In case you missed it, local customers are on-line. I believe there is a lot of low-hanging fruit out there still for local small businesses who play it smart when it comes to web-based or on-line marketing – whether it be via web sites, e-mail marketing, social networks/media, or web-based advertising. Here are some places where I often see huge gaps in what local businesses are doing to capture search traffic looking for what they’re selling. Maybe you can close some of these gaps in your own small business’ on-line presence or marketing by the end of today.

Web Sites

1. Small business owners can make more money by giving customers and prospects more reasons to buy. Being able to update your own web site (content, photos, and links) should be as easy as writing an e-mail to a friend. If it’s not, you have room to improve.
2. Small business owners should know who is visiting their web site and how they got there. Web site traffic is like a focus group of valuable information – without the expence. If you don’t have this data from your web analytics (which should be basically free to access), then you’ve got room to improve.
3. Small business owners should be able to understand and implement (or have someone who can) basic search engine optimization techniques for their local web site. If you don’t know what searches are popular in your local market in your category, and how to optimize your site to grab that traffic without breaking the bank, you have room to improve.
4. If your local business web site isn’t the center of your marketing universe and isn’t well-positioned as an extension of your brick and mortar customer experience, then you’ve got room to improve.
5. If your web site doesn’t provide a way for customers to sign up automatically for your e-mail communications, then you’ve got room to improve.
6. If your web site doesn’t provide a way for customers to connect with you via social media (and vice versa), then you’ve got room to improve.

E-mail Marketing

1. If you aren’t using e-mail marketing to promote your business, you’ve got a huge opportunity awaiting your local business marketing program!
2. If you aren’t using an e-mail marketing program that allows you to split test, segment lists, trigger an unlimited amount of e-mail communications and measure who opened what when and how often – then you’ve got some serious room to improve – and sell more stuff for your local business!
3. If you aren’t consistently sending e-mails to your list – you aren’t staying top of mind, and you’ve got room to improve. If you think “regularly” is less than once a week, then you have room to improve.
4. If you aren’t collecting e-mail addresses aggressively in your business (collecting better than 80% of everyone that walks into your business), then you aren’t doing enough. E-mail addresses are worth gold to your business, and you’ve got room to improve your local marketing!
5. If you aren’t sending a series of thank-you e-mails to new folks on your list to train them to read your e-mails for the rest of your customer relationship, you’ve got room to improve your local e-mail marketing program.
6. If you aren’t using your social media, off-line and web site interactions as a way to gather e-mail addresses straight into your database, you’ve got room to improve your local business marketing.
7. If you aren’t using e-mail to drive traffic to your web site and to learn more about what interests your customers by having multiple options available for their “click,” you’ve got room to improve.

Social Networks or Social Media

1. If your local business doesn’t have a YouTube channel with a username that matches your other social network usernames, and if you don’t have a way to create video quickly and cheaply to share your customer experience and to educate your customers – you’ve got room to improve your small business marketing.
2. If you don’t measure video views by posting a link to the same video link  (usually on YouTube) across all social media and on your web site to replicate your efforts using video, then you have room to improve.
3. If you’re not showing not telling by using a social photo sharing site like Flickr to both show your customer experience, give samples of what’s inside the store and to create inbound links to your web site – then you’ve got lots of room to improve.
4. If you’re not getting a lot of business out of Facebook for your retail business, you’ve got room to improve. Think about how photo albums, video, wall posts, custom tabs, notes and Facebook messages can help you share your customer experience and sell things at full price. Facebook is a powerhouse – if it’s not being one for you, then you’ve got low-hanging fruit to go pick…on Facebook.
5. Don’t get Twitter? Don’t know how to pick customers up – as easily as you’d hail a cab in the city? It’s just that easy… If you’re not listening on Twitter and using Twitter to drive traffic to your web site, you’ve got serious room to grow your local business.
6. If you’re a restaurant, coffeeshop, café or local commercial district and aren’t on Foursquare, you’ve got to get with the program and you’ve got room to grab customers for your local business or business district! If you haven’t claimed your business on Foursquare and haven’t posted offers for folks who are nearby or to reward loyalty, you’ve got some low-hanging fruit ready to pick!
7. If you’ve never heard of Google Buzz – or don’t know how it can help your business strategically get the word out, then you’ve got room to improve.

