(Actually, it’s better.)

If you haven’t listed your dance business in Google Places, it’s time.

Google Places used to be called “Google Business Center”…it’s also known as “Google Local” and “Google Local Maps” and a whole host of other things. But what is it exactly?

local search results for "belly dance" "houston"

When you do an online search for, say, “dance class” and “Houston”, you’re going to get the usual paid and organic search results. But you’ll also get the local search results. Businesses Google knows are near the location you entered. You’ll also get a map with little lollipops showing you exactly where the business is located. That’s nothing new. Local search results have been around for a long time.

But what is new is all the things you can do with local search marketing to make sure your business shows up at the top of those results. And how you can encourage the searcher to give you a call or come in for a visit.

Why does it matter if you show up for local search?

Because this is quickly becoming the most important place to be seen online for “real world” businesses like yours. Why? Because this is where the eye goes first online. But more importantly, it’s the result that shows up first on a mobile phone search.  Smart phone usage is on the rise, and soon most online searches will begin on a mobile device (phone, iPad, Ereader, etc.)

What does it cost?

Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Just go to Google Places and follow the steps to get listed.

Once I’m listed, am I done?

Not quite, you want to make the most of your listing. Google places gives you the opportunity to add photos, videos, coupons, social media links and most importantly–reviews! All of these help the viewer evaluate your business. It’s not enough to just show up on a particular search. You have to stand out and be the obvious choice to the viewer. And the more complete your listing, the more likely you will be chosen over your competitor. So, make sure you fill out every possible option for your listing–especially the reviews.

Why do I need reviews?

A recent Nielsen study showed that online reviews from total strangers were trusted more than any other form of advertising. ANY form. People trust online reviews more than TV commercials, radio ads, billboards, magazine ads, you name it. The only thing that beat out reviews for trust factor was “recommendations from a personal friend or relative.”

Google will pull reviews from all over the Internet for you. But you can’t place them yourself. You need to encourage your students and clients to go online and post their thoughts on your business. They can do it right on your listing, or they can go to different websites and write reviews. Just be sure they use the exact same business name every time, or the search engine will get confused.

Here’s how to get your listing:

1. Register online at  Google.com/places
2. Verify you are the owner of your business
3. Add photos, videos, coupon offers, etc. to complete your listing
4. Add reviews as often as you can. The more, the better.
5. Periodically check your listing for any negative reviews and handle them appropriately.

Finally, be sure to keep your listing fresh and up-to-date. If it looks like your info is old, a viewer will skip over you (even if you’re the better choice.)

Don’t wait. The sooner you get listed, the sooner new students and clients will line up outside your door.

Solve the belly dance music dilema

Now you can send your students straight to iTunes or eMusic.com and they can download it directly. Okay, that’s not news. The new part is that you can become an affiliate of both those websites and make a commission on every sale. It’s the best of both worlds: your student gets the music cheap and easy, and you make a little money on the backend.

It all works through affiliate marketing. Basically, that’s an arrangement between two websites–the company selling the product (called the Advertiser) and the website recommending the product (called the Publisher–that’s you). All you have to do is put up a page on your website or blog entitled “belly dance music” or “class music” or something like that. Then your students go there and you have links set up that go straight to the song on iTunes or eMusic. Those links have a special code embedded in them that tell the Advertiser where that sale came from. At a certain point, you get a check as a commission for all those sales you made for the company.

It’s a win-win-win situation. Your student gets the music. The advertiser gets a sale. And you get a percentage. Sweet!

How do you become a belly dance music affiliate?

If you already know all about affiliate marketing, here’s the short answer:

The iTunes program is on the LinkShare network. And the eMusic program is on Commission Junction.

If you don’t know what the heck I’m talking about, you can learn all about making extra money online with your business or hobby on my affiliate marketing blog.

No one likes to think they’re the only one to do/be interested in anything. So, if you use flyers with those little tear-off tabs on the end (and you should. It’s a great way to get people to call you.)…if you use those kinds of flyers, tear off one or two of the tabs yourself before you post it.
That shows people that “someone else” was interested enough to take a tab. So, it’s safe for them to do the same.

