This Just In, Google Recruits Local Sales Force
Gregg Stewart gives you a heads up on Google Local Business Referrals and continues his review of local search strategies by covering underutilized local media sources.
Gregg Stewart gives you a heads up on Google Local Business Referrals and continues his review of local search strategies by covering underutilized local media sources.
Before we continue our review of local search strategies and tactics, I would like to take a moment to comment on a new program by Google that I found interesting over the past week.
Google is placing a high value on sourcing accurate local business information by making its first move into organizing a local data collection and potential future sales force. Google’s Local Business Referrals (LBR) program provides registered “business referral representatives” with up to $10 for each listing approved by Google and verified by the local business via online form or postcard.
Representatives visit local businesses to collect information (such as hours of operation, types of payment accepted, etc.) for Google Maps, telling them about Google Maps and AdWords products. Additionally, they snap a few digital photos of the business to appear on the Google Maps listing along with the business information.
Local premise sales have long been the domain of the Yellow Pages publishers and other localized media such as newspapers. This grass roots effort is very interesting and can potentially benefit Google in two ways:
Everyone knows Google has been highly successful in monetizing the search engine keyword space, and now, the first to truly tap into the local advertising marketplace will profit handsomely.
It will be interesting to keep an eye on this program as it develops to see if this “bottom-up” approach to sales force development gains momentum and traction.
Google, Yahoo!, MSN and Ask are terrific sources of both national and local leads. However, many categories/keywords have become saturated and costly for marketers. One tactic to help against keyword cost inflation is to expand into additional media sources beyond the top four search sites.
A comprehensive, localized media plan should leverage some of the underutilized local media sources to ensure the most efficient cost-per-lead. Additionally, many of these sources are less competitive, providing increased lead-to-sale conversion opportunities. In other words, take the long-tail economics approach beyond keyword selection and expand it into media selection. Below are a few options:
How do you go about finding city guides and local media sources? Look for local media sources the same way consumers find them – word of mouth from other local businesses. A lookup on the search engines for “local information town name” is often a good starting place. For example, a search for “local advertising Atlanta GA” returns a link result for Kudzu.com, a great source of informational and local search advertising leads for Atlanta and the surrounding suburbs.
So once again, think tactical; target local opportunities where competition is light, your cost of sales leads is low, and your ability to convert to sale is higher.
In proceeding with your campaign, make sure you track the effectiveness of your ads. Start with simple lead counts. Next time, we will explore comprehensive local tracking (both online and offline) and how to gauge the effectiveness of your local online efforts.