Category — Small Businesses

The power of your competing with your friends for trophies has been a force since man first evovled from ape. Whoever killed the biggest animal fed the most people, and gained fame throughout the land. Today there are many trophies, many competitions and most of us have a bunch of friends. In today’s world of hyper connectivity, we can stay in touch with friends and acquaintances just as if they lived across the hall. This leads us to follow our innate competitive instincts and make a bunch of stuff over which we can compete peacefully. In this hyer-connected world, we have many examples of how games and trophies become popular, sought after and create successful businesses. The NFL is based on competition, Major League Baseball, UEFA,  The Olympics, all multi-billion dollar businesses built around the peaceful exploitation of competition.

But there are other levels of competition, ranging from who has the nicest car, to who has the most followers on Twitter. Us crazy people spend hundreds of hours, thousands of dollars and massive resources to win the imaginary trophies that the world offers to us. But alot of these games are fun, meaningless ways to interact with your friends and associates. Zombie Toss on Facebook, ReTweeting and now the ultimate example - Foursquare.

Foursquare captures all the potential of Twitter, and makes a fun game around who can go to more places and “check in” You can become the mayor of your favorite coffee shop, win badges for hitting multiple spots in a night, and show off your badges to all of your hermit friends. The intriguing game of checking in and badges is only the front of what could become a brilliant business idea, and I believe will capture the potential value of twitter to many of the small businesses staring aimlessly at a little baby-blue bird.

What Twitter first started out as, and what got me intrigued was the ability to broadcast where I am, to the people who cared. Now Twitter has become much more than that, but Foursquare takes that fundamental use-case, and makes a fun game out of it. It tracks and records where I go, how often I go, and withwhom I go (of course, only when I tell it). This information is absolutely invaluable to small businesses. Deli’s can learn their customers favorite sandwiches, discover problems in their offerings, and find out who their best customers really are. Then they could be able to send out offers to those customers who “checked in” They could build an email database to lure those customers back in. There are so many business applications to Foursquare, so many more obvious ones than for Twitter itself, I would buy Foursquare if I were Twitter - like tomorrow.

Foursquare is a fun application that takes human nature’s desire to see their friends and show off their trophies and turns it into a desire to go out more, tell the world where they are and win some meaningless badges. But all that adds up to great data for small businesses, great marketing opportunities for those businesses and a whole bunch more percieved immediate value than simple twitter feeds (to small businesses). Instead of trolling through twitter searches, I can just go to my business page on Foursquare and see what people are saying - and who’s coming.

I have several great takeaways from Foursquare’s app, but really its fun and it makes me want to go out more so I can check in again. Who doesn’t like badges?

A lot of people wonder how Twitter is going to make money. They certainly have alot of options considering the mass of loyal users they have, but choosing the right one will be key to them transistioning from a cool tool, to a useful and sustainable product. I believe that Twitter will have to charge its users to use it, at least business users (companies) and that Twitter will grow into more of a utility than an application. Just like telephone lines.

Roughly 134 years ago, Bell and Watson struck a chord across some wires and invented the first practical use of the telephone. It would revolutionize the way people communicate, making the world smaller, in an instant you could speak to someone on the other side of the earth. (of course they still had to build that network..) But here we have twitter, and it provides the same type of utility that phone lines do, or email. It is revolutionizing the way people are communicating with each other, only this time - the network (the internet) is already built.

In creating their new Twitter 101 guide to using twitter for businesses (http://business.twitter.com/), twitter is taking its first step in the direction of charging businesses to send specials and deals out to their followers/customers. And that makes sense, particularly if they begin to implement freemium upgrades, additional features, and perhaps guidance and service upgrades for small companies.

The freemium model has worked online for years now, and many of the most successful companies use it to lower their customer acquisition cost to near zero. Its an interesting idea for Twitter, I’m looking forward to seeing how they execute. I know for a fact that, and I’ve seen it first hand across several dozen small businesses - Twitter offers a great service to gain and bring back your customers quick and easy. And thats something worth paying for.

