Do you OFTEN feel this way? Do you have a Mobile Strategy? Do you even know what one is?

If you are a business (Local, Virtual, whatever) you need a Mobile Strategy!

photo from marketoonist.com

Google Places (http://google.com/places) is a free service from Google where business owners can market, promote, and advertise their business. It lets business owners leave their mark on Google Maps and list various information about their business including their business name, products/services, address, contact details, operating hours, accepted modes of payment, photos (of establishment/products), etc.

Google Places was originally known as the Google Local Business Center which was launched on March 15, 2005. Quoting from the press release relating to the launch:

 The Google Local Business Center enables businesses to more effectively reach consumers searching on Google Local with accurate, useful and up to date information about their business. By enabling businesses to easily add or edit information whenever they like, businesses do not have to worry about outdated content or publishing deadlines. Businesses do not need a website to add a business listing to Google Local through the Local Business Center.

 The service was renamed to Google Places on April 20, 2010 because, according to Google, they wanted to better connect it with “Place Pages.”

Along with the name change, Google also introduced a few new features, including:

•  Service Areas – This feature allows businesses to indicate which geographic areas they serve. Additionally, it allows businesses without a storefront or office location to make their address private.
•  Advertising – For just $25/month, Google enables business owners in select cities to make their listings stand out on Google.com and Google Maps using Tags.
•  Google Business Photos – Through this service, business owners can request a free photo shoot of the interior of their business for use on their Place Pages. (Note: As of December 7, 2010, Google photographers are visiting businesses in select cities in the US, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.)
•  Customized QR Codes – A QR code, which stands for Quick Response code, is a specific matrix barcode (a two-dimensional code). The QR code can be read by dedicated QR barcode readers and most smartphones through the use of an app.

QR codes can be used to do many things, such as to navigate to a website, dial a phone number, and all sorts of other things. The QR codes that Google Places provides will take people directly to the mobile version of the Place Page for the business that owns the QR code.

After you’ve created your Google Places listing, Google will provide you with a customized QR code that will help you market your Place Page more effectively.

One great benefit of having your business listed on Google Places is that you will have the chance to get your business appearing as one of the results on Google’s universal search results (via the local business results).

So what do you think?  I bet you got some new ideas you hadn’t thought before. Now here’s the important part:  You’ve got to put them to use.  Ideas in your head won’t get you new leads and more customers and clients, only ideas that you put into practice.

Start by deciding which one idea you want to implement first, and just do it.  Follow the instructions given above and start gathering your contacts.  Once your first project is well underway and you have incorporated it into your routine, add another one.  Keep adding until you’ve incorporated enough into your marketing efforts that you get all the leads you want or you’ve maxed out your time and energy.

If you do that, it won’t take long until you’ll notice a distinct increase in the number of leads you get — and the sales you make.

Good luck!  And don’t forget to have fun!

If you’ve been online for any length of time, you’ve surely heard that you must include social media in your marketing efforts. In fact, from LinkedIn to Facebook to Twitter to MySpace to Flickr, social media sharing sites offer great opportunities for entrepreneurs to reach their audiences. But many professionals aren’t fully leveraging the power of social media and may be missing out on a lot of potential new customers. Here are some highly effective out-of-the-box ways to use social media that will help you find people who need and want what you have to offer:

1. Follow Those Who Follow Those You Follow. Can you say that ten times fast? Basically, we’re simply playing the familiar game of Six Degrees of Separation. There is likely a big overlap between your market and the followers of the people you’re already following. For instance, if you’re in the DIY home remodeling market, and you follow the big names like Ty Pennington and Bob Vila, many of your potential customers are probably among Ty and Bob’s followers, friends, and contacts. On most social media sites, it’s easy to see the names in your contacts’ lists of friends and followers, so go ahead and follow or friend these people. Chances are, a good number of them will return the favor, and you’ll grow your potential customer base as a result.
2. Watch What You (and Other People!) Say. You’ll find many followers and contacts by watching for chats, conversations, and topics that are related to your niche. For instance, if you’re in the personal finance field, you could search for Twitter mentions of words and phrases such as “debt,” “frugality,” and “home mortgage.” If you identify a chat or an ongoing conversation in your field, immediately follow the participants. Again, a large percentage of them will follow you in return.
3. The Writing Is on the Wall. Go to Facebook fan pages, which are now called “Like” pages.  Look around for pages that are related to your niche and watch who is writing on the wall. Scoop these people into your funnel by issuing them a friend invitation, or sending them a message about their post or update. If they’re complete strangers, include a note in your invitation to let them know why you’d like to make their acquaintance.
4. A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words. Even though online photo sharing sites like Flickr.com and Photobucket.com host millions of images, many people still overlook them as a resource for finding potential customers. But not you! You know that images are powerful, and anyone who is going to go to the trouble of posting, say, a photo of their new Nike running shoes may be a perfect audience member for your site about trail running. You can search photos and images by keywords and tags, and look at groups, too. In addition, you can easily leave comments, ask questions, join groups, and invite people to become your contacts – and hopefully, eventually your customers.

