Here at LocallyCompared we keep our finger firmly on the pulse of online marketing, and over the years we’ve built up a good sense of why it’s growing so fast, as well as what pitfalls remain to be overcome. More and more small businesses are just starting their journey with online marketing, so we thought it a good time to go back to basics with an introductory overview…

The Beauty
Online marketing’s greatest attribute lies in its value for money. This is especially true compared to existing advertising methods like radio and print, but that would miss the new opportunity it has created. It is now possible for businesses of any size to advertise on a scale that was simply unattainable before the Web. This is both a technological advance (in that information can now be delivered for virtually no cost) and a cultural advance, which leads us to…

Searching online is simply more convenient. Nearly everyone in the population has at least got access to the Web - if not by their own computer then at work. Search engines, which successfully hide their extraordinary power behind a webpage that people of any age or experience can use, make finding local businesses as easy as tapping a few words onto a keyboard. Contrast this with hunting through cupboards for the Yellow Pages, wondering if its still up to date, thumbing through the index, and getting little more than a telephone number for your efforts.

Back to that technology for a moment - the biggest change it has brought is space. Companies have the space to tell the world what they do, why they should be trusted, and why they should be used. They are no longer just a phone number and a gamble for local people; they can use words, customer testimonials, detailed maps, photos - even videos - to stand out. It gives small business owners a new area to compete in: it’s not the biggest box that gets customers, it’s the most persuasive business introduction.

I’ve saved the driest but most important point until last: measurability. When you purchase a radio spot or take an advert in the Yellow Pages; sales may well go up but what was the advertising’s true role in that? How much of it was as a direct result of the advertising and how much of it was other factors? We simply cannot know, and so take a gamble everytime we commit more of our money to advertising this way. Online, everything can be measured - who you’re attracting, how many you’re attracting, how many you could be attracting and what impact that latest spend had on this performance. It encourages experimentation with different advertising outlets until you find the sweetspot for the business’ individual needs. It is the knowledge that gives you confidence in future successes.

The Beast
There will always be some people - eventually a very small minority - who have absolutely no desire to even use the Web, let alone own a computer. As traditional paper-based directories finally go away, they will be left as a near untouchable group that is increasingly expensive to reach. On the bright side for the businesses who get them, they will be loyal customers as it becomes too hard for them to find alternatives.

A real short-term problem is a fear of technology within businesses themselves. Most companies simply cannot afford a dedicated IT staff member, leaving them at a distinct disadvantage. Of course, that disadvantage is an advantage for the small businesses who are prepared to pick up the basics of online advertising - they have a clear headstart to reach customers before their competitors get involved.

The biggest long term issue is simply being seen. The more businesses who come online, the harder they find it to stand out. This affects every company, but the worst affected are those who will fail - and they sadly exist - to distinguish between ‘being online’ and ‘online marketing’. The difference between having a website and promoting it is the difference between creating a TV commercial and actually broadcasting it on TV.

Taking Action

Online marketing is a revolution that - even after 8 good years - is only just hitting full speed. Our goal is to help all businesses take advantage of the Beauties and minimise the Beasts.

LocallyCompared helps dentists, web design agencies, solicitors, accountants, restaurants and many more all over the UK, in cities such as Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield and Newcastle. How do we help? For companies just getting online we make online marketing easy and effective, and for old hands we provide one more effective way to advertise online.

Blogging is, simply, the publishing of articles online. There is lots of software out there - e.g. wordpress.com or blogger.com - that make it a very simple process for anyone to do. Think of an idea, write it down in a kind of online word processor, and it’s instantly available to anyone on the Web.

Historically, it was mostly used by individuals to share their opinions, stories and feelings - a very non-commercial purpose. A few years ago, some pioneering businesses thought they saw new potential, and it is now common to see major corporations encourage their top executives to blog regularly. Other businesses, meanwhile, have created a ‘company blog’ to easily share company news with the outside world.

