If there is a way to get more coverage with less investment for your business, would you consider it?
One common way for business owners to announce their entry or promote their presence in the market place is to get their businesses listed on Yellow Pages.
Those thick fat Yellow Pages can now be downloaded from the net – if you choose to be environmentally friendly.
Alternatively, there is also an online version of Yellow Pages which is more robust and offers much more for the fees paid. The online Yellow Pages for Malaysia can be found at www.YellowPages.com.my.
I did a simple study comparing using Yellow Pages (physical book and online) with Online Local Searches, in particular to Google Local Search and I am sharing my findings with you in this post.
The image above shows a sample page for paid listing the online yellow pages. Listings there get a lot more coverage for a fraction of the cost than if you were to be listed in the physical book. Compare these two to Google Local Places using Reach, Control, Display and Price as criteria and you get the following.
Here’s a table with my findings (click on image to expand).
Any visibility is good. Getting listed on directories a good thing to do. But that alone may not get you very far. For a wider reach, with more control of where and how your listing will show and at a fraction of the cost, will you consider getting a local business place listing?
More information on Google Local Places here. If you like us to know how you can Master Social Media Using 1 Hour A Week, you can get my free report here.
Archives for April 2011
QR Codes Making Appearances In Kuala Lumpur
You may have seen these strange little square boxes popping up in town, on name cards, magazines, shopping windows, product packaging, clothing tags, billboards, and even on T-shirts and stationeries.
These called QR codes short for Quick Response codes. Sometimes they are referred to as 2D Bar codes. They were first developed in 1994 by Denso- Wave Corporation in Japan.
These codes are readable by QR barcode readers and camera phones. Why do you need to know about QR codes? They can hold lots more information and marketers are using this tool reach prospects and consumers, to brand and provide information.
Japan, Korea and European countries have already been using these. US and the rest of Asia is now picking up in adoption rate. QR scanning is most definitely on the rise.
According to this info graph put together in Jumpscan, there is with a 1200 percent increase in scanning from July to December in 2010 alone. That is very healthy adoption rate.
Not only are the big brands are using them to assist with marketing efforts, small businesses and local businesses are also using them in all kinds of new ways to reach consumers.
This info graph is compiled by JumScan, more information at Mashable. You can scan the AR Codes here and see hos this works.
Most often these QR codes bring you to the company’s product websites or to user review pages that gives information that helps you decide whether or not to buy a particular product or not.
I have my QR code on my business cards so my contacts only need scan the code instead of having to type in long URLs on their tiny QWERT keyboards to get to my site. And once it is scanned, it remains in their phone – I don’t run the risk of them misplacing my business cards.
Offline groceries stores and food brands are also using these codes on the actual fruits and wrappers. One scan and you can see relevant nutritional and/or ingredient information about the product. Clients appreciate having more information before they make the purchase and these codes direct them to sources of data.
Business will display more QR Codes as there are more smartphone users. I saw it recently in a popular shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur on the front panel window of the store. Having a QR code alone may not increase your marketing effort but incorporating it into your total marketing plan will certainly make a difference.
Do you have a QR scanning application installed on your smartphone? You can download your bar code reader here, and it’ll decode these QR codes when you scan them with your phone. Try it.
How To Be Found Where Your Market Is Looking For You
Looking for more traffic to boost sales? Are you using yellow pages or newspaper advertisements?
How are these media working for your?
I have just made a short 5-minute video that may be helpful to you if you are looking for more media coverage or branding.
Don’t worry, if you do not know “how” to do these. Learning about these can take time and it can get a little overwhelming sometimes. But I can show you how tap into these benefits by showing you the 20% work that gives you the 80% of the benefits. And better yet get them done for you.
Just see if this synergistic marketing mix is for you.
[S3VIDEO file=’freeline/lms/BeFound.mp4′ height=’288′ width=’384′ bgimage=’http://www.Synergymarketingpro.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/beseen3.png’ sitemap=’true’ thumbnail=’http://www.Synergymarketingpro.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/beseen3.png’ redirect=’http://WorkWithOneHeart.com/new’ wmode=’transparent’] If you like to find out more, just drop us a mail here or sign up for a free consult here.
If you find this helpful, remember to share this post with your friends and leave us a comment.
Facebook Profile Or Facebook Page?
Facebook just released a tool that helps you migrate your profile account to a Facebook Pages. Why would anyone want to do that?
Well, some people are using their Facebook Profile Accounts (meant for personal use for friends and family) for their businesses. And this is against Facebook’s terms and conditions (this video explains why).
You can see this as Facebook “helping” businesses make that transition by introducing this tool. More likely, Facebook is shifting users towards terms of service compliance, as representing a business or other non-human entity with a profile instead of a Page is prohibited.
With a Facebook Page businesses and public figures can run contests, promote your products or services and collect email addresses using email management systems. Using the Facebook migration tool, your personal friends instantly becomes fans of the new Facebook Page; so businesses do not have to start a Page from scratch with zero fans.
However, there are some issues you will want to note before migrating your profile account to a page. Among them, your vanity URL may no longer work, for example, if your personal account was www.Facebook.com/janedoe, once this converts to a page, you will not be able to use www.Facebook.com/janedoe for your personal account again. There are other implications and you want to get more information before making the migration.
Now, just when I was going to publish this post, I found out that Facebook has disabled the migration tool. This is about a day after the migration tool has been released.
What does this tell us? That things change very fast in the social media space, especially with Facebook. This tool has not yet been officially launched but many were already testing it and within the space of a day or two the migration tool is disabled.
Not because Facebook doesn’t want to encourage the use of Pages, more likely that they are fine tuning the tool with the feedback they received. You’ll want to stay on top of these changes. And one thing is clear though that Facebook is serious about enforcing their terms and conditions.
So if you are using your profile account for business use, if you are doing any sort of promotion using your personal account, you will want to start a page instead. I see more local businesses and public figures in Kuala Lumpur setting up Facebook pages as they begin to see the power of social marketing.
You can set up a page for your own business or have someone else do that for you. If you are interested to find out more or outsource this piece of work you can contact us for a free marketing consult. We can discuss your total marketing plan tapping into social media, local and mobile marketing plan. And if you like to receive updates on changes in the marketing space, you can sign up for our complimentary newsletter here.
