What you can buy for $25

• One (1) Dinner for two at a casual dining restaurant (if you both drink water and don’t get dessert).
• One (1) pair of casual pants or shirt (on sale)
• Four (4) Coffees at a trendy coffee shop (how many times do you buy coffee each month?
• Two (2) movie tickets and one bag of popcorn

I’m sure you can think of ways you drop $25 or more every month, probably without thinking.  None of these, except the pants if you happen to be naked, benefit your business in the least.  In fact, when you look back at a month’s spending, you’ll find all sorts of things that didn’t help your business, but you just spent the money anyway.

When you become a member of RelyLocal, your $25 is not spent – it is INVESTED.  Your money is invested in a business that is dedicated to grow your business and increase your customer base.  Here are just a few of the benefits you receive for your investment of $25/month.

• Full featured online advertisement of your business, plus operating hours, contact information, maps and directions, links to your websites (Facebook, Web, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.), and full color photos (up to 10).
• Printable coupons for your customers.  Just tell us what you want your coupon to offer.
• Updates and modifications to  your directory listing at no extra charge.
• Promotion of your events, specials, and featured items through our business network
• Business to Business communication and referral network
• Complete control over the customer feedback left for your business
• Active promotion of your business by a dedicated RelyLocal associate who lives in your community
• Ongoing search engine optimization (SEO) and marketing of your business to increase your visibility on the internet.

And that’s just the beginning.  We are constantly tweaking our website to increase web traffic.  RelyLocal is on the bleeding edge of search engine marketing, and let’s face it, the internet is fast replacing print media (like the yellow pages) as the information source.  RelyLocal knows what local and national consumers are searching for every week and we constantly modify our site to stay on top.  But internet marketing and promotion is only one part of the services we offer.

The bottom line is that you can’t afford NOT to invest in your business by joining RelyLocal.com.  We  are ready to work with you.  Contact us today shopcollierville@relylocal.com

Let’s compare the newspaper in my market, The Memphis Commercial Appeal, to our services at RelyLocal.

1.  The Commercial Appeal charges $120 for a 30-day listing ($1,440 annually) in its service guide.  RelyLocal Charges $25 per month ($300 annually).

2.  The Commercial Appeal provides a listing of 5 lines, and charges $10 per extra line.  RelyLocal provides unlimited text for its members at no additional charge.

3.  The Commercial Appeal does not allow for images in its service guide.  RelyLocal members can have up to 10 images loaded.  RelyLocal members may also load additional documents such as forms, flyers, coupons, testimonials, cover pages, menus, etc. at no additional charge.

4.  The Commercial Appeal depends on newspaper subscribers flipping to the Classified section and then to the Service Guide page in order to find your listing.  RelyLocal.com drives qualified leads to your business by optimizing not only your listing, but also the other listings in the directory, making your business a click away at any time during their visit.  RelyLocal.com constantly works to keep its dynamic content optimized and fresh to the search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing to drive traffic to you.

Even newspapers are moving online these days, but you can rest assured that they are not dedicating personal representatives to manage your 5 line ad.  They couldn’t possibly.  RelyLocal members have personal attention from a dedicated representative who lives in their community.  All of my staff, including myself, are Collierville residents.  We live here and we work for you.  Let us show you how we can help your business grow.  Contact RelyLocal.com today.

1. RelyLocal.com provides basic contact information and map for your business.  So does MerchantCircle.
2. RelyLocal.com provides coupons and customer reviews for your business.  So does MerchantCircle – for an additional fee.
3. RelyLocal.com provides photos of your products, menus, location, etc.  MerchantCircle does not.
4. RelyLocal.com provides a full listing detail page with url links to your presence on the internet (web, facebook, twitter, etc.).  MerchantCircle will do this for an additional fee.
5. RelyLocal.com only lists local businesses.  MerchantCircle will list any company in its territory, locally owned or not.
6. RelyLocal.com generates new organic search engine traffic for its members.  MerchantCircle does not.
7. RelyLocal.com pushes new traffic to its members through social networking and web 2.0 media.  MerchantCircle does not.
8. RelyLocal.com provides local advertising and coupon marketing for its members.  MerchantCircle does not.
9. RelyLocal.com gives its members a local dedicated account manager.  MerchantCircle does not.
10. RelyLocal.com is actively involved in the local community.  MerchantCircle is not.
11. RelyLocal.com is locally owned and operated.  MerchantCircle is not.
12. Average time spent on RelyLocal.com by visitors – 25min.  Average time spent on MerchantCircle – 2min.
13. RelyLocal.com puts 90% of its revenue back into the local economy.  MerchantCircle puts 0% back into the local economy.
14. RelyLocal.com costs $25/mo.  MerchantCircle costs anywhere from $30-250/mo, depending on chosen features.

