Summer 2023
Marketing on Main Street Print Continues to Provide a Return on Investment page 4
Digital Enhancements for Our Display Advertisers page 7
Online Reviews are Essential Tools for Your Business page 10
Why High Resolution Images Are Important page 6
Search Engine Optimization: Smart Marketing! page 8
Marketing on Main Street
Welcome to the Pointer, Total Local’s quarterly publication for small business owners that focuses on marketing and media trends, including print and online. As a small business owner myself, I know your time is valuable. Therefore, in this new publication, we strive to provide you with easy to understand information and tips that you can use to help in your marketing efforts on Main Street and beyond! You likely know us from our Total Local Community Resource Guides, but we’re now so much more. My background is as a marketing professional who has worked in both print and online marketing for more than 30 years. And, since 2018, Total Local has offered online marketing and other marketing services, in addition to advertising in our guides. If you would like more information or a free ½ hour marketing consultation, please contact me at 517-663-2405. The Pointer is going out to 10,000 businesses in mid-Michigan’s small towns. If you’re a small business owner that serves other small businesses, you may be interested in advertising in this publication as well. Currently, we have a limited number of ad spaces available. Please contact me at 517-663-2405 for more information about rates and advertising in the Pointer. Thank you for reading. If there is a topic you would like us to cover in our next issue of the Pointer, or if you have any questions on topics covered in this issue, please email me at tmiller@totallocal.com. Best wishes for your success! Teresa Miller Publisher & President
THE POINTER
SMALL BUSINESS QUARTERLY presented by Total Local
Issue #1 Summer 2023 totallocalhq #totallocal
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117 E Knight St Ste A PO Box 305 Eaton Rapids MI 48827 517-663-2405 www.TotalLocal.com
READY TO GROW YOUR DIGITAL PRESENCE?
Total Local offers a wide variety of marketing services including website design &
hosting, social media management, email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and so much more! For a limited time, receive ONE MONTH FREE when you sign up for website hosting or social media management. Call our office at 517-663-2405 to set up an appointment with our marketing strategist today! totallocal.com | 3
Print Continues to Provide a Return on Investment EFFECTIVENESS OF PRINT
PRINT’S TARGET AUDIENCE
Print continues to be a strong advertising media, despite all the naysayers. Though we all know that print is not an up-andcoming marketing channel, its benefits are essential and have stood the test of time. Print continues to be a crucial way to reach your audience. Recent research shows that the response rate of print and direct mail marketing is 9%, while digital marketing channels hover around 1% or less (R.C. Brayshaw, 2020).
Despite the prevalence of digital options, many people still reach for paper when searching for local information. We’ve come across recent research regarding directory advertising that shows that 46% of people still start their searches in print, rather than online. Also, a majority of the people searching in print are in the 55 plus age group, who happen to own 75% of the nation’s wealth. If this is your target audience, you’re missing out on reaching a large segment of these folks when they are searching for a business if you aren’t advertising in print.
Print is tangible in a way that electronic communication is not. Plus, with the advent of email, there is less and less in a homeowner’s mailbox for advertisers to compete with, making your print advertisement more likely to be seen.
PRINT OR DIGITAL? HOW ABOUT BOTH!
PRINT INSPIRES TRUST One of the most important benefits of print media is the trust factor. A recent survey by MarketingSherpa finds that 82 percent of U.S. internet users trust print ads when making a purchase decision, more than any other form of advertising. Maybe it’s because of the timeless nature of seeing something in print, but a print ad is a great way to give your brand a classic sense of credibility. Plus, because it is something they can actually hold in their hands, people are more likely to remember an ad they have seen in print.
