Go ahead and Claim yourself!
Andrew just sent me an interesting study from
Palore that studied small & medium sized health & beauty businesses in the west coast, and what % claimed their directory listing on various online web sites. (note - claiming means registering to the listing so you can then directly update your address, hours and add more information about your company). Palore found that companies that were already advertising online were 2.5 times more likely to claim than non-advertiserrs. And 45% of all companies advertising, claim listings on various online directories. But what's nice to see is that 18% of non-advertisers also are seeing the value in keeping their web presence up to date.
We all know that consumers are searching the web locally more and more to find relevant information about places in their neighborhood.
So if you own a small business, go ahead and
claim yourself and get ahead of the curve.
Labels: advertisers, claim, companies, register
Posted by Nancy Peterson
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Unique Selling Proposition for a Contractor?
Got a chuckle out of this shot from a Chicago contractor's van. Their tagline is "We return phone calls and show up on time!"
If anyone out there has done business with these guys, right there is the makings of a potential positive review. :)
[Hat tip: Perry Marshall (print subscription newsletter).]
P.S. Their
ugly website uses this USP also. I won't even try to speculate on why they have a one-pixel link to a video of Jerry Lewis singing "I only have eyes for you."
Labels: chicago, contractors
Posted by Andrew Goodman
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Some New York Times Thoughts on Reviews for Fourth of July
Happy Fourth of July to our American readers.
As an ex-resident of New York I'm still a fan of the Times. Someone passed along
this article to me on how companies are using review sites like
Yelp to manage their reputation.
I thought this part of the article particularly insightful, and good advice for our renovators and listed companies:
Jeremiah Owyang, an analyst with Forrester Research, said in an e-mail message that smart business owners would “get involved in Yelp, listening, responding and being an active part of the dialogue, some going so far as to place signs on their physical doors requesting reviews.”
At
HomeStars we encourage companies to respond to reviews. It opens up the dialogue and provides more insight into to what went wrong, and what went right.
The most important thing we suggest for companies listed on Homestars who get bad reviews - and, face it, you can't be perfect all the time - is to honestly respond to the bad, and primarily get more reviews by encouraging your customers to talk you up online. Readers appreciate the honesty comes with a company responding to a bad review, and that everyone can't be perfect all the time.
Posted by Brian
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Andrew just sent me an interesting study from Palore that studied small & medium sized health & beauty businesses in the west coast, and what % claimed their directory listing on various online web sites. (note - claiming means registering to the listing so you can then directly update your address, hours and add more information about your company). Palore found that companies that were already advertising online were 2.5 times more likely to claim than non-advertiserrs. And 45% of all companies advertising, claim listings on various online directories. But what's nice to see is that 18% of non-advertisers also are seeing the value in keeping their web presence up to date.
