Platitudes and superlatives have no place in advertisement. The more specific and tight a statement, the more influence it holds because of its factual basis. Hopkins’ first chapter explains that advertising is based on set principles, and so to create generalizations and expressions without basis must be avoided.

Words like “best in the word”, “Lowest price in existence”, “supreme in quality” are expected claims. Ad copy shouldn’t boast or entertain – ad copy should focus on how the service will benefit the prospect.

Advertising is a science that has for itself no sense for lies – people respect the industry, so marketers should strive to maintain a level of credibility. Provide value without boasting: “But a man who makes a specific claim is either telling the truth or a lie. People do not expect an advertiser to lie. They know that he can’t lie in the best mediums. The growing respect in advertising has largely come through a growing regard for its truth”.

Hopkins goes on to say: “The weight of an argument may often be multiplied by making it specific. Say that a tungsten lamp gives more light than a carbon and you leave some doubt. Say it gives three and one-third times the light and people realise that you have made tests and comparisons”. Words should have for their basis quantitative and factual examples. Avoid saying “our prices have been reduced”; instead say “our prices have been reduced by 25%”.

Making a claim like “lowest price in America” has been used time and time again and has no affect on consumers anymore because they have become virtually numb by this commonplace method.

“Shaving soaps have long been advertised “Abundant lather,” “Does not dry on the face,” “Acts quickly,” etc. One advertiser had as good a chance as the other to impress those claims”. He continues: “Then a new maker came into the field. It was a tremendously difficult field, for every customer had to be taken from someone else. He stated specific facts. He said, “Multiplies itself in lather 250 times” “Softens the beard in one minute.” “Maintains its creamy fullness for ten minutes on the face.” “The final result of testing and comparing 130 formulas.” Perhaps never in advertising has there been a quicker and greater success in an equally difficult field”.

Advertisements for shaving products have always included as a benefit the time it takes to shave. One company said it takes 78 seconds to shave – this was a definitive statement that indicated actual tests and that slogan sold large.

Aim for definitive statement. Clear, concise, razor sharp and with real data, and the difference is vast.

Hopkins’ writes: “if a claim is worth making, make it in the most impressive way.”

Never use generalities, platitudes or superlatives. “Being specific claims value”.

Next Chapter – Tell Your Full Story

Cheers!

Anna @ Toronto

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Human nature doesn’t change; it has always been and will always remain the same. It is in the advertiser’s best interest to understand human psychology because what he learns will never have to be unlearned or re-learned.

Hopkins goes on to note that curiosity is a major drive in human nature and outlines the psychology of Americans: “Americans are extravagant. They want bargains but not cheapness. They want to feel that they can afford to eat and have and wear the best. Treat them as if they could not and they resent your attitude”. (This is Hopkins’ first mention of targeting an audience in this chapter).

People judge largely by price. Coming up with the right price point is also a matter of psychology. Here is how he explains price influence: “In the British National Gallery is a painting, which is announced in a catalogue to have cost $750,000. Most people at first pass it by at a glance. Then later they get farther on in the catalogue and learn what the painting cost. They return then and surround it”.

Another example Hopkins sites is when a hat in a department store was displayed at sale price for $100. The department store became crowded by women who just wanted to see it. The price was so high that it struck awe. Therefore, cheaper is not better- Americans are interested in bargains and if a product is marketed properly, a higher price point will raise credibility.

The same two examples are translated to advertising. If we’re advertising a valuable formula we say we paid $100,000 for it. This anchors the psychology of respect and consequently value.

Hopkins continues to site various psychological triggers that can be achieved through different methodologies: guarantees, coupons, freebees – “An advertiser offered a set of books to businessmen. The advertising was unprofitable, so he consulted another expert. The ads were impressive. The offer seemed attractive. “But,” said the second man, “let us add one little touch which I have found effective. Let us offer to put the buyers name in gilt lettering on each book.” That was done, and with scarcely another change in the ads they sold some hundreds of thousands of books”… “Through some peculiar kink in human psychology the names in gilt gave much added value to the books”.

Hopkins discusses the importance of finding a niche market: “In the same way it is found that an offer limited to a certain class of people is far more effective than a general offer. For instance, an offer limited to veterans of the war, or to members of a lodge or sect, or to executives. Those who are entitled to any seeming advantage will go a long way not to lose that advantage”. He started off with the American example at the beginning of the chapter and here he expands on it.

