’s transformation from traditional to mobile/online and informs industry leaders of business developments.
StreetFightfocuses on local content, commerce and technology, and delivering stories ranging from the latest trends to new research.
BIA/Kelsey: Local Media Watch highlights industry trends, case studies, and events throughout the year. Also check in for BIA/Kelsey’s signature research.
Screenwerk, by Greg Sterling, covers online and offline media trends – and everything in-between.
We recently uploaded two webinar presentations to our YouTube channel that you might find interesting.
WebsiteAlive’s webinar discussed the importance of giving consumers the means to easily connect with local businesses via directory listings using live chat, e-mail lead, click-to-call or text/SMS.
Connect Now! – Connect and Capture Your Target Audience
geo.to’s webinar discussed the phenomenal increase in mobile local search, the primary wants and needs of mobile users, and the data that is reinforcing the importance of providing instant access to extremely accurate and timely location based information.
Mobilizing Locations to Drive and Measure Calls, Visits and Sales
For access to all of our past webinars and a look at what’s to come, visit http://bit.ly/LSAwebinars.
Earlier this week, Los Angeles Times reporter Sandy Banks took a close look at the online review space. Spurred by a window sign at a local LA restaurant calling for a boycott of Yelp, Banks explored the accuracy and fairness of online reviews.
According to Bank’s coverage, online review companies like Yelp are receiving backlash from small business owners who don’t understand current methods that allow some user reviews to post, but hide others deemed as false reviews. Owners are concerned that authentic, positive reviews are being hidden, causing an inaccurate or unfair snapshot of their business online.
With more digital companies expanding into the review space (Foursquare, Facebook, and Google to name a few), review filtering is certain to be a hot button issue for small businesses. Since its inception, Yelp has worked hard to strike the balance between an egalitarian, crowd-sourced approach while still cracking down on false reviews. There doesn’t seem to be a quick fix.
Follow these links for the Los Angeles Times stories and tell us your thoughts on this issue in the comments section below.
Please join LSA and WebsiteAlive for an exclusive webinar presentation this upcoming Thursday, April 25.
In this webinar, WebsiteAlive’s Managing Partner and CEO Adam J. Stass will discuss the importance of giving consumers the means to easily connect with local businesses via directory listings. Adam will discuss ConnectNow!, a solution that is intended to quickly connect consumers to companies via live chat, e-mail lead, click-to-call or text/SMS.
WebsiteAlive is a software developer and online communications provider. Since 2004, their live chat and click-to-call solutions have been used to meet and greet website visitors, answer questions, increase leads and close sales. Used by more than 11,000 web and mobile sites, WebsiteAlive’s solutions support Internet-based small, medium and large businesses and organizations.
Bill Dinan, president of Telmetrics and LSA chairman, hosted an insightful workshop on the evolving local business model. The group discussed the relationship and future of various marketing strategies that increasingly rely on impressions, clicks and calls.
In his opening remarks, Dylan Swift, director of National Marketing at Yelp, overviewed Yelp’s leadership in the local/regional category with 86 million monthly visitors and 36 million reviews. Dylan said Yelp has a good position at the bottom of the purchase/decision funnel, serving as a platform for consumers ready to make a purchase. He said that despite Yelp’s reputation as a website for restaurant reviews, restaurants only account for 21% of the site’s reviews. The largest category on the site is actually shopping (23%).
Dylan discussed Yelp’s ad products, which range from fixed-fee to performance-based. He showcased Yelp’s enhanced profile option, which allows local businesses to showcase photos, videos, update business information, and remove competitor ads from their profile.. He said Yelp is leveraging pay-per-call and pay-per-reservation models to demonstrate return on investment to advertisers.
Hynek Stehno, vice president of Digital Services at Local Spectrum, said he believes local engagement and holistic planning drive performance. He described how local targeting allows for better performance: geo-fencing, local offers, and place-based models enable advertisers to determine who the customer is, what they are looking for and how to address whether it’s the right place/time for a purchase.
