local directories

Boost Your Business with Local Directories

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Don’t let your business get lost in the crowd

Yellow pages directoriesIt’s that time of the year again where we remind you about the benefits of good ol’ directories! Before the internet, we relied on finding services through the big yellow brick of a book we received each year. Thanks to the world wide web, we now find them stuffed under uneven table legs or as a booster seat. Today we find what we’re looking for with a click of a button. Does your business stand out?

In 2016, Google took away the right-hand sidebar where the paid adverts were displayed. Now the paid posts soar straight to the top, making it a tough battle for smaller companies to get noticed. Directories can be a cost-effective way to help get found via search engines. Being active on directories increases the chances of your business getting noticed.

Why updating your information is vital

yelp directoriesIt is important to keep your business updated in directories. If your business has gone through a recent change and you didn’t update your information, you could lose a lot of potential customers!

Never forget to NAP, this means not sleeping on the details. Make sure your Name, Address and Phone data is accurate and up to date. Location and accessibility are two of the most important factors when it comes to customers. If your telephone number is an old one and a customer can’t get through to you, they’re unlikely to try again. Likewise, if you were to put your address as a small town in South America, a New Zealand customer wouldn’t follow up with your business!

Pro tip: Check the directories your company is listed in and confirm your details are correct. Some websites take their information from others; resulting in a cycle of incorrect information.

Updated List of Directories*

This year, we bring you an even bigger list of potential directories your business may be found in. Take a look to see where your business is listed and where it isn’t.

It’s the only thing standing in between you and your next big client.

NB: Not all directories will apply to every type of business, some are more specific to particular fields. (eg. Tripadvisor will benefit restaurants and hotels over a telecommunications company.)

 

*The directories list has been ranked by domain authority, with the highest ranking at the top (accurate as of July 2018).

 

New Zealand Directories

 

RateBeer – Directory of beers, breweries, bars and stores.
Express Business Directory – Business directory.
Yellowpages NZ – Search for anything in NZ .
Enroll Business – Browse through local businesses and services of New Zealand.
MyHuckleBerry – Business directory.
Finda – Find anything in NZ.
Info News – Directory connected with membership and news.
Wises – Services based off an interactive map.
Hotfrog – A site where people register their businesses for free.
WowCity – Lots of different listings including hotels, real estate, stores, services and health. Get all this information by selecting a city.
Lawlink – Connect and share with attorneys around the world.
Neighbourly – The easiest way to keep up with everything in your neighbourhood.
NZPages – Collection of sites of all kinds and purposes.
NZ Search – New Zealand businesses and sights.
Localist – Local and authentic Kiwi businesses. [2020 no longer listing]
Zoomin – Businesses broken down by New Zealand city.
Zenbu – Collaboratively edited directory of businesses and places that help you find anything, anywhere.
ZipLeaf – Online business directory.
PathLegal – Directory for lawyers.
BusinessMe – New Zealand business directory. [2020 no longer live]
Cylex – Business directory of New Zealand.
Fyple – Efficiently sorted local businesses and services.
Local Store – Local stores with updated listings.
My Wedding Guide – Everything about weddings.
RankedByReview – Find local businesses with the best reputation.
MySheriff – Does all the work in finding the best service for you.
LocalBD – A local business directory. [2020 no longer live]
Search Local – Site with all kinds of companies and businesses listed. [2020 no longer live]
New Zealand Websites – New Zealand business websites. [2020 no longer live]
NZ Localizer – A directory with many New Zealand companies.
New Zealand Search – Directory of websites, a search engine and New Zealand articles.
Homeimprovement2day – New Zealand companies for home improvement.
99Nearby – The latest listings of local businesses.
The Local Business Network – Free listing of your business and a paid versions with enhanced SEO.
OpenDi – Business directory.
Directory Pages – Local directory with a premium category option.
NZ Blue Page – Business list based on city and map.
NZ Business List – Business listing by category and city. [2020 no longer live]
Opening Hours – Local businesses and their hours of operation.

