It wasn’t that long ago local small businesses relied on the good ol’ Yellow Pages to let consumers know they’re out there. Now, if you’re not online you simply don’t get found. As 70% of online searchers will use local search to find offline businesses you can no longer ignore progress.
We’re talking here about the free local business directories like Yelp, CitySearch, Merchant Circle, etc., and if you don’t think they matter to your business then you are probably losing sales. Spears Marketing [spearsmarketing.com] found that 63% of Americans have substituted the internet and local search for phone books.
Unfortunately, many businesses don’t realize they are listed with the business directories. Many are listed but haven’t been claimed. The danger of this to your business is that your customers will still see your listed business information, whether it is correct or not, and can still post reviews of your business that affect how others see you.
As the owner of a small or medium-sized business (SMB) you are already aware of the importance of your business presence on the internet. But is your business available to the rapidly growing number of customers that are using their smart devices as a means of finding products and services in your local market? If you are not thinking mobile you are losing business to your competitors!
Mobile phone customers are relying more and more on their phones and devices like tablet computers to provide them with information about the services they want to purchase. A recent survey by Search Engine Land found that only 15% of consumers surveyed have NOT used the internet to find a local business in the past 12 months (which is down from 21% in 2012). By taking advantage of the mobile technology that already exists, you can stand out from your competitors and directly target potential customers in your immediate location.
The Importance of Understanding Keywords in Your Social and Business Search Marketing Campaigns
Why should you be concerned about key words and phrases? Simply put, search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo, use keywords when they include your web content (website, web page, social network, etc.) in their search results. While most savvy businesses and web developers know these should be considered in a website (via Meta tags), it is also important to use them directly in your written text content, content headings, and online “Daily Specials” and promotions.
Keywords and key phrases should always be considered for your website, though most businesses (SMB’s) don’t even think about them in their blog, social network (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), and business search page (Yelp, CitySearch, Google Places, etc.) posts. This includes the promotions and specials that you are allowed to post on these sites which directly improve your visibility and sales.
When writing new content and promotions you should:
Implementing a social media strategy for your business can be a little daunting when you’re first starting. Not all business types discover an out-of-the-box solution that just feels right on Facebook, Yelp, and other business search pages and social network sites. A business such as a dental office, might find this is especially true. But there is an avenue for almost every type of business in this media that will benefit by improved visibility and achieving an edge over their competitors.
It is now widely accepted that using social media is an important strategy for small and medium-sized business marketing. Where it gets cloudy is how to best position the business for maximum, and appropriate, results.
FonGenie Promoter uses the broad resources of the internet to effectively promote your business locally. But does promoting your business locally extend beyond improving your sales?
As a business owner needing to improve sales you have been told how important the broad expanse of the internet is for your business; but the fact is most of your customers are probably local in your community. With the internet we are all now consumed by information from every part of this earth, but we are still local creatures. We eat, drink, sleep, recreate locally. Consumers are inundated by big-box stores, virtual sales and “fast shipping.” But by letting your customers know you are nearby you are giving them the option to do more than just buy a great product or service. Your customers are local and you need to help them to improve their own community.
We have recently made changes to the menu selection modes that our FonGenie users offer their calling customers. In the past our users have either used the “Basic” menu mode choice, that lets callers hear the customized Greeting, a Flash Sale (if turned on) and then the action of Transfer the call, go to voicemail, etc., or the “Advanced” menu mode that gives the full menu choices following the Greeting/Flash sale.
The new “Hybrid” menu mode option is now available for all FonGenie users. This is the best of both worlds. With this callers will hear the same call flow as in the “Basic” menus, but before the call is transferred the automated voice will give callers the option, “Press 9, for the Virtual Concierge,” which will allow them to hear and select the additional menus (“Submenu”) choices normally found in the “Advanced” mode.
January, 2011 – NFIB, The Voice of Small Business, featured FonGenie’s automated service in this January blog article:
“Like many small businesses, yours may not have a dedicated receptionist to answer calls. An automated phone system could help your staff save time and increase efficiency.”
FonGenie.com
Features: Among typical automated features, such as a Virtual Receptionist and Caller ID, FonGenie also offers analytics tools that track calls (e.g., how many were new callers, how many calls came in after-hours) and make predictions based on those analytics, such as how many calls to expect the next day.
Plans and Pricing: FonGenie offers three plans.
- Bring Your Own Telephone Service is for those who wish to keep their current phone service. It costs $29.99/month and includes 300 minutes.
- Standard requires purchasing a FonGenie appliance. It costs $49.99/month for 2000 minutes.
Upcoming changes for FonGenie customers
In the previous FonGenie blog post on 11/26/2010, we announced updates to the site with a fresh new look and feel in preparation for the upcoming improvements and changes to the service.
For existing FonGenie customers, dramatic changes will be noticed over the up-coming weekend as you log into your account. A new complete makeover has been applied to the user interface along with the expanded reporting and analytics capabilities. Most of these improvements will be available to you immediately when changes take effect, while some are being incrementally added.
Besides the improved looks and easy to use interface, how does that impact existing customers?
Existing customers will not be negatively impacted. To be clear, there won’t be any service interruption or data and record loss. Key changes and improvements are related to the quality of the speech along with a newly added female voice to greet your callers and customers. Also, you should expect to see tons of pre-formatted reports, analytics, benchmarks and trending information to run your business smarter.
Snowballing with the timing of American Express’s Small Business Saturday, we here at FonGenie continue to strive to offer the best possible service for the small business community. We are very happy to announce our updated FonGenie service including new features, functionality—not to mention our improved website.
FonGenie has launched its newly designed website to give business owners a clear message on how retail and small business owners can increase revenue and decrease cost by leveraging technology. We have also added a number of additional testimonials from multiple business owners, who have been able to use FonGenie to increase or optimize their revenue from a simple inbound telephone call. Many thanks to those who have helped us build these success stories and the business owners of MyCollege Storage and AquaSpa for their contribution.
Think of FonGenie as a website for telephone traffic. Your callers need to be able to communicate with you, find information that is of immediate value to them prior to contacting you, and find reward or benefit to them for using that medium.
As a small or medium size business (SMB) you’ve heard a lot of importance placed on the type and quality of information you make available to your site visitors. Along with knowing what information and services your visitors want on your website, you need to be able to analyze what they are interested in and how they got there so you can offer more insuring that they will return for more fresh content. It then makes sense that your business telephone should have a similar function. Websites have services like Google Analytics or other third-party services that dish up reports, which you eventually can learn to read. FonGenie has its “Reports” included and are designed to be understood and read in real-time and without the large learning curve.