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You’ve probably heard, “You’re not just building a business, you’re building a brand.” And, building a brand is best served by a multi-channel approach to advertising. Matching your digital and online presence with your print advertising, signs, business cards, and other marketing materials creates a lasting impression of your business. The recall of your brand and your advertising effectiveness is increased with the more channels you use to advertise. In fact, according to Top Media Advertising, by combining print and digital ads your online campaigns are 400% more effective. At the end of the day, print is still one of the most powerful and lasting ways to reach your audience and promote your business. The tangible, timeless benefits of print advertising are here to stay.
TOTAL LOCAL COMMUNITY RESOURCE GUIDES GUIDE
ESTABLISHED
COMMUNITIES SERVED
DELIVERY COUNT ESTIMATE
1998
Grand Ledge, Eagle, Mulliken, & Sunfield
1996
ESTABLISHED
COMMUNITIES SERVED
DELIVERY COUNT ESTIMATE
10,000
1996
Dexter
6,350
Charlotte, Potterville, & Vermontville
12,500
1995
Manchester & Clinton
5,500
1993
Marshall & Albion
12,500
1999
Brooklyn, Grass Lake, & Napoleon
10,500
2004
Tecumseh, Britton, Clinton, & Tipton
11,500
1992
Eaton Rapids & Springport
8,000
1994
Leslie, Pleasant Lake, Onondaga, & Rives Junction
5,250
1996
Holt & Dimondale
13,000
1993
Mason & Dansville
9,500
2005
Fowlerville, Webberville, & Bell Oak
8,000
1995
Chelsea
7,350
1995
Williamston, Webberville, & Bell Oak
7,000
GUIDE
REACH MORE CUSTOMERS AND STRETCH THAT ADVERTISING DOLLAR!
Get a free Bold Line Listing, under any business heading in our Community Resource Guides, with the purchase of any size display ad! With any print display advertisement, you will also receive the following: • Your logo with your listing in the directory portion of the Community Resource Guide • Content on your profile page and ads posted on our website totallocal.com
• 3 Facebook postings per year that will include your telephone number as well as a link to your Facebook page & website • 2+ links back to your website from our web-hosted directories on ISSUU.com
$130 VALUE, FOR A LIMITED TIME. Call us at 517-663-2405 and mention this offer.
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High Res
Low Res
THE IMPORTANCE OF HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGES FOR PRINT When working with photos, it is important to know that there is a difference between how they look online versus how they look when they are in print. That is because digital media works differently than print media. This can be confusing, because the world of digital photography has made it so easy to take photos and post them online. A photo can look great on your computer screen, or on your phone’s Facebook feed, yet when it is printed out, that very same photo might look blurry or choppy.
HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGES VS. LOW RESOLUTION IMAGES The reason for this difference between online photos and printed photos is in the resolution of the image. Resolution describes the amount of detail an image has. The higher the resolution, the more detail. Photos that are intended for online viewing don’t need nearly as high resolution as photos intended for print. In fact, low resolution images are actually preferred for online, since they take up less file space and load more quickly. But, these low resolution images are very difficult for designers trying to make them look good in print. One quick way to know if a photo is going to look pixelated in print is to zoom in on it. If it starts to look blurry or choppy as you zoom in, that’s a good indication that it is a low resolution image: fine for online, but not so good for print.
A LITTLE BIT ABOUT RESOLUTION, PIXELS, & DOTS PER INCH Also, some basics about resolution might help you decide if your photo is fit to print. There are a couple of terms people use to describe resolution. One of them is “pixel.” Pixels are used to describe how much detail or information an image has. The more pixels, the more detail. When an image doesn’t have a high amount of pixels, it will appear “pixelated,” where 6
the image looks like a bunch of squares joined together. (Kind of like the earliest video games used to look!) With printed images, a common term people use to describe resolution is DPI, or “dots per inch,” referring to the tiny dots on paper that make up an image. A pixel in a digital image is the equivalent of a dot in a printed one. Many online photos are 72 DPI, and they look really good on a computer monitor or a phone screen. However, 72 DPI is considered low resolution for print media, and would look blurry and pixelated when printed. If you want a photo to look sharp and vivid when printed, a general rule of thumb is that it should be at least 300 DPI. To give you an idea of the size of file a high resolution photo would be, a 3 x 5 inch photo, at 300 DPI, is usually about 1 MB (megabyte), while a full page photo, at 300 DPI, is usually about 3 MB. Sometimes it can be easier to figure out the size of photo you need by measuring your pixels. If you don’t mind a little math, you can convert from pixels to DPI pretty easily, to help you with sizing your photo. For example, if you want a 4 x 6 inch printed photo to have 300 DPI, your photo would need to be 1200 (4 x 300) pixels on its short side, and 1800 pixels (6 x 300) on its long side. So, it needs to be at least 1200 x 1800 pixels in size.