There seems to be an interesting problem developing that most of the major SEO firms, organizations and analysts are missing - difficulty of inclusion. Its the term I’m giving to the amount of steps, and relative difficulty that it takes to get your business listed on major search engines and in local directories.

I’m going to outline some of the problems small businesses face, although not complete, but this is what I’m working on trying to fix every day.

• Local Business Databases - We have tried and used several different data providers. (ALL of the big ones) and unless you are using an extremely complicated importing script and combining every single database you can muster you are going to have an embarrasingly incomplete database. Yelp does a very good job including everything it can, but it still isn’t perfect. And thats just my problem as a publisher. There are hundreds of thousands of small businesses missing from all these databases, and that means they aren’t getting found online. At all. If I am opening a new business, or I have a business thats been around for years, I have to first make sure that I am being included in these data lists before I can even start to think about optimizing my listings. The folks at getlisted.org are doing a cool thing, but I’ve yet to come across anyone who is using it (and our company doesn’t get updates from getlisted and we have 900k businesses listed across our network - why is that ?) The small business world needs a uniquitous listing solution across all possible local listings - an openID for small businesses if you will.
• Learning - I am Joe the Plumber, I have a fleet of trucks, I have insurance on those trucks, I have 12 employees, I have workers compensation insurance, I have tools, I have angry customers, I have happy customers, My boiler just broke and my kids want new tricycles. I have a ridiculous amount of stuff going on in my life and I just found out when you search for plumbers in MyTown my competition gets 80% of the phone calls. WTF? What do I do now? I could spend a few hours scowering the internet and reading blogs about how to set up my LBC listing on Google and in Yahoo, and submit to GetListed. (there are alot of great resources out there) But if I don’t know these blogs, its gonna take me a couple hours just to find them, then its gonna take some time to find the article I need. It could take just a few minutes, but if I’m still using my hotmail account I probably don’t know what a blog even really is. And I have a long way to go if I don’t know what a blog is. Quick reality check for all you local search bloggers, the average small business owner still doesn’t have a website, heard about twitter on cnn, reads the local newspaper and is 47. Sure my generation has grown up with basic knowlege of the internet but if the internet is a foreign world to you, how are you going to succeed in it. You won’t make a very good French diplomat if you can’t speak French We need easier tools, and better knowledge bases for small business owners. Again, more ubiquity
• Depth vs Breadth - I want to be listed first in google, first in yahoo and on every local search directory that is applicable. In the yellow pages world, all I have to do is spend more money and buy the biggest add. Boom, more business than I can handle.  In the Google world, there is soo much more that needs to be done to succeed. You need quality relevant content, you need links, you need a good domain name, you need all of these other factors, many of which you can’t just buy. And thats just Google. There are whole lists compiled of what to do for each search engine. I can spend many days and go down the checklist for just one. There is so much to do.
• Options - If you give a person 12 options they’re more likely to pick none. There are too many places to advertise, there are too many places to start. First you have to pick one, and then you get going. There needs to be a uniquitous place to start, a local search center. Getlisted again is that idea, but they aren’t executing and how can they if noone esle is observing this problem (or atleast thinking about solving it).

Lastly, I as a consumer find it so frustrating when I can’t find the business I am looking for. I want their phone number, I want their menu, do they sell what I want and can I trust them? If i’m a restaurant in NYC I better be damn sure I’m monitoring my Yelp reviews and encouraging my patrons to “give me some love” But if I’m in Maine or North Carolina, where do I start? That problem exists and at some point we are going to have to solve it. Google is just going to scour the internet, or use a third party data set. Yelp just compiles data sets. But if the business I want isn’t in that data set, im screwed. We need local people to ensure data accuracy and completion. Otherwise businesses will fall through the cracks and that obviously hurts the business involved, but it also hurts us consumers. Because if the little shop that sells the computer bag I want is 2 miles away but It doesn’t come up in google for that term, and nothing else does, I’m not going to buy the bag I want - from anyone.

