I just spent an hour with a local contractor who has started to feel the pain of the economic meltdown. Guess what? After years of avoiding it, he’s finally ready to put up a website and start figuring out how to market himself online. Good for him. Now he’s really screwed.
The guy barely knows how to click on a link let alone buy a domain, build a website, learn SEO, figure out what people are searching for, set up a paid search campaign, troll for customers on Twitter, etc.
As I was listening to him discuss his ambitions, it occurred to me that even after all of these years of investment in the local search industry, a huge number of the potential advertisers still don’t understand the options available to them in local online marketing.
Consumers may be a bit ahead of Joe the Plumber, but not by much. How many IYPs are there? What’s the difference between them? Why did that list of businesses show up for one Google search and not the other? Why is this phone number wrong? Why do I have to download your iPhone App or join your Facebook group when I just want to find a plumber? How is that video helping me hire a good DUI attorney? Why do I get a SEO blog when all I wanted was to find a place near me that sells enemas?
And you thought Eraserhead download 100 million bc dvd was confusing.
All I’m trying to say here is that until there is a service that makes it dirt simple for SMBs to understand how to get online and how to choose between the options, and until there is a service that makes it dirt simple for people to find reliable service pros, no one is going to “win” this game and every company will be ripe for having their clients and users poached by a better mousetrap.
There are a number of companies out there taking stabs at both sides of the equation, but I have yet to see a model that is not just an incremental improvement on what is already out there.
That said, you don’t need to have a state-of-the-art product to win at this game. You need to have a state-of-the-art customer education strategy. How can you sell me something that I don’t even understand? Companies that have education as one of the core services that they offer both advertisers and users should do well. Cause if you don’t know squat, you’ll probably be all ears if someone is willing to fill you in and you’ll probably be grateful to them for a long time to come.
So what are you teaching your ignorant customers?
Andrew Shotland - Local SEO Guide
No related posts.
Tags: Local Search
Great post Andrew!
My starting point with Mom & Pop is “Don’t spend a ton of money on a web site”!
Get a copy of WordPress (.org) or set up a site on WordPress (.com). I have some preference for WordPress (.org) today for Mom & Pop, but that’s another story.
Another is, “get your own darn email address”! (Google Apps anyone?)
And then finally, “the best things in life are free”. In other words, don’t waste a bunch of money on AdWords until you understand Return on Investment! And, go out and get all the free listings you can (and exploit the heck out of them).
It’s not hard if you know what you’re doing. We just need to show them what to do.
Will
Andrew, I cannot agree more. Unfortunately, education efforts contribute to drastic diminishing of ROI (right Will?). Education does not guarantee conversion, having savvy customer can actually complicate the effort. SMB online market will flourish when Internet is part of pre K, not Medicare part D. Lets wait until the generation will change or maybe target youth to influence parents? Will, do you work pro bono
?
Eugene,
We only work pro bono for friends and family and the occasional non-profit.
It’s self-serving really: I’d rather they spend that 4k with us than on a web site
Will, that is exactly my point
If all recommendations are towards “get everything free when you can” I wonder how long platforms that provide free + up sale products model will stay in business for your clients. I am not trying to diminish the value of know-how that you provide, but I think it is fair to share small fraction of 4k with service providers and support the industry, rather than give clients bunch of free samples (some of them are really good thou) when you actually charge for your services.
Wow, well said. This part of your article really stuck with me:
“You need to have a state-of-the-art customer education strategy.”
Right on.
Most clients just want to understand how to make sense of all the changes in how to promote their small business. They don’t know where to start. It’s easy to lose sight of this when we work with the technology every day.
Excellent article Andrew.
Despite all these small business worrying they should get a decent Moveable Type Blog set up and add the Facebook plug in - use spare time (a lot these days) adding articles and - well you know the story….
They always wonder why they’re doing it after not ranking #1 on Google after a few days an give up - maybe all that YP money would be better spent on hiring an SEO and Blogger.
Auto Dealers are the worst for sure -
David
You don’t mince words, Andrew. Small business owners are screwed by the amount of time and money required to build a Web marketing program.
In my opinion a new approach to the problem is needed. Perhaps one that mimics the success of organic word-of-mouth to facilitate and capture sales leads.
Why not simply “webinize” the WOM process that has consistently delivered the most qualified leads? Why can’t businesses increase their sales by connecting to their network of satisfied customers, neighbors and friends in a Web-based social network like Facebook?
If they could do this then they’d be able to know exactly where their best new customers were coming from. (They could even voluntarily reward them to show their appreciation.)
Such a system would eliminate the time and expense of creating and updating a Web page. It would be as easy as having a Facebook page.
- - Tim