WHEN IN DOUBT, SAVE YOUR IMAGES IN HIGH RESOLUTION When in doubt, if you know your photo is going to be used for print, save it in the highest resolution format you can. Your graphic designer can always reduce the size of your photo, but it’s very hard to increase the size and the resolution, while maintaining the quality. And while viewing and sharing photos online is quick, fun, and easy, there is nothing like having that same photo in a more permanent format like print, either for an advertisement or for your own personal memories.
DIGITAL ENHANCEMENTS FOR OUR DISPLAY ADVERTISERS Our Display Advertisers Get Found Online Total Local Community Guides are an effective advertising media for our display advertisers since they are sent to every resident in a community through Every Door Direct Mail. However, since so much of our world has become digital, we also want to help our display advertisers get found online. That’s why we’ve recently launched new digital enhancements for all of our print advertisers. With a display ad, our advertisers also get these items online: • A featured listing on TotalLocal.com for each display ad on every community website page in which they advertise. • A unique business profile page on our website with their contact information and ad. • We also publish each community guide in a flippable format online at ISSUU.com and link display ads back to advertiser websites. • 3 posts per year on our Total Local Facebook page for each community in which they advertise. These posts point back to advertiser websites and include their contact information. • NEW! We’ve added Enhanced Business Profile Pages on our website for any display advertiser that purchases a half page and above for free! Or, if you are a smaller display advertiser or would just like to be an advertiser on the website for a particular guide, you may purchase an Enhanced Business Profile Page.
ENHANCED BUSINESS PROFILE PAGES ON TOTAL LOCAL Our website includes a section for each of our communities where we publish a Total Local Community Resource Guide. On the Community Guide Page, we include an image of all of our display advertisers, which is clickable through to their Business Profile Page. Any of our advertisers that purchase the equivalent of a half page or above in display advertising in our books receives an Enhanced Business Profile Page.
The enhancements include digitizing their ads by inserting key words of their products and services on the page. We can also add more text information that the advertiser provides. Plus, we link back to the advertiser’s website, Google listing, or social media accounts.
TOTAL LOCAL COMMUNITY FACEBOOK PAGES For all of the communities where we publish a guide, we also host a community resource page on Facebook. This page not only features each of our display advertisers (for free) three times per year, but we also repost community events, local news, and more. Our pages for each community are not meant to compete with other community Facebook pages and groups. They are simply another way for local businesses and community information to reach more people on Facebook. These days, local information often gets drowned out by well-funded news sources and big-name brands. With Total Local Facebook pages, we focus on the businesses and events in your own community. We know that fostering a community connection helps businesses become more recognized by their customers. Creating a sense of community also encourages people to shop local, building up the community’s economy and creating a win/win situation for both residents and business owners. So, advertising with Total Local covers all your bases. Through our printed guides and our community Facebook pages, we provide you with a multi-faceted approach to reaching your audience. Your display ad in our Total Local Community Resource Guides will reach people in their mailboxes via Every Door Direct Mail. In addition, by giving our advertisers exposure on our community Facebook pages and with our Enhanced Business Profile Pages on our website, we have also provided them with a crucial way to be found online!