Blogging is not immediately obvious as a business function. In fact, it often feels risky - employees might leak sensitive information, or poorly chosen words may create a bad image of people within your company. It also takes time, and requires at least semi-regular use of the Internet. So why are business-related blogs rapidly becoming a standard feature of company’s websites?

Search Engine Performance - Rank Higher
So you want to rank higher in Google? Blogging has three distinct ways of improving your rank.

First, websites that update often - i.e. change their text by publishing new blog posts - are considered “fresher” and therefore “more relevant”, which causes Google to give them more credit.

Second, Google have always said “content is king”. They like websites with lots of content on it. Suppose you’re a plumbing service. Most plumber’s websites contain a few photos, an address, and maybe a list of services offered. With a blog, the website is likely to have much more text - increasing the likelihood of it being considered an “information resource”, which is exactly the sort of thing Google likes to give people.

Thirdly, blog posts contain keywords. The more keywords you have relevant to your business, the more likely you will be found when someone searches those keywords. Again, suppose you’re a plumbing service. You might say you “Fix Boilers”. But what if a potential customer has a very specific problem? “Oil powered boiler has flashing light and will not start”. If your website contains even a few of those words, Google will rank you much higher than your competitors in the results. It’s all about matching the detailed keywords people are searching. How do you easily do this? Simple, just publish posts that might help your potential customers, which takes us too…

“Brand” Building - Be Chosen Over Competitors
The classic problem with the Yellow Pages - and now with the Web - is that you are lumped together with your competitors. It’s hard to stand out. The great news is that trends are changing. The Web makes it virtually free to use as much space as you please to communicate with potential customers, and customers are responding to that by researching companies more deeply online. They want more information.

How does a blog help make you stand out? It’s all about trust. If you blog as if you were educating your customers - e.g. a plumber might blog about simple DIY tasks people can perform themselves - then you will demonstrate that you know what you are talking about (i.e. prove your expertise), you will demonstrate the people behind the company (and people do business with people, not companies), and of course, will increase the likelihood of being found in a search engine (see above).

Summary

1. Start a blog. Ideally, you would add one to your website (we recommend Wordpress.org), although you can use a standard blog on another site (we recommend blogger.com - just make sure it links back to your company website).
2. Blog at least once a month, ideally once a week. Announcements about your company, insights/stories about day to day work, and helpful tips for common customer problems.
3. Allow people to comment on your blog posts. They might add useful information, or it may be the start of a conversation that turns them into a customer. It also makes you appear more open, and therefore more trustworthy.

You may not know that we run a number of specialist sites just for particular locations and business types.

This helps provide extra relevance to our new users, for example, take a Google search for ‘restaurants in leeds’  - we’re the number 3 result. We have lots of detail on local Restaurants in Leeds! Just what the user was looking for.

What about ‘Solicitors in Liverpool’ ? We’re the number 1 result! We have many more sites like this bringing new members of the LocallyCompared.com community every day, all who now have a better place to find a local business.

We are enabling the best customer experience for finding a local business, with the detailed information that we are building ourselves using clever technolgy, and with the information business owners are adding all the time.

Make sure you recommend LocallyCompared.com to your friends as the best place to find detailed information on local businesses, and if you know someone who owns a business, make sure you use our referral scheme to make some extra money for yourself this Xmas!

Our mission is to get more exposure for local businesses online, and assist the 46% of businesses who only advertise in the big yellow book with making the transition to get more enquiries through the Internet. We are the only site that builds fully detailed profiles for businesses up front! Providing new customers at low cost, and users with the best experience available when looking for a local business.

Please see www.locallycompared.com/referrals for more details.

Thanks,
Steve

The BBC has been running a ‘Changing UK’ series on the impact of modern living on our communities, and the latest article really struck a chord. Take a peek at Life in the UK ‘has become lonelier’.

There is a part of this issue that we thought significant enough to put into our About page (”LocallyCompared believes in strong, vibrant and accessible local businesses; and the value they bring to local communities.“), and I think it deserves a moment’s pause to share how it motivates us.

