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MARKETINGLOCAL BUSINESS The Marketing Guide for Local Businesses Owners November 2014 How To Get Local Online Your Local Directories: Business Why it is Critical your Noticed on Business is Listed! Black Friday • The Ultimate List of Local Online Directories 10 Free Tools to Test Your Website’s Speed Facebook Bans Fan-Gating: 3 Alternatives Usability 101: Tips for Improving the Visitor Experience of Your Website Infographic: Local Search Ranking Factors FREE! Proudly Provided by LMS Solutions, Inc. MARKETINGLOCAL BUSINESS Inside This Each November we’re reminded to pause and Month’s Issue think about those things that we are truly thankful for. 4 Marketing Calendar Aside from the traditonal things, such as family and health, we have many things to be thankful 5 Facebook Bans Fan-Gating: for, and we don’t take them for granted. 3 Alternatives We’re thankful for our valued clients! 7 Building Better Business Curb Appeal We’re thankful that you find value in this magazine! 8 Curb Appeal Checklist We’re thankful for the number of client referalls we receive! 9 How To Get Your Local Business Noticed on Black We’re thankful that the services we provide help Friday our clients grow their business. Time To Start Planning We’re thankful for you! If you aren’t yet one of 12 Holiday Gifts: our clients, we look forward to the day we can count you as part of our business family. But what should you give? If you have any comments about this issue or 14 Usability 101: Tips for would like us to help you with your marketing Improving the Visitor please do not hesitate to contact us. Experience of Your Website Regards, 15 10 Free Tools to Test Your David Akers Website’s Speed President / CEO LMS Solutions, Inc. 17 Local Online Directories: Why it is Critical your The content on the Local Business Marketing Magazine is made Business is Listed! available on the terms and condition that the publisher, editors, contributors and related parties: The Ultimate List of Local shall have no responsibility for any action or omission by any other 21 contributor, consultant, editor or related party; Directories disclaim any and all liability and responsiblity to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other 22 News You Should Know cause; are not responsible in any way for the actions or results taken any person, organization or any party on basis of reading information, or Infographic contributions in this publication, website or related product. 23 A Little About Us Local Business Marketing Magazine is proudly provided by LMS Solutions, Inc. LMS Solutions was developed to give businesses Did you know that we are a full-service ad agency? of all sizes the ability to leverage the same cutting- Did you also know that we specialize in helping edge marketing platforms that the Fortune 500 small and medium sized businesses? We customize organizations use, at extremely affordable rates. a program that meets the needs and budgets of each of our clients, and we offer Free Initial We offer an extensive catalog of cutting-edge Local Consultations. Give us a call to learn how we’ve Online, Mobile, Social, Pay-Per-Click, Video, Web and helped businesses like yours grow revenue: Direct Marketing Media Programs. Whether you’re a small business, large business or an ad agency, our • Mobile Marketing • Online Marketing programs can help you find greater success. • Web Services • Social Media If you are a small advertising agency, or an • Reputation Marketing independent marketing consultant, you’re a perfect Management • Direct Mail candidate for our LMS Solutions Partner Program. • Video Marketing • Email Marketing Find out more by visiting our website. • Outdoor Marketing • Graphic Design LMS Solutions is a proud member of: If you have any questions, or would like to know how we can help you meet and exceed you marketing goals, please contact us. (484) 893-4055 www.LMSsuccess.com Marketing Calendar Plan your marketing messages around these upcoming holidays and proclamations. NOVEMBER American & National Diabetes Month 2nd - Daylight Saving Time Ends American Indian Heritage Month 3rd - Sandwich Day Diabetic Eye Disease Month 4th - National Candy Day Epilepsy Awareness Month 5th - National Doughnut Day Lung Cancer Awareness Month 6th - National Men Make Dinner Day National Alzheimer’s Disease Month 8th - National Cappuccino Day National COPD Month 10th - Marine Corps Birthday National Peanut Butter Lovers Month 11th - National Sundae Day National Pet Cancer Awareness Month 14th - National Pickle Day Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month 15th - National Philanthropy Day 16th - National Fast Food Day 18th - Mickey Mouse Birthday November 4 - Election Day (USA) 26th - National Cake Day November 11 - Veteran’s Day (USA), Remembrance 28th - Black Friday Day (Canada, Ireland, UK) November 