We are moving right along with the Live Marketing Challenge and we are diving right into directory sites. In my opinion these are widely overlooked and often skipped by most business owners. Which is a huge mistake!  In this blog post, I will explain why they are so important, which ones to sign up for, how to use them effectively and how we are using them with Kat’s Yoga Studio!

Are you listed on Yelp? If you answered no, guess what…you are probably already listed and you don’t even know it. Yelp creates lists of businesses and you don’t even need to submit your business to be listed. This means your site could be reviewed and you won’t even know it. For that reason alone, you should be claiming your Yelp profile and monitoring the reviews that come in, adding your information, uploading pictures and videos.

And in addition to that, Yelp receives 18 million monthly visitors looking for one thing…businesses in their area! Those two reason alone should be enough to make you want to spend some time marketing on Yelp, but there are a few more reasons (like getting your yelp profile on Google’s first page)  why it is important. So take a few minutes and check out our video explaining why Yelp marketing is so important for your small business.

As a small and local business owner you need to be taking part in video marketing. Why, you might ask? The main reason is that it works for you 24/7 and is one of the cheapest forms of marketing possible. But, you need to do it correctly so you can turn anyone watching your video into a customer. If you are not turning people watching your video into customers, then you’re wasting your time with video marketing.

With this video marketing tip you can learn how to take any local or small business video ad and turn it into a customer creating machine. So, what is this marketing tip?

We all know video is one of the most powerful marketing techniques on the internet today, but do you know how to make sure your viewers only watch your videos? YouTube is one of the best places to market your videos because it is such a powerful site and gets a ton of exposure. The only problem with YouTube is that it shows related videos on the right side bar and on your video when it’s done playing. This means it could show videos from your competitors! Seems counterproductive right? WELL, what if I told you you can avoid this completely and almost eliminate it as a problem? …Ready? Check it!

Running a business is hard work and even if your business is successful there are always ways to improve it. There are a few common mistakes almost EVERY business owner makes and most of the time they don’t even realize they’re doing it. Are you making some of theses mistakes? Probably, check them out and we will show you how to avoid making those mistakes and if you are currently making them we will show you how to fix it.

Yes, that’s right! Ranking #1 in Google is NOT important if you are looking to dominate Google with your small or local business. There are a lot of “experts” and marketers who would love to let you think you need to be #1 in Google to gain any traction with you local marketing, but I am going to prove that all wrong right now with my Local OvertakeTechnique!

Watch our video to see our Local Overtake Technique and how you can market your company online without being #1 in Google. We will also give you the TOP 2 mistakes most businesses are making right now, when it comes to online marketing.

Facebook is one of the best ways to grow your brand and connect socially with all your customers at one time. When looking specifically at ways to gain new customers through Facebook you will notice that custom landing pages are becoming wildly popular, and for a good reason. They allow you to add opt-in forms, advertise products, or any custom html/css and java code allowing you to design almost any page you want. The best part about having a custom landing page and tab on your Facebook profile is that Facebook allows you to advertise that page through their site at a cheaper price than your website.

Creating custom landing pages and tabs on your Facebook profile is easy, especially if you follow our guide below. Let’s jump right into it!

If you don’t have a Facebook profile set up for your business it’s about time you look into setting one up.  It can be done in a matter of minutes and it’s something everyone can do.

Why do I need to do it?

Well, besides the fact that it is an excellent way to interact and form a relationship with your fans, clients and customers, it allows you offer specials, share information, announce sales, and even advertise at a cheaper price (Facebook allows you to set up ads linking to your Facebook profile at a much lower price compared to linking the ad to your website).  Plus, having a Facebook profile linked to your website will help your website rank better in Google. If you are reading this page I am sure you understand the benefits of setting up a Facebook profile, so let’s get right into it.

Every business wants more Facebook likes and there isn’t just one way to get them. That’s why we created our list of ways to get more Facebook likes to your Business profile. This will be our second method, which we use on our site. It may be obvious to some of you and you may be using it already, but it is a really effective way of getting more likes. So, I will take the captain obvious title on this one, but for those of you who do not know how to set it up I will show you exactly how to do it.

Gaining more likes to your Business Facebook page is something everyone tries to achieve. Not only does it help you build your brand, stay connected with your customers, but it can also help your website rank higher in Google. Social indicators are beginning to be more powerful in SEO. With social media growing as it is, Google seems to be moving towards social status from social media sites to evaluate how relevant websites are on certain subjects. Do you know how to gain more likes to your business Facebook page?