 

 

International Directories

 

Google+ – Google’s social media platform.
LaCartes – Find anything. From local activities to exotic destinations. Worldwide site.
Maps Connect – Add or update your company details to Apple Maps so customers can find you.
Yelp – Directory of a wide range of services and businesses. Worldwide.
Issuu – Articles about businesses and services all around the world.
Foursquare – Find best places to eat, drink, shop or visit.
Community Walk – Create a walk in a neighborhood and find businesses nearby.
BrownBook – Global business listing database.
Tupalo – Find the best spots in your surroundings and see what other people think about it.
2FL – Local businesses worldwide.
Yello Yello – Global business directory. Helpful to find out what’s going on in your city.
Spoke – Business information.
Sales Spider – Site with multiple purposes. Lots of reviews and products but also business directory. Has a community on site.
Kompass – Businesses worldwide (requires tax/vat number).
TripAdvisor – For things to do on your trips. Claim your business at https://www.tripadvisor.co.nz/Owners.
Zee Maps – Create and publish maps of business lists.
CallUpContact – A directory based on maps
Link Centre – Internet directory and search engine.
Viesearch – Find the most popular businesses based on 5 star ratings.
Cybo – Business directory with a wide range of categories.
Where2go – Business directory.
Find Us Here – Global business directory.
Factual – Location data company.
Lekkoo – Give a street name and find anything around there.
Epage – Free classified ads and business options.
iGlobal – A global community of businesses, professionals and events.
So Much – A link directory without ads.
Expatriates – Classified ads for expatriates.
Top Design Firms – Reviews and rankings of top web design firms, ecommerce development, graphic designers and design agencies around the world.
CompanyFM – Create a page to promote your company and brand, showcase your product or service, expose your content, build customer loyalty, or just be found.
Wand – Worldwide directory of businesses.
Place Reference – Place yourself on a map and see what’s around you (with the list and streetview).
BeanHunter  – For finding the best cafes and coffees in various cities.
Fonolist – Find businesses, events, and reviews. Narrow it down by the country and city you’re looking at.
Local Wall – Free classifieds and advertisements worldwide.
Places Map – World places map directory.
Nettica – Online directory of products and services worldwide.
College Zoom – College directory with reviews and achievements.

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3 SEO Tools That You Should Know How To Use

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In any business having a strong online presence is very important. And when it comes to building a good online presence, using SEO tools can help increase your search engine rankings to reach more clients for your business.

In implementing search optimization or SEO campaigns, it’s important to know the right tools to use for the best results. There is a wide array of SEO tools, from keyword research tools to metric monitoring software. So what is the best SEO tools you can use for your next marketing campaign?

This article will cover the best SEO tools that you should know how to use so you can achieve your SEO marketing and business goals.

1.Data Visualization Tools 

Using data visualization tools is important to handle a large amount of data and sort the most valuable in making sales and marketing decisions. Some examples of data visualization tools include Google Sheets, Google Slides, Google Data Audio, and Google Fusion Tables. 

Here are the benefits of using SEO data visualization tools: 

  • Easily spot issues with orphaned pages, internal link deficiencies, and canonical tags. 
  • You can use them in link building audits and showing the most powerful web pages and distribution of internal links. 
  • It’s easier to demonstrate the return of investment or ROI from SEO. You can extract revenue data and create simple charts to show the management, your clients, or investors the impact of your marketing efforts, and your products and services.
  • These tools provide keyword ranking data that is filterable by a query, such as filtering out “branded keywords.” In this way, you can fully understand a website’s commercial intent.

2.Keyword Research Tools

Keyword research is a crucial aspect of every SEO strategy. It’s a good thing that you can easily find the most relevant keywords to use with free online tools to help optimize your content, attract more visitors, or increase traffic, and gain higher sales.

Here are some examples of commonly used keyword research tools: 

SEO

SEO

  • Google AdWords: It’s a keyword research tool that allows you to know the best revenue-generating keywords in seconds by showing competition feedback and volume for different keywords. Because of this, it’s one of the best tools for competitive analysis. All you have to do is drop a landing page URL or website into Google AdWords and see target keywords instantly. 
  • Google Analytics: Google Analytics can exactly tell what online users are looking for. In that way, you can help them by creating informative content. The Google Search Console integration allows you to “query” data directly through Google Analytics. You’ll see search terms that online users are using to reach your website. You can use emerging keywords to find and create new SEO content topics. 
  • Moz Keyword Explorer: Easily get basic SEO data such as competition and volume, as well as opportunity and difficulty scores. Also, it gives recommended terms according to similar searches that you can add to your specific campaign’s list. 
  • SEMrush: This keyword research tool comes in handy if you’re looking for relevant keywords for your advertising campaign. It means that you can easily find profitable keywords suitable for your business niche. Also, it can display all the keywords your competitor is paying for.