“So with sampling. Hand an unwanted product to a housewife and she pays it slight respect. She is in no mood to see its virtues. But get her to ask for a sample after reading your story, and she is in a very different position. She knows your claims. She is interested in them, else she would not act, and she expects to find the qualities you told”.

“Two concerns, side by side, sold women’s clothing on instalments. The appeal, of course, was to poor girls who desire to dress better. One treated them like poor girls and made the bare business offer.”

The other put a woman in charge – a motherly, dignified, capable woman. They did business in her name. They used her picture. She signed all ads and letters. She wrote to these girls like a friend. She knew herself what it meant to a girl not to be able to dress her best. She had long sought a chance to supply women good clothes and give them all season to pay. Now she was able to do so, with the aid of men behind her.”

Hopkins ends off this chapter saying that there are many aspects to psychology. While some may be known by instinct, others are taught by experience. A marketer must know what to trigger in the mind of the prospect, and for that he must understand his mind first.

Next Chapter – Being Specific

Anna @ Toronto

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To start, I want to quote Hopkins from this chapter: “We pick out what we wish to read by headlines, and we don’t want those headlines misleading. The writing of headlines is one of the greatest journalistic arts. They either conceal or reveal an interest.”

The last part of this quote reveals an interesting fact – a headline has the ability to capture the attention of an audience only if it is written in a way that appeals to them. If it doesn’t appeal to the right audience, it is concealing itself.

Hopkins spends a good amount of time talking about the importance of speaking to an intended audience, and he goes back to the initial discussion on salesmanship. The difference between a salesman and an ad is that a salesman cannot be ignored by a prospect because he is physically standing in his presence and talking to him. However, an audience chooses if they want to read an ad or not – “the advertisement can be ignored” out of a person’s own volition.

Another key difference is that a salesman spends much of his time persuading prospects who are ultimately not looking to buy. Whereas an ad is going to be read by the intended audience because people who will read are those who are interested and are interested voluntarily.

So, the point is to make those prospects who are interested in the ad respond. If you wish to talk to someone specifically in a crowd you use their name to address them – the same should be for creating ads. Use the right words for those who are going to choose to read. A good marketer only cares about the people who are interested in whatever it is he has to offer and creates advertisements only for their interest.

Hopkins compares an ad to a newspaper; a person might spend money buying the whole paper, but will only flip to the pages that interest him. Newspapers hold many categories: politics, business, entertainment, sports etc., and you are likely to read the subjects that interest you, and moreover, read only the headlines that capture your attention within the categories themselves.

Suppose a newspaper ad spoke about the most beautiful woman in town. The ad would interest the woman and her friends, but they wouldn’t read it if the headline read “Egyptian Archaeology”, would they?

People are hurried. You don’t want to waste their own time. In fact, it is the job of the advertiser to cut down their time spent on wasteful activities.

Hopkins writes an insightful piece: “The writer of this chapter spends far more time on headlines than on writing. He often spends hours on a single headline. Often scores of headlines are discarded before the right one is selected. For an entire return from an ad depends on attracting the right sort of reader. The best of salesmanship has no chance whatever unless we get a hearing”. It is for this reason that good marketers look for niche markets; there is always an audience that’s ready to buy. They just have to be found and spoken to correctly.

Hopkins goes on to support his original thesis – advertisements are based on principles and proof. There is already a good amount of data that presents what works and what doesn’t and headlines are measured just as mail order advertising: “Thus we learn what type of headline has most widespread appeal. The product has many uses. It fosters beauty. It prevents disease. It aids daintiness and cleanliness. We learn to exactness which quality most of our readers seek”.

So be a mathematician with your headlines. Make sure they reveal the right things to the right audiences and avoid making them mysteries: “On soap, for instance, the headline “Keep Clean” might attract a very small percentage. It is too commonplace. So might the headline, “No animal fat.” People may not care much about that. The headline, “It floats” might prove interesting. But a headline referring to beauty or complexion might attract many times as many”.

“You are presenting an ad to millions. Among them is a percentage, small or large, whom you hope to interest. Go after that percentage and try to strike the chord that responds”.

Cheers!

Anna @ Toronto

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After working with a marketer for close to a year, and watching closely every move he’d make (I wasn’t stalking, I swear), his interest in mail order advertising was as intense as I understand now it should’ve rightly been.

Hopkins’ begins his 4^th chapter describing that a good test for an advertising man is “in selling goods by mail”. Before anything else a marketer embarks on, first he must master mail order advertising.