Dear Small Business Owner,

We are going to service the heck out of you. We are helping you learn how to set up a facebook profile, we are promoting your events and we are allowing you to twitter directly from your account with us.

If you like service, knoweldgeable and friendly service, call us. We are here to help you.

Best,

- Jamie

Thats what they need. Love is all they need.

Show small businesses some love, show them your marketing will work for them and then show them some more love. There are so many hawkish businesses out there out to grab a dime (not steal, just take) without being grateful. We operate with the idea that our customers make our business run and that we should be thankful and grateful.

Times like these, everyone can use a hug. OK, maybe you don’t have to actually hug them, but let your clients know you are their for them.

I find google maps local business search to be utterly useless. Time and again, I enter a local business term and I find nothing that is usefull to me. For example, this afternoon I wanted to cruise into Greenwich, CT and do some work in a nice locally owned coffee shop (ie NOT starbucks). A quick Google resulted in this:  http://bit.ly/19UmsA, the first 10 listings in google were totally useless to me, none of them even deserved a click. So I went with the Local Maps. Also useless; I had heard of a place I was trying to find and it wasn’t there.

Alas, I was forced to use Yelp. I like Yelp, its a great service but I never use it.  Here is the search results I got in yelp: http://bit.ly/Cyd5D. Great results, I found the business I was looking for and there were about a dozen additional businesses that were in Yelp’s data compared to Google’s. Here is another good example of why Marty Himmelstein doesn’t know what he is talking about when he says SEO doesn’t matter.  As good a job as Yelp has done with SEO, they should be showing up in this search term. Apparently Google didn’t think they content on Yelp directly related to my search was important enough. Great SEO would have placed the most relevant results in front of me on the top of the first page. Great SEO wouldn’t need me to type in a website directly becuase it would deliver them to me when I ask.

For all you local search businesses out there, keep going. Google isn’t doing local well and unless they decide to focus on it (please dont, please, please!) they aren’t going to. Matt Cutts, if you read this don’t get any ideas

The lesson from this is: SEO is absolutely priceless. And if you aren’t doing it, or you are harping against its value you will be riding a sinking ship into the horizon.

What are your experiences with Google Maps Local (as a consumer)?

There has been a lot of chatter about local business data recently in the local blogosphere. (Here and here ) I’m in the business of local business data and I agree it sucks. I spent this week at Search Marketing Expo attending sessions from some of the best in the business and the search engines themselves. And what I realized is that everyone is just trying to create a technology that will eliminate personal interaction and direct updates.

There is no one size fits all anwer to the local data question. How do local businesses represent themselves online. Well first you need to educate them on why they should be online. (here’s a good resource for education) If they know they need to be online chances are, they don’t know where to start. They don’t know where to start. Some have ideas, some have misgivings and some are misguided. One of the biggest problems I find is that there were people that came to them in 2003 and told them they were the next big thing. Small businesses paid up and never heard from these guys again. They are weary and rightfully so. Today there are about a hundred local search options out there, thousands if you incorporate all the offline media they could be buying.

The real query that hasn’t been indexed is how do you gain trust, build a really SOLID local business database and make money while doing this all. Not an easy question. Automation is nice, but you aren’t going to get a bar owner to self-service, not in 2009, maybe not in 2012 - maybe not for along time. The issue is time and ROI and trust. Small businesses don’t want to waste their money on advertising, but they know they need to advertise so they are willing to do that. What they really don’t want to waste is their time.

So if you are venturing into the local search space, you need to recognize one thing. These guys are busy and they are afraid to try new things. If there is one thing thats on our side though, its the fact that they can’t keep justifying increasing print rates with declining circulation and escalating printing costs. So they are going to have to try new things. Alot of companies charge for customer support, so why can’t you? Because you don’t have it.

No algorithm will ever replace handshakes and personal contacts. Walk your prospective clients through your product, educate them on why its valuable and you’ve got a client. Give them a self service portal that injects their business into a Live Nation infested noise fest, they’ll never take action.

