Email marketing is a great way for local small businesses to stay in touch with their current customers.  It’s also a great way to find and engage new customers.  In this episode of the the Brick & Mortar Online Marketing Podcast, Jeff gives you some tips and tricks on how to best utilize email marketing for your brick and mortar local business.

Jeff tells you which email service providers are best for local small businesses to use. He also gives you some great ideas on how to build your email list. Here are just a few of the questions Jeff answers in this podcast.

* What should be included in your emails that you send to your customers and potential customers?

* What is a lead magnet?

* How do you create a lead magnet?

* How do you build your email list?

* Should I be sending follow up emails?

* How often should I be emailing my customers?

* What makes a good subject line?

* What analytics should I be watching?

* What should be included in my small business email template?

* ….and, much more.

Links mentioned in this episode:

mailchimp.com

constantcontact.com

If your local small business has a website, you want it to get found on Google!  Two out of every three people that search online use Google to find your brick and mortar business. Google can find you on their own, but you want to help them as much as possible. In this episode of the podcast, I go over the best practices for Google to find your local business. And, more importantly tell your potential customers about your business.

Local search is an important aspect to your online presence.  Google wants to hear from you and your business. The outline below let’s you know what we are covering in this episode of The Brick and Mortar Online Marketing Podcast.

What can I do with my website content to make certain Google sees it the way it’s meant to be seen?

* Make your pages relevant to what the customer is searching for.

* Use keywords that potential customers are using on Google.

* Use Alt Tags for your images

* Use Rich Snippet

* https://developers.google.com/structured-data/testing-tool/

* Local Business Schema

*  https://wordpress.org/plugins/51blocks-json-schema/

*  http://schema.org

How do I use Google Business to improve my small business search ranking?

* Google Business  https://www.google.com/business/

*      Claim Your Listing

*      Address

*      Contact Info

*      Category

*      Hours

*      Description

*      Photos

*           Identity Photos

*           Interior Photos

*           Exterior Photos

*           Product Photos

*           Team Photos

*           Additional Photos Compelling Photos that don’t fit into the other categories

How does Google Plus improve my search engine ranking?

https://plus.google.com

*      About comes from Google Business

*      Posts (add these to tell google more about your business)

*      Reviews

Why should I be using Google’s webmaster tools to help my local search engine optimization?

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home/

*      Submit Sitemap for your site

*      Look at crawl errors

*      Structured Data Testing Tool

*      Page Speed Insights (user Experience)

*      Mobile Friendly Test

*      Webmaster Academy

How should I be using Google Adwords to find keywords for the local search of my small business?

https://adwords.google.com 

     Keyword Testing Tool (Keyword Research)

What should I be tracking with Google Analytics that helps me with my local small business website?

 https://analytics.google.com

*      Acquisition/Channels

*           Referral

*           Direct

*           Organic Search

*           Social

*           Paid Search

*      Behavior

*           Site Content/All Pages

*      Conversions

*           Goals

You can find the show notes for this episode at http://JeffDemaree.com/1

In this first podcast of the season, we talk about all the things that a brick and mortar local small business needs on their website.  You learn many of the things to consider to help you make your website a lead generation tool.  We also discuss how market and sell to your existing customers of your brick and mortar local small business.

More specifically we discuss the following:

As a small local business, why do I need a website?

* So customers can find you.

* Who you are, how you began, your successes, your offerings

* What your company has to offer

* How to find you

* How to contact you

* Show off…with customer testimonials

* Determine the purpose of your website

What does your brick and mortar website need content wise?

* A simple, appropriate website address.

* Easy Navigation

* Easy to Find Contact Information

* Google Maps Integration

* An obvious call to action/Estimate/Services for Specific Need

* Basic SEO

* Services Page, Contact Page, Product Page, About Page, Company Logo for Branding

* Be Clear What your Business Does

* Avoid Stock Photos

* Appointment Scheduler?

* Regular Maintenance

* Useful Quality Content/Blog that helps customers (SEO Local Keywords)

What technology do you need for your local small business website?

* Secure hosting company that offers WordPress

* WordPress

* Mobile Optimized

* Online Tutorials or a Designer

Links mentioned in this episode include:

Google Maps Tutorial

Hostmonster Website Hosting (Affiliate Link)

In this introduction of the Brick & Mortar Online Marketing Podcast, I talk about what you can expect from my new podcast.  We cover my background and what  you can expect as a brick and mortar local small business from this new podcast.