I am going to discuss what makes them different, why you should visit, and when the owners provide the information, why they decided to do business in the area, and whether they have anything special coming up.

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This will all be on a different website/blog, but I may run the information in the sidebar of this site. I am open to suggestions of Syracuse businesses that you’d like to know more about, or Utica businesses. I will be covering all areas in between. This includes but is not limited to Canastota, Oneida, Rome, Verona, Vernon, Sherrill.

If you’d like to see a specific business featured, please email me with the link and I will get in touch with them. I am so excited to find small/local businesses that people use. I hope everyone checks this out.

The first website I am reviewing is for Anthony Grasso a Syracuse cosmetic dentist.

To start with I went to Google to search for syracuse dentist, which is where every local dentist wants to be listed, as high on the list as possible. Here is the first result:

Normally what I would like to do is look at the website and see what I think should or could be different to make a difference, and I will get there with this example but, I like what I see here and I’m going to tell you why.

The title of his listing is Cosmetic Dentistry | Syracuse NY Dentist. This is a keyword packed title that tells you exactly what Dr. Grasso does. The domain of his website is perfect as www.syracusenydentist.com anyone looking for syracuse dentist is going to assume based on this domain alone that he is a dentist in the area, imagine if the domain were just www.drgrasso.com you wouldn’t know what or who this domain refers to and would pass it up for syracusenydentist.com

The description is great because it focuses on you, their client. The only thing I don’t love about the description is there is no call to action. They aren’t asking me to visit the website, call them, make an appointment, etc. Why pass up that opportunity?

I love the reviews. As local businesses are becoming a huge part of searching online, it is becoming increasingly important to get reviews and Dr. Grasso has 22. This is huge, as Google is now basing the listing on reviews as well as optimized keyword information. With this listing I believe Dr. Grasso will keep his 1st place listing for awhile, or at least until other dentists in Syracuse decide to compete for that traffic.

His Website:

Here is a screenshot of his website, and I’d like to talk about some things I see on here. To start with I’m glad he has his phone number in the top right, so many companies do not have this on the top of their website and it is imperative to getting calls, if you want calls, you need to do this.

The testimonials on the right are great, showing off how happy your clients are is a great way to get more clients. I can’t say I think the placement of these are the best though, I’d rather see a smaller header with a running script of the testimonials along the top somewhere, I think that would be more useful.

The headline on his page I think could use some help, it doesn’t really present a benefit to me as a potential patient. Making Syracuse Brighter One Smile at a Time, doesn’t say what is in it for me, which is the common question for the consumer market. I would change this.

From here I look at the sidebar. I see there is a button to request an appointment, but what I would like to see here is a place to optin to get his newsletter, if it exists. I think it should exist for several reasons, but basically a regularly sent newsletter keeps his name in their minds and when they need a dentist they immediately think of him.

Something else I would like to change about this page is the video, I’d like it to be more prominent, right up where the header is, and I’d like it to show the dentist himself, introducing himself, maybe with one of his clients, etc. I think this would help with bringing in traffic.

For social media, under Facebook there is pretty much nothing on the page, this area (Syracuse, NY) is huge on facebook, by not optimizing that I think he is leaving a lot on the table client-wise. Twitter is more active but I’d like to see it advertised more, and have more to do with dentistry. I think a regularly updated social network would be great for his business.

But chances are, you aren’t quite convinced. Of course, there are millions using it, but, is it worth it? Does it bring in sales, conversions, leads, etc? And if so, what’s the value?

First and foremost I can say social media for business DOES WORK. But, how much it is worth to your business depends on a host of variables. Before we look at those things, let’s talk about how I know it can work for business.

For years internet marketers have been using twitter and facebook to share links with their followers. Some of those links were and still are affiliate links, where once someone clicks and buys, the affiliate makes a commission. If it’s working for them, it can work for you. It is also working for real estate agents. By growing a list of local followers they are able to find people who are looking to sell, looking to buy, etc.

But how do it help your business?

There are several websites that are tools for twitter where you can search in your area for local followers. The local followers tool is pretty great, you type in your area, zip code, city, etc. Then it shows the followers in your area. It shows you a number of followers in your area as well. By typing in the closest large city I found 5,000 tweeters. Would you want to get your business in front of them? How about adding all the locations within 50 miles? That’s got to be way more people. Now add Facebook to that as well, the number should nearly double.

Now before you get too excited, these probably aren’t all active accounts, but, even a small fraction of that is enough to affect your business. Consider this, you get 3000 of them to follow you, and 500 sign up to your website newsletter (you should have one of these), now you have a list of 500 local people who are interested in your business. You can send them coupons, specials, and other information. Not only that, but your list will keep growing on each social media account, and on your website, and you can always access them to get more sales.

