How Much Is Your *FREE WIFI* Paying You?

If you offer *FREE WIFI*, it’s probably because you know customers demand it.  You saw them, with their eyes glued to their tablets and smartphones.  If you don’t, the numbers say you should.

Recent surveys found that daily access to WiFi is VERY important to 74% of American consumers.  Even more surprising is that 52% of adults find public wi-fi convenience outweighs cyberthreat risk.  And that doesn’t include their kids.

So, again I ask: 

How Much Is Your *FREE WIFI* Paying You?

Small businesses that offer *FREE WIFI* might do it grudgingly, knowing that some customers will go elsewhere if they don’t.  It’s another “cost of doing business”.  And that’s the same reason some businesses still don’t.   Some businesses charge for it, to defray those costs. 

Airlines, for example, have been offering “pay for play” WiFi for awhile, and at least one major airline, in particular, is “upgrading” to satellite WiFi, and passing the increased cost on to passengers.  At 35,000 feet, it’s unlikely that they can go somewhere else.

But your customers can.  You’re in a fixed location.  “Brick and mortar” as it’s called. 

Shopping centers are getting into the act offering public Wi-Fi access for shoppers, “meeting customer expectations”.  They know that the data they gather wi;; on “how shoppers spend their time and other valuable customer behavior” will make it possible for them to “provide insight to retailers for that will create future engagement opportunities”. For them, it’s a “comprehensive retail Wi-Fi solution” they can charge you for. At the least, makes their shopping center locations worth more in the lease market.

You bite the bullet whether you offer *FREE WIFI* or not.

 

So, once more I ask:

How Much Is Your *FREE WIFI* Paying You?

Because it can.

Your *FREE WIFI* can be more secure, and pay for itself.  And YES, it can actually PAY YOU.

CALL: 602-618-6626, and we’ll come show you a live demonstration.

Never before. NEVER AGAIN if we have anything to say about it.

American Entrepreneurship: Dead or Alive

America now ranks 12th - not 1st, 2nd, or 3rd - in business startups.

As noted by Gallup: "We are behind in starting new firms per capita, and this is our single most serious economic problem. Yet it seems like a secret. You never see it mentioned in the media, nor hear from a politician."
 It's NOT that more businesses are failing.  Business closings are holding their own.  It's that startups have decreased by nearly half.

As recently as 2008, startups exceeded business failures by six-figures.  But currently available data show what Gallup describes as "an underground earthquake".  Mind you, the "currently available" information from the U.S. Department of Census and Small Business Administration is two years old.

Gallup's Chairman and CEO has a hunch that the revolving door between New York and DC are the reason we don't hear much about statistics like this.

 On one side of that door is an institution that needs votes (no matter who's "in charge" of that institution), while on the other side of the door is an institution that needs the stock market to boom, by illusion if nothing else.  Hence, all we hear is "The economy is coming back."

 This is, as Gallup put it, "the biggest issue of the last 50 years...". Small and medium-sized businesses are and always have been the engine of job creation.  Economic growth and and jobs can't come from innovation until a business model for innovation becomes something customers will buy.  But we follow these pied pipers for the same reason the rats in the German folk-tale did:  the melody is pleasing.

 There's entirely too much in Gallup's Business Report to cover in one update, so as a late night show graphic used to say,

"MORE TO COME".

They Couldn’t Find Their Way Across The Street

Like it or not, smartphones are “the go-to guy” for everything in the digital age.  

A friend (and business associate) recently told me this about a spur of the moment project meeting that took place after our weekly entrepreneurs collaboration event.

This was a meeting of particular people who had each decided to align their unique skills to make a specific project a reality.

“When the meeting place was announced, most of them went straight to their smartphones to look it up online instead of just asking where it was.”

When I mentioned “but that’s straight across the street”, my friend’s exasperated rely was “I know!  They couldn’t find their way across the street!”   

For better or worse, technology is in control of your holiday business revenues.

