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This is an update of a post I wrote on my corporate blog last year and it dovetails perfectly with my last post on back-to-school. No, the title is not a typo. I did mean “hollowed” rather than “hallowed”. It seems that as more years go by, these three-day summer holiday weekends (Memorial Day, the Fourth when it falls right and Labor Day) are further and further removed from the origins and intent of the events that spawned them, so they have been sort of hollowed out. Now they seem to be uniformly about beer (nothing wrong with that) barbecues and much-needed time off for the beleaguered American worker, who works longer and harder than anyone in the industrialized world (if they get any time off at all in this service economy). And mattress sales. I don’t know what it is about three-day weekends and mattress sales, but you could realistically change Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day to Mattress Sale Day One, Two and Three to avoid confusion. Labor Day in particular has been hollowed out by the fog of time. It was originally proposed by an American machinist in 1882 to celebrate workers and promoted by the American union movement. It was formally adopted as a Federal holiday in 1894. International Workers Day, celebrated pretty much by the rest of the world on May 1, actually has is its origins in an American event — the Haymarket Massacre in Chicago in 1886, when police fired on workers protesting for an eight hour workday, killing four. Still most Americans are unaware of the union and socialist origins of Labor Day, and a Republican lawmaker even went so far as to say that Labor Day is a chance to express appreciation for all those business owners that create jobs. Now I’m a business owner but even I went — huh? So what does all this mean to your communications? Well, usually people in business feel compelled to say something about a holiday that sounds wholesome and appropriate, like one client who on Memorial Day insisted on using that occasion to thank the brave men and women around the world who are protecting our freedom. Well Memorial Day...

Well obviously parents care for a variety of reasons and kids care for the obvious reasons and people in neither one of those categories care because of the inevitable extra congestion on the roads once school starts. But what I’m referring to in caring is how much attention people pay to business promotions with a back-to-school theme. Or any seasonal or holiday theme for that matter. A recent study revealed that holiday-themed promotional emails had less engagement than promotional emails that did not try to tie into a holiday theme. These results may not be all that surprising. Too often, every local business will try to jump on a seasonal or holiday theme no matter what products or promotions they have to offer. So it essentially becomes a flimsy temporary outer coat on what they do that may not always be a good fit. And it can become like white noise. Take Labor Day for instance which is not that far away. A host of businesses will run Labor Day specials and unless you’re selling mattresses (and one can make the reasonable argument that Labor Day should be renamed Mattress Day) you’re more than likely to get lost in the static. So the takeaway? Tie your promotion into something specific related to the season in question. If it’s back-to-school and you’re a spa, give the Moms a chance to relax from the getting ready for school stress. If you’re a restaurant, offer a special for a lunch break from that back-to-school shopping. And if you sell clothing, well that’s obvious. If you need help with any local business promotion, give us a call. The advice is...

Admittedly this has not been a good year and a half for Facebook. There was its unfortunate culpable influence on the 2016 election through fake news posts and the tendency of its users to believe and share anything in their echo chamber (perhaps while hurling snarky insults at those outside said chamber). Then there was the fake followers scandal, where businesses discovered that many of the real followers they thought had maybe came from the place in China where they produce farm-raised fish. If that wasn’t enough, then came the revelation that Cambridge Analytica mined the profiles of 68 million users and their friends (without user permission) for political-targeted behavioral marketing. But wait, there’s more! After that came the revelations that Facebook shared user data and friend profiles without their consent to hardware manufacturers, including a Chinese company that was on a US espionage watch list. Whew. That sure has Mark Zuckerberg’s makeup artists working hard before each public appearance. So many of my clients ask me, should I be active on Facebook, market on Facebook, even be on Facebook? To answer that question we have to go back to a place before all the sensational headlines and examine the premise of trying to market on Facebook itself. The Ideas Behind Marketing on Facebook   The two basic premises for marketing on Facebook was that you can get a lot of traction for free and everyone is there. Well Facebook took care of the first premise by making it harder and harder to get into people’s feeds so you now have to pay for it. As for the second premise, just because tens of thousands of people are in the park for a Fourth of July fireworks display, is that a good time to go out and try to sell them life insurance? They may be there, but they’re not there to buy anything in particular, the reason to be there is to have fun. So is it an audience, sure, but a receptive one? That’s another thing entirely. Targeted Marketing on Facebook   So pivoting back to the top of this piece, what about paying to advertise to selected user profiles al la Cambridge Analytica above? Well behind...

When I launched this specialized website focusing on local marketing, I was fully prepared to talk about how businesses could improve their presence in local search — how their listing could get a higher ranking on Google search results and better placement on the map driven by the results. What I wasn’t prepared for is that many local businesses don’t realize how critical the Google business listing is, where to find it and how to claim it. Not claiming and populating your Google business listing is akin to having the latest technology and swank furniture in your office and not having a telephone. For almost any local business it’s absolutely essential and building an effective listing is easy to do, as a matter of fact a lot easier than it used to be: Step one: If you haven’t already done so, claim your business listing. The easiest way to do that is to search for your business in Google, click on your business on the map results, and when the details show click claim this business. You’ll have to verify that you own the business and Google will usually do this by sending a postcard to your business with a PIN. Once you verify your listing, make sure all information is accurate, including address, phone number, hours and so on. Choose a category that best fits your business and write a description that succinctly describes what your business has to offer. Upload photos, they help to make your business look interesting. Get reviews, reviews and more reviews. They are the most important factor in how your listing gets ranked in local search results. Did I mention get reviews? Make sure that the information on your business (phone number and address) is the same in other places like your website, Facebook, Yelp and Yahoo (we can help with that). That’s all there is to it. You can post to your Google My Business page like other social media pages and include things like video, but posting no longer appears to have much effect on your local rankings as it used to as far as I can tell. Have questions? Give me a call at 904-744-8877. The advice is...

This is another post from the Everyday Marketing Advice archives. Some of the mechanics of managing your Google My Business Listing have changed, but the basic tactics for improving ranking in local search remain the same: Why spend money on a human directional dressed as a chicken or a giant submarine sandwich? If you’re a business with a local trading area, your best bet to get seen by your potential customers  is through local search. It’s really just a matter swimming with the current (or dropping your line where the fish are swimming or whatever aquatic metaphor that you prefer) because that’s how most people begin to search when looking for a place to go or something to buy. And with Google looking to return localized results with every search and mobile searches growing exponentially (where local results are most prominent) needing to succeed with local search is as essential as paying the electric bill to keep the lights on. In fact, it may just be the most effective way to keep the lights on! So you may ask: “Larry, can I really get free visibility through local search instead of paying someone to stand all day in an uncomfortable costume in the stifling heat?” Not only will I say yes, but I’ll tell you a few simple steps to get you started. So here goes: If you haven’t yet claimed your Google My Business listing (the one associated with the map, search for yourself (aren’t we all searching for ourselves?) and when your listing comes up,  click the Own This Listing? link. Follow the steps that Google gives you to verify your business and set up your Google+ Local page (which is basically your My Business Listing). In setting up your listing, make sure you complete all of the business information that Google asks you for (they give you a handy progress bar to let you know how you’re doing. This includes choosing the category(ies) that most closely match your business, writing an about description using words that people use when looking for what you do or sell, adding hours and contact information (including your website). You also set up your Google+ Local page with a cover photo,...