Chances are, you are already active on several online social media sites, though you may not have gotten the results you were hoping for.  The key is to approach them a little differently. If you’re a specialist in natural health on LinkedIn, think about where you could find some of “your” people. Could they be tucked away in groups for chiropractors, naturopaths, aromatherapists, ayurvedic practitioners or whatever your target audience might be? Think outside the box, and you’ll get a lot more out of your social media activities.

As an entrepreneur with an online business, you always need more customers.  Online forums and mailing lists are among the places where you can find them.  Chances are that you’re using those venues already. After all, you know they allow you to demonstrate your expertise and to build links back to your website.

But if that’s all you do, you’re leaving a lot of money on the table.  Here’s a way to get many more customers from your forum marketing efforts:  Instead of just focusing on spreading the word about your expertise, use forums to make contact with your prospects more directly, not to sell to them, but to build relationships.

In fact, the combination of building  personal relationships while also establishing your professional expertise can be an excellent way to attract new customers. Here’s how to do it:

1. Identify forums and lists in your industry. Head over to Google.com and do a search on “NICHE forums.” Be sure to replace NICHE with the name of YOUR niche, such as knitting or breeding guinea pigs.  Then go to groups.yahoo.com and groups.google.com and find a few email lists in your industry. Look both at the number of participants and at the frequency of updates. For best results, choose smaller, more active lists or forums over larger, inactive communities.
2. For each forum or mailing list, go through the enrollment process to create a profile and register so you’ll be eligible to both post and receive messages. You should also a link to your site in your profile signature line if that is permitted, although it’s not essential for this particular method.
3. Monitor the conversation to get a sense of who the movers and shakers are.  Get familiar with  the main topics of interest as well. Join in where appropriate, but remember that your main goal is not just to answer questions. Instead, you want to establish personal relationships with others in the community. Build the level of trust with individual members by sharing and responding to personal information, and by keeping track of what is going on in their lives.
4. Once you have established yourself as a community member and feel like you’ve got a “relationship” with a handful of people, reach out. Based on their individual preferences or concerns, send them a direct link to a resource that will be of interest to them. This resource could be on your site, or even on someone else’s site.The goal is not to “sell” them anything at this point, but to show them that you are attuned to their wants and needs. Try a simple note saying, “Hey, I know you’re interested in watercolor painting. I’m starting an online class next week that you might be interested in checking out!” This “soft sell” lets them know what you have to offer, without pushing them too hard. If you’ve done a good job building their trust, they’ll be receptive to your suggestions.

   Of course, there’s an even softer sell… You can offer them free stuff and send them to your opt-in page.  That way, they won’t even have to buy anything, yet you may be able to get them to join your list, which opens another channel of communication.  Once they’re subscribed, you can continue to build your relationship, both through your autoresponder sequences and by sending them the occasional personal email.

While this method of finding customers might not seem all that different from the way you may already be using, it differs in one key element from the “common wisdom” about promoting yourself online. Rather than demonstrating your knowledge, expertise, and offerings in a wider, more public setting, you’re focusing on creating relationships behind the scenes, with one individual at a time.

While this one-by-one approach may seem effort-intensive and not very efficient, it’s actually quite powerful and won’t take nearly as much time and effort as you’d expect. Over the course of a month, you can establish strong, personal relationships with a dozen or more contacts, and all it will take is just minutes a day.

Even if you get just a dozen leads from that strategy, consider that these new leads are 12 people who already believe in you, trust your recommendations, and are receptive to your offerings. Bringing pre-sold people into your funnel is much more effective than casting a wide net and gathering a boatload of contacts who may or may not want what you’re selling.

Of course, you can always use this method in conjunction with “strutting your stuff” on the wider forum. Give both a try and see how they actually enhance each other. The members you have connected with on a personal level are going to be supportive of you in the more public group or forum, and vice versa. Now that’s smart marketing!