Take a July 15 “industry” article about information reported by Statista:

“The holiday season accounts for more sales than Mother's Day, Father's Day, Valentine's Day, Halloween, Easter, and St. Patrick's Day combined.”

Most “industry” websites focus their attention on “e-commerce”.  So it’s fair to wonder

 How does this affect local “brick and mortar” businesses?

An earlier article (June 28), was about a “shopper survey” that found

42% of shoppers will make Amazon their primary destination in 2016.

And another 16 percent said they “don’t know”.

Among the strategies that your “big business” competition will rely upon for the holiday season are:

1. Use data to know your customers better than anyone else

Our Saguaro Hotspot^® “Social-Wi-Fi” opens up opportunities for local “brick and mortar” businesses to capture holiday dollars by compiling social data from the 40% of consumers who say “online” is not their primary holiday shopping destination.

This “first-party data” gives local “brick and mortar” businesses a growing customer insight deeper than even Amazon can, through building rich, deep customer profiles that help you understand each customer better than any competitor to give them more relevant and intelligent suggestions.

Your “big business” competition will also:

2. Make shoppers’ lives easier

“Big data” shows that only 8% of shoppers use smartphones as their primary way to actually make a purchase, and even less use tablets. Even if six out of ten of them choose buying online, local “brick and mortar” businesses are uniquely able to provide shoppers with the highly personalized, relevant information they want (especially during the holidays). Saguaro Hotspot^® “Social-Wi-Fi” allows those shoppers to trade their data – for their own convenience – in return for that “genuinely helpful information”.

3. Personalize digital advertising

43% of shoppers say that digital marketing influences purchases. Saguaro Hotspot^® “Social-Wi-Fi” can help your local “brick and mortar” business do better at something e-commerce will never be able to achieve: You see customers as people, not impressions or cookies, rading their date helps them get discounts or deals.

With as many as six out of every ten holiday shoppers planning to spend “from the comfort of home”, local “brick and mortar” businesses need every edge they can get.

Our Saguaro Hotspot^® “Social-Wi-Fi” is that edge.

CALL or TEXT “Tis the season” to 602-618-6626 to start building the rich, deep customer profiles that help you capture holiday dollars.

Make Free WiFi A Revenue Generator

#FreeWiFi isn't "free".  As a business owner, you know that.  But that doesn't mean it has to stay in the "Good Will Expense" column.  

With Saguaro Hotspot, you're #WiFiMarketing.  

“Failure Is Not An Option.” But It IS A Choice.

Which excuse is good enough? Which is acceptable? To you?

This blog contains numerous posts about how #mobilemarketing can and will impact local small businesses more powerfully than it has large businesses; “brands”.

Several posts cover how it already has. Some of those – perhaps most – arose from article by “bigtime” writers, writing about “bigtime” marketers, seeing local small businesses cutting into “big business” profits.

Several posts have been about the fact that almost sixty percent of local small businesses still don’t have a website; how a large percentage of those that do have only achieved last years “standards” for mobile accessiblity, even though others have related that most “online search” happens on mobiles. That, too, started last year.

The technology doesn’t “require” local small businesses to “go mobile”. But more and more of your market does.

 Your choice. Just like it’s your choice to spend your time watching videos (hopefully, as inspiring as this one):
WARNING: This video contains language that will be “offensive” to some.   (and there’s even some cussin‘!)
 
Watch it anyway.

ANNOUNCEMENT:

 Local Motive Marketing is proud to announce becoming the “title sponsor” of Entrepreneurs’N Fuego,debuting on KFNX 1100 on Sunday, September 25th. It’s on early (but if you’re an entrepreneur, you’ll be up anyway). Check out their YouTube page to get a sense of what to expect. 

Local Motive Marketing. Providing locals with motive to spend local with Smart Marketing on Smartphones.