Ratings & Review Sites

1. If your pin isn’t on the Google Map, you’ve got room to improve your local business marketing.
2. If you haven’t claimed your business on Google Places and optimized your Google Place Page with current status updates, coupons and offers, then you’ve got room to improve your local business marketing.
3. If you haven’t claimed your business on Yelp and if you don’t check it regularly and stay in touch with your customers there and keep your information up-to-date and if you don’t have a system in place to encourage positive reviews on this site, then you’ve got room to  improve the image of your locally owned small business online.
4. If you are a restaurant and you haven’t optimized your business’ presence on Urbanspoon, and if you don’t check it regularly and stay in touch with your customers there and keep your information up-to-date (including menus, food photos, Twitter connections, and comments back to customers), then you’ve got room to improve your small business online reputation.
5. If you don’t know about CraigsList, Thumbtack, Ebay, Angie’s List, Judy’s Book, Merchant’s Circle – or how they can help you sell more stuff for your business of nearly any sort – then you’ve got some serious room to improve your small business sales.

Maybe the easiest way to close the gap is to engage someone who makes it simple and easy to get help with new media and social media marketing  - and grab some easy wins for your local business in the sales department – an expert that really understands locally owned businesses. Get in touch with us directly if you have such a need…

I bet you didn’t know there was so much low-hanging fruit out there, did you? I bet you didn’t know that HOW you did all of these tools mattered so much – but it certainly does. Where will you start today picking low-hanging fruit for your local small business?

This morning, a hotel client asked me how to motivate positive customer reviews on popular ratings and review site, Yelp.

One of the ideas she threw out was to offer a gift certificate to those who commented positively. Another was to hold some sort of contest for a free gift card. These are common responses that take one thing for granted: Genuine praise cannot be bought or sold. But it can be reciprocated and appreciated.

Here’s how that breaks down along with some specific ideas for motivating your own customer reviews on ratings and review sites like Yelp, Urban Spoon, etc.

Why Public Gift Card Offers Will Fail

It just smells bad. Think about it. For example, what if a hotel offered its Facebook fans a gift certificate for their positive review on Yelp? No matter how large or small, it’s still a pay to play situation.

First off, it takes away all chance of an authentic review because the review has been “bought.” Making a simple positive review is pretty low risk, and since humans have a tendency to say almost anything for money or perceived value, they might just patronize your business for their own benefit.

Worse than that, however, is that for all of those who saw your offer – which extends to the networks of your fans and friends, you’ve just devalued, even broken the trust of the ratings site for which you were seeking to motivate reviews. If I know outrightthat the reviews on a site are “bought,” then I’m can no longer trust that site, and it ruins it for the rest of the businesses and users. Now, I understand that your intent as a business owner may be completely pure. And in the old world (pre-social media and relationships marketing), such a tactic was widely accepted. But in today’s world, customers and prospects alike have little trust – and are looking for a reason NOT to trust you as a business. Tactics like these give them just such an excuse.

Bottom line: Reject tactics that offer “payola” in return for customer recommendations or high ratings in any form on any site.

All you have to do is ASK.

First things first: Make sure you’ve set up your page, completed your profile with all vital information, photos, etc. on the ratings/review site in question (This allows you to communicate more directly with your reviewers and gives you some analytics and other information. Your business is most likely present on these sites – you just may not be informed or able to access the data directly.) Here’s what you do next:

1. Get the link to the exact place where one would go to comment or give recommendation about your business.
2. Post the “ask” on your Facebook Page wall. It might look something like this: “If you’ve ever stayed at our property and LOVED it, you can tell others about it by posting a recommendation or testimonial at Yelp.” Share the link and post. If appropriate, write a blog post or “note” on Facebook explaining the importance of such recommendations to your business – from a customer perspective.
3. Tweet out the request with a shortened link to the recommendation page
4. Post a graphic on your web site asking for recommendations from past customers and pointing prospective customers to this site for unbiased feedback.
5. Ask for feedback as a part of a routine e-mail newsletter. Maybe re-use the graphic you put on your web site.
6. Institute a system that e-mails customers within 24 hours of departure asking them for a recommendation while the adrenaline of the experience is still flowing. These will be your best and most vivid comments.

