Maximize Local Marketing Opportunities
As part of our move back to the Bay Area, I needed to have our HD-TV installed on a wall of our living room. Anything that requires a screwdriver in our household requires a call to a professional. I googled around for “home theater installers” and used ServiceMagic to identify a local contractor.
Although I’ve had spotty luck (at best) with ServiceMagic, this time they came through with a quality dude. Once I take a shine to someone, I can’t help but quiz them about how they market themselves: how’s their website doing for them, do they do any PR, do they worry about their online reviews, etc.?
After chatting with our new a/v installer, Chris Hinton (and no-doubt slowing down my own installation in the process!), I did some quick research in front of him…
“You’re lucky your number was the first one ServiceMagic gave me,” I said. “There’s no other way I could have found you!”
“Look at my local Google Results:
“Now check out Yelp:
“So let’s review. You’ve got poor SEO — you don’t even show up in Google’s Local Search results, even though you live around the corner from me.”
“And look at that huge coverage gap in the East Bay on the Yelp map: you could be the top dog in the East Bay when it comes to A/V installation, if you got just a handful of 5–star reviews.”
“And if you’re still not convinced, check out how many people in the East Bay are on Twitter (via Twellowhood):
“These folks are affluent, they’re hanging out online, and you could be interacting with them.”
“For example, once 3D TVs become a bigger deal, a lot of these local Twitterati will want that equipment — and if they know about Hinton Home Theater Installation already, cuz maybe you’ve been tweeting about 3D tv’s and video games, who do you think they will call? Don’t you want them to call y-o-u?”
We’ll see whether Chris takes my advice. Will you?
P.S. – Hinton Home Theaters did quality work at a good price, and Chris is a good guy. If you live in the Bay Area and need some home theater installation services, give him a call (408-823-9857). Tell him Todd sent ya.
Posted on: July 16, 2010 at 3:36 pm By bfriend
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Although local marketing is an emerging trend, there is a huge gap between self service platforms like Google Places or Yelp and the willingness of many small business owners to overcome the learning curve. This opens a very profitable opportunity for people with basic and mid level marketing skills to provide local marketing services to such business owners
You sound like me. I drone on and on about this when I meet local businesses who are missing out on using technology to get their name out. Amazing most don’t get that if they aren’t on the web they are not reaching a whole segment of potential customers.
great points thanks
You sound like a nagging old woman.
There can be many different approaches depending on the product or service you have to offer. Some times pay per click is the best approach, some times SEO and some time good old fashioned guerrilla marketing is best. Thank You
I am cracking up in my office at the thought of being the poor non-tweeting, Yelpless dude who shows up at Todd Defren’s house! That is either the best install ever or the worst for that guy. If Mr. Hinton is smart (and he must be, because he can install things) then he’ll view this extra long install with plenty of free advice the guy who wouldn’t stop talking marketing as the best install project ever. I wonder if he knows that free advice from Todd is like winning a social media / PR prize?
Now I can only hope that other locals get in on the action. Well, not in the East Bay, where we want Hinton Home Theaters to dominate.
Thanks for this. I am sending this to every small business owner I know.
~ Jules Zunich
I really feel sorry for the small business owners who haven’t yet grasped the importance of online marketing. There is an entire generation of customers who never use the yellow pages. Our primary vehicle for identifying vendors and reviewing their credibility is the Internet. No matter how many print directory listings, newspaper ads and direct mail pieces they send, they will be missing out.
One: They will not be getting the eyeballs when they are most needed, when the prospect is searching for a solution. Two: The will not be able to leverage their current and past customer base to promote them trough digital word of mouth marketing.
We can only hope that they will learn soon before their businesses are truly hurt by their inaction.