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SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION AS A SMART MARKETING STRATEGY If you have a business that you want to market effectively, you will need a strategy that not only draws consumers to your website, but also makes your website easy to find. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is essential for this. SEO is a strategy for improving your website’s ranking in search engine results.
your actual website more search engine friendly, while offsite SEO consists of actions you take (other than advertising) to promote your website on other sites or platforms. Rather than going into a lot of technical details, this article will give a broad overview and some basic tips.
Regardless of what product or service your business offers, your target customers are likely using online search engines like Google to get information about it. Sources say that more than 8 out of 10 consumers look for businesses online using search engines. In our techsavvy, digital world, a good SEO strategy will help get your company noticed.
ONSITE SEO IMPROVES BOTH YOUR ONLINE RANKING & YOUR AUDIENCE’S EXPERIENCE
The good news is, there are some basic steps you can take to improve your website’s SEO, and over time, your website’s ranking will climb in those Google searches. That way, when a consumer does an online search for a product you offer, your company will be higher on the page, and therefore more visible and accessible. There are two basic types of SEO, onsite and offsite. Both are important in improving your search engine rankings. Onsite SEO refers to actions you take to make 8
Onsite SEO is the work you can do on your actual website to help it rank higher with Google, so when a consumer does an online search for a product or service you offer, your company will come up higher on the list rather than buried on some distant page of an online search. Also, in doing this work, you are improving the website itself, making your audience’s experience with your business better. The first is identifying keywords that a consumer might use when searching for your product or business, and
then using those keywords in your title, the body of your page, the meta description, and alt text in your images. If this seems a bit overwhelming, a useful tool is an SEO website plugin that helps you organize this. For WordPress websites, the Yoast plugin is a great SEO helper. Also, making sure your website is mobile-friendly is important, since the percentage of consumers using their phones for online searches is growing. Perhaps the single most important aspect of good onsite SEO is supplying quality, unique, and current content. If you have interesting content, readers are going to be drawn to it and will be more likely to share it, increasing your visibility. One way to showcase original content is to have a blog on your website that you can update with new articles regularly.
OFFSITE SEO SPREADS THE WORD, BOTH LOCALLY & DIGITALLY Offsite SEO, on the other hand, consists of actions you take (other than advertising) to promote your website on other platforms. This strategy is sometimes referred to as building legitimate inbound links from trusted sources. Not only does this make your business easier to find through other channels, but it also boosts your SEO ranking with Google, making your website come up more prominently when an online search is conducted.
Registering your company with local directories falls into this category, and is one of the most important ways to connect with your community. Garnering positive reviews on Google, Yelp, and other review sites is great, as this creates ways for consumers to learn about your company, plus they provide links leading back to your website. Maintaining social media channels for your business is another popular way to increase visibility and SEO. Facebook is very popular with adult consumers, so keeping up with a company Facebook page is a valuable way to communicate, in addition to providing links to your website. There is no doubt that Search Engine Optimization helps a website’s visibility, which in turn draws more consumers to your company. It takes some work to implement these strategies, and it can take some time to build your SEO ranking, but it will be well worth it in the long run.
TOTAL LOCAL OFFERS SEO, TOO! If you need any advice or help with SEO, both onsite and offsite, the professionals at Total Local would be more than happy to help. We offer several different programs for both on- and offsite SEO. Visit our website at www.TotalLocal.com or give us a call at 517-663-2405 to schedule a consultation.
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ONLINE REVIEWS ARE ESSENTIAL TOOLS FOR YOUR BUSINESS In this day and age, most consumers research about a company online before making a purchase or choosing a service. Whether they are ordering a product over the Internet, researching an in-store purchase, or looking for a service like a doctor’s office, chances are the potential customer will check out a company’s online reviews to see how it measures up. Online reviews are an important way for people to learn about your business, and if your reviews are genuine and mainly positive, they can be a huge asset in attracting customers. Authentic, positive online reviews can be one of the best forms of advertisement available. Research from Bright Local shows that 86% of people read online reviews for local businesses and 91% of consumers ages 18-34 trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. With that in mind, having a collection of mainly positive reviews of your business is essential. There are many different platforms for customer reviews, but since Google and Facebook reviews are the most popular and most visible, those are the focus of this article.
