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You probably hear it day in and day out that you need to be promoting your business online. If you are a dealer you probably see and hear solicitations every day from self-proclaimed experts in the online marketing space that can help you get a gazillion percent return on your Internet marketing investment.

Why do you think there are so many of these types of these businesses out there? Partly it’s because of the economy. Many SMB’s are finally coming to the realization that in order to survive they need to get into the Internet marketing game. Also, there are many eple out of work so it’s easy to throw out a shingle and call themselves an expert. Sad but true.

So how do you sift through the Internet dross that is being tossed at you regularly? Keep it simple. I recommend just paying attention to what Google is doing and that should be a good guide for you as the busy business owner. Today’s news is a perfect example of getting direction from the leader in the online space.

Google announced today that they will begin indexing status updates from Facebook Pages. Note that this is not an indexing of the updates for personal Facebook profiles. This is a pure business play. Facebook Pages are for businesses. This  action gives any business another chance to reach out to prospective clients to supplement and complement paid search and organic search efforts.

Google is telling every small and medium business that they are willing to help them get more exposure if they are willing to get in the game. Are you willing?

When you conduct a search on Google, how far into the search results do you go? Do you go past the first page of results? Do you even venture to the bottom of the first page of results?

Most people will say that they don’t venture past the first page of the SERP’s (search engine result pages) for any specific keyword or key phrase unless there is a very specific need. The common searcher who is using Google, for instance, is doing it for a very specific reason: they want the search engine to narrow down their choices. As a result, they trust that whatever comes up on the first page of results for their search query must be the best choice.

Of course, there is a fly in the ointment with this thinking. Not every result at the top of the rankings is the best result. In fact, it may just be the best search marketer that is there. Who they REALLY are doesn’t matter. It just matters that they are there. Now, if that is your competitor there, and you know you are better than them, then you have a problem.

Research conducted by iCrossing really drives this first page point home.

So, how does this affect your business whether you are a local retailer / reseller / dealer for major brands or the brands themselves? That answer is pretty obvious. If you don’t show up on the first page of the search result pages for your keywords you are not getting the business.

One way to combat this is to get involved in a paid search (PPC) campaign that could allow you to get first page positioning while you work on moving your organic rankings up the ladder.

At Dealer Ignition, we know how to help you get in front of the right people at the right time online. If you are interested in accelerating your business you need to start the process now.

Ignite your online marketing with Dealer Ignition.

Over the years, search marketing has evolved as the searcher themselves have figured out just how to use search engines to get the information they are looking for. As a result there has been an increased move toward longer search terms as the evidence shows that the more people tell the engines about what they are looking for the better the result will be.

This philosophy has influenced search campaigns on both the organic and paid sides of ledger for years and appears to make perfect sense. Interestingly enough, some new data has been released that shows some increase in the use of one-word terms for search! Go figure. Small Business SEM’s Matt McGee has brought this to our attention and we figure it’s worth sharing.

For years, the conventional wisdom has been that searchers are typing longer queries into the search boxes on Google, Yahoo, and Bing. The evidence I’ve seen in the analytics for the four hyperlocal blogs that my wife and I write support that: On our Richland Real Estate blog, for example, seven of the top 10 referring keywords in 2009 were four words or longer.

But the folks at Experian Hitwise have shared some numbers with me today that suggest otherwise. According to their user tracking, one-word searches jumped by 17% in 2009, while longer searches were generally down.

The chart below from Hitwise shows the data for this ‘trend’. We use the term ‘trend’ cautiously because there is no logical reason for this to suddenly happen.

One thing that has changed in the recent months how the major search engines Google, Yahoo and bing handle certain one-word searches. If you do a search for the term “doctor” you will get local map results sandwiched between the #4 and #5 organic search results. This is based on the IP address of the computer location that is conducting the search. If a local qualifier is used this map will appear at the top of the SERP’s (search engine results pages). Here is a search result for the single word term ‘doctor’ and you see how the map is incorporated in the SERP.

This result demonstrates two things:

1. You need to be on top of your local listings
2. You need to be on top of the changes in the search engines

So what are your thoughts on this one? Personally, I don’t think enough people are aware of the fact that one-word searches can still result in local options. Based on that fact, I am a little stumped at this data. Maybe people are getting more info from social media sources and don’t need search like they used to? It’s fine to speculate on this but as to a firm answer, I don’t know if there is one. If there was ever an area where logic and reason sometimes take a back seat to a “WTF?” result it’s search marketing. It’s what keeps it fun.

The numbers are in and the news is good to a degree. We’re not here to try and make it seem like the economy has turned the corner completely. What has turned the corner is the level of spending in online advertising. What does that mean to you, the local business owner? It means it may be time to get back in the game since your competition may be thinking the same thing.

The graph from TechCrunch shows the increase in ad spend Q4. Now, of course we need to take into consideration that Q4 includes the biggest retail time of the year so the upswing should be expected. What is encouraging is the year over year increase in revenues shows that there was more spent on advertising in ’09 v ’08. We hope it is a sign of things to come for 2010. Are you using search to move the needle on your bottom line?