 602-618-6626

Store Visits: The UNIVERSAL Bottom Line

Local Small Businesses GROW With Local Data

*They* use terms like “cross-channel” and “omni-channel”, and other jargon that would be more impressive if small business owners actually understood it.  (I first wrote about this more than a year ago, and several other times since, on this blog - check the archives.)  Ironically, it’s because they’re writing for each other, not for you.  Local small businesses are not even on their radar.

Because *mobile* and “mobile marketing” are growing in bursts, the information about both tends to come out sporadically (and I have to “mine” for what’s relevant to local small businesses), I had occasion this week to review articles I received over the past months, from  Marketing Land (4/15/16, 2/3/16 and 10/15/15).

“Mobile” has been the primary access point (more jargon) for the internet for nearly a year (maybe longer; the data was published in September of 2015).  But now, enough time has passed that “the experts” have been able to discern that *mobile*

“enables… an apples-to-apples comparison of performance across channels.”

They’ve determined this because

“analytics/store visits can operate as a kind of “universal metric for media”.

Translated, that means it’s now possible to measure the actual impact of “traditional” advertising.

Historically, it was difficult or impossible to accurately measure what medium provided the biggest “bang for your buck”.  Print and direct mail came closest, but only when they included coupons that were mandatory.   Billboards and television were “institutional” or “name recognition”, and untrackable “except through call tracking, which is useful but incomplete”.

Thanks to mobile data, pretty much ALL media, print, billboards, direct mail and television, can now be tracked to mobile, and to "real-world" store visits and sales.

The most important statement was:

 “For marketers, mobile is the nexus between the digital and physical worlds for impact measurement.”

For local small business owners that point – where  digital meets physical, “where the rubber meets the road” – is even more important, because “clickers and buyers are not necessarily the same when it comes to offline conversions.”

Let us help.

CALL 602-618-6626

EMAIL info@localmotivemarketing.com

DO IT TODAY.

LONG LIVE THE KING!!!

I've been promising a blog-link all week in a series of Facebook posts.  It can be found at http://www.localmotivemarketing.com, but it's duplicated here. 

"Content Is King" is the new chant, the new mantra. So what? A sovereign without a realm doesn't rule much. Fortunately for "King Content", a "Kingdom" does exist. That kingdom is "Context".  

"technologies... allow for more profound relevance and connection... insight into context..."

The right message is important, right? But how does a business know what the right message is?  That depends on a number of factors: Who? When? Where? Why?
How?  Context.

Who's looking for your product or service?  Someone who needs it? Now?  Someone who wants it (or might, someday)?  Are they even in your market area?

All of these newly-available insights - type of device, channel, location, even brand - make it possible to deliver the right message at the right time.

All of these newly-available insights make it possible to avoid "scaring off" someone who only wants to look for now, but might buy someday; to avoid offending a buyer by a perceived lack of interest in their business.

The King maintains the Realm with notoriety.  "Known throughout the world" used to be a difficult description to achieve. And one of the most effective ways to achieve it is, to this day, LINKS. Links are Caesar's Legions. Links are Arthur's Round Table.

Relevance is important on 2 levels: to the Customer and to the search engines. King and Realm - Content and Context - exert their influence on both levels.  But Links - "authority" - have been the means of determining how authoritative a website is for most of Google’s existence, and remain so.

People want information.  Google wants to deliver the best - the most authoritative - information possible.

And "Content" maintains "Context" with its own Knights, In the workd wide web, they're known as "Links"

LEARN MORE about how adding mobile to deliver the right message at the right time - by understanding why a Potential Customer visited - to multiply the power of your marketing.

CALL TODAY!!!  602-618-6626

Evolve Or Die

Evolved Customers Want Evolved Interactions

It was a good business model in the beginning.  

A brunch/lunch business, in the heart of a downtown area that - to use an old metaphor - "rolled up the sidewalks" at the end of each business day. With almost no "nightlife", "Open 8 - 3" made sense.  5 years later, that model broke down.