3.SEO Audit and Monitoring Tools 

For many websites, the main source of traffic is search engines. This is why for businesses wherein the majority of income highly depends on Google ranking, SEO audit is very important. You can use an SEO monitoring tool to help improve your rankings and outrank your competitors.

Here are some of the best SEO monitoring tools today: 

  • Ahrefs: Ahrefs can help you grow your website’s search traffic, monitor your niche, and research your competitors. Also, it displays the 404 pages from your backlinks so you can redirect them for quick wins. 
  • ScreamingFrog SEO Spider: This SEO tool is a website crawler, crawling websites’ URLs, and fetching key elements to study and monitor onsite and technical SEO. It comes with many free features that allow finding redirects and loops and upload a master list of URLs in a site migration for auditing.
  • SEMrush: It’s one of the most sought SEO monitoring tools that are always updated, allowing you to monitor your SEO metrics and help attain your best SEO performance. 
  • SimilarWeb: It provides empowering features for competitor research and analysis and gaining in-depth SEO insights. 
Conclusion

Search engine optimization or SEO tools are valuable in attaining your web presence and business goals. By using data visualization, keyword research, and SEO monitoring tools, you can clearly see where your SEO and other digital marketing efforts are heading to. Also, you have a better idea of your site’s performance and get valuable keywords you can use to create SEO optimized content.

 

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Customer Feedback and Reviews template email

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I got this question from Quora and here’s the answer I submitted.

How can e-commerce companies encourage customers to submit reviews?

There are ethical methods and less ethical methods of getting client testimonials for ecommerce.

A bribe is not ethical – but people do it. Give us a review and get a coupon / discount / freebie.

Tools for encouraging reviews

There are paid services that encourage customers to submit reviews, or you can set up an automation inside your ecommerce shop (integrating with AgileCRM, MailChimp, TrustPilot or similar).

My preference is this: two weeks after the purchase, set up an automation in your email sending out a message. Sample messages are below.

 

Another thing you can do is buy a reviews service – SellerLabs is a good one for Amazon sellers. Learn more about this on eCommerceFuel | The Private Community for 6 & 7 Figure Stores

The links are very important. The three below are for a client and setting these up correctly is key. Get in touch if you’d like this set up for your shop.

Note that at the time of writing, Facebook’s terms of service expressly forbid asking for comments, reviews or tagging friends in exchange for free product.

Amazon also forbids offering free or discounted product in exchange for reviews.

Bonus:

Customer Feedback Email templates

Thank you for buying XYZ PRODUCT – we hope it’s arrived and everything is in order. Your experience is very important to us and we learn a lot from your feedback. Please tell us how we did by leaving feedback on one of the links below.

Google Review | Facebook Review

Thanks very much

And if you are a services company….

Your experience with XYZ SERVICE is very important to us and we learn how to improve our service from your feedback. Please tell us how we did on your recent job. We would love to hear your feedback.

Can you take a few moments to follow one of the links below and give us a review:

Blowing our Creative Agency Secrets trumpet

I’m inordinately proud of my team.  This is what they’ve achieved for our brand when you search for creative agency Auckland.

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website traffic drop

“Why is my website traffic dropping?”

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For any business using its website as a lead generation tool, traffic is essential. The more visitors you get, the more chances you have to make your product or service known, gain connections and promote your brand. This is why an unexpected decline in organic traffic is a terrifying idea, as it might result in fewer business opportunities and less income.

Whether it’s a technical problem, a new Google algorithm implementation or lack of content optimisation, there are several possible motives why your company’s website traffic numbers have been sinking lately.

For example, older websites have higher risks of being penalised by Google’s algorithm updates because of potential coding errors and obsolete practices still applied to some of the pages. That ‘keyword stuffed’ article you wrote in 2010 that brought a lot of traffic seemed like a good idea at the time. Now, it is definitely hurting your website on an apocalyptic scale.

Content is (a mad) king

We recently had a meeting with a group of young entrepreneurs who run MI6-HQ.com, a fansite dedicated to Bond, James Bond. (cue the music)

They expressed their concern with the MI6-HQ website traffic dropping like a stone over the past months and wanted our help to:

  1. Assess the possible reasons for the decline in visits;
  2. Come up with a few creative ideas to solve the problem, like a marketing version of Q.

Even though they offer really good articles (many visitors had lots of nice things to say on their Facebook comments), their search engine rankings and organic reach keep decreasing. There are multiple marketers that repeatedly state just writing “epic content” will drive traffic to any website, period. Unfortunately, that’s not the truth.