Mail order advertising holds for itself no theories or guesswork; it is based on real stats and figures because its costs and results are apparent immediately. The marketer is quickly able to see immediately if his campaigns are producing profits and efficiencies.

Mastering mail order advertising means experiencing advertising on a scientific basis – every wasted dollar adds to the costs of results.

Hopkins’ example: “A man was selling a five-dollar article. The replies from his ad cost him 85 cents. Another man submitted an ad, which he thought better. The replies cost $14.20 each. Another man submitted an ad, which for two years brought replies at an average of 41 cents each.”

The man that cost the costs down to 41 cents is going to be much more profitable after sending out 250,000 pieces. THIS is real value. Imagine each piece costing $14.20 – it would get expensive and it would get expensive pretty fast. However, many marketers do this. They apply guesswork rather than hard evidence.

Mail order advertising teaches marketers how to apply real methods to campaigns – not just theories.

Second Part- Layout of Advertisement

“Mail order advertising is always set in small print”, Hopkins’ writes. Larger type does not pay because “The more you tell the more you sell”. (Oh, how I love this motto and am very happy to have found its source! Next time you use “The more you tell the more you sell”, reference Claude C. Hopkins).

“In mail order advertising there is no waste of space. Every line is utilised. Borders are rarely used. Remember that when you are tempted to leave valuable space unoccupied.”

Just like with any good ad copy, the point is to be simple and concise. There shouldn’t be any entertainment value that covers up your intent – to translate real value to your prospect. So Hopkins’ writes: “There is no boasting, save of super-service. There is no useless talk. There is no attempt at entertainment. There is nothing to amuse.”

Always include in your mail order advertisement some sort of coupon that will entice your prospect to move to action. A coupon exists so that it cuts out unnecessary step – eliminate hassle and time-spending for your the prospects. They will not buy if the process is long and inefficient. Act on behalf of your prospect – make his their life easier.

Hopkins’ writes on the coupon: “The mail order advertisers knows that waste from tests, and he does not propose to accept it. So he inserts that reminder to be cut out, and it turns up when the reader is ready to act.”

Third part – Pictures in advertisements

“In mail order advertising the pictures are always to the point. They are salesmen in themselves. They earn the space they occupy.” He goes on to say, “The size is gauged by their importance. The picture of a dress one is trying to sell may occupy much space. Less important things get smaller spaces.”

Remember – mail order advertising should be as efficient as possible – every corner of the letter should be properly utilized. Don’t waste space. Use smaller print and only pictures that are effective and to the point. The less important they are, the smaller they should be.

Notice how Hopinks’ thinks: “Sometimes the advertiser uses small ads, sometimes-large ads. None are too small to tell a reasonable story. But an ad twice larger brings twice the returns. A four-times-larger ad brings four times the returns, and usually some in addition.”

Efficiency in everything is the key: “Every feature, every word and picture teaches advertising at its best. You may not like them. You may say they are unattractive, crowded, and hard to read – anything you will. But the test of results has proved those ads the best salesman those lines have yet discovered. And they certainly pay.”

There is no apology in turning away from these methods – they are tried and true. Any deviation from these principles will bring to the advertiser inefficiencies and ineffective ads.

Mail order advertising is the most fundamental approach to marketing. Account for each piece of information in terms of its monetary value and eliminate all guesswork out of marketing campaigns.

Next chapter – Headlines

Cheers!

Anna @ Toronto

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We are marketers, not experts – we aren’t concerned if someone will buy from us but rather are aiming to sell value to customers who eventually will.

Hopkins starts by noting that all people are selfish. They don’t care about your personal interests and instead are rather looking for what’s in it for them.

Ads should not be based on getting people to buy your products and information by showing them prices. Instead ads are based on service, they site advantages – “they offer wanted information” as Hopkins suggests: “perhaps they offer a sample, or to buy the first package on their behalf, or to send something on approval, so the customer may prove the claims without any cost or risks.”

Good salesmanship does not “merely cry a name”. A good salesman doesn’t say buy my product; he instead imagines the customer’s side of the benefit until the natural result is to buy.

Here are some examples Hopkins’ sites:

A brush maker has 2,000 canvassers going door-to-door with his product asking wives to buy. Instead of selling the product, the canvassers say “pick a brush for yourself”. Feeling she must reciprocate the gift, she buys brushes in return.

Another example: a coffee seller sells coffee by wagon in many cities. The seller comes to town and asks to accept a package, try the coffee, and he will be back in a few days to see if the people like it.  Even when he comes back he doesn’t ask to buy; instead he offers a utensil for free, and says to a prospect: if she buys the coffee, he will credit her 5 cents towards the utensil. The salesman is always offering a service.