Facebook is a place to grow your followers too, in fact I would recommend integrating both of them to get your updates and tweets, that way you are growing an additional list. Not everyone will be on one or the other, few will be on both, so why not tap both markets?

So, what effects how successful social media for business is?

• Your number of followers
• Your posts/updates/tweets
• Your website
• How often you update
• Response

Let’s pick each of these apart.

Number of Followers:
To start with, you want all the local followers you can get. The way to do this is to start by following them. By doing just this I get about 10% following me, that’s simple, the rest though, takes some work. You have to interact, make posts that people will retweet or repost. For some of my clients we have used contests where retweeting is part of the contest, this works well if you are using a product or service that just about anyone will want- a gift certificate, money, etc. Obviously the more followers you have, the better your chance of success with social media.

What You Post:
What you post is very important. If every time you post it is promotional for your business, and does nothing for your followers, they will stop following you, or just ignore your posts. You want to become an authority for your market, offer tips, share blog posts they should see, give them freebies, etc. Once you’ve been doing this for awhile you can throw in a promotional post here and there. Say 4 or 5 helpful posts for every one promotional, or even less.

Your Website:
Now of course, where you send the people matters greatly. You should send them to your website, and it should be professional, with a place to collect their information. Usually giving away a free guide, ebook, coupon, etc will get them to give you their email address, you want to collect this and send them emails for your business and market. Your website should also list pertinent information about your products and services, hours, contact information, etc.

Your Updates:
How often you update your accounts is going to have a baring on how successful you are. You want to stick in your followers minds, but not overwhelm them. You want them to look forward to seeing your posts, but not bombard them so you are all they see. Basically you should make daily posts, about 10 of them on twitter and 2-3 on facebook.

Your Response:
Your response refers to how interactive you are with your followers. You want to respond to their tags, messages, retweets, etc. Always do this and they will be more likely to respond to your posts, and your links.

Of course, it is difficult to find time to do all of this. You have a business to run, and that is why I am running a special for local and small businesses. For $300 a month I will set up and maintain your account. Here is the link, it hasn’t gone live anywhere but this site, so the 10 spots are still open, but I’m hoping not for long.

And if you have any questions about your own social media accounts, please post them below, email or call 1.888.945.9229.

1. To start with, there needs to be a clear message of what your business is all about when visitors get to your site. So many times I have to look around for some clue about what a person is trying to get from their website.

Research shows that if this is the case for your site, the average visitor is going to leave without taking the time to look around. Don’t lose your visitors because of this, it takes one good headline and you can keep them on your site.

2. Collecting prospects that visit your site is another way you can improve performance. Once you have people on an email list you can send them site updates, product news, services news, and specials.

This will bring them back to the site. Generally you can get them to join your list by offering a free gift in return. Most email services like this are just around $20 a month and are well worth the investment.

3. My last suggestion to help improve your website is to make sure your contact information is easily viewable on all pages of your website. Phone numbers should be displayed right at the top of the page, along with your email if you prefer to get contacted that way.

My newsletter includes more tips like these, if you are interested, sign up on the right.

It’s very tempting to use Craigslist to advertise your small business. As it is advertising is usually pretty expensive, and in this economy you have to take every opportunity to squeeze as much business out of your advertising avenues as possible. With these tips on you can effectively market to your prospective clients without looking like a spammer, or breaking any rules.

#1 Follow the guidelines of the site:

• One post every 48 hours for each service or item you have to post.
• Post in the correct category, so people who are looking for you, can find you easily.

#2 Make your ad more effective:

• Always use an image, but just as important, make sure it is a clean image that portrays what you are offering.
• Do not use all caps, it is harder to read and people WILL skip over your ad completely.
• Use numbers in your subject if you can, it will draw more attention to the ad. Ex: Save 10% on Landscaping is more effective than Landscaping services – Mowing, Gardening, Etc.

#3 Offer multiple ways to respond to your ad:

The truth is some people prefer phone numbers, and some prefer email, cover both sets of people by offering both options for communication.

#4 Provide a link to your website:

Every small business should have a website, and, at the very least it should provide the following information:

• Photos concerning what you do
• A list of services you offer
• When you are open for business
• Your contact information
• An address to your business or more preferably a map

Keep in mind, the more professional your website is, the more likely a visitor is to respond to it

#5 Give them a reason to respond to your ad.

If you offer a percentage off, tell them to mention the ad when they call. You can also offer free services for referrals to your company, or give new customers a special service free of charge.

