I have to admit that somewhere in the cluttered attic of my brain I had thought that “Now we are Three” was a book about Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh (I just wrote that as Winnie the Pho…who is presumably a kind of Asian soup…). On further investigation I think I was confused by “When we were very young.” which is a Pooh story. In any event…it’s our birthday…eLcoal Listing is three years old today. I have to admit that on occasion it feels like much longer, it’s been a very intense and interesting time. We have built a considerable business by providing effective and affordable internet marketing for small businesses all over the US.

In those three years time we have established a strong track record and a huge customer base of companies who thanks to eLocal get found on the front page of the major Search Engines every day by people  looking for their products or services locally. We have driven millions of visitors to our customers through Local Search and have helped our customers land  thousands of new projects from new business. We have launched successfully in Europe and become a force to be reckoned in the US.

Looking back at what is perhaps most remarkable is just how important the world of Local Search has become. A few years ago Local was the redheaded step child of Search. The focus was squarely on national brands and national search driven mostly through Pay Per Click advertising and traditional site based Search Engine Optimization. A few short years later the landscape has changed dramatically. Recently Google themselves announced that at least 20% of all queries they process are local in intent. With the emergence of social media with Facebook and Twitter which themselves also generate enormous amounts of local content, local is gaining in importance all the time.

We find ourselves squarely in the middle of this exciting and fast growing market. It turns out that local businesses, many of whom have minimal experience in advertising let alone online advertising, have figured out that they can track every dime spent online through our products. That means that every day we are held accountable by tens of thousands of local businesses who ask us “what have you done for me lately.” The answer is typically “we have driven a bunch of calls to your phone and visitors to your company information online and we are helping you to grow your business and pay your bills”. Every month a local business lands a couple of new deals because eLocallisting.com made their phone ring through local search. As our customers grow and thrive so do we.

I am enormously proud of what our team has achieved and I have every confidence that having achieved so much in such a short time the best is yet to come. Happy Birthday elocallisting.com….and many happy returns.

~Tim Judd
President and CEO of eLocal Listing, the nation’s leading provider of internet marketing.
www.elocallisting.com

I have attended many (many) Search Engine conferences. They are sometimes fascinating, sometimes dull, and on occasion soul crushingly boring. I especially enjoy the keynote sessions given by the great and the good of the Search world. What’s noticeably missing in many sessions is hard data. Understandably folks tend to play their cards close to their chests, but any nugget of real data is a refreshing change…getting hard data from the almighty (by which I of course mean Google®) is a rare and wonderful thing.

Then just the other day Google® came out with an announcement, almost casually, that 20% of all the Searches that they process are related to Local Search. I have heard the question “How much of search is Local?” debated any number of times and have heard numbers as small as 4% and as high as 40%. Clearly the pundits were throwing darts at a wall and giving their best guess. Then Google® put us all out of our misery and let the local search cat out of the bag…it’s 20%.  According to a press release from Google® itself they state that “about the percentage of local searches is “20%”.  This number is significantly higher than comScore’s estimate of 11-12% and to put it all in perspective that is 2.8 billion (yes, I said billion) local queries on Google® each month.

Is 20% a big number?…Well it’s a decent pay raise or a horrible inflation rate. In our world of local search 20% of the half a billion queries trafficked by Google is about 100 million queries per day or 2.8 billion (yes, I said billion) local queries on Google each month.

So now, at every Search conference I attend, every presenter (no matter how dull) will now have at least one amazing, heart stopping, startling statistic which validates the importance of everything we do. 20%…Wow!

~Tim Judd
President and CEO of eLocal Listing, the nation’s leading provider of internet marketing.
www.elocallisting.com

As I never tire or stating…I’m a huge Google fan…given my job I pretty much have to be. Cut me crosswise and I have Google written in concentric circles….I’m currently reading a book about those awfly clever people. So I was a bit taken aback earlier this week when I opened up my Gmail to find an invitation to join ad new social network platform called Buzz. OK ‘cool’ I thought…just what I need…another social network to be annoyed by use for two weeks then ignore. When I checked it out I was more than slightly weirded out to note that they had taken the precaution of jump starting my network by hooking up a bunch of more or less random folk from my Gmail distribution lists. The people involved had been neatly selected to be my followers and I was selected to follow a bunch of others.

I know Google is pretty munch omniscient…but even I thought this was a little high handed of them to suggest which of my diverse bunch of correspondents might like each other. I’m guessing they looked for emails where I had included multiple folk in the CCs and figured since I knew them they would probably know each other…a fair assumption but a little rude and potentially disastrous…a couple of scenarios ran through my mind and I got goose flesh just thinking about them.