Another case is selling cigars. Telling the prospects “smoke ten, then keep them or return them, as you wish” will allow them to sample, and make a decision accordingly. If the prospect likes it, great! If not, that’s ok too. (But you’re product is going to be the best, isn’t it? It’s going to give tremendous value to your audience. If it will, why wouldn’t they buy?)

Many salesmen sell products, and no matter what they may be the proper way to sell them is without expecting any repayment. A good salesman sais, “Use them for a week, then do as you wish”.

This is the fundamental principle of salesmanship, but many salesmen forget it. They focus on pushing hard to sell, focus on selling by using their brand and “expertise”, and try to drive people to their stores instead of marketing their products by bring value to customers.

Don’t forget that people can be persuaded to purchase, but they cannot be driven to. You can apply the principle offering something for free by giving a sample – in this manner you can persuade, but you cannot drive someone to your store by advertising how great you are.

People are selfish – they do not care about your profits. Remember to always offer a service and the benefits. Always think of the prospect and what’s in it for them.

As a marketer, don’t be afraid to lose a customer, focus on offering value and letting prospects make their own decisions. Besides, if you offer something of value, why would they refuse to buy?

Next Chapter: Mail Order Advertising – What It Teaches

Cheers!

Anna @ Toronto

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The concept of being a salesman as an advertiser and marketer has already been covered in previous posts. I suggest you refer back to “From Headlines to Psychological Triggers as Taught By Joe Sugarman“, “Why Content is King“, “Dig Deeper into the Emotions of Your Audiences When Writing Content“, and “As a Website Copywriter…Think the Consumer has Become the Producer“  to see how it all ties in.

I very much enjoyed reading Hopkins’ second chapter because it covers the most basic elements of a good copywriter. A copywriter is a person who uses words to sell. Just as you would sit in a bar with a friend and tell a story, the same should be applied when writing powerful sales messages like sales letters or email newsletters: speak to you audience as if you are having a “bar conversation” as John Carlton refers to it. Simple language, to the point, precise and easy to understand is what you should be applying when communicating with prospects.

Hopkins’ writes: “One must be able to express himself briefly, clearly and convincingly, just as a salesman must. But fine writing is a distinct disadvantage. So is unique literary style. They take attention from the subject. They reveal the hook. Any studies done that attempt to sell, if apparent, creates corresponding resistance.”

He goes on to say: “Successful salesmen are rarely good speech makers. They have few oratorical graces. They are plain and sincere men who know their customers and know their lines. So it is in ad writing.”

Again, review the previous posts on copywriting and content generation to understand the essence of good writing.

In this chapter, Hopkins’ reiterates another important element of good salesmanship; a concept Eben Pagan explains very often too: “Some advertising men go out in person and sell to people before they plan to write an ad. One of the ablest of them has spent weeks on one article, selling from house to house. In this way they learn the reactions from different forms of argument and approach. They learn what possible buyers want and the factors, which don’t appeal. It is quite customary to interview hundreds of possible customers.”

A good marketer understands his prospects as well as he understands himself. A good marketer delves deep into the psychology of his targeted audience to understand their fears and pains, and delivers to them something of value to solve a problem.

Finally, the main difference between a salesman and a marketer (or advertiser), is that a salesman tries to sell to a specific person: one-on-on.  An advertiser puts out a campaign to target masses of people. Therefore, a real marketer is always cautious about the methodologies he uses when launching  his campaigns – the more cautious and exact a campaign is, the more it is likely to succeed.

Every word or slogon in an advertisement is used for a purpose. Every word in an advertisement should be as infused with super-salesmanship.

Conduct research on your audiences, conduct surveys and questionnaires to reach into their psychologies. Good salesmanship is not a bunch of shiny words and expensive suits – a good salesman understands his prospect and brings him value by solving a problem.

Next time – Chapter 3- “‘Offer Service”

Cheers!

Anna @ Toronto

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You might wonder what we’re doing analysing and summarizing a relatively ancient book, but rest assured that it remains to be a must-read for anyone in the marketing industry even until this day. Either you’re a marketer yourself, or just delving into the world of advertising or maybe you’re trying to improve your business strategies – whatever your intentions are “Scientific Advertising” is something that should be etched in the corners of your marketing mind as an anchor for success.

Enjoy and comment away! Let’s have an open discussion on this matter.

Chapter 1 – How advertising laws are established

Advertising is now more like an exact science rather than a gamble.