Oh, and don’t forget to think about your target audience when posting your flyers. Put them up where your target hangs out. (college campus, bookstore, coffee shop…)
Try it!

the real vendor client relationship

You can use this to find eateries, airline flight info, zip codes, shoe repair shops in Soho–just about anything you might look up on Google, but you don’t have to go online. The only charge is your normal text charge.

Now, I’m trying to find out exactly how you make sure your business shows up on this service. I’m not sure if it’s based on “Google maps” or being ranked highly on the web or the mobile web or a combination of things…when I find out, I’ll be sure to let you know.

In the meantime, try texting keywords around YOUR belly dance business to Google and see if you show up.

The mobile web is a completely different ecosystem than the Internet. It has its own search engines, its own rankings, its own rules. And just because you have a beautiful site, doesn’t mean it will show up at all on a mobile search.

Why should you care? Well, if I’d found a site and a dancer performing that evening, I’d have become a customer. Instead, I was just disappointed.  People use their mobile devices all the time. Mobile marketing is still in its infancy in the US, but you really should pay attention to it. Soon, you’ll HAVE TO use mobile marketing to reach people. Just like you really have to have a web site today.

Consider this, according to internetworldstats.com,  23.5% of the world population use the Internet. 60% use mobile. That’s a lot of potential customers.

Also, 84% of people surveyed EXPECT sites they visit to be mobile friendly. Most people simply don’t realize that a site won’t magically miniaturize and show up properly on a 2″ screen when it’s designed to show up on a 20″ screen.

Try looking up your web site on a mobile browser right now. Is it easy to see? Can you navigate? Does it load quickly?

If not, you need to make it mobile-friendly. The simplest way is through the use of “User Agent Field” codes.  This is a special bit of code that tells the web whether the visitor is on a computer or a mobile device. If the visitor is on mobile, it will strip out all the graphics, animation and unnecessary stuff and only show the content.

There’s a ton to learn about mobile marketing, and a lot of it does apply to you as a belly dance business. But for now, try looking up this site on a mobile browser to see what happens when you use one of these User Agent Field codes.

Two ways that I can think of:

1) write about them on a blog page separate from the sales site.

2) write about them in your newsletter.

Both these options allow you to include a link and write about the site if you choose. So, the link gets a more important platform (which means more people will click on it) and you don’t lose customers from your site.  Win-Win.

Got any other thoughts on the subject?  Leave a comment!

Why are you out there trading links with anyone you can like it’s a race or something?

If your site is designed to be a massive resource site like Shira’s, great! That’s a fabulous resource for people and the links are an integral part of it. They serve the goal. But most people are collecting links because they think it’s going to bring them Google Love. In other words, they want a higher page rank on the search engines–Google, mostly, but also Yahoo and MSN.

A few years ago, collecting huge numbers of backlinks was a good strategy. Just as a decade ago, using massive keyword density worked really well. Neither one of these strategies works anymore. They were weaknesses in the Google system exploited by shady businesses. Google got wise and changed their algorithms. They do that. A lot. Yet the information is still floating around out there, and people believe it.

I just got back from a big internet marketing seminar in Chicago. Google was there. They explained the deal.

Here’s the deal…content. Getting a strong search engine ranking is all about regularly updated, relevant content. And a FEW backlinks from authority sites.

Let’s start with content. Your biggest keywords will probably be “belly dance” and “your town”.  When you write the copy on your site, those keywords will appear naturally within the text. That’s what the Big G is looking for. Naturally occurring keywords. How do they know the difference between a bunch of gobbledy-gook and real content? Google Books. They scanned in millions of books, journals, texts, anything they could find to teach their spiders what natural text “sounds” like.  And they learned. And now keyword density doesn’t work. So just write your content and don’t worry about the keywords. They’ll be there on their own.  The only exception is to use the keyword in your title tag, your page description and a headline (if you have one.) That’s it.

Next, you want to have regularly updated content so the spiders will index your pages more often. The more recent your content, the better your page ranks. This is one of the primary reasons I suggest using a blogging platform like Wordpress as your website. It’s easy to post often.