As it turned out my mild surprise was as nothing to the rain of pain that descended on the Googleplex with everyone from the Canadian government down sharing their concerns/paranoia over this over enthusiastic feature. Google is much more than a day late and a dollar short to the whole social media thing.They have a ton of loyal Gmail users (like me) but those 100 million or so users barely compare to the 400 million Facebook users and I can see how it would be attractive to launch with a built in user base and Shazam! instant social media giant.

In fairness Google took the criticism well and have responded by changing the way the product works and has retreated behind “we were just trying it out and looking for feedback” defense..the last refuge of the scoundrel, but it does rather neatly make the point as my old grandma used to be fond of saying… just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

Recently eLocal Listing was a sponsor at the Local Search Summit conference during SES San Jose. Local Search Summit was one of the first conferences with it’s main focus being local search. Some of the highlighted speakers were Jason Calcanis (Mahalo), Steve Stukenborg (Google), Jeremy Stoppleman (Yelp), Jennifer Chin (Google), Sarah Smith (Facebook), and plenty of others.

Since Local Search Summit was only one day each panel was jammed packed with today’s thought leaders on local search, social media, and mobile technology.  Steve Espinosa moderated quite a few panels, and eLocal’s Todd Johnson made an appearance on the panel about “What kind of products do small businesses really need” and shared his sales experience and knowledge with the crowd. I personally was honored to share a panel with Will Scott of Search Influence, and Sarah Smith of Facebook where we discussed social media’s impact on the ability to drive and convert leads for small businesses. You can see my presentation here, and Sarah’s presentation here. (make sure to turn up your volume, as the audio is a bit low).

Overall I enjoyed every session and was able to take away something valuable from each one. eLocal’s Own Steve Espinosa headed up the conference and was well applauded for a great event that ended up being the talk of SES San Jose.

Here are some links to other blogs that covered the events and their feedback/wrap up’s.

SES San Jose YouTube Chanel

Local Search News Wrap Up

Aaron Irizarry Social Media Session and Q&A

Expand 2 Web by Don Campbell Summit Wrap up

Wendy from Cadmus Environmental of Houston, TX had some of the typical problems small businesses have, people just couldn’t find her business on line.

She knew that as a mold inspector in Houston, TX she was providing a valuable service helping people in Houston’s mold prone climate, and she knew she needed to be found online, but she just hadn’t discovered the right solution that fit her budget.  Wendy even considered doing local search marketing on her own because many Internet Marketing firms were just too expensive.

Then Kyle from eLocal Listing called, explained the services and pricing and worked with Wendy to outline the benefits of the program.  Wendy decided that with the affordable monthly fee and the no contract obligation, that she would give elocallisting a try.  Wendy decided to test out a Premium Profile for three months.  But within the first few weeks she could tell she was getting business from the listing.

Unlike other affordable online services, eLocal Listing places businesses on the major Search Engines with an optimized, highly targeted, call to action driven Business Profile.  In a nut shell, eLocal Listing drives motivated consumers to your business through Local Search.

Wendy agrees…

“The thing I like about the calls I get from [my advertising with eLocal Listing], is that the caller has pre-selected me before they even call since they’ve already read about me and like the approach I take. It cuts down on the amount of selling over the phone I have to do in comparison to the leads I get from other services.”

We are so pleased to have Wendy and Cadmus Environmental as part of the eLocal Listing family.  Thanks for the information and trusting eLocal Listing to provide you with affordable and effective Internet Marketing.

eLocal Listing introduces Found Fast Multi-City, the first regional Internet Marketing product of its kind.  If Americans spend 80% of their income within 50 miles of their home, shouldn’t your Internet Marketing Campaign reach them where they are spending money?

Now it can, eLocal Listing’s Multi-City Package allows businesses to expand their reach within 50 miles of their business.  There’s no monthly contract, website needed, and no bidding.  eLocal Listing makes Internet Marketing Easy, Affordable, and Effective.

Find out more at www.elocallisting.com

Searching for sales, traffic and branding.

Below is a great article that was recently posted on emarketer.com.

According to a joint study by Econsultancy and search engine optimization (SEO) firm Guava, online marketers around the globe (particularly in the UK) are increasingly turning to search marketing tactics.

Fifty-five percent of respondents said they planned to raise spending on SEO, and 45% said the same of paid search.

In addition, 31% of SEO and 32% of paid search users said they intended to maintain their budgets.

Savvy search marketers use paid search and SEO to accomplish different tasks, however.

In 2008, marketers said that the main objectives of paid search were (in order) to capture online sales, generate sales leads, drive Website traffic and enhance the brand. As for SEO, most marketers said its primary purpose was to drive traffic, create leads, generate sales and brand.

In 2009, marketers’ perceptions are in similar (but lower) proportions across the board.

With the global economy faltering, and money in short supply, search marketing is often the tool that marketers rely on to attract new customers.

“Search marketing is the best customer acquisition tool in the online space,” said eMarketer senior analyst David Hallerman.