Moral being, talk to your customers.  Be there for them. The web is strange enough for these old tymers don’t be a full voicemail box and an anonymous email. Be a person, don’t forget - they’re people too.

Today was a very exciting and exhausting day. Introducing some new people to the site, adding some great people to the team. Its amazing. Welcome to 2009.

I have an interesting perspective on what I’m doing. I learned my tricks from battling in the streets. When I first started I walked the streets with a blue  paper folder (the kind with the pockets), print outs from Word with a description of my new website.

“Thats, great kid. Let me know when someone else is on it.” - Ok

I learned that small businesses don’t really care about the internet. They dont care about SEO, they don’t care about fancy algorithms and pre-roll ads. They care about getting customers in their door and making them happy. I learned quickly that if you can make marketing easy for them they will listen. I learned that if you could show them new customers at a lower CPA than the local paper, they would not only listen - they would buy.

I have great idea’s everyday, I have a really great idea in my head right now and I know its 6-10 months away from happening.  In the past few weeks I got my girlfriend to start blogging, I think she finally understands how Twitter is cool and she even set up and iGoogle page this weekend. My parents have a computer in the kitchen (you have no idea about my parents - whats facebook?). People are using the internet to find things they need. - But of course they are Jamie! - Yes, but now they’ve realized they can find all kinds of crazy things they need on the internet easier than with their (insert non web-based tool). There are so many great things to do out there, the internet is going to explode when this economy recovers.

People aren’t leaving their neighborhoods like they used to. And if they are they are planning their trip from their desk, via the internet. They are searching for local businesses, for location specific activites and destination related things to do. This is what we mean by local. This is why Google introduced its OneBox (those bastards!) and its why everyone and their mother is started the latest and greatest local search site.

Well I didn’t figure out local was cool last quarter. I didn’t notice people were starting to ramp up local searches in June, not even of ‘07. I’m not telling you 2009 is going to be “the year of local” [trumpets sound]. But I am loving it. Loving the buzz, loving 2009 trend predictions from J.P. Morgan and Barclays. Loving the fact that a small company from Boston is dominating a huge billion dollar company with an almost identical name because its thinking small.

I’ll leave you with this, because you’re probably in the same game I am somehow or another. So cheers:

Internet activity continues to increase as the medium plays a more significant role in people’s lives, and this increased usage and dependence should leave Internet companies well-positioned when the macro environment improves.

- Barclays’ Doug Anmuth

Local is good, and it is a significant part of the entire advertising market. Some estimates say that up to 54% of all adverterising is local, or locally based. In our increasingly localized and connected world, the power of local search, local content, and locally based interaction are unquestionably becoming key components of the advertising arena. Agencies and Local SMB’s are both very increasingly using local based targeting, or local search as an element of their campaigns. According to a new eMarketer Report, In 2008 Internet Yellow Page advertising is expected to reach $1.2 Billion in ad spending. Measurable to say the least.

Local content is largely becoming focused on user generated content; topix.com, outside.in, and others are focusing on creating a platform for people to share their reactions and feelings on locally relevant issues. The number of review sites (the likes of Yelp, BooRah, etc) seem to be doubling by the minute. While it is no question that people are extremely interestedin sharing their content locally, again how are these companies going to monetize this revenue?

Today, I saved $800 on a minor bumper repair to my car because I was researching some competition, checked out Topix, and found a video ad for a bumper repair place promising to save me hundreds. Well they did, and I had a long conversation with the owner of the business. He has totally abondoned anything in print, he created the video himself, and is advertising locally online to spread the word. Only purchasing a few text ads pointing to his website, he has designed his own viral campaign. Here’s the video:

This is how local advertising is going to be monetized. Simply, I was looking for something local, I found it and completely unintentionally I found something that I needed. Video can become a power tool in one’s local arsenal, and is quickly becoming sought after. I am now endeared to topix (they do have a ton of comments from nearly any city you visit), and I literally saved over 800 bucks to fix my rediculously expensive bumper. Local at its finest.