You have probably heard that if you are going on a trip but have no destination then you will never know if you have actually arrived. You may have also heard, or experienced, the joy of leaving for somewhere without having a well thought out roadmap of how to get there. Unless you enjoy aimless meandering or you like the challenge of finding things the hard way, neither of these options sounds very attractive.

As an SMB (small and medium business) who is a dealer or agent for larger brands does it make any sense to run your business like noted above? Of course not, but many do. Many business owners get so caught up in the day to day of doing their business activities that they never step back to take a look and plan. The old adage is that they are too busy working in their business rather than on their business.

With the current rush to engage in online marketing this has never been more apparent. SMB’s charge in and do things without ever taking the valuable time up front to assess and plan what will work best for their operation as it relates to Internet marketing. Here are three quick, albeit obvious, tips to help you slow down and do online marketing right.

• Look – Take the time to look around the online competitive landscape that you are likely to be involved in. Who are the main online competitors? Who shows up consistently for your major keywords and key phrases (in both organic and paid search) in search queries? Forget who your traditional offline competitors are for now because the online competition are the companies that are performing in search and social media which may be a whole different set from your traditional offline competition. If you find that your traditional competition is performing well online as well then you have your work cut out for you. Pay close attention to techniques and tactics used by others so you can then more easily determine your own road map to Internet marketing success.

• Listen – Listening to the online marketplace is much different than just looking. The idea of listening to the Internet buzz around your business, your competitors and your suppliers helps keep you aware of what your customers and prospects are saying about you, your competition and your product. Start by using Google Alerts to monitor this information but you may find quickly that you need to use a tool that is more dedicated to monitoring this online chatter.

• Learn – If you are not willing to learn then you just wasted your time with the first two steps. In other words, you have to approach something like Internet marketing, which you may not have much experience in, with some humility. Sure you’re the boss, the owner, the decision maker but if you are not willing to learn this important discipline your business may very well fail. Internet marketing in all its forms that include organic and paid search, local search and social media is not something that is intuitive and known by all. It is a learned skill and it takes a person who is willing to learn and even change for it to have an impact.

So, take the time to look, listen and learn. Sometimes the most obvious and the simplest of things can have the largest impact on your business. Oh and if you have been thinking throughout this post that you don’t have the time for this then you have some other concerns that Internet marketing won’t cure. In other words, this is not the time for excuses but the time for action.

More than ever local business search is becoming influential in how people make decisions on purchases of everything from carpets to technology, business services and more. Google is the king of this domain and likely will be for the foreseeable future. As a result, businesses of all sizes from the SMB to the enterprise will have to learn, understand and play by the rules that Google sets in this space.

An interesting side note of this growing phenomenon is just how Google is engaging in mobile search as it relates to their local services. You see, the battle lines between Google and Apple have been drawn clearly with Google’s entrée into the mobile device market with their Android operating system and phones. They compete directly with the iPhone.

So what does this mean to the local business owner and the enterprise? Everything. Why? Well, yesterday Google announced that when someone conducts a search on their desktop or laptop computer while logged into their Google account (which translates to a lot of people) that search is then saved for use on your mobile device as well so you don’t have to repeat it. But there’s a catch. It only works on Android phones, not the iPhone. Check out the Google Mobile Blog for more details.

So what des this mean? It means that Google, who like Microsoft, owns a lot of the applications that people use on a daily basis can effectively squeeze the life out of the iPhone by not allowing their services to work as well on that platform. As a result, people may need to decide whether the cool iPhone is the way to go if they really want to be able to find businesses and services like yours using Google.

Sound confusing? It’s really not. You need to market your business on a local level with Google to the nth degree if you want online success. If you don’t do this and you wonder why you are getting your clock cleaned by a local competitor who does, don’t say you haven’t been warned.

We hear this all the time from dealers and other SMB’s alike. The ideal situation for creating business and opportunity through online channels is one that gives the chance to spend as little as possible to get the highest possible return. That’s an obvious one but everyone still talks about it. Why? Well, mainly because it’s not easy to do!

Many SMB’s get sold a bill of goods that organic search is the sole way to go or paid search is the sole way to go to reach the customers that the online world represents. Why does it usually happen that way? It’s easy. The message is coming from a service provider or consultant that only concentrates on one or the other. As a result, there is a lot of half information shared with SMB’s and the net result is confusion as to which way to go at all.

MarketingSherpa has released some data that sheds some light on this with regard to what each of these Internet marketing techniques can produce. See the chart below for effectiveness of organic search v. paid search as it relates to the age old “quantity v quality” rule.

So what should the SMB take from this? Most would say well it’s to do SEO. That is only half right. Many smaller businesses are misinformed about just how easy or hard t is to get organic rankings for their highest converting keywords and key phrases. The idea that SEO is “free” traffic is a disservice that the Internet marketing world has done to those who aren’t “experts” in this discipline. It takes considerable time, money and effort to get ranked for certain keywords and key phrases. So it’s not free and it’s not easy.