Don’t get me wrong, I agree that good content is essential. But if you publish it in a flawed website, you’ll have your king residing in a crumbling castle. That inspires no recognition at all and the results are totally unpredictable.

Google has a license to kill your audience

Google holds more than 74% of the search engine market share worldwide. That’s why you either play by their rules or fall into the internet abyss (a.k.a. Not the first page on Google Search).

We believe part of the decline in the MI6-HQ search rankings is that their website has been running for over 20 years (!!!) and most of their ‘ancient’ content might not have been updated regularly. A quick search (on Google, of course) shows that MI6-HQ.com has 15,500 indexed pages. It’s probably really hard to keep tabs on all of them individually.

mi6-hq indexed pages on google

Optimising websites is not a one-size-fits-all process. When it comes to web content that is already published, you have the option to improve or kill pages forever. In this specific case, deleting some of the older articles might be an alternative. Having fewer discoverable pages to increase your website findability can sound very counterintuitive, but I assure you, it works wonders for some people. Learning to let go is necessary sometimes.

Analysing your website performance is a laborious but rewarding task

There’s a lot of work involved in optimising your website. You might even say it’s a never-ending task, depending on your level of perfectionism. Nowadays, the competition online is cutthroat, so any edge you have over your competitors is worth the effort.

According to research by Moz blog, more than 70% of searches result in a page one organic click. The rest is diluted from the second page onwards. This just shows how important it is to aim for the top place of the search engine rankings.

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trade show, exposition, marketing B2B, trade show marketing

Trade Marketing tips

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You asked us about Trade Marketing.  This is when you sell something to another business and they sell it to the ultimate customer.  Fundamentally it’s just selling but because it’s restricted to selling within a single industry or “trade” it gets another name…. the key thing for you to know is that the principles of B2B marketing still hold true.
 

Trade marketing is a sub-type of B2B

What I love about any B2B is that the audience is individually identifiable. You can get or build a list of actual individuals who you can sell to.  The best way to start that is through identifying these things

  1. industry type
  2. sub-type of industry
  3. job title of decision makers and decision-influencers
Then you are within reach of a clearly identified audience.  List broker will sell you lists, you can research and build your own too.  If you choose the latter, please start with the trade association or professional body for the industry.  That’s a great way to short-cut list building.

After the list, how to approach

Getting a list is only the beginning.  You need to brand build with specific campaigns so that prospects recognise your business name or your product name (or both).  Trade shows can be useful here because people who are interested are all gathered into a single location on a single day and you can meet many face to face.
Getting your strategy aligned with the prospect’s need is critical.  Because it’s so easy to mess up an approach and build bad feeling against your brand.  For this reason we always create a hypothesis and we test this out before a general launch.
Today a mailing list of 100 names is being tested for a client.  When we see how it’s received [Good so far, thanks for asking 54% open rate 4% click through] then we can make decisions about whether to adapt / improve or just to roll it out to the rest of the prospect list.

Top 10 tips for trade marketing

  1. Automate follow ups – have a pre-set process for capturing and following up
  2. Time is always short – but don’t cut short conversations on the stand.  Invest in the people who do come to build relationships
  3. Connect on LinkedIn to everyone you meet if possible
  4. Be very clear about what you are promising to prospects
  5. Have a “cute” offer [fidget spinners are popular now]
  6. If you use scrolling video at a trade show, always sub-title it so people get the message from afar
  7. Put on your best smile.  It’s my biggest business success tool – people remember my warm smile
  8. Make eye contact and be the first to break contact after smiling and saying hello.  This is un-threatening
  9. Have a ‘golden question‘ or two ready for your prospect discovery questions
  10. Turn up every year – as long as the show brings in prospects, plan to be there.  Consistency pays off
Creative Agency Secrets is expert in B2B marketing.  We understand how to research trade buyers, how to build a list of possible buyers, how to present your product or service to them and how to get them to buy from you over and over again.
If you want to learn more, read this article about Trade Show Marketing.  And this case study about your business location

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5 Great Content Tools For Improving Your WordPress Blog

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Content marketing nowadays rules a business’s marketing strategy, but good content is still hard to come by. Running a blog can help any business owner capitalize on site visitors and build their brand reputation. The advantages are numerous: an effective blog will appear higher in search engine results pages and keep guests engaged. Regardless of the type of business you own — whether it’s a personal brand aimed at attracting new clients or an e-commerce business — you’ll need a blog to support you. Your blog is the centre of all your content marketing efforts, and not only does it provides fuel for SEO, but increases your potential for customers discovering you online. Therefore make sure you choose a catchy and relevant name when you buy a domain name, and consider using a plagiarism checker to help keep your content original and fresh!