With time, advertising agencies have been recording measurements on various advertising campaigns, so there is already a substantial collection of tried and measured techniques that no longer need to be applied at random. The best outcomes are based on fixed principles.

Marketers should be applying working principles like research and sales data to advertising campaigns, and not just theories without proof.

Hopkins writes “Mail order advertising is traced down to the fraction of a penny. The cost per reply and cost per dollar of sale show up with utter exactness. One ad is compared with another, one method with another. Headlines, settings, sizes, arguments and pictures are compared. To reduce the cost of results even one percent means much in some mail order advertising. So no guesswork is permitted. One must know what is best. Thus mail order advertising first established many of our basic laws.”

Direct marketing, like mail order, is when a marketer sells to an individual directly – to his email address or home rather than a mass marketing campaign like a viral video or ad commercial.

The intro to “Scientific Advertising” discuss this form of marketing, and we already know that mail order marketers use things like Cost Per Acquisition, Cost Per Piece, and Response Time to measure the successes of their campaigns.

Hopkins goes on to say that the most common way to entice consumers is by offering a coupon. With a sample, a book, or a free package, a prospect is stirred to reply in some way (even if they’re not thinking about purchasing). Measuring the amount of action that is produced by a coupon is also a measurement even if not necessarily a purchasing one.

As early as 1923, Hopkins is already talking about giving away free information – something the best internet marketers always do before and during a product launch. Please review my previous post on “The Difference Between An “Expert” And A “Marketer” to understand how important it is to give things for free is.

However, worthless replies are invaluable: “So our final conclusions are always based on cost per customer or cost per dollar of sale” Hopkins writes.

This book is designed to establish the principles and laws of advertising, and teaches marketers not to depart from those unvarying laws.

While advertising was once a gamble, guesses are no longer needed because a path is already paved.

Hopkins ends his intro with the words: “Success is a rarity, a maximum success an impossibility, unless one is guided by laws as immutable as the law of gravitation”.

Hopeful,  huh?

Til next chapter!

Anna @ Toronto

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With Eban’s recent launch of the “GURUBluprint” program, you can catch him doing interviews pretty regularly over the past few weeks, and with some really interesting internet marketing gurus too. You can read my previous posts, How to Sell Successful eBooks Online, 2, and 3 to see what subjects Eben has been covering.

Let me do a quick recap of Eban’s new product launch. Eban is reaching out to aspiring entrepreneurs who want to branch out onto the online market. He teaches the importance of discovering niche markets, and goes on further to provide a complete blueprint of how to go about starting an online business.

This interview was particularly interesting because it defines an “expert”, and a “marketer”.

If you don’t understand what a marketer is you’re bound to struggle to becoming one yourself. So, this is a really important interview to hear. Here’s a small recap by me if you don’t want to listen to the whole thing –

While experts attempt to sell knowledge, marketers actually think first about what it is people need and what their pains are. A marketer thinks in terms of what does the customer want? What information does a prospect need to solve an immediate problem?

Marketers find niches by identifying a need out there in the world, and giving it to those who seek to solve this need (or problem).

Marketers project themselves inside the customer; what are the needs that are not being met for me? While experts only expect people to buy their knowledge.

Marketers don’t expect people to do anything. They instead attempt to get inside the head of the consumer to find out what the consumer needs. Experts, on the other hand, feel entitled to get money in advance before sharing their knowledge.

Just as Eben has spent the past weeks giving away free stuff, it is exactly the approach he says marketers should follow. It may seem counterintuitive, but by learning the prospects’ mind – thoughts, feelings, the words they use to express their problems, and investing time in connecting with the perceived needs of the prospect, only then can someone see VALUE in a product.

Eben illustrates a good example: Dog training.

Say the issue that an owner faces with his dog is that the dog is barking aggressively.

The dog owner’s biggest fear becomes that the dog is going to hurt a small child, that the dog will have to be put down, and that the owner will go to jail.

The expert doesn’t dig into psychology of the dog owner. Instead he will want to teach him how to have a good dog.

The marketer, however, is going to teach the owner how to stop his dog from barking aggression so that it won’t attack a child, won’t be put to death, and the owner won’t have to go to jail in *60mins or the information is free*.

How much would it be worth for a dog owner to make an aggressive dog gentle? If the dog owner loves his dog, it’s priceless.

There’s the difference between what the expert thinks is valuable, and what the prospect thinks is valuable.

Only when you bring value to the prospect can you bring money to yourself as a marketer.