Backlinks–you want a few, like 10 or 12, from authoritative websites. What’s an authority site? One with a lot of educational content. One that Google likes. Anything with a .gov or .edu is helpful, but not easy to get for us.  Shira’s site would be considered an authority site because it ranks really well (because of its content) and because its been around a long long time.  Google thinks, hey, this is a great site and it’s linking to this other site. So the other site is probably really good, too.  Social bookmarking is another topic that deals with backlinks, but we can discuss that later.

Why linking on your site is a bad idea: If you have a “links” page, what is your visitor going to do? Click the links, of course. Clicking is fun. It makes a cool sound. People like to click links. So, what are the chances they’ll click away and then never come back?  Pretty good! The vast majority of lost traffic NEVER comes back. That’s sad. You had someone to sell to, and now you don’t. All because you were being nice and helpful and informative. Bummer.

There are ways to get around this problem. Afterall, we do want to show people all the cool sites we know about. And we do want to promote our friends. I’ll post about that next time. Until then, think about your link strategy. Do you need them? Do they serve your site’s goal? Or are you just showing your visitors the quickest way out of your site?

WRITING:

1) Think about your target audience. Who are you trying to attract? If your answer is “anyone” then you need to have several different flyers for each target group and distribute them where that group hangs out. (Common target audiences for belly dance include moms, middle-aged women, college aged women, high school students, brides to be…)

2) Write in their language. What do you say to a busy college student to get her to try out a class? What do you say to a future bride? Each group needs to hear something different to sell them on your class. Pay attention to that. If you don’t know what you need to say, ask some people who are in that target group (preferably some who are already sold on you.) Take a survey and ask “why did you decide to try the class?” and “what objections almost stopped you.”

3) Address the objections! Every human being has a brain that’s constantly trying to talk them out of something. It’s a defense mechanism. So, in sales pitches (that’s your flyer–it’s a sales pitch) you must address each objection before the brain will say “okay, let’s try it.” Here are a few common objections to a belly dance class and how you counter that objection in a flyer. Belly dance is…

too weird (it’s becoming a national craze! half a million women tried it last year.)

too hard (great for beginners. no dance experience necessary.)

too expensive (less than the cost of a quarter tank of gas. would you trade two lattes a week for some fun and exercise? Try it free!)

only for skinny, young people (no bare bellies required! or show a photo of who your “real world” students are.)

too far away (classes forming near you. try it right here this Sunday at 5pm.)

4) Use photos of your students. Remember, marketing is all about THEM not you. Yes, you can include a friendly photo of yourself. But you’ll get more interest with a photo of your smiling students and a nice short testimonial from one of them. My favorite one is “It’s the best thing a woman can do for herself!” (that’s a quote from one of my students) Your prospect wants to know that she’s not alone, that she’ll find other people just like her in the class. What better way to show that than a photo.

5) ALWAYS include an easy to remember website address and your phone number. The first thing people are going to do is check you out online. So make it easy for them.

6) Ask them to do something and then give them an orderly sequence to follow: “Check us out on the web at YourStudioNameHere.com and call for your free first class.” A flyer that doesn’t include a call to action (where you ask them to DO something) is pretty ineffective.

7) When writing a URL on a flyer or email, capitalize the first letter of each word to make it easy to read and remember.

Use the “B” word. I know “belly dance” can be an unpopular term, and with good reason. However, when you’re dealing with the general public, they expect to see the B word. They really do. You’re not going to educate anyone on a flyer. Get them into your class or onto your web site, and THEN you can educate them about proper terminology. Besides, when they forget your name and phone number, but remember they wanted to find you online, they are almost always going to search for “your town” and “belly dance”. Almost Always.

DISTRIBUTING:

1) Once again, think of your target audience. Who are you hoping will see and respond to the flyer? Make sure you post it where your target is most likely to see it. If your audience is moms or middle-aged women–try the grocery store, hair salon (be sure to ask who their clientele is) or a local playground. If you’re after younger college-age students, try the local college campus.

2) Seek out non-crowded bulletin boards. The messier and more crowded a board or window is, the less chance people will notice your flyer. If you still want to post there, print it on bright colored paper or use a non-standard paper size. Try to stand out from the crowd somehow.

