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They Finally Took the Phone Books Away

Thursday, April 16th, 2009

In St. Louis, every March and October the Yellow Pages (YP)  are delivered to the homes and businesses across the area.  These new phone books replace the ones delivered the year prior.  Delivery dates may be the same across the country, I’m not sure.

Many of you know that I do some web work on an Army contract several days a week in the Federal Center in downtown St. Louis.  Well, I make it a point to watch for the new phone books, which showed up around March 8th this year.  Because of the large amount of worker bees here (about 250), they wheel the phone books in on pallets and put them in the hallway.  Then the worker bees can just come by and grab a new book (and put their old one in a recycle bin).

This year, I kept tabs on the amount of phone books.  Over the period of 38 days, about 16 phone books were taken from the pallet of 200.

Sixteen books.

Just for giggles, I visited a few of the other floors in the building to see how many phone books were still sitting around.  Every floor (except for the IRS area) had about the same amount of books remaining on their pallets.

They finally wheeled them out yesterday. I hope they went to a recycling center somewhere.

Mr. Small Business owner, what does this tell you about the future of Yellow Page advertising?  Are you still spending thousands or tens of thousands of dollars on YP ads?  Your audience is shrinking, and your money is being wasted.

I have a few clients who are ahead of the curve when it comes to Internet Marketing.  They recognized the poor use of their marketing budgets with YP and have since scaled back their spending on these sources, and have put that money into building their online presence through blogging and link building.  They are reaping huge harvests on their well-placed seeds.

I’m not saying to drop your YP ad.  In fact, I think it’s still a viable source of traffic, particularly if your target audience is over the age of 50.  But I am saying don’t put so much money into it any more.  A simple ad with your company name, phone number and URL is all you need.

Shameless Plug: Quit wasting money on dying forms of marketing/advertising. Put that money into hiring someone (like me) that will help your business continue to grow and thrive. Create a presence and a following online, provide outstanding customer service, and the customers will come.

Posted in customer service, local marketing, small business, trending, yellow pages | No Responses »

Mobile Twitter Coupons

Thursday, March 5th, 2009

I think the power of social media has yet to begin to peak.  The potential out there is just incredible.

Today I met with a potential client who owns several Italian restaurants here in the St. Louis area.  They are (just like every other restaurant) wondering how they can tap into the search engine and social media fields to gain new clients.  With the down economy, people are being more and more select about where they spend their money for dining.  Here’s where Twitter can come to the rescue.

I don’t want to go into the whole explain-twitter-to-me thing, but here’s something cool that many people may not know – twitter can link up to your cell phone, and you can receive updates about whatever it is you choose to see updates about.  You can see what friends are saying, or you can get notified anytime someone uses a certain phrase, etc.

So let’s say I’m looking for a good Italian restaurant in St. Louis and I post a quick note to Twitter via my cell. (Just a note here – if you don’t use your cell phone to do that, don’t think others don’t.  A *lot* of people are using their phones for this and a lot more.)

Using their API and search tools, Mr. Restaurant Owner can watch for phrases like “italian food” and “st louis”, “saint louis”, etc.  Anytime one of those phrases come across twitter, Mr Restaurant Owner immediately (or through automation) sends out a coupon for a free drink at his restaurant.  Or a free appetizer.  Whatever.

Using social media, getting clients that may have otherwise never known about you will get easier and easier.  But if you don’t know how to use the social media platforms to do these things, you’re going to be stuck standing on the front porch hoping customers see your sign.

Posted in local marketing, site ranking, twitter | 5 Responses »
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You Cheapskate – Get a Real Website

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009

Dear Mr. Restaurant/Band/Coffee Shop/Nightclub Owner,

MySpace is for thirteen year olds.  If that’s not your target market, get a grown up website.  Seriously, do you have any idea how stupid it sounds to hear your commercial on the radio pointing us (the ones with the money you want) to your myspace page? Give me a break.

Getting a simple ‘brochure’ website, while still not the best and most practical way to go, is probably going to cost you less than $1000 including your own domain name and hosting.

Then when you realize that you need a real website, call me.  I’ll get you more traffic and exposure than you’ll know what to do with.

Posted in customer service, local marketing | 1 Response »

Would You Pay for In-Depth SEO Info (and Lunch!)?

Monday, March 2nd, 2009

Because of the economy, more and more businesses are looking for ways to market themselves.  The ‘good years’ in the past are dwindling away as consumers tighten up their budgets and shut down their checkbooks.  Because of this, businesses are needing more and more to get in front of customers.

I talked to one business owner today who builds inground pools in the Saint Louis area.  For years his business has flourished.  Last year he had to add staff and purchase more vehicles to keep up with all the work.

This year, however, everything has ‘dried up’.  He’s having a hard time paying bills, especially new trucks and maintenace.  No one is buying homes, which means no one is spending on upgrades like pools.  So he’s checking into running a special in the local newspaper promoting a sale which he won’t make hardly anything off of.  Just to get his name out there, and to stay in business.

If you aren’t marketing your business now, you’re in for a shitload of trouble (pardon my French) when the market does turn around.  Those that took this time to start putting money into their Internet marketing are going to be so far ahead of the curve as the economy creeps back up that they won’t be able to catch up.

So, with all that said, here’s a question for you business owners:  Would you pay for a one-day seminar that taught you the basics of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and also exposed you to some other marketing ideas, such as video marketing, email and direct markeitng, and maybe even something on website maintenance?  Would you pay $299? $199? $99? $69?

What would it be worth to you to gain a HUGE amount of information about Internet Marketing for your business at a one-day seminar catered to your needs?

Posted in Saint Louis, content, local marketing, seminars | No Responses »
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