Download - East Portland Chamber of Commerce
East Portland Chamber of Commerce
February 5th, 2009 – Scott Hendison
“How to market your local business online for little or no money”
Free or Low Cost Marketing
Always mention or list your website anywhere you ever have the opportunity
•Email signatures
•Business cards
•Stationary
•All printed media
•Store signage (interior and exterior)
•Door Hours
East Portland Chamber – 2.5.09
Free or Low Cost Marketing
Before attempting to “market online”, check some basics on your site, and ensure that you’re “ready” to make a first impression.
East Portland Chamber – 2.5.09
Free or Low Cost Marketing
Check some basics on your site…
1.Phone Number visible on every page
2.Contact Us link visible on every page,
3.Complete Contact info, address, map
4.Home Page greeting adequate?
5.Got a mental definition of “success”?
6.Got Google analytics installed?
Assuming you’re “ready for traffic”…
East Portland Chamber – 2.5.09
Free or Low Cost Marketing
All of the search engines are showing local listings at the top of their results…
Users are changing their internet behavior radically, based on what the search engines are showing them.
Change drives feature demands, and new features drive new demands.
East Portland Chamber – 2.5.09
Free or Low Cost Marketing
East Portland Chamber – 2.5.09
Free or Low Cost Marketing
East Portland Chamber – 2.5.09
Free or Low Cost Marketing
East Portland Chamber – 2.5.09
Free or Low Cost Marketing
East Portland Chamber – 2.5.09
Each search engine has it’s own local business center now, offering business descriptions, store hours, specialty information, and user reviews.
Free or Low Cost Marketing
East Portland Chamber – 2.5.09
Free or Low Cost Marketing
East Portland Chamber – 2.5.09
Free or Low Cost Marketing
East Portland Chamber – 2.5.09
Free or Low Cost Marketing
East Portland Chamber – 2.5.09
Since most local businesses are still unclaimed at each local business center, they get their information from a variety of sources on the web.
Claim yours before someone else does.
List with these 12 local directories, IMO
Free or Low Cost Marketing
East Portland Chamber – 2.5.09
Free or Low Cost Marketing
Links to free signup for these directories
Google - http://www.google.com/local/add
Microsoft - https://ssl.search.live.com/listings/BusinessSearch.aspx
Yahoo - http://listings.local.yahoo.com/
BOTW - http://local.botw.org/helpcenter/jumpstartproduct.aspx
Yelp - https://biz.yelp.com/signup/
YellowPages.com - http://listings.yellowpages.com/Services/ServiceClaimSearch.aspx
Superpages.com - http://advertising.superpages.com/spportal/business-listing
Local Eze - http://www.localeze.com/manage-business/index.asp
InfoUSA - http://dbupdate.infousa.com/dbupdate/index.html
Insider Pages - http://www.insiderpages.com/
OpenList - http://www.openlist.com/update/
City Voter - http://cityvoter.com/
East Portland Chamber – 2.5.09
Free or Low Cost Marketing
Begin with GetListed.org -
East Portland Chamber – 2.5.09
Free or Low Cost Marketing
Be prepared to spend few hours, but there’s no reason you have to add them all at once.
Some (including Doogle) require telephone or snail-mail verification, but most don’t.
East Portland Chamber – 2.5.09
Free or Low Cost MarketingBefore adding listings, make a template of information including… •Search Commander, Inc. •Scott Hendison•Founder - CEO•11124 NE Halsey St.•Portland•OR•97220•241•877-241-4453•Short Description - 80 characters or less•Med Description - 150 characters or Less•Long Description 200 word version if desired
East Portland Chamber – 2.5.09
Free or Low Cost Marketing
Consider building the “online personality” of your business via social networking tactics, but remember…
East Portland Chamber – 2.5.09
Free or Low Cost Marketing
“Social Network Marketing” is sort of an oxymoron, and only a moron would be unashamedly and blatently commercial.
Online community involvement requires passion and commitment.
Without the passion, you will not only fail, you will do permanent damage.
East Portland Chamber – 2.5.09
Free or Low Cost Marketing
Social Network Marketing is an oxymoron, and only a moron would be blatantly commercial.
Online community involvement requires passion, and without it, you will not only fail, you will do permanent damage.
East Portland Chamber – 2.5.09
Free or Low Cost Marketing
Never write a fake review posing as your own customer or client.
Never claim as your own, or write a fake review of, a competitors business.
Never just “add to the noise” in a social environment, unless you have something to say to at least ONE PERSON.
East Portland Chamber – 2.5.09
Free or Low Cost Marketing
You NEED This
Help a reporter out
HARO
Peter Shankman
East Portland Chamber – 2.5.09
Free or Low Cost MarketingScott Hendison - 503.946.6881
http://www.twitter.com/shendison
SEO Website Reviews
http://www.SeoAutomatic.com
Content Management Systems
http://GetWordpressed.com
Oregon Web Hosting
http://www.pdxtc.com
Search Marketing Services
http://www.SearchCommander.com
East Portland Chamber – 2.5.09