3) Check back often. Posters get damaged, taken down, even stolen if they’re pretty. Ask the owner of the board if they remove posters on a regular basis and then be sure to replace as needed.

4) Track your business. If you know where people found out about you, you’ll know where to concentrate your efforts. How? Just ask. If lots of people say they saw a flyer at the mall, you’ll know that’s an effective location and you need to keep using it. Also, try out different flyers, different photos, different text every now and then. Record how much new business you got from each variation and keep using the ones that work best.

5) Make friends with owners of local businesses. Some will consider placing a stack of business cards or a classy poster right by their cash register. This is a great way to get your message to brides-to-be. You already know where they’ll be–every bridal shop in town!

SO HOW DO YOU USE FLYERS TO GET BUSINESS? Share it in the comments!

I was talking with a friend the other day about dancing as an art form and the words “marketing” and “business” came up. She shook her head a little and told me whenever she hears those terms, things go fuzzy and she just tunes out. This was the second time in a month I’ve heard similar sentiments. The other person said “when I hear the word business, I hear my accountant droning on in my ear.”

So, what is it about these guys…they’re just words, after all. What do they represent to us that makes us not want to pay attention? This is going to sound a tad sexist, but I think some women find those words intimidating. Men love to talk about business strategies and marketing metrics. Even if they have no clue what they’re talking about, they can go on and on and on. Women would rather talk about anything else. (I realize I’m making a rash generalization here…I, for one, love talking about growing businesses. It’s why you’re reading this blog.)

Let’s tackle the word Marketing for now. In the immortal words of Inigo Montoya “I do not think it means what you think it means.”

Years ago, way before the Internet or even cell-phones, marketing was something done with a warlike mentality. You hired a big expensive advertising agency where guys in thousand-dollar suits would convene in a “war room” and build “strategies” for your “campaign.” (Seriously, doesn’t that sound like someone about to take over a small innocent country?) The goal was to build an unforgettable Brand, establish a platform, and saturate the media with images. All this in hopes that with repeated exposure your name and image would be “Branded” on the public’s subconscious. So, when they felt like getting a cool refreshing drink…the image that immediately comes to mind is Coke.

It worked really well in the days of three TV stations and captive audiences. It was called “interrupt marketing,” and it was really really expensive.

That was then and this is now.

Brand advertising via media saturation is dying a slow, tortured death for all but the largest companies. It’s not going out quietly…it’s kicking and screaming all the way. But people are just sick to death of interrupt marketing.

We hate commercials, and now that we have Tivo, we don’t have to watch.

We hate obnoxious radio jingles, and now that we have ipods, we don’t have to listen.

We hate pop-ups–so we have pop-up blockers.Technology is constantly trying to figure out the next way to get around advertising. And old-school marketers are constantly fighting for new ways to get in front of the public eye (like mobile marketing–ads on your cell phone).

The death of interrupt marketing is fabulous news for your belly dance business! Here’s why…

The new meaning of the word marketing is Relevant information delivered to an interested audience.

You can call it “social marketing” or “relationship marketing” or whatever you want, but it’s all about building communities of like-minded people and talking about what interests them (including your products.) How easy is that? Belly dancers have been doing this forever. It’s what we do. All the time. In our sleep.

Do you have a newsletter? That’s marketing.

Do you have a group on Tribe? That’s marketing.

Do you talk to your students about what’s happening in their everyday lives? That’s marketing, too.

When you build a community around your product (which most of the time is YOU), word of mouth just happens. And thanks to the Internet, you can build a community with members all around the world! There’s no limit to who will be interested in what you have to offer.

When someone asks a friend where she got that gorgeous hip scarf, she’s going to say “I got it from this awesome vendor. I met the owner at a seminar, and she was so nice. She let me try on every scarf they had! They have a web site you can order from, here’s the address. Oh, and make sure you sign up for their newsletter–I got the best recipe from last month’s issue.”

You can’t buy that kind of advertising!

You have to build it…one customer at a time.

Just by being a nice person. Just by making friends.

Tribal Marketing. How cool is that?