We recently joined the Local First Chicago, a great local membership organization of local owned companies in Chicago. Local First Chicago’s mission is to educate the public on the importance of choosing locally owned, independent businesses. We work primarily through public education, business support, and advocacy. Local First Chicago is a network of locally owned, independent businesses and community organizations joined together to keep money and character in our neighborhoods and build a thriving local living economy. In doing so, we hope to promote the overall social, economic, and environmental health of our economy and communities. Here are 10 Reasons to Shop and Support Chicago businesses like Lakeshore Branding. #1. Keep money in the neighborhood. A recent study in Chicago showed that locally owned, independent businesses put 70% more money back into the local community than chain stores, per square foot occupied. A space filled with a local business rather than a chain puts more dollars back in your neighborhood. – Read the full article
According to eMarketer, shoppers are expected to spend 14.2% more shopping online in 2010 than in 2009. Are you part of the trend? Should you care if you aren’t? Shopping online has much more to offer than an expanded selection. You may not have thought about how much gas you spend driving to multiple stores or the impulse buys that creep into your cart. Before you dive in head first, consider these hidden benefits to shopping online versus shopping at bricks and mortar stores. Wish Lists Eliminate Guesswork: Many of us have had it with giving (and, if we’re honest, getting) bad gifts. We’re pretty confident that Uncle Alfred doesn’t want another necktie, but we inevitably buy one for him anyway. Most sites know that we’re frustrated with guessing how to buy for someone and put wish lists directly on their sites. Feel weird about telling people what you want? List Ideas, Kaboodle, and Boxed Up make it a cinch to make your own lists – Read the full article
Who knew the power of blogging would explode like it has? It seems like everyone has a blog now, from stay-at-home moms to chefs to local business owners. Blogging is a powerful Internet marketing tool for local businesses as it gives you a new, yet subtle way to promote your company. Think of a blog as a way to communicate to the local community without all the business jargon. The point of a blog should be to put out information only. Write about relevant topics that relate to your business and give important facts that people want and need to know. Avoid being a salesman in your blog or people won’t read it. But provide an invaluable resource that people trust and you will build credibility within your community and generate more traffic. 5 hidden benefits of blogging for local business Change your perspective. Blogging forces you to examine your industry from all angles, not just as a provider of – Read the full article
From humble, open source beginnings, WordPress now powers over 61 million sites worldwide. The extent to which it has grown in popularity not just for bloggers but professional designers and developers is evidenced by Smashing Magazine recently launching an extended, dedicated WordPress section. I’m currently one of these working in web design in Chicago. The Project I recently had a very simple project of launching a blog with a small shopping cart installed in time for the 2011 Rugby World Cup held in New Zealand. Wait-of-Nation.com went live a little over two months ago. The Client With a background in PR/Advertising my client was well versed in getting himself out there, which in a country of 4.5 million people really isn’t that hard to do. He had a good product (sports blog of the most popular sport in NZ), with a niche message/ slant (“Home of New Zealand’s crushing expectation” – that the All Blacks – the National team – – Read the full article
FourSquare is an emerging social network that specifically joins consumers with local businesses and local, regional and national brands. Consumers can determine what FourSquare providers are in their area and discover discount coupons, reward programs and heightened FS status, all of which lead to more discounts, rewards and status advancement. Local Businesses Let’s say you own a dry cleaning business. You advertise effectively in the terrestrial world with newspaper ads and even a billboard or two. You have sales regularly, and you are located in a very convenient section of town. You even have a terrific website through which you have a loyal email list to which you send periodic notices, information and yes, sales pitches. However, you want to do more. Enter: FourSquare. If a potential customer finds you among the local FourSquare businesses, and the discounts you post in your business profile presents a lower price than that customer’s usual cleaner or you offer a service the other – Read the full article
A few days ago we talked about how important local search / SEO has become – and what you can do to enhance your local search performance and Internet marketing efforts. Well, as we conducted our research for that story, we stumbled upon a number of neat local search engine optimization tools. And, knowing how much readers love lists (our competitive intelligence tools post is one definitely worth checking out), we made another one – this time, to help you in your search for tools that are designed to give you an edge over local competitors. Enjoy! Local Search Toolkit This is one of our favorite local SEO tools right now. The invention of seOverflow’s Mike Belasco and Mary Bowling, the Local Search Toolkit features a Google Places Results Analyzer which generates competitive analysis and data from search results in Google Places. With the Local Search Toolkit, you can download, analyze, and review citation sources – and sort seamlessly through – Read the full article
It’s great to drive traffic – online and offline – from all corners of the world. But if you’re a smart marketer, you’ll realize you don’t have to be so international – at least not when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO). Thanks to local search, businesses don’t have to squander resources on attracting customers and visitors that are beyond their geographic reach anyway. One can instead focus on catering to the heart of the locals. Want to find out how? Here’s a list of 17 great local SEO and local search tips, tricks, and tools to help you get started. Claim. Claim your local listing on Google Places. While you’re at it, go to Bing Local and Yahoo Local and claim your listings there, too. Apply best practices. Read our guide on Google Places to put yourself closer to the center of the map. Submit your info to the online yellow pages. Sign up in online directories and – Read the full article
Social media has garnered a great deal of attention for big business. Corporate budgets are able to integrate complete marketing campaigns and promote them on social media. If you are a small business looking to be the next social media influencer, you are probably finding out how tough it is to engage with users on social media. However, there is some good news for you and for other small- and medium-sized business owners. The 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report saw that SMBs who used social for local marketing saw boosts in exposure, traffic, and sales. Whether you are a late adopter or consider yourself a social media pioneer, chances are, if your business is doing some sort of social media marketing, you at least understand its significance. Over 90 percent of small business owners and Internet marketers believe that social media is important to their business. Depending on the industry you operate in and how “brand-heavy” you are influences – Read the full article