SOMETIMES SATISFIED CUSTOMERS JUST NEED A LITTLE NUDGE Sometimes a satisfied customer will be motivated enough to leave a glowing review of your company on their own, either on Facebook, Google, or another platform. But often, customers need a little reminding or nudging to leave reviews. How can you build up your body of online reviews, while still keeping them authentic? There are several ways. 10
1. Online Directory Listings: Make sure your company’s profile is listed in the biggest review channels, Facebook and Google. Update your Google My Business Profile and make sure the Facebook page for your business is up-to-date and current. That way potential customers can find your business online, and satisfied customers can leave positive reviews for others to see. 2. Follow the Rules: There are a couple of rules about reviews to keep in mind, to keep your company in good standing with Facebook and Google. While it is okay to ask for reviews, it is not okay to offer customers incentives for positive reviews or to hire third-party services to solicit or create inauthentic reviews. These guidelines are commonsense ways to ensure that the reviews about companies are genuine. 3. Ask for a Review: The most basic way to encourage positive reviews is to consistently provide excellent service. However, sometimes even happy customers need a little reminder. Asking them in person, over the phone, or via email is acceptable, depending on the ways your company typically communicates with its customers. If you are sending an email with a request for a review, it’s helpful to include a link or a badge that goes directly to the review pages to make it easy for the customer to simply click on the link. Add a request for a review on your business card or other printed communications as well.
4. In-Store or In-Office Reminders: Another way to gently remind customers about leaving a review is to post a sign in your store or office. All it takes is a simple sign near the checkout counter or the door, thanking them for being a customer/patient/client, etc., and asking if they would consider leaving a review on Facebook or Google, to help others learn about your company’s services.
ONLINE REVIEWS HELP SHOPPERS BECOME LOYAL CUSTOMERS
5. QR Codes and Links: Generating QR codes for signs, business cards, and other print materials is a user friendly approach to asking your customers for a review. You can also add a link to your email signature line or in your email marketing campaigns, asking your customers to click to leave a review. Sending a link via text, messenger, or WhatsApp after a positive interaction is also a convenient way to ask for reviews.
With customer testimonials and your company’s responses, online reviews are an important way for consumers to learn about your company and your company’s level of customer service. By building your body of reviews and responding to them, you will create a way for savvy consumers to verify your company’s character, turning those who are shopping around into new customers.
RESPONDING TO REVIEWS BUILDS YOUR COMPANY’S CHARACTER In addition to requesting reviews, it is very important to respond to online reviews. If consumers see that you are reading your company’s reviews and creating a dialogue with customers, they will be more likely to see the reviews as genuine and to see your company as one that cares. Of course, once in a while every business, even the best ones, makes mistakes and ends up with an angry customer and a negative review. If you receive a negative review, it’s best to try to rectify the problem and respond to the review as soon as possible. Even if you are annoyed or outraged about a negative review, it’s always wise to remain professional; respond with understanding and
compassion, and don’t let revenge or anger get the better of you. According to researchers, if potential customers see that your business is doing its best to address the stated problem, you will show your business to be sincere and caring, which is something consumers appreciate.
If you need help with directory listings or in setting up your Google My Business or Facebook page, Total Local now offers these services. We also provide monthly Facebook page management, QR Codes, and can help you design and develop email marketing, business cards, and other print materials. Talk with your account executive or call us at 517-663-2405 for a free marketing consultation today!
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117 E Knight St Ste A PO Box 305 Eaton Rapids MI 48827 www.TotalLocal.com 517-663-2405