Living in downtown Phoenix was once only for the heartiest of souls (we lived there in the mid-90s, with few friends and family even brave enough to visit, even though we lived in a quite nice condo complex).  Working downtown was an adventure in "9 to 5" for most. There were attempts to "revitalize" in that era, but the time had not yet come 20 years ago.

In the last 5 years, downtown grew, and evolved "into more of a 24-hour city center".  Two universities opened downtown campuses.  More restaurants and bars - concert venues - opened and became popular.  Development started on mid-rise apartment buildings.  Downtown's demographics evolved.  Downtown grew, in popularity, and population.

But "The Corner" didn't.  They stayed true to their model. Instead of extending their hours to serve sandwiches coffee and juices to a bigger, perhaps younger, and definitely later customer market, they maintained their brunch/lunch hours.  They stood their ground.

And now, they're gone.

No one has given a specific reason.  It could be that downtown became the most expensive submarket in the Valley.  And that higher expense extended to commercial space, which has tripled in recent years, prompting some restaurateurs to "opt-out" of downtown.

The moral of the story is clear:  When the time comes to "pick up the pace", don't shoot yourself in the foot!

If you're ready to acknowledge that your small business needs to evolve, Local Motive Marketing is here to help you develop a marketing strategy that reaches customers that already have.  If not, get some crutches now.  You'll need them sooner than later.

‎Mobile‬ Impacts Your Small Business. "How" Is Your Only Choice.

CITI knows "digitization" is the most powerful, disruptive force on the planet, and it impacts nearly every business model.  They experienced a 25% increase in mobile interaction by engaging their customers where they want to be engaged.
JC Penney has discovered that "old metrics and models need to be thrown out".

Customer research interviews of one major marketing conpany revealed that certain factors in the shopping experience - choice, price value, service, speed, convenience, contextual relevance, and frictionless purchasing - are now taken for granted (particularly by millenials).

Local small businesses are not immune. ‎Mobile‬ impacts local small businesses, in one way of two ways, because more and more buyers every day search "near me" for what they want, when and where they decide they want it, on their  ‪#‎smartphones‬. Buyers can't - and won't bother to - find businesses that aren't there.

 

It doesn't end when buyers find you, of course.  Starbucks knows that once a buyer finds you, you have to build an emotional connection with them. And that you do that by telling your own story; by refusing to be defined by anyone else; by sticking to your values.

 

And you have to maintain that emotional connection.  Millenials are not alone in feeling empowered and entitled.  If your ongoing communication isn't relevant to and personalized for a particular buyer, the message they receive is "we don't actually care about you <<NAME>>".    This is where national (and international) "brands" and "marketers" often fail.  For example, texting marketing messages at 9 AM Eastern Time to customers in the Pacific Time Zone (and Alaska & Hawai'i), about products they have no interest in.  They know the value of their personal information, and are willing to share it.  But they expect - they DEMAND - preference-driven personalization as a fundamental requirement. 

They expect you to know, just because it's knowable, whether they're "just looking", "deciding", or "ready to buy".  Google calls these "micro-moments".  (more about this next week).

 

If you're ready to bring your local small business into alignment with their expectations, we stand ready to make that a reality.

OH, MY GAWD!!! One of the "Authorities" Actually SAID IT!

If you've been here before, you know I get "the latest" on the mobile marketing industry, filter it for how it applies to small local businesses, and publish it for the benefit of what I know to be the driving force in the local economy (and if you haven't been here before, take a scroll through the archives. I also post some observations on a Google blog (coincidentally, of the same name, which might or not contain "cross-posts".)

Reminding those of us old enough to remember "Sleepless in Seattle", and how AOL's "You've Got Mail" helped market the movie, the article referenced how email "supplanted 'snail mail”", and expressed the author's opinion that email, "As a marketing channel, [has] been an unmitigated disaster...".   Then, he points out that "the initial comparison of the two types of mail was flawed."