Paid search, when used in the best-case scenario, is the perfect complement to the SEO efforts of any company. While you are busy trying to rank for certain words and phrases organically the paid side allows you to be at the right place at the right time. You can even slice and dice the delivery of ads by:

• Day part
• Zip Code
• City
• State
• Region

In other words, there is no one way to ensure that you get both the highest amount and quality of leads. Neither organic or paid search can be concentrated on at the expense of the other depending on the keywords. If you are going to be successful in online marketing you need to be in both places at the same time while knowing the capabilities and limitations of each practice. Do one without the other and you run the risk of missing out on finding new business from a potential client that you are perfectly suited to help.

Remember to look into the paid search capabilities of Dealer Ignition and ask your participating manufacturer to work with you on co-op opportunities to complement your efforts in the organic search arena.

Place pages were introduced by Google as part of the Local Business Center in September of last year. The intention is to give every place, as in every place on Google Maps, a page of its own. The idea is that no one should be without some kind of web presence and that includes local businesses.

As with all things Google there are constant improvements that are made and keeping up with the rapid pace of innovation can be daunting. That’s one of the reasons why we talk about these things here at the Dealer Ignition blog. We realize that there is a lot that goes into the successful marketing of a business online.

So what did Google do to make these pages even more valuable? Now you can post updates to your place page. So if you have some form of announcement or would like to run a special between certain times you can update this place page for those who find you on their mobile device or on the desktop to have the most up to date information from you.

Look at the example of a local wine store introducing a new wine offering.

While not all businesses can make use of this kind of service there is no reason not to consider it as part of your overall Internet marketing mix along with your website promotions, e-mail campaigns and more.

For companies that sell product through channel partners, dealers or whatever name is applied to the ‘feet on the street’ or store front owner, 2010 promises to be interesting. Unfortunately, it’s interesting in the ‘wait and see’ kind of way. We are all coming off a tough year where a lot of hard lessons were learned especially for the SMB (small and medium business) market. Not the least of which is that many of the traditional marketing and advertising approaches that have sustained these businesses for their entire lifetimes are now failing to produce. As a result there is a bit of concern as to where to spend valuable marketing dollars.

Of course everyone can say that there is the need to go online with these marketing efforts. For most dealers who are SMB’s, there is little margin for error with regard to how marketing budget is allocated and eventually spent. The days of year long newspaper placements are gone because its not even known if the newspapers will be around in a year. Flexibility is now the key driver for marketing efforts. Until recently, however, flexibility has not been available to the SMB.

Now through online offerings it is. No longer do dealers have to wait for collateral to be sent via the mail then mailed etc. No longer is it really necessary to even have to generate printed materials in the bulk of the past to get the discount printers offer. Why bother? Not when the same data can be updated on a website almost instantaneously which now makes the SMB both flexible and agile.

Whether you are a manufacturer or a retail operation trying to move product it is essential to be digitally adept. If you don’t you will be left behind. How are you currently running your online marketing efforts? Are you up to date on promotions that are being run that could lead to more sales? Are you doing search marketing and making sure that co-op dollars are generating top line revenue?

Whichever side of the ledger you are on, dealer or manufacturer; there is no more time for excuses. There are ways to become more digitally savvy. Do you have what it takes to move to the next generation of successful businesses?

SMB’s Move More to Online for Marketing Efforts

The Center for Media Research has released study that shows that small and medium businesses, or SMB’s, are relying more heavily on Internet marketing techniques like e-mail, social media and search to promote their business in 2010. Here is a quick view of some of the highlights.

Well over two-thirds of respondents report that they plan to increase their use of email marketing and social media in 2010

Email marketing continues to prove its worth to small businesses, as 96.2% plan to use email marketing in 2010

Plans reported for 2010 indicate the email marketing industry will continue to thrive next year, with 38.9% businesses of 1-10 employees and 34.1% of businesses with 11-100 employees planning to increase their email marketing by a lot in 2010

Small businesses are getting more comfortable with social media, when reporting marketing plans for 2010, 35.1% of all respondents say they plan to increase their use of social media by a little and 33.3 % plan to increase it by a lot

75% of those doing search marketing currently will continue to do so in 2010

As a result, it’s critical that the independent dealers and the manufacturers of products that are distributed through dealer networks understand why this is happening and what it means for the future.

Let’s face it, marketing and advertising are shifting more and more online every day and the trend is going to continue. The reasons are obvious but let’s review them.

1. Trackable ROI – Analytics for e-mail and search allow for business owners to tie return on investment (ROI) measurements to their efforts. No more “I think my Yellow Page ads generates business” moments.
2. Timely messaging – E-mail and search allow for the flexibility that today’s market demands. Got a sale or promotion that is ‘hot off the press’? No need to wait anymore to get it to market.
3. Time savings – Let’s face it, the small businessperson’s time is at a premium. Anything that can be done to accomplish more for the bottom line and save a few minutes in the process will endear an SMB to a manufacturer
4. True value – SMB’s need help and the manufacturers of the products they sell should work to help them sell more. It’s a win / win. Co-op and MDF efforts often go unused and as a result there is skepticism about who’s really helping whom. Get over whatever barriers there are and start to form partnerships with dealers and distributors alike.

Dealer Ignition has been created to help bridge the gap between dealer and manufacturer -distributor, retailer or agent. Call us or e-mail us to learn more.