In addition, SEO offers pluses over paid search—though its advantages must be built up over time, which some marketers have little of in today’s economy.

“SEO improves organic listings, which Internet users prefer over paid search, and it is cost-effective,” said Mr. Hallerman. “Furthermore, optimization works across all search engines, and an optimized site does not drop off the first results page even when marketer spending slows or stops—as it can with paid search.”

I was reading a book on the merits (or lack thereof) of cold calling and came across some poignant points that made me stop and pause for a moment to reflect on the difference between more traditional (ok, some will say old fashioned) methods of selling and newer methods fueled by the Internet, the power of Search, and the influence of the consumer.

I will paraphrase a few of these concepts from a book written by Frank Rumbauskas …

“A certain percentage of the market is predisposed, ready, and willing to buy your product [or use your service]. Instead of wasting time [reaching out to] a bunch of people who will NEVER buy your product, you need to find and perfect ways and means of attracting the people who WANT to buy your product before they call your competitors and buy from them instead.”

That is what Search offers small businesses; a perfect way of attracting the people who WANT your product or services.  With Online Search, consumers actively search for businesses who can solve their problem or provide a service or product.   They Search for you – imagine how effective this type of advertising and marketing actually is.  You place your business in front of customers searching for you.  Local Search is even more targeted and effective since consumers are looking for a product or service in a specific location (city/town/zip code).

The secret to sales success is no longer in television, classifieds, radio, or direct mail, (although I really believe that online mixed with traditional advertising is a great way to grow businesses and I will blog on it in another post) instead the secret is to “create and enact systems to uncover people who WANT to buy your product” or service.

Online search marketing does just that .. a way to reach interested, qualified, and motivated customers searching for YOU!

I actually thought I had missread the story when I received the alert in my email this morning. I was skimming stories at the airport headed to Silicon Valley, and when I mentioned it in passing to a steely eyed VC type today he leapt gazelle like to his Blackberry and indeed confirmed that the mighty Idearc had filled for chapter 11. I’m a huge audio book fan, I get to fly a lot and I fill in the spots where my laptop is out of juice with the spoken word. When the narrator starts a section with “Chapter Eleven” a shiver runs down my spine. I wish the good folks at Idearc nothing but the very best, they are a very smart hard working bunch and we are already working with them successfully on several projects. I look forwards to them emerging stronger moving forwards.

What this story, and the pending possible restructuring of several other Yellow Pages giants, points to is the perfect storm of bad news which has swamped the decks of many fine companies. The economy is famously bad, sales are down, the Yellow Page print product has been hemorrhaging cash for years and the increasing stampede of local advertisers from print yellow pages to online offerings which generate track-able local results is becoming overwhelming.

Newspapers have been beset by many of the same issues, my own local Metro the mighty Boston Globe may stop publishing in the near future. Both the Yellow Pages and newspapers have been unable to completely replace the revenue lost from the high priced print products sold by humans on a face to face basis with much lower cost online products sold online or over the phone.

In the old days the purveyors of print ad products never had to prove that their products delivered value for money….over a hundred years or so they emerged as part of the landscape…a must have for any local business. Indeed in many, perhaps all cases the “dead tree products” proved highly effective as a way to deliver customers to advertisers. There is an advertising truism that “half of all advertising is wasted…the problem is nobody can tell which half.” Since the late 90’s print advertising products have been pecked away at by the pure play verticals. When was the last time you sold an exercise bike, bought a car or found a soul mate through a print product? Of course it still happens but it happens less often than it used to.

Even given those changes some sections have remained robust print advertisers. However increasingly local advertisers have an alternative to print products across all segments; they can count the clicks and measure the calls generated by their online advertising and those ad products don’t have to be bought on an annual basis.

Here at eLocal we see the impact of these changes every day. Our advertisers are looking to get on the front page of search results and they count every click, lead and call which we generate. They rightly hold us to a very high “what have you done for me lately” standard. If we aren’t effective we apply more effort to get them to where they need to be. The print equivalent would be a yellow pages company delivering more and more books, burying entire city blocks in paper, until each advertiser was satisfied with their results. It’s a tough standard and we are happy to deliver against it every day.

You can read the entire story here.

Found a great read about the ongoing battle between Google, and the newspaper industry.

Reports out of the Newspaper Association of America’s annual convention this week focused on the perceived drama between newspaper publishers and Google. Observers have been fixed on the rifts between the search firm and newspaper publishers, which some say suffer because of search engine-facilitated distribution of their content. However, the NAA itself at the San Diego event promoted search engine marketing as a potential revenue stream for its member publishers.

During a presentation Monday, the NAA’s SVP Business Development Randy Bennett, along with VP Advertising Mort Goldstrom, suggested a variety of ways newspaper firms can enhance their digital ad offerings. Among their recommendations: search engine marketing services.

Read the complete article here