27 - Thanksgiving (USA) November 29 - Small Business Saturday November 30 - Cyber Sunday, St. Andrew Day (UK) DECEMBER World AIDS Month 10th - Human Rights Day National Write A Business Plan Month 12th - National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day National Tie Month 13th - Day of the Horse Tomato and Winter Squash Month 15th - Bill of Rights Day Universal Human Rights Month 16th - National Chocolate Covered Anything Day Worldwide Food Service Safety Month 17th - Wright Brothers Day 18th - Answer The Telephone Like Buddy The Elf Day December 17th-24th - Chanukah 18th - Free Shipping Day December 26th-January 1st - Kwanzaa 18th - National Re-gifting Day 21st - Crossword Puzzle Day 21st - Humbug Day 1st - Cyber Monday 21st - World Peace Day/Winter Solstice 2nd - National Mutt Day 23rd - Festivus 2nd- Special Education Day 24th - Christmas Eve 3rd - International Day of Persons With Disabilities 25th - Christmas 4th - National Cookie Day 26th - National Whiner’s Day 4th - World Wildlife Conservation Day 28th - Endangered Species Act Day 5th - National Salesperson Day 28th & 29th - National Chocolate Day 6th - Bartender Appreciation Day 30th - Bacon Day 7th - National Pearl Harbor Rememberance Day 31st - Make Up Your Mind Day 7th - National Cotton Candy Day 31st - New Years Eve Facebook Bans Like-Gating: 3 Alternatives To the horror of many, Facebook recently achieve a variety of your goals. For example, a announced it will ban the practice of like- Facebook ad is ideal for increasing the number gating this November. In the weeks since this of downloads or clicks for something you are announcement, marketers have rapidly searched offering, for suggesting content to potential for effective alternatives to like-gating. As one of customers, targeting members of your email list, the most widely used tricks on the platform, its or even just getting the attention of your existing absence is sure to be felt by countless marketers, audience. Ads are also great at helping you collect but there’s no reason to worry. Below you learn email addresses from current customers and new everything you need to know about the three leads alike. best alternatives to like-gating on Facebook. Rather than focusing on the number of likes News Feed Advertising you receive on your Facebook page, consider emphasizing your campaign on collecting email Most of the time people spend on Facebook is addresses or newsletter subscriptions. Once you spent looking over the news feed, not browsing have those, you can use ads to deliver engaging specific pages. That means that the reach of your messages, content, and offers in order to prompts page is inexorably tied to your ability to enter and new sign-ups. If the content that you offer in maintain a presence in the news feed, and one of exchange for the user’s email address is of value, the easiest ways to do that is with paid advertising. people will go on to like your page anyway. Advertising on Facebook is an excellent way to Contests and Promotions able to watch a video. Form-gating works very similarly to like-gating, except you’re able to The fact that you won’t be able to use likes get your hands on consumer data from those as a means for building your Facebook page who use your form. You can then go on to use with promotions doesn’t mean that you can’t that data to create a more powerful social CRM continue to run those promotions on Facebook. campaign. There are many free and cheap Rather than like-gating your content, you can providers of form-gates for you to use, including switch to another form of entry, a form that ShortStack, Pagemodo, Tabsite, and Wishpond. is even more valuable for your business than collecting likes ever was. For example, you could It’s important to remember that you should base entry around user-created content. When keep your forms quick and simple to fill out. someone submits their own content, whether it If you ask for too much information, you will is photos, videos, or text, it’s very likely that every decrease the number of participants who are Facebook friend of the entrant will see their willing to go through your form. The sweet spot entry. That means considerably more exposure is generally two or three required fields, and for your page. If you take this one step further then one or two optional ones. Required fields and require an email address for entry, you gain should ask for the information you absolutely the ability to reach that lead again later down need for your marketing campaigns, such as the road. Either alternative has more value for email addresses and phone numbers. your business than a like, and both are great alternatives to like-gating. Takeaway Form-Gating Like-gating may have been one of the most powerful ways to rapidly build a thriving Another popular alternative to like-gating is Facebook page, but its demise means little.