Local Marketing Forecast ’16, Call Tracking For Local Biz, What Your Website Should Do, and more…

• Local marketing outlook-more from LOAC 2016

  • Digital larger than all other channels

  • Promotions larger than advertising

  • Marketing Services taking over

Local businesses don’t spend much for digital advertising, right? WRONG! In fact, there are more local $$ spent in digital media today than any other channel. That line was crossed late last year. It’s growth will only continue. And by 2020, spending in digital media is expected to amount to 2/3’s of ALL local ad spending.

Ok, so that’s “advertising.” But marketing is so much more than advertising spend, SO MUCH MORE! In fact, spending on local “marketing and promotions” exceeded advertising media spend by 70%! That means for every $1 spent for an ad in a local newspaper, $1.70 was spent towards promotions. That metric is also expected to grow, by 2020, marketing promotion spending should be eclipsing local advertising spend by 160%.

And finally, why are we always harping on digital SERVICES rather than just talking about banners, search and websites? Well, it’s because doing digital marketing right demands attention to the back end. A great website fails without proper maintenance, a well constructed banner campaign won’t grow awareness without optimization and tracking, and a great social media post of interest to a target audience will not reap any benefit without enhancing engagement and two-way communication. All of these describe services. Digital advertising is not plug ‘n play, it’s not run it and run away from it. It is designing the right message, reaching the  right audience, with the right channel, then measuring and optimizing. This requires tools and expertise. All of these “services” are starting to be noticed. In  fact, there is more than $600 million spent in digital services today, and by 2020 that is expected to grow by 33%.

What’s fueling this growth? SMB’s and VSMB’s…or in plain English Small and Mid-Sized Businesses and Very Small and Mid-Sized Businesses. The number of businesses today with less than 100 employees is staggering. The number of businesses today with less than 10 employees is, well, VERY staggering. And these businesses are all moving to digital services where they can self-serve their own marketing, or use tools that help them measure what their local provider has crafted for them.

So, if I’m a local business, I am going to take a look my overall marketing spend and evaluate if my spending mix is in line with the direction  the needle is moving. I am going to start to ask experts about how to be a better at promotions, not just placing ads. And I am going to consider the investment I make towards my website, social media management, and audience monitoring  part of my overall marketing spend.

And what am I going to do if today, I’m the guy that provides marketing services to SMB’s I am going to start to become that expert the  local business owner can rely on for advice, stop focusing on “selling advertising”, and be more knowledgeable about the tools I can provide for my local clients to help them grow their market share.

Want to see a piece of an actual presentation on this very subject?  Here’s a link to an abridged version of a presentation from Borrell Research at the recent LOAC 2016.

• Call tracking…how else are you going to measure your marketing?

Call tracking is a fantastic way to measure incoming response. Not only does it provide a fool-proof method of recording who and when is placing the call, unless you have intentionally elected to NOT record, businesses can use this to measure their own service levels on the phone and better understand what customers are calling about. But there remains an assumption that call tracking is something that only auto dealers, and late night infomercial producers really use. And along with that bias, you might add several very dated assumptions that using a phone number that not belonging to a local business will have a negative impact on customers, none of which are true.

Dated assumption #1. Call Tracking is good for just a limited number of businesses.

2016 Fact: Call tracking is used by a wide variety of businesses today; legal, services, restaurants, plumbers, electricians, real estate, caterers, B2B businesses, the list is long and varied.

Dated assumption #2: When calls come in to the call tracking number, the caller is handed off to the local business phone system, and that “hand-off” intimidates the callers, causing them to hang up.

2016 Fact: Nobody hangs up when the call is handed off from call tracking to the local phone system. There is no evidence of this, no data, but if there were call tracking companies would want to know.

Dated assumption #3: Local businesses should not use any phone number other than the one they have thru their local phone company. It’s the same one that local customers have used for years, and they will be confused by seeing a different number, it’s bad for business.

2016 Fact: Nobody in  2016 remembers anyone’s phone numbers. They are stored in devices, and called up when needed. They are almost intentionally NOT memorized for that very reason. That’s the reason that vanity numbers are no longer worth the effort. And good call tracking companies utilize local numbers so you can forget the 1-800 objection.

Dated assumption #4: Call tracking number confuse Google. By showing the call tracking number online Google will see a different phone number thus hurting my search rank.

2016 Fact: Good use of call tracking numbers will not obscure SEO. There once was a time when bad use of call tracking numbers would result in the number showing  up in online listings. But in today’s world, when a business is doing a good job of keeping those listings clean, (or utilizing a list optimization service to do so) proper use of call tracking numbers is a great tracking tool with no negative side effects.

So, if you are a local business, you might want to look again at call tracking. It’s a very inexpensive complement to a good marketing program. It will help track your results, provide a tool to determine your marketing ROI. And if you are a marketing services provider, you should get well-versed in what call tracking can do and how it will help your local client. It’s not an “ad” so it’s not going to help you build your weekly volume metrics. Unless you consider doing a great job for all of your clients, leading them to lean harder on your expertise and advice going forward, and maybe even referring future customers to you, something that will add to your own success.

Want to know more about how call tracking can work across a number of platforms? Check out StreetFightMag.com, Jan. 2015.

• Does your website have a purpose? (There’s a good chance it doesn’t.)

More than 50% of all dollars spent by local businesses focus on their digital “presence.” That’s code for WEBSITE!. We’ve talked about those businesses that try to go it alone, without a website, in today’s world. Let’s assume we now have a group of businesses that really know they should have one. (Remember, that’s more than half of all the dollars invested.)

Any business website should aim to accomplish something. Either sell stuff, capture leads/customers or start the engagement with them, or establish brand and credibility. Sounds great right? But the fact of the matter is that most small businesses DON’T HAVE A PURPOSE FOR THE WEBSITE THEY HAVE.

If you are a local business, your website should be an extension of your operation. It should be able to answer questions, provide actionable information and capture information on  which you are able to follow up. It should be updated frequently and it should have a professional presence. (Note: don’t get enamored with the fact that you can link social media or blogs to your site, that is SOP in today’s world.) If you are a marketing services provider don’t overlook the website as THE centerpiece of the digital marketing efforts. Be able to provide critical comment on existing sites, and if you can improve, don’t hesitate to offer your expertise.

For a short list of what you can/should expect from your business website, check out Forbes.com, July 2013. Still worth a look in today’s business climate.

Comment on the above subject: Too many local businesses have bad websites today. And too many local businesses are vested in those bad websites because they worked long and hard to establish them. That’s ok. The technology is moving so fast that its understandable that changes have occurred faster than they may be able to accommodate. A good website today is a quantifiable business asset. Businesses should be able to depend upon their website to be an extension of their brick and mortar, or of their personnel. The website is never going to be a finished works of art left to stand the test of time. Instead, it’s always “work in progress” something to be optimized as the business grows.