The main point is your ad needs to stick out compared to everyone else who is advertising on Craigslist. It needs to draw attention to itself without coming across as spammy, scammy or fake. If you can manage to pull this off, you should get some decent leads to your business when all you have invested is a bit of your time. And if you just keep reposting the original post it shouldn’t take much time at all, every 48 hours.

Craigslist posting all of your listings. Do this with a free account, under the housing section. You can repost every 48 hours, and you can post in different cities or areas if you change your text. You won’t be able to copy and paste, but should be able to use the same photos. This takes some time to do, but you can purchase this service to be done for you at $1 per ad.

Press Releases- When you have a new listing, a closing or any news worthy event you can run a press release. Submit to online press release websites and local places will be included. Submit to your local chambers of commerce and email newspapers about it as well. Remember to use a link to your website so they can get more information. I can provide this service for $75

Google Advertising- Otherwise known as pay per click, when someone searches real estate for your area you can come up as one of the ads they will see. You will only pay when they actually visit your website. Contact me to learn how much it costs per click, and ways I can optimize the ad copy and visit to get the most from your campaign.

Facebook Advertising- This works the same way as Google advertising, you will bid on an area and show your ad. When they click to come to your site to see what you have to offer you will be charged. I work with an international company that provides Facebook advertising, ad optimization and site help as well. I can help you set this up, and even put up a facebook fan page for your company.

Youtube- Properly posted youtube videos that feature your location, business name and industry can be broadcasted to several local websites and other video websites. With a link back to your own site you can get fast traffic that keeps coming. You can get your own infomercial for $497, that will include a branded youtube channel and syndication with your website and others. It works quick and can bring results immediately.

These are just a few of the ideas you’ll get from a marketing consultation and blueprint with me. The most popular part of the consultation describes all of the local ways I can help you gain exposure by spending less than you are already doing.

Give me a call if you are interested in getting more exposure for your listings and services 315.271.9587

Know Your Market- Just because you could possibly help everyone in your area, doesn’t mean you market to everyone. You need to choose carefully who you are marketing to. To start with consider your current clientele and write up a list of their features. For plastic surgery what are their ages, sex, hobbies, professions, etc? Once you know this, you can start to consider other places they frequent, magazines they read, websites they visit, and learn more about them.

An online tool I use for this is Quantcast. You can put in a website name such as youtube.com and see who frequents the site. Choose a domain that is common for your clients and learn what you need to know in order to market to them more effectively.

Ask for Referrals- You probably have business cards, but do they ask for referrals? Do you have a referral program in place where you give something to someone for sending you business, if not, why? Have you read The Referral Engine by John Jantsch, it applies to every market and there’s no reason it can’t help you get more work. Check it out. And start asking people if they wouldn’t mind giving your card to someone they think would be interested in your services, you’ll be amazed how much this helps.

Be Part of the Community- If you live in an area where there are activities to do, places to dine, theatres to visit, go out and be part of it. While you are there strike up conversations, volunteer to help, leave a great impression and some business cards.

These might seem like basis tips but you’d be amazed how many people never think to do these simple things. If you have trouble with any of these tips let me know at mary@mary-green.com and I’d be glad to help. I provide a 21 step to marketing success blueprint if you are interested in more great ideas like these to skyrocket your exposure, call today to see what else you could be doing right now to get more business 315.271.9587

1) Advertise on Craigslist- Have you considered posting your services on Craigslist? Here are just a couple of ways to sneak into different categories and get more exposure:

Services- Use this headline: Considering Selling Your Home? and in your post describe a free service you offer to anyone looking to sell their home. You can try free appraisals, free comparative marketing values, staging help for showings, or in depth help discussing for sale by owner options.

For Sale By Owner Homes- Contact these people and give them a free white paper (fancy word for a document) describing how you can help them sell their home. Just by offering tips to these people you will be thought of later on, if they can’t sell their home themselves.

For Sale (not under housing)- This one is simple to by pass. You can offer a free item to anyone looking for information on selling their home. This can be a cheap gift that just allows you to post the free ad in the for sale section which gets the most traffic on Craigslist. This item could be a mug, a $5 gift card, or a small gift certificate to a local restaurant, which leads to a great way to work with local companies and get even more exposure.

2) Use Twitter- When used correctly you can get followers from your area. My secret to getting listings with this method is to be overly helpful to your followers. Offer them tips, tricks, and news they won’t get anywhere else. Become the authority on home buying, selling, and managing and when they need someone to list their homes, you will be at the top of the list. If you need help setting up your account, I offer a great social media package with branding, tweets, and followers.

