To Reach Local Buyers, Write Local Content

It almost sounds too simple ... write quality content, gain quality visitors ... but this simple marketing strategy will work for any small business, whether you rely on local foot traffic or you conduct an e-commerce business strictly online.

This post on the Duct Tape Marketing Blog reminds us that for the local business, that same content is simply more focused. Read more about winning the local search game, including excellent advice for locally focused content, inbound local links, and the importance of properly formatting your content with HTML mark-up.

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Facebook for Local Wisconsin Business Owners

You’ve probably heard - Facebook isn’t just for college students anymore. No, the once exclusive domain of the college crowd has been adopted by parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and increasingly by business owners.

28% of small business owners have registered with at least one social networking site, according to a 2008 Warrillow & Co. survey. It also found that fast-growth companies were much more likely to participate in social networking than slower-growth companies. Could there be a correlation?

Read Full Post: Are You On Facebook?

Announcing Paperfest Battle of the Bands, Kimberly WI

In keeping with Saturday's post about publishing press releases, I'll add the first one. Please help us spread the word about a worthwhile event in Kimberly, Wisconsin. If you have a band, or know any members of bands in the Fox Valley area, let them know about this opportunity:

Bands seeking exposure, prize money, and a chance to play in front of thousands at Appleton's Octoberfest celebration should sign up now for Battle of the Bands at Paperfest.

Eighteen bands with three songs each will compete in the opening round on Saturday, July 19. Five finalists will advance to play a 45-minute set on Sunday. Cash prizes go to all the finalists, with the winner playing a paid gig at Octoberfest.

Official judging to be provided by the Lawrence University music department. A Fan Favorite award will also be presented to the band with the most fan votes on Saturday.

Openings remain, but not for long. Bands wanting to compete should sign up now. Entries must be received no later than July 5. A complete list of guidelines and entry forms are available at www.paperfest.org/battle.htm.

Battle of the Bands is part of Kimberly's annual Paperfest celebration. Paperfest has raised and donated more than $500,000 for community and civic organizations. Learn more at www.paperfest.org.

For more information, contact Cindy at info@Paperfest.org or call 920-882-1788.

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Wisconsin Business & Event Press Releases Welcome Here

Early morning in northeast Wisconsin is awe-inspiring ... at least in my backyard. We live on the edge of town, meaning there's farmland behind us. Mornings are noisy, but not from people-noise. We have a wonderful, diverse bird population, an adventurous chipmunk that likes to tease my dog, at least one large rabbit, horses in the distance, and the occasional deer and coyote. It's peaceful and satisfying. All winter long, I look forward to this short sliver of time when I can sit on my patio with notebook and coffee and just be.

Everybody needs a recharge now and then, especially business owners. We tend to obsess out the day-to-day stuff at the expense of nourishing our souls. Your recharge may look different from mine, but mine requires nature ... spending time outdoors in Wisconsin's natural beauty ... acknowledging and thanking the One who created it all.

Thank YOU too, for hanging in there while I gave this blog some more thought. Local-Wisconsin SEM Blog started with a flash of inspiration, before giving much thought to the sustainability of writing more than one blog on the the topic of marketing while managing a growing business of my own.

This morning, I woke up with a solution. Do you ever do that ... mull something over, set it aside and just let it marinate, then wake up knowing exactly what to do? That may be a topic for a future post, but for now, I'll just share this: Writing about marketing isn't enough. Through this blog, I want to help people who own businesses in Wisconsin to improve their marketing results in a tangible way.

In addition to a stockpile of local search opportunities that I have yet to cover here, I'm going to begin featuring local businesses and events in my home town of Neenah, as well as Menasha, Appleton, Oshkosh, Green Bay, Milwaukee, and throughout all of Wisconsin. Send me your Wisconsin-based business press releases, success stories, questions or comments, and if they're appropriate to my audience, newsworthy or just plain interesting, I'll publish them here. You'll find my contact information on my profile page.

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Local Search - Will Customers Find You?

Schmap Local is a browser plugin that promises to relieve you of all the tedious scribbling of phone numbers and driving directions on scraps of paper and backs of envelopes. You simply download the plugin to Firefox or Internet Explorer and it recognizes and saves addresses and phone numbers as you browse the web.

It links automatically to a map and driving directions, prints and emails addresses and phone numbers or sends them via text message to your mobile phone. Sounds like a handy tool to have on the desktop!

But whether you download and use Schmap Local or not, one thing is certain. This application and others like them are the wave of the future. Not only are your customers looking for you from behind a computer, they're also searching for the products and services they need from their mobile phone while sipping coffee at the corner coffee shop. My question remains, will they find you?

Schmap Local draws its address and phone numbers from Yahoo Local, Google Maps, AOL Yellowpages, CitySearch, Live Local and Superpages.com. Is your business listed correctly in each of these directories?

Related Articles:

Update your business directory listings

Can customers find you on Google Maps?

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Can customers find you on Google Maps?

Sally Smith returns home from a long day at the office to her home that's substantially colder than it should be. Sure, it's -10 with a -35 windchill, but the thermostat should have kicked in and the house should be near a comfortable 70 degrees. The thermostat reads 52 degrees and now she's worried ... what's wrong with the furnace?

Sally's never worried about the furnace before, other than changing out the filter a few times every year. She has no idea who to call, but she throws on an extra sweater and types "furnace service neenah wi" into the Google search box.

If you're an HVAC contractor or repairman in Neenah, will Sally find you in the Google search results? Will she find your business on the Google map with a little pin that shows your location? The answer can be yes to both questions IF you claim your Google Maps listing and IF your web site is optimized for local search terms.

To claim your Google listing, you'll need to register for a Google account. You do that right from the Google home page. After you've registered and logged-in, click on "preferences" or "account" in the top right corner of your page. On your account preferences page, under "Try Something New," click "more." Midway down the next page, under the "search" column, click on "Maps." Once on the Maps page, there's an option to add or edit your business listing.

Or, here's a quicker route once you've registered and logged-in: Google Local Business Center. Simply fill in the form and proceed page-by-page to categorize your business, add hours, types of payment accepted, a photo and custom information. You can also add coupons to your listing, if appropriate. Once complete, you'll need to validate your listing before your listing will appear live on the map.

We'll talk about optimizing your site for local search in a future post.

For more common sense small business marketing tips, I hope you’ll also check out my Express Marketing Memo blog.

Related Articles:

What is local search?

What does 2008 have in store for local?

Using Google Local Business Center to Bring in New Customers


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