Hynek said the proximity of a consumer to a sale is critical – that it’s more about neighborhoods than broader markets – and that addressing behavior needs is key to driving a purchase. He noted a Google/Nielsen study that found that 55% of purchase-related conversations occur within an hour of search.
Debi Hensley, group manager – National Marketing at SuperMedia, described SuperMedia’s directional strategy that includes print, direct mail, online, mobile and even presence and social solutions: anything related to finding customers ready to buy. She discussed SuperMedia’s trial approach to advertising models including cost-per-sale, cost-per-call, cost-per-impression and revenue share.
Debi focused on the importance of driving quality leads for advertisers. She noted that local advertisers may not be as sophisticated and need help with basic tasks like how to answer the phone. SuperMedia now offers clients “Call U”, a training program to learn how to answer calls in ways that increase leads.
Debi also shared an interesting example of a SuperMedia mobile app that allows service businesses like contractors to set advertising budgets and generate leads based on their availability, eliminating the need for backend support.
In today’s increasingly digital world, print directories still play an integral role in a comprehensive local media strategy, according to our expert panel.
Emil Morales, senior vice president at TNS and panel moderator, kicked off the session by showcasing TNS study results indicating print Yellow Pages extends the reach of other local media. The data show consumers use print Yellow Pages in conjunction with all other types of local media prior to and following the decision to buy – a clear opportunity for our industry to bundle print and digital products.
“There’s a lot of great news to share about the print Yellow Pages story,” according to Matt Centofanti, director National Marketing at YP. “[Print] is not dying on schedule.”
Matt discussed the strong volume of call counts and the high return on investment advertisers receive from print directories. Matt said ROI for print ads is 13:1 and that call volumes are up 8% year-over-year, generating 35% more calls for existing customers, according to CRM Associates’ latest study.
Matt also talked about the significance of knowing your ideal customer, stressing that formany traditional Yellow Pages categories with desirable demographics like baby boomers and seniors, print Yellow Pages is still driving leads.
Eric Webb, president of Marquette Group, focused on the importance of “a print and” strategy, noting that advertisers should consider print along with other media options. Eric said demonstrating media value based on population alone is insufficient given that deeper demographic variations may exist among markets.
Dave Wolf, managing partner at Linkmedia 360, said the challenge facing print is the fragmented media environment with numerous competing products and platforms available for advertisers to reach consumers. Dave talked about opportunities to supplement a digital advertising plan with print Yellow Pages rather than print being the primary medium.
CityGrid CEO Jason Finger spoke with us backstage about his views on the future of local, the importance of verticals, how to successfully compete against Google and Facebook, and more.
In our closing session for this year’s conference, Dan Levy, director of small business at Facebook, sat down with Greg Sterling.
Dan talked about the importance of local search at Facebook, saying there are 15 million small businesses who have pages on Facebook. Users are responding. There are 645 million page views in U.S. of local pages in the average week, and 70 percent of users in North America are connected to at least one local business.
Dan counseled small businesses to use the free product, Facebook Pages, to create a presence and begin interacting with customers.
For those businesses that want to go beyond Pages, Dan said there are two main options. “We’ve built a number of ad products that work from the biggest brands in the world to the local small businesses.”
The first is a way of targeting and reaching customers that you aren’t connected with, with targeting based on the geography, age, demographics, male/female, kids, interests. The second is a sponsored story by taking the things your customers are already saying or already doing and promoting it.
Dan said tools like Facebook Offers, Facebook Nearby, Graph Search, and Facebook Home on Android will continue to help small businesses engage with customers. And he said that Facebook isn’t really a new approach to marketing – it’s rooted simply in how businesses and customers have interacted for years.
“We hear small businesses say ‘We are trying to grow our business … we are trying to find new customers.’ We know that businesses, since the beginning of time, have relied on word of mouth to drive sales. That’s what we’re trying to do – provide them with a word of mouth megaphone.”
“The first thing I’d be doing is talking to your small businesses about what actually has always worked in their business. A lot of people think about social media as a new property. We don’t think about it that way at all. Ask them what’s worked in the past. If it’s coupons, maybe you should do Offers. At a minimum, set up a Page.”