Which is the better investment for your company?  Which business would you trust to help you succeed locally?

RelyLocal.com serves Memphis area businesses in Collierville, Piperton, Rossville, Eads, and more.  However, our site has visitors from all over the world.  New customers generated through RelyLocal.com are already qualified, because they looked for your business or service.  New customers are also generated by proximity.  A customer searching for Thai food in Collierville will also see the listing for a nearby coffee shop for dessert, or local shops to visit after they dine.  RelyLocal works.  Let us work for you.

“Oh, you just HAVE to use this.  It’s the only way to get found these days.”

I disagree.

PPC is nice.  I’m not doubting that it has effectiveness.  Those who are willing to pay for advanced placement in the search engines and social media sites shall have it.  That is a benefit.  Often, however, the benefit comes at a steep cost.  Let me illustrate.

Let’s say you budget for $150/day for a keyword phrase for your niche market.  That’s a lot of clicks.  Let’s say you max out daily, so you’re out $150/day, but you also gross $600/day in new sales.  It’s worth it, right?  The old adage says “You have to spend money to make money.”  There is absolutely truth in that statement.  But you also just spent 1/4 of your gross sales.  I hope your operating costs are $0 because you’ve already started $150 poorer each day.  In a typical month then you’ve grossed $18,000 and spent $4,500 for ONE keyword phrase.  That’s a lot of money that could have been put to overhead, bonuses, debt reduction, monthly bills, etc.  Over a year, you’ll spend $54,750 for that advertising.

But you’re still making a profit right?  Perhaps.  Depends on your overhead I guess and whether or not you are trying to grow a business or pay off debts.

But the margin is not the biggest downside.  No, advertising and marketing are essential.  You have to do it.  How else will people know about you and your products and services?  Advertising and marketing are needed.  The biggest downside of the adwords and other ppc campaigns is that once you’ve stopped paying for the ads, your site drops into oblivion and you’re replaced by whoever else wants to shell out $150/day.  You’re unknown again.

What about repeat customers?

Hope for those.  Cradle your customers and treat them with care.  Keep in mind, however, that most consumers these days are less concerned with loyalty and more concerned with saving a dollar.  Add to that the fact that most consumers have the attention span of a flea.  They are not willing to do a lot of research.  Nor are they willing to go 10 pages deep on Google to find competing products.

You have to have a high relevant search engine ranking.  But how?

You need organic help.

What I mean by organic is natural (non PPC) links to your business from relevant sites that have good ranking in the search engines.  The more organic links (we’ll call these “back links”) to your site from other related sites, the more relevant and popular you appear to the search engines, who will “crawl” your site more often looking for additional relevant content, the higher you will move up the rankings.  You will also need fresh content for  your site.  I will deal with that in another article.

One good way to add clout to your site is to join a business network site, like RelyLocal.com, who harness the power of multiple relevant keywords and content and share that power with their members.  Using the power of cooperative advertising, RelyLocal linking to the member’s main site, Facebook, Online shopping cart, and Twitter, all say to Google, “Look.  We’re a powerful site that consumers depend on to find the best products and services, and we’re linking to THIS business.  It is a highly relevant link for our national audience.”  Then Google sees that linked to site and tags it as being highly relevant.  RelyLocal does this for $25/mo, saving our example above a whopping $54,450 annually.

Here’s the best part though.  Organic content STAYS.  It doesn’t switch off.  The more relevant and consistent you prove your site to be, the higher your rankings will be APART FROM paying for ads.  That means more qualified leads for you, and more profit for you in the long run.  Keep building on that reputation through other media forms and link building and you become THE SITE.  It works.  And it works especially well for local businesses who don’t have thousands of dollars to throw at Google or glossy print magazine ads.

Next time I’ll tell you about multiple content sources.

Visit RelyLocal.com and consider membership today.  Subscribe to this blog using the link on the right column to get the latest articles.

Which of the three scenarios is better for our town?  Which of these businesses are more likely to help sponsor town athletic programs for our youth, support programs for those less fortunate, and serve in our civic groups and houses of worship?  More often than not it is the local business owner.

Sometimes you may not have a choice where to shop, but when you do, consider spending locally.  It’s better for your community, and you’re supporting your neighbor at the same time.

Collierville area businesses have a source they would like for you to use when deciding where to shop, eat, and play.  It’s called RelyLocal.com and already it is making an impact on local businesses in Collierville.  Drop by the site and check it out.

http://www.relylocal.com