Eben recommends that you give away your knowledge for free – start a blog, do 5min videos etc., and really listen to your prospects’ words – listen to how they are framing their problems, and what gives them anxiety.

Only when you have understood your prospects psychology can you give him valuable information. Marketers aren’t afraid to lose a prospect as experts are. Marketers are in the business of providing value to people.

Listening to Joe Polish and Eban Pagan’s interview today has made me decide to share with you every day for the next few weeks a chapter a day from Claude C. Hopkins’ “Scientific Advertising” – the classic marketer’s book. It was mentioned in this interview, and I recommend you listen to it yourself if you’re delving deeper into the world of marketing.

Looking forward to reviewing “Scientific Advertising” with you over the next couple of days.

Cheers!

Anna @ Toronto

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In his latest video, GuruMastermind Blueprint, Eben shares some very interesting stats that I thought I’d share with you aspiring internet marketers and business owners.

Facts (as told by Eben):

1. The Apple Store

What are people doing when they go to the apple store? They are buying iphones, ipads, ipods macbook pros and macbook computers.

What are they buying them for? They are buying them to watch videos, read eBooks and listen to audio programs.

Information is the future. Apple predicts that this year alone, it will make over $100 million in sales from ipods and iphones alone.

People are buying these products because ultimately what they want is to GET INFORMATION. (Just as they use Google).

2. You can’t make money in the past. Eben explains how early human civilizations were living to hunt for their next meal. Then civilization moved onto getting land. Then possessions, and now –information; people are looking for valuable information in the form of information products, and they are buying Apple products to learn this information.

Ebook sales grew 71% last year, overtaking audio books while fiction sales dropped by 15%.

9/10 people don’t even read eBooks yet, which means THERE’S A LOT OF POTENTIAL AND A BIG MARKET for selling information in the form of eBooks.

Eben outlines the difference between printed books and eBooks; you don’t have to print or publish a book or even send it to store. With an ebook all you have to do is upload it onto your computer, and purchasers will be buying nothing other than a computer file.

3. The formula for success:

Product + Marketing = A successful business

Both are necessary. You cannot have a business without marketing your products and you need a product that will sell (Niche Markets is what Eben talks about in his previous video).

Suggestions for Niche Markets

Self-help industry makes $13 billion a year and is growing yearly by 10%.

Personal/corporate coaching is a $100 billion dollar industry per year.

Information is becoming the new online learning industry making $27 billion dollars per year and expected to double in the next four.

Information is becoming the new currency. You can happily say goodbye to recession if you’re considering starting an online business.

Cheers!

Anna @ Toronto

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To gain leverage and dominate ranking, Local Business Listing is an effective internet marketing tool for web businesses who want to benefit from targeting small territories rather than compete in highly saturated global markets.

Long-tail keywords are used for local listing. Long-tail keywords contain three to four words specific to a product and service and specific to a geographic location. Prospects who are keying in long-tail keywords into search engines are narrowing down their searches and clarifying what it is they are looking for. Since they are adding a specific location, ie. Connecticut, Ohio, or any other region, they know exactly what they want and where they want to get it.

Highly specific keywords tend to rank better than simple requests. Here’s an example:

When someone types into Google the keyphrase “Interior Painting”, they may be looking for the definition of the term or techniques for painting. However, when they type into Google “Interior Painting Connecticut”, they are likely to be looking for a company which offers this service.

If your company is listed under Local Business Listing for the keyphrase “interior Painting Connecticut”, end-users will see your website and phone number beside a map that shows your location. Take a look at this example:

Interior Painting Connecticut

In turn, people who will click on your listing will either fill out your contact form or call you directly. This will ensure you get high quality leads and better sales conversion.

Tips for Your Website

If end-users are looking for a company in a specific region, it’s important that you have your physical address listed within your website so that when end-users click on your local listing link they will be directed to your page. The best way to capture a lead from this method is to link it to your “contact us” page.

If you have various branches, and want to create traffic to each, create a local business listing for each physical location and then include that location in your website “contact us” page.

Securing Your Local Listing Position

In order to have a better chance of being listed in the local search result of a search engine, being compatible with Google algorithms is a necessary prerequisite. So make sure your website is embedded with a Google map. That way, when search engine spiders crawl your website, they can identify your geo-location from your map code.

In order for spiders to identify your phone number(s), make sure to use standard formatting as well. You can use: 203-886-7484 or (203)866-7484 to ensure Google compatibility and recognition.

Anna @ Toronto

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