In terms of measurement, Dan said that businesses need to think beyond clicks and that measurement doesn’t have to be complicated.
“We sometimes forget the simple things you can do. Just ask customers when they come in ‘how did you hear about us?’ That can be more useful sometimes than doing a big study.”
Greg asked Dan about Facebook’s interest in potential partnerships, and Dan indicated the field was open to find an approach.
“We have not worked very well historically with partners. Almost all the Pages have been dome by small businesses themselves or perhaps a small agency. We think that’s a big opportunity … So to the extent that there’s partners that have reach, relevance, and have relationships with the small businesses, we’d love to work with them.”
This afternoon LSA’s Brad Carson spoke with four outstanding experts in the small business technology space: Founder of MyTime – Ethan Anderson, VP and General Manager of SaveLocal (Constant Contact) – Dave Gilbertson, CEO of hibu – Bob Gregerson, and Director of Product Management at Groupon – Sean Harper.
One theme rang true throughout the conversation: local commerce operating systems must be kept simple and be performance driven. Small businesses are starved for time, often with a very small staff juggling multiple roles. It’s critical that systems are as simple as possible, and focused on results not tactics.
Interestingly, the panelists agreed that focus on platforms like these should soon incorporate not only customer acquisition but customer retention and loyalty. MyTime’s Ethan Anderson talked about what’s to come from his platform – MyTime technology could scan a customer’s calendar to see where they have time and suggest appointment times with their dentist or doctor.
Across the board in local search the bar is being raised on how we communicate ROI. Bob from hibu said the chief asks he hears from small business owners are “help me grow,” “help me transact” and “help me be more efficient.” With local commerce operating systems like these we must get small business owners as close to the dollars and cents as possible.
This morning, we heard from three experts on emerging opportunities in local search – mobile offers and loyalty programs. Participants included Jeff Fagel, VP of Marketing & Brand Development at edo interactive; Christopher Folmar, Director of Mobile Development at SuperMedia; and Blair Sweeden, SVP of Strategy & Business Development at Placecast.
The panel identified two key requirements to building mobile offers or loyalty programs:
1)Respecting Your Customer
It’s very easy for consumers to opt-out of mobile programs, so it’s imperative that businesses offer a value proposition with each offer. Offers should have enough value to give consumers a reason to return and they should be easy to understand and redeem. Offers should be as barrier-free as possible in order to offer value for customers.
2)Track Your Results
To demonstrate ROI for businesses, programs must be able to tell businesses how many leads were generated. An easy way to track sales is through special QR codes, barcodes and coupon numbers for each offer: these help businesses track exactly how many target customers were converted. Another important factor is to ensure programs can measure not only how many new customers are attracted, but if those customers continue to return and how much they spend over time.
Jason Finger, CEO of CityGrid, sat down for a fireside chat with Neg Norton and Greg Sterling to talk about how the company is succeeding in the competitive local market.
Greg started the session by asking Jason about a comment he made backstage – that local doesn’t really mean anything. Jason explained that the term “local” is extremely broad.
“Generally speaking, when people are attacking the local space, they are doing it broadly. The world is moving more toward specialization.”
Jason said that CityGrid’s strategy is to focus on key verticals.
“One of the challenges we’ve faced is we tried to be all things to all people … Trying to orient our business … so when people go to Citysearch, the page people see is agnostic across verticals … We want to be comprehensive and focused in a handful of verticals”
Jason pointed to Seamless, OpenTable, and ZocDoc as destinations that own their categories by staying focused in their core vertical.
“UrbanSpoon has an offering that is competitive with OpenTable. We know first hand of the challenge of competing with a business where the brand signifies the entire category.”
CityGrid’s strategy isn’t to look just at industry verticals, but group together clients by what they need.
“Instead of looking only a restaurants or doctors, we’re looking at categories where there are similarities or commonalities across categories.” Examples might be where people want clicks or others want phone calls.