I agree, to an extent, with both.  Yes, email has delivered "microscopic response and conversion rates", and "a backlash in the form of spam rules and filters."  Yet email is still the ranking champion of digital marketing channels.  And really, "direct mail" isn't all that much better when it comes to a cost-benefit analysis.  That's why email marketing is still used.  From a cost-benefit  comparison, calling  email "...an unmitigated disaster..." is flawed.

The article then examines "cart abandonment".  The author points out, quite correctly, that the only reason "cart" was ever used in online marketing was to "ease
users’ comfort level... and establish... the notion that shopping via the internet was... the same as shopping in a store — only better!" But he admits that "shopping online is not the same as shopping in a store — nor is it unequivocally better."

It's the point that he arrives at, the title of his article, that justifies my post.  IT'S IMPORTANT THAT SMALL LOCAL BUSINESSE GET THIS!

He calls it "a recombinant approach" ( I particularly enjoy the "genetic" tie-in, having recently read about DNA data storage).  What he suggests is that businesses match their marketing "with the way consumers decide what to buy."   Print ads, TV, radio, outdoor, and emails all still work for some people. But as he said, "there’s no
one-size-fits-all strategy".

We can help any small business blend any and every traditional marketing plan with the current reality that most people shop online, but they still prefer to buy local.

The Bigger They Are...

In a recent BrightLocal poll, 546 "local SEOs" (local agencies and freelancers who work with local businesses, local franchises and and smaller multi-location businesses) were asked to answer 3 questions.  The answers prove what I’ve often written:  small local business have an extreme advantage over “big business” if they’ll only take advantage of it.

First question:

What impact does on-page SEO have on search ranking in 2016?

Four out of 5 local SEOs said on-page SEO has a “high” or “very high” impact on search rankings. 13% said “some impact.”

This "93% effectiveness" explains why on-site SEO was rated as the most in-demand service from customers (and one of the top two services offered).  And why it’s so important.

Second question:

How long do you have to wait for technical on-page changes?

Almost four out of 5 of local SEOs (79%) generally wait less than a week for requested technical changes. (33 percent waited 1 working day).

That’s very quick turnaround (many did say they make changes themselves).  But that’s an important factor for your local site’s ranking; speed is critical.

RIGHT THERE IS WHERE SMALL LOCAL BUSINESSES SHINE!

Remember what I said at the beginning?  “Local SEOs” work with local businesses.  But “big site” SEOs (in-house or agency, who might have a “couple of dozen people”, and be "responsible for billions of pageviews per month"), can’t move that fast.

In fact, 42% said they had been waiting longer than a year for change completion. 

And 58% of “big site” SEOs don’t expect to seeing a change request “go live” for at least another six months.  That's hard to even believe.

They have a lot of reasons, though.  In "big business":

1. marketing team priorities aren’t always seen as priorities;
2. the company’s “current platform” makes the desired change impossible (imagine using Windows 95); and,
3. there is “a long dev (development) backlog”.

“Local SEOs” - on the other hand - have more direct access to the business owner/decision maker.  And small local business websites are seldom as complex as “bigger” sites.  So work can be approved and completed much faster, benefiting the business and their customers, sooner.   Local businesses obviously have lower budgets than large enterprises, but Local businesses can “turn on a dime” while "big businesses" can't.  Paraphrasing something I said last month, small local businesses are like private planes; they can "change course" faster than a jetliner.  So a smaller "passenger list" doesn't have to mean a lower profit ratio.

Third question:

What on-page content is most effective for ranking?

“Title” and “meta data” were given by 68% as the “most effective” on-page content for improving rankings.

“Title and “meta data”  define a page for search engines, but they also provide a valuable preview of a page on search engine results pages ("SERPs").  The name of the site, the name and address of the business, etc., are “content” (and you know what they are when you see them, but search engines don’t).  “Meta data”, also known as “tags”, define that content; they tell the search engines what the content is), and determine how the content will be seen by a visitor.

