local search marketing Archives - Digital Marketing & Website Design Firm

Worried about the economy? Write a blog for new customers

March 18, 2013 By Chad Lane

According to a recent survey of small business owners, their number one concern by a large majority was getting new business despite a weak economy.

We know that to get new clients, a business must promote. That is the first step. However, this can seem like a catch-22 when money is tight. Blogging provides a viable, long-term solution to promotion woes – and they can be done for free.

Each small business owner has some expertise to offer to the community in the form of a blog. There are potential customers and fans right now searching the internet to find the answers to very specific questions that can best be answered by small business owners dedicated to their craft.

Now that “Google” is a verb, we all daily interact with the internet to find answers to questions that we would have never bothered to ask several years ago – but now it seems that someone, somewhere, is willing to answer even the most minute question.

This is why blogging is a magnificent strategy for the small business owner. While it is certainly not an overnight strategy, it is effective. The people who find your blog about your interests and areas of expertise are going to be a pre-selected group of individuals, intensely interested in what you have to say.Continue Reading

Advertising is like pasta

September 21, 2012 By Matt D'Rion

Pasta is good. Advertising is good too.

Pasta can get over-cooked. It gets sticky and mushy. In the 50’s, home chefs threw it against the wall and if it stuck, it was done.

Advertising can also get over-cooked. Say too little, too often and your ads get all sticky and mushy – unappealing!

Now, pasta without sauce is great for children. It’s bland and easy to digest. Advertising which says, “Name, phone number” “Name, phone number” “Name, phone number” doesn’t have much taste, either…Continue Reading

Super-charge your referral engine

September 6, 2012 By Chad Lane

Remember when you were a kid and a parent or a school administrator exacted some form of justice? You’d nervously wonder aloud if you were going to get in trouble.

“If you haven’t done anything wrong, you’ve got nothing to worry about!”

I don’t know – that advice never really worked for me. I figured that I’d get in trouble anyway – because I looked guilty, or because someone would pin the crime on me, or…

The ratings systems on sites such as Google+ Local, Yelp, Angie’s List and others are a bit like that.

We wonder – should we solicit reviews? What if the reviews are bad? Continue Reading

What does google maps say about you?

May 1, 2012 By Matt D'Rion

Google maps is an incredibly powerful tool. Only 25 years ago, the ability to walk the streets of Paris, block by block, and view the buildings as they exist nearly in present time while sitting on a computer several thousand miles away would have seemed impossible. Never has the human race had such an accurate idea of where we were in relationship to one another. Compare this ability with the maps available to explorers 200 years ago, and we can appreciate how far we’ve come.

Recently, a boy who had been lost for over 25 years rediscovered his family using only his childhood memories and google maps. He was five years old when he fell asleep on a train for 14 hours, arriving in Calcutta with no knowledge of where his home was located, no family and no money. After becoming a beggar Continue Reading