“Every region in the UK, broadly defined by a BBC local radio areas, has seen its communities become less rooted” is a view that has been sensed by many, but until now not deeply studied. We talk about it more generally as the problem associated with many people moving away from their trusted group of families and friends, often to find work. Similarly, there is a definite rising trend of ‘the singleton’: young men and women who are deciding to postpone settling down in favour of a more independent lifestyle - again most likely for work.

Perhaps more telling is that “the researchers conclude that the increase in anomie weakens the “social glue” of communities. The result, they suggest, is that neighbourhoods are likely to be less trusting and more fearful.“

Both of these ideas point to the same thing, it is harder to find local businesses that we can trust. Suppose you just moved to Leeds, and for whatever reason, you’re looking for an accountant. Or maybe you’ve been living in Manchester for a while and need a solicitor, but so far none of your friends deal with solicitors. Well, you’re out of luck. The traditional word of mouth recommendations are breaking, and traditional resources like the Yellow Pages have never tried to help you make an informed choice.

So what are we doing instead? Suppose you’re in Sheffield and you need a driving school, you might,

• Look in the Yellow Pages, and see what is available. Not knowing much about each company, you will likely go with BSM or some other national brand that you’ve seen before.
• Go online, and try to find out more about the companies and what people think of them. The Web is handy, because there is plenty of low-cost space for each business to tell us about what they do.

The first option highlights the real problem of weakening local communities: faceless national businesses are the ones who benefit. They feel like a safer choice - we feel we can trust them - because they can afford to advertise. The local business owner down our street, who needs our support, and who’s income goes straight back into our communities (rather than into the pockets of national companies), risks being left behind.

The second option is better, but still not problem free. Local companies - in fact as high as 8 out of 10 local tradesmen (plumbers, electricians, etc.) - do not build a presence online. So you will not necessarily find them. And the reviews from your neighbours are not perfect, as they could have differing opinions to your own, or be downright false. But on balance, the majority of people report the online reviews help them in their decision making.

Those two related points - the rise of the national brand and the need for local businesses to go online to compete - hopefully give a little insight into what drives us LocallyCompared.com. We are building 300,000 full profiles for local businesses over the next year, and encouring reviews and recommendations from our visitors. We want to support businesses who want to get better at promoting themselves online, and give everyone in the UK as much information as possible on their local businesses, with the simple goal of helping them make the most informed decisions.

If someone wants to choose a business rooted in their community and wants to understand what differentiates businesses around them then LocallyCompared.com is the place to start.

(You can follow LocallyCompared.com updates and discussion on Twitter at https://twitter.com/LocallyCompared)

Our major upgrade to create a simple and effective way to compare detailed information on businesses in the UK  - one that has taken more than 8 months of development and 2 months of testing - is complete!

As well as being a great way to find good nearby businesses, we have made it very easy for those businesses - whatever their size - to advertise online in the UK.

Any business can use our straightforward advertising tool to create a professional profile, that includes special offers, menus, brochures, photos, awards & qualifications and testimonials, and then promote that profile across our network of location and service specific business comparison sites (e.g. www.locallymanchester.co.uk), which perform well in major search engines.

Steve Shinn, Managing Director of LocallyCompared.com said “It is difficult and time-consuming for business owners to keep up to date with the potential minefield of online marketing. Businesses who do not promote themselves online effectively are missing out on whole generation of Internet Users. Business owners understand the importance of reaching out to potential customers in an off-line world, but there is a definite knowledge-gap when it comes to making effective use of online advertising. LocallyCompared.com’s unique approach of building detailed profiles for businesses for free, coupled with top positions in all major search engines will give increased online exposure, saving them time, money and driving more customers to them. 2009 is going to be a tough time for UK businesses, so I urge business owners to go right ahead and claim their business profile on LocallyCompared.com”

If you would like to know more about what we do to help UK businesses with online advertising, have a look at our Business Benefits page.

Our full Press Release is available at LocallyCompared; Helping UK Businesses with Online Advertising