Looking to the future, Jason believes the field is wide open.
“I think that local is a hot sector right now. No one has really cracked the code on local.”
Our morning panel had a spirited discussion about the role of automation in local marketing campaigns. Joining us for the talk were Pete Gombert from Ballihoo; Howard Lerman from Yext; Ben Gibson from AdMax Local, The Search Agency, Inc.; and Paul Wicker from Kenshoo Local.
The panel discussed the need for automation vs. the importance of human attention to ad programs.
Ben said, “To be able to effectively run and manage campaigns for these small businesses, there has to be that level of automation.”
Paul introduced the idea that automation actually enables the human element. “You do automate to take the mundane out of the service, but you do need a human element. One benefit of automating is to have the time to go back and do some manual review.”
Pete commented that setting the strategy is key. “The premise if you look at any of the automation platforms is someone has to be doing something – you have to set the strategy.”
Howard agreed, “A brand is a brand. You don’t want to throw it into a borg of automation … There’s a balance between the art and the science.”
Pete suggested a good place to step is in to identify strong vertical experience. “We bring in someone that deeply knows the vertical. They have deep understanding of that vertical space, and they know how to get customers in through the door.”
The panel also debated the differing needs of SMB advertisers and major national brands.
Pete argued that SMBs’ core needs are the same as big brands: “They’re both businesses. Both are trying attract new customers and retain customers … The industry has an opportunity to raise the game for local advertisers. I think the goal should be for the local marketer to be as good as the national advertiser.”
But not all panel members agreed. Howard pointed out: “One of the things I see this industry get confused about is the goals for a small business than a big business. A plumber has a completely different objective than a brand.”
We spoke backstage with Solocal CEO and President Jean-Pierre Remy about key takeaways from his keynote address and why attending our annual conference was important to his business.
An expert panel on mobile advertising discussed what’s working in the mobile space. Represented on the panel were Tim Garcia from Moasis, Dan Hight from xAd, Tae Kim from Google and Michael Rubin from YP.
The group agreed that the best way to measure mobile performance is to not just look at click through rates but also look at what’s happening after a click. “Advertisers that are focused on offline type of conversations are working very well,” Dan from xAd said.
Dan went on to say that national agencies need to help clients measure and track performance beyond clicks. “This is where the agencies still have to progress … For most of the traditional agencies, if it doesn’t take place online, they think it doesn’t really take place.”
Google’s Tae believes it’s important to look at mobile as part of a holistic advertising strategy, not as a separate strategy. “Simplify your strategy. Mobile doesn’t have to be just another thing you have to work out.”
Tae said the lines are blurring between devices. “Phones are getting bigger and tablets are getting smaller” making it harder to target desktop vs. various devices.
Michaels at YP said the mobile is delivering results for its advertisers, with 40% of tracked calls and clicks coming from mobile.
With demand in the mobile space building, Tim from Moasis said it’s all about educating the small businesses so that they will look at directing their advertising spend into mobile vs. other offline channels that may not work as well.
Bob Sanders, president and COO of AXIOM Sales Force Development, believes that sales teams must invest in their own people. In order to realize success, Bob thinks local marketing companies must not only invest in new products and innovation but also in developing and teaching their sales force to adapt to the evolving landscape.
A recent survey found that 53% of small business owners say that conversations with a local salesperson have more impact on their buying decisions than products, brand and price. Bob believes local sales teams need to invest in programs that help team members better engage with SMBs.
There are seven things businesses can do to drive significant improvement in sales:
Create a common selling model
Gain 100% buy-in from your team
Become trusted advisors to SMB clients
Invest in elevating the skill and knowledge of your sales team
Establish coaching and accountability methods
Integrate all customer contact
Integrate methodology with CRM
Now more than ever it’s imperative that sales teams become trusted advisors. With so many products and solutions available, SMBs aren’t just looking to buy, they’re also seeking an advisor to help them weed through the options and find what’s best for their business in their environment.
Sales teams must devote time to understanding the current environment every aspect of their client’s business.
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