Here’s an example:  If you’ve been to this blog before, you know I’m very sarcastic at times.  But sarcasm doesn’t come across well in print.  So I try to remember to use what I call “sarcasm tags”: <sarcasm> Get it?</sarcasm>   The <sarcasm> </sarcasm> tags wouldn’t be visible on the web page (and the sarcasm would be overlooked).

Title and meta data do require "keyword research", but don’t require a lot of technical expertise.  Neither does “copy”, necessarily.

Lastly,

Videos and Professional Photography were rated by local SEOs as less effective on search rankings (and require more technical expertise).

IMPORTANT NOTE: That last paragraph applies to search rankings ONLY.  People like video, especially.  And pretty pictures.  So USE PICTURES and VIDEO to get and keep customers' attention.  Just keep in mind: that’s for engagement, not ranking.

For more information, CALL. 602-618-6626.  Or email me. info@localmotivemarketing.com.

How To Build And Maintain More Customer Loyalty

It's a great article.  

And it contains great advice.  But it was written for "e-commerce" businesses (and Amazon's getting the bulk of that), and I write for small local businesses. I had to... adapt the gist of it for small local business purposes. 

The basic process is the same, and we can help small local business put that in play with Smart Marketing for Smartphones^TM

Every small business owner knows LOYALTY is a core requirement.  Getting new customers is only a start. You have to nurture them.  You want - your NEED - loyal customers. 

Because loyal customers increase your profits by 25 percent to 95 percent.

Opinions vary on the cost of getting a new customer.  According to some, it costs as "little" as six to seven times more  to get a new customer than it to keep a current one. But others believe that range is much larger - from 5 to 25 time more.

But what everyone pretty much agrees on is that LOYALTY IS THE KEY.

Every service we offer is geared to help small local businesses achieve that goal.  And here are 6 Ways:

1. Institute A Mobile Loyalty Program

We can provide a small business "points-based" #rewards card, #coupons, and #punchcards to customers' smartphones,  deliverable onsite, in print, by text, through QR and NFC, by email, and through social media networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. They can also be delivered on your own website, and through social wifi.  And - unlike paper - your customer can SHARE that mobile wallet promotion.  Any of our mobile wallet loyalty program provides you with customer-specific  data on what they bought, when, where, and more.  website, social wifi and social media data can give you age, gender, and a connection to their friends.  With geo-fencing and beacons, you can reach out with lock-screen messages when they're close, and again when they come in.

2. Engage through Social Channels

We can provide expert assistance with social media to helps you stay more engaged with your customers, to maintain customer satisfaction and loyalty and (if necessary) respond to customer complaints. More rewards points, another coupon, a free "punch", can all be delivered easily and quickly.

3. Make Customers Advocates

Reward customers for promoting your small business (some already do, so start with them).  Make them your "affiliates" for the cost of more rewards points; another coupon; a free "punch".

4. Use Email

Email is still the #1 marketing channel, beating all others (even search and social). Email marketing can be effective for everything discussed so far. Newsletters, thank yous, surprises, redemption reminders, and exclusive offers (and don't forget rewards points; coupons; and free "punches").  And most emails are read on smartphones.

5. Remember Their Birthday

3 out of 4 customers who received a "Happy Birthday" thought more highly of that company, and that translated into increased loyalty.

Not sure how to ask for this information?. Reward them with more rewards points; another coupon; another free "punch".

6. Make The Total More than The Sum Of The Parts

"The experts" call it "omni-channel".  And it’s just as much a necessity for small local businesses as it is for national and multi-national brands. Today's customers are mostly mobile.  And they want what they want at the moment they decide they want it. They want it convenient. And delivering exactly the message they want at the exact moment they're open to it is easier than you think.