So listen up advertisers, agencies, publishers: here is the lesson - keep it local, keep it relevant and make the relationship meaningful. While there is no question in my mind (and many others’) that print YP’s and newspapers are no longer a useful advertising outlet and that online local search is the place to be, if you can make the ad meaningful, important, relevant - you can make money. This is nothing new, it seems rather simple, but to truly monetize a local site you can’t rely on CPM’s from exchanges or Honda, Verizon and others (a recent Borrell report estimates the relative CPMs for IYP is $3.65 vs. $9.29 for print YP) . It’s gotta be local, because that way I (the user) can convert that page view into a handshake. And isn’t that what local is really all about?

I think so, and I can’t imagine why any business out there will over look the power of a handshake and a friendly smile.

Ok, so the iPhone phrenzy has calmed down slightly and every major news outlet or blog has covered their view of the device. Now lets examine how the opportunities in mobile have evolved with this fancy new device.

The GPS capabilities have been upgraded so my iPhone friends will be able to easily figure out, not just who, but also where they are. This brings a variety of Location Based Services to the iPhone that are more readily available now. Local coupons, location aware information and a slew of soon to be spammy SMS services are sure to be around the corner.

I’d like to focus on an interesting new technology that is very popular in Japan, and I’ve mentioned before - 2D Barcodes. Google made these next generation bar codes available in their print ads. Heres an excerpt from their explanation:

Recently, you may have seen newspaper ads for ServiceMagic placed through the Google Print Ads platform. These particular ads include a Google Consumer Response Tag (CRT) with multiple response mechanisms: URL, search terms, phone number, coupon code, SMS code, and 2D barcode. This test is part of our efforts to make print advertising more useful for readers and more measurable for advertisers. 2D barcodes are an especially exciting part of this because they allow readers to “click” on interesting print ads with their cellphones and seamlessly connect to relevant online content.

Whats really exciting about these “Quick Response” codes, is that many features of these 2D bar codes will soon be reaching consumers and connecting them instantly with businesses. With their application to convert local search online to the real world (and vice versa) these QR codes could be extremely valuable to marketers and small businesses.

To the right is an example of a 2D Barcode from the website semapedia.org. Semapedia.org lets you take a link from wikipedia, wikimedia and several other wikis, create a 2D Barcode to link back to specific articles, then print it and place it where ever you wish. Their goal is to “connect the virtual and physical world by bringing the right information from the internet to the relevant place in physical space.” Now picture this applied to your favorite restaurant, or take out place.

You’re walking down the street, right around the corner and you see an ad for the deli. You whip out your phone and snap a picture of the code and bang, you just got a free beverage if you come into the deli and order a sandwich in the next 10 minutes. Just bring your phone.

This technology has applications across many mediums, business types and ad types. Use it to get more information on cars at the bus stop, movies on the subway, hotel rooms at rest areas or just about anything - on demand, on location, while the consumer is in purchase mode. Talk about ROI, send the coupon to a tracking URL and see how many coupons are redeemed from your coupon.

No Nigerian Spammers, no number harvesting, just on demand information. Brilliantly simple.

I see an opportunity in a tinyurl style “QR” generator. Although there are a couple companies doing it in Europe and Japan (Kaywa seems to be the most friendly). They currently offer personal QR codes free as well as enterprise and API use for a fee. Unfortunately there is little traction in the market here in America, as usual we are behind the mobile curve.

Here is an example of mobile marketing from Sweden: Crossmedia Avenue ran a MMS campaign for a pension insurance company that invited users to send in a picture of themselves and see their face transformed 70 years in the future. With over 262k photos sent via MMS in one month! That is a powerful response in a country of 9 million people. I can’t imagine that we are more than 9-12 months away from these sort of campaigns coming to the US.

With over 14 million BlackBerry’s sold last year in the US, iPhone sales expected to reach 10 million world wide by the end of this 2008 and analysts expecting the pie to keep growing, the proliferation of smartphones into our lives is close to reaching a critical mass.

Now if only I could grow a second set of thumbs…