All of these efforts make your customers AWARE of your endorsement and desire for them to participate in specific ratings/review sites, and it encourages them to be human – to share their positive experience with others.

As an alternative to the public campaign, you can ask your best customers for their testimonials. If you’ve been in business for more than a week, you should have at least a handful of loyal, dedicated, outgoing customers. For most of our clients, this list of folks comes immediately to mind. If I ask you to name ten folks who are your “ideal” customer – few business owners hesitate before naming these customers. In this case, call these customers up, send them a private e-mail or Facebook message or Twitter direct message (DM) and just flat out ASK for the testimonial. Send them the link to appropriate page of the ratings/review service. Make it easy for them. Whatever you do, make it a private communication.

Be a Giver. And Always Reciprocate.

Instead of making public offers of reward, I recommend changing your perspective. No matter what the technology platform or off-line situation, a thankful attitude and giving spirit are always in style – and always appreciated – because it’s never done enough.

While potentially controversial among social media purists, this is business after all, and here are two possible alternatives to public purchase of ratings:

1. Say thank you.

When you say “thank you” publicly, you are showing gratitude, taking the spotlight off of you and putting it where it belongs (on your customer) and creating an atmosphere of appreciation and trust among your customers and prospective customers.

Say thank you on the platform, if allowed. Most ratings and review sites have some means by which the business can show appreciation for reviews. Regardless of the tone of the comment, you can learn from it. Be thankful for that insight – and voice it. Future visitors to your business’ profile will see gratitude and a willingness to listen to customers as part of your business DNA. This leads to trust and sales.

Say thank you across platforms. For instance, if someone recommends you on Urban Spoon, but you are already connected to that person on Facebook or Twitter – be sure to publicly thank them on the other platform. Something like this posted on their wall or tweeted at them will do: “Jenny, thanks so much for recommending our restaurant on Yelp! You have no idea how much we appreciate your loyalty.” This will likely lead to an exchange where all of Jenny’s friends and your connections see this and are also motivated to either try out your business OR make a recommendation based on their own experience there.

2. Be a giver.

Random acts of kindness never go out of style. You have a currency that you can spend in your business. If you’re a restaurant, you can give gift certificates or certain food/drink products at very low dollar value – but with great perceived value to your customer. If you’re a hotel, you can give room nights, meals, drinks, value-added experience like free spa treatments or valet parking. Whatever your currency, you can and should spend it to build loyalty through random acts of kindness.

There are many applications for this practice, but today we’re going to focus on how it applies to appreciation for recommendations given. Specifically in this case, I personally believe that you should not give publicly. Use the messaging feature on Facebook, the DM on Twitter or an e-mail to thank the customer and make them aware of your gift. Let THEM do the telling. This is much more authentic and valuable. Once they tell, you can re-tweet, reply to their wall post, etc. thanking them again publicly for their loyalty. Do not in any way tie the gratitude to the specific action of the recommendation in the public forum. May that recommendation simply be a signal to you as a business owner that you have a customer who is sincerely and overwhelmingly loyal – to the point of sharing your business with others. These are the types of customers you want to build relationships with for the long-term. Showing your sincere gratitude to them as part of an ongoing relationship is a great step to this end.

3. Whenever possible, reciprocate.

Do you have customers who are business owners themselves? Whenever possible, look for your customers and their related businesses on-line. Do business with your customers whenever feasible. And if you have a good experience – say so. Go to their profiles on Yelp, Urban Spoon an the like – and leave positive recommendations. Become a fan of THEIR Facebook Pages and leave praise for their business. Comment on their blogs. Don’t ask for anything in return. Be habitual about this. Just build social capital for you and your business – it will pay sooner AND later.

See related article: Leverage for Success