Google Places is Media Friendly

How much would the Yellow Pages charge you for a full color photograph in your ad?  Safe to say, a lot of money each month.  Google allows you to put up to 10 photos or images in your listing for free.  You have to pay extra if you want your logo in your yellow page ad.  Make it your first image for free and it will show up next to your business listing.

Fill in the other pictures with the front of your business so that customers can easily recognize it when they drive up.  Include pictures of yourself and your staff.  Scrumptious pictures of your food or whatever products that you sell can convince people to do business with you.  Use photos of whatever makes sense for your business.  Sparkling diamonds if you are a jeweler, a beautiful backyard if you are a landscaper.  A clean, inviting pool if you do pool maintenance.

Don’t Forget the Videos

Videos sell, entertain and capture people’s attention.  YouTube has the second most search engine requests, second only to Google.  People engage with video.  Video pulls people in.  Video makes you seem real.

Video is a terrific way of communicating some additional information about your business.  It is easy to make a video with an inexpensive video camera, the video function on your digital still camera or from your cell phone.  The quality of these devices is sufficient for web site video.  No HD required.  It is actually not as good because it takes longer to load and the quality difference is not apparent.

Make several videos of one minute or less.  If this scares you, find someone under thirty and ask them to help you.  On most computers today this whole process is easy and seamless.  Remember videos work.  More people go to movies than museums.  More people watch TV than read books.

Video is a great place to capture customer testimonials.  Their enthusiasm and genuine happiness makes for a great story.  Include a tour of your business, so that it feels more familiar and inviting.  Introduce yourself telling why you love what you are doing.

Upload your less than 2 minute videos to YouTube.  You can then go to your Google Places account and link up to your videos.  It is not just the big businesses that can have customer gathering media attracting clients.

Google Places make all this available to the smallest business, even if you don’t have a web site.  Don’t miss out on this free way to promote your business in your local community.

The Pain of a Website That Isn’t Working for You

What can a business in Sonoma County do when their website is not up and working for them?

I have been talking to business owners about their websites and I have been hearing some common themes.  Most of them painful to hear, and certainly not helpful for the local businesses here in Santa Rosa or anywhere.

I was talking to a local winery from Alexander Valley, near Healdsburg.  They paid an experienced web designer a big down payment to create a new web site for them in December.  It is now 4 months later and not a single page of the new web site is up.  There has been much frustration and broken promises.

Whenever you are thinking of working with a web designer, a very important question to ask is, “By when?”  Some designers are very upfront with you and will tell you they can’t get to your project for weeks or months.  Others are eager to take your downpayment or deposit, because they have cash flow problems, and then move on to the next victim, whoops, I mean client, and get another deposit to tide them over.

We have learned how to do business with most people, but it seems to me that web design has led business people to neglect the normal best practices they would follow with other vendors.  Most business owners would not give money to a vendor before a job was started without have a very clear, written commitment and production schedule.

For some business owners, websites are this fuzzy area that they don’t know very much about and aren’t even sure what questions to ask.  As a consequence they look to the professional that a friend recommends and don’t ask many questions because they don’t feel very confident about what to ask.

I will be offering a series of questions to help you make intelligent choices by asking the right questions when you are going through the process of wanting to put up your web site or getting something improved on your website.  Web sites are important and can be a big help for your business.  At Ajalon we are always happy to help you succeed.