Imagine:

1. "NEW BUYER" just decided they want what you provide, and they search for that close by.  ("Near me" searches have increased 146% year over year, and 88% are mobile searches).  THEY FIND YOUR MOBILE WEBSITE.
2. "NEW BUYER" comes in to buy what they just decided they want.  AND THEY SEE YOU PROVIDE FREE WIFI.  Better yet, they can get on your free wifi by clicking a social media icon.
3. "NEW BUYER" sees an incentive to "LIKE" your small local business (like rewards points; a coupon; a free "punch" on a mobile punchcard).
4. "NEW BUYER" is taken to a special page to download your mobile offer onto their smartphone.
5. "NEW BUYER" BUYS what they just decided they wanted, and gets a great deal!  "NEW BUYER" decides they like your small local business.
6. "NEW BUYER" gets an email from you - thanking them  for their business, and offering an incentive (like rewards points; a coupon; a free "punch" ) to come back to your small local business, soon.

Nurturing loyal customers is not as simple as it used to be. But we can help your small local business engage them at every opportunity.

CALL or TEXT 602-618-6626 to put Smart Marketing for Smartphones^TM to work for you.  Learn more here.

Interesting Article About Client Education

But It Misses A Very Important Point

The article was intended "to help marketers be more successful with their clients...." by "...stick[ing] more to the business or relationship side of things."

It makes sense that the point of the article is "to help marketers".  I found the "intro" article from a link in an email from Marketing Land and the full article on Search Engine Land. And the author has years of experience in his subject ("local SEO").

What he said about the "key to local SEO success" hits the bullseye:  Client education. 

He nails what we see as the biggest problem when he writes that "We all know the concepts and the lingo", but that "most of the general public doesn’t ...  know what the acronym stands for..." and "...that the average person has no idea what we’re talking about."  That problem crosses ALL lines when it comes to digital marketing.

But we see "client education" as a two-way street. Following his lead to "Think about the best client you ever worked with...", how well did you know that client?  Because it's important that marketeer (yes, that was deliberate) and client each have "... a really solid understanding..." of each other, and each other's business. 

Yes, "business owners know they need to show up high in Google", and need good marketing. to succeed. 

But they’ll hire you as much because you took the additional time and effort to understand them, their business, and their goals as "because you tell them you can get them there".   (He gives some very good examples of understanding those potential clients before "educating them".  He just doesn't elaborate.)

As Steven Covey put it: "Seek first to understand, then to be understood."  That way, both marketeer and client align expectations and goals.

Physical Attributes Are Important, But Not Everything

I've been reading and re-reading a recent article on why google wants to know if your local small business has a wheelchair-accessible entrance or offers takeout.  

The simple anwer is that google wants to be the "go-to" source for search results.  And they're not alone. 

The "reputation" sites also want to these and other things, like services, accepted payment methods, and whether or not  you offer (or even can offer) free parking (not every business does).

They want to know, for example, if your restaurant is "appropriate for kids"; if dogs are allowed (and under what circumstances); does it have televisions; do you accept bitcoins? 

They want to know all of these "business attributes" so they can provide "rich, descriptive content" about the search results that they deliver.  It makes them  more useful, which makes them attract more visitors, which makes them more valuable.

You didn't really think they do it all for you, right?

BUT HERE'S WHY YOU NEED TO HELP THEM:

As the author out it: "they amplify a business’s data".  Most small business owners - especially local small business owners - don't know that "Inc." and "incorporated" might not show up "across all the places where people conduct local searches".  They don't know that the search engines probably won't recognize "123 Any Street" as a location match for "123 Any St.", even if the city, state and postal code are all in sync.  So, "business attributes" - a business’s data - might show up in one search tool, but not in another; great "reviews" might not get as widely published as that local small business owner thinks they have been.

The "foundational data", "identities", as the author calls it - names, addresses, phone numbers, might be completely accurate as a human reads it, but, as explained above, computers (and especially search engines) won't necessarily understand that "St." is "Street", rather than "Saint" or "State"; and those things are not the same.

If your small business needs help in turning searches into visits into business, CALL or TEXT 602-618-6626.  EMAIL US: info@localmotivemareting.com. YOU are why we're here.