Consumers are skeptical…now more than ever. They don’t know your company from atom (or is it Adam?). A blog can help you to build trust and to define your reputation and build credibility. The actions (e.g. words) you take now can and will determine the future behavior of your potential customers. With a successful blog, you will be seen as the expert in your field,a trusted advisor, and you will be able to gain a leg up on your competition. As the ‘group’ (group think) opinion of you gets stronger (through blog comments, word-of-mouth, etc.), your reputation will grow, seeds will start sprouting, and things will really start happening with your business.

What an easy way to build trust with complete strangers, eh?

“I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We’ve created life in our own image.”
- Stephen Hawking

You could certainly argue that the algorithms and search index bots created by the Googles of the world are in fact very similar to viruses: They travel the web from link to link gathering as much information as possible and transmit that information back to a private company that profits from it. Is this technically different from a virus that travels to your hard drive and transmits your personal information back to someone whose intent is to profit from it? The intent is the same but the word ‘personal’ is where the difference lies. When you get personal you break the law.

There is a lot of debate among online marketers about the tracking of individual behavior on the web. Behavioral targeting and retargeting use your surfing history to assemble a profile of what you’re interested in and then use that profile to serve up ads that they think you will be interested in. These ads appear in sites you are expected to surf to. For advertisers these ‘targeted by intent and relevance’ ads are far more valuable than taking a shotgun approach to a campaign. So is your privacy being invaded? Are they related to malicious viruses? Again, no, because they only know your IP address, not your identity.

This is where the line is drawn in the sand in online marketing. As long as they can’t identify us personally these techniques should be legal. To use personal information we must have opted-in or given permission for that use. As regulators look at the world of personalized marketing online this should be the standard benchmark for defining the difference between legitimate targeted marketing tactics and spammy illegal attempts to acquire personal information without permission.

People underestimate the importance and power of local search.

Take this real-world scenario as an example:

Jody is a great friend with very expensive taste. She is searching Google this very minute, trying to find a fancy spa in the Rochester area because she knows it will make a perfect wedding shower gift for her friend, Salley.

Jody has searched the Web before, though, and she knows that if she simply types in the phrase, ‘Day Spa’, she won’t find what she is looking for. Instead, she types, ‘Day Spa Rochester’. “Oops, too many results from Minnesota!.” She forgot about that… that happens all the time. She refines her query to, ‘Day Spa Rochester NY’. She also needs a gift certificate, so she refines her search yet again.

If you happend to be the local business that was smart enough to optimize your landing page for the keywords: day – spa – rochester – ny – gift – certificate; you just made $215.00 (without even trying very hard) and can look forward to a lifetime of repeat business (in addition to future referrals to friends and family) from a very special customer.

Okay, enough story-telling…here’s the tip: Local search drives highly qualified and highly focused traffic right to your front door. You want some of that action, right? Simple. Just add your business address, phone number and zip code to the footer of every page on your site and you will dramatically increase your chances of winning these precious customers.

By the way…those longer, more targeted search phrases? This is referred to as ‘implied intent’. They are ready and willing to become customers.

Not only will you rank higher in the search engines for targeted local searches, but you will also look more credible and trustworthy in the eyes of the visitor. People tend to trust a company that is not afraid to put their contact information all over the place. A business that encourages customer contact and feedback just appears to be more honest, reliable and above-board.

People are skeptical when shopping online. Make it easy for them to trust you. Trust, (even if it is just ‘perceived’ or ‘emotional’ trust) is good for your brand, and is good for your bottom line. This one’s a no-brainer.