One last tip on Twitter- everyone seems to set up their account, post a few times and leave it, followers need to see you regularly for you to stick out, if you can’t keep it current hire someone to do it for you, it is an effort well worth the investment.

3) Be Easy to Talk to, and Contact- In my own experience when I wanted to buy a home it would take forever to hear back from a realtor. When I sent emails I hardly ever heard back from them, and when I called, I would have to leave messages that weren’t always returned. Allow your clients to contact you with their own preferred method and they will appreciate talking to you much more.

With the help of internet marketing your real estate company can gain several new local leads everyday. Local search engines pick up when local people search in your area, and once your website is optimized for collecting leads you can receive new leads whenever there is a local search.

And, there are millions of local searches. Google estimates that over 2 billion searches a day are local searches, so people are definitely looking for homes in your area. If you aren’t showing up in the listings you basically aren’t even competing for their business.

When the economy is down and home prices are already suffering, credit is not doing well and you are struggling to find buyers and sellers, you can’t afford not to optimize every option you have, and that’s what I can offer. Not only will I just make sure your website is listed, but everything that goes along with that is included in my services as well.

Do you want to show up for every search for syracuse homes for sale? How about syracuse realtor? Would you like to submit professionally done press releases on a regular basis to increase traffic to your listings? Wouldn’t it be great to have a system set up, where you can automatically collect leads from your website?

With my marketing and internet background I can provide all of the real estate marketing you need. From direct mail post cards, to increased customer satisfaction and client retention I have all of the ideas and techniques you need in today’s market.

I have learned marketing from the best, and continue to improve on my education everyday. Call me today to see what I can do for your website, how I can increase your leads, and sales.

As an internet marketer I wanted to take some time to teach offline businesses how to easily get their businesses online and start using the basics of internet marketing to get more clients, sales, etc. My hope is that with this information your business can begin to experience some of the benefits of web marketing.

But, why do I want to market my business online?
Over the last 10 years you’ve probably noticed a smaller return on investment with traditional advertising. The yellow pages aren’t used as often, so fewer people are looking at the ads, newspapers are online, so your ad isn’t seen by as many people, and other forms of advertising just aren’t working. This graph from Data Insights shows how print advertising is losing it’s value, while internet advertising is on the climb and ROI (return on investment) keeps increasing.

What I love about this information is that internet marketing is much cheaper than traditional advertising. I’ve had clients who spend as much as $40,000 a year just with yellow pages. That could do wonders for a website that is properly optimized, and it would bring in TONS of traffic for a business.

Even if you hired someone (like me) to help you with online marketing, on average, you are still going to spend far less, and with a much higher return on investment, than using traditional advertising. But by learning how to do this all on your own you could save even more money, and still keep the ROI- great news, huh?

This is why I am taking the time to teach you what I can, the simple steps you can take to begin marketing online.

Today’s Lesson:
Having an email address and registering your business with google.

This is going to be a lot easier than it sounds. Today we are going to register your business with Google Places, it is a fast and easy process, that just requires you to fill in your business’s information. It will probably take you longer to read through this post than it will to actually fill out the form, it really is that simple.

For starters we need to get your a google account. If you already have one you are a step ahead. You have an account with Google if you have a gmail account, such as joe@gmail.com or joe@googlemail.com or have registered another email address with their services.

If you do not have an email address it really is best to get one. I recommend gmail (google mail) because they have some of the best spam filters, and once you learn how to use it on an advanced level there is a lot the account can provide, from file and picture storage to archiving all of the emails you ever get. To sign up for it go to www.gmail.com

Now that you have an email address, head over to Google places http://www.google.com/places/

You are going to choose the “Get Started” button under Get your business found on Google.

Next you will list your business, address, email, phone number, hours of operation, services and other information. You want to be as thorough as possible for two reasons. One, you want to give as much information as possible so that you can answer questions people who view your listing will have about your business. Two, the more in depth your listing is, the better you will rank in the search results (we will talk more about this on another day, but it’s the best reason to include lots of information.

Also, if you have a website, please list the link, even if it isn’t the best site, it is better than nothing, and we can work on that later.

Additionally I have a free guide for you, if you want to know more about using Google Places and the process of listing your business. It’s actually pretty short and you can view it here Google-Places Special Report.

That concludes today’s lesson, please post any questions in the comments and I will respond as soon as I can. Remember to come back tomorrow, or sign up to receive the next day’s lesson by inputing your email address below.

Tomorrow’s lesson is about placing ads on Craigslist, how to get more responses, and the craigslist rules you need to follow to make the most of their local service. You’re going to love the ideas I give you to increase responses so, tune in!

Other Resources That May Assist You in Your Listing Process:

Google Places Help Page by Google