In fact, one HubSpot study from 2015 found that businesses who blog are much more likely to get new customers, and marketers who prioritize blogging are 13x more likely to enjoy a positive return on investment. Whether you’ve chosen shared web hosting or a dedicated server for your WordPress blog, your content needs to take centre stage.

We’ve compiled some WordPress tools can help you make the most of your blogging content efforts.

1) ThingLink

With ThingLink, you can turn images into layered content that expands information. There are many use cases for this. In product marketing, users can deconstruct products to demonstrate to consumers how different aspects of its work. This is a great way to show how tech-based products operate; interactive elements allow users to click on different parts for a better understanding of the various parts operate. In e-commerce, you can also use it for creative interactive lookbooks. Take a look at the ThingLink blog to see how other businesses, like Allstate, are using this tool to create interactive media.

2) BuzzSumo

Running a blog is one thing, but ensuring you have the best ideas for every blog post is another. When it comes to your blog, it’s important to stay on topic and maintain a fresh content cycle. BuzzSumo helps you achieve this. Start by entering a topic into the search engine bar, and you’ll receive the most popular posts sorted by social shares. This is a great tool for beginners, who aren’t sure where to start, but it’s equally as good for bloggers who need ideas to add to the editorial calendar. With topics sorted by social shares, you can also glean insight into what’s popular in your industry or niche.

3) Atomic Reach

Atomic Reach offers uses with an AI-based tool that helps users understand what makes their content stick and what’s hurting it. Submit your writing, and the tool grows with you, providing telling information based on your target audience. Based on your topics, it lets you know what the best channels are for social sharing, publishing, and aids the entire content creation process.

The company’s founder, Bradley Silver, summed up the platform in an interview, saying: “Atomic AI enables anyone publishing digital content to pinpoint the readability level of their audience and guides them to write content specifically for that audience. When you match your content readability level with your target audience you see significant increases in overall engagement.”

The content maximization breaks down the reading audience into five different categories based on the subject matter and offers real-time insight into how to better the content and when and where to publish it.

4) Coschedule’s Headline Analyzer

Every blog post needs a perfect headline. But not everyone can create catchy titles that attract the masses. For some additional help, try the free online Headline Analyzer tool, which factors in several variables like length and word balance, and spews out a score. It will also show you what your headline will look like in search engines and email marketing subject lines. After all, the headline is the key to getting visitors to actually read your content and should be given special attention.

5) Infogram

Infogram is a plugin that allows users to add visually stunning interactive charts and graphs to their posts. The interactivity aspect allows readers to sort the data as they see fit. Whether it’s a financial chart or a geographic map, there are plenty of themes and design options to help creators import versatile creations. This also entices the visitor to stay on your page longer, and the longer a visitor stays on a page before leaving, the more valuable it appears to search engines.

Hope that gives you enough to try out on your own blog.

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How Small Businesses Benefit From Digital Marketing

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Running a small business brings worries for the owner from time to time. You want to make sure you are doing what is best for the future of your company but you probably have concerns about which options to prioritise.  Let us help you.

You are not always going to know how to complete your business goals without outside advice. Marketing your company in the right way can do wonders for public perception. Modern businesses use digital marketing and it really is effective at getting your company to new levels of online sales success.

Digital marketing trends are changing fast and it’s important to stay abreast of the latest ones which are relevant to your  business. By taking time to review these simple steps, you are going to give your company the best chance to reach a wider audience and continue to grow

Your website is your central location

Right away, one of the more important aspects of digital marketing for your small business is a modern, mobile friendly website.  Business websites have been around for years but a recent survey found that around 50% of all businesses in New Zealand did not have a web presence.  They didn’t even have a Google My Business listing!  FACT: not having a website works against your business.

If you want to make sure your business has a single, central location where clients, staff and potential customers can visit to learn more about what your company offers, then you absolutely must have a website. There are plenty of straightforward interactive tools you can use to create small business websites. All you need to do to get started is find a system that makes the most sense for your abilities. If you are new to digital marketing, you might find it helpful to work alongside a web designer to get a better idea of how to set everything up.

Social Media Trends

Outside of having a website, there are a number of other important digital marketing tactics. Social media has fast become one of the more powerful aspects of the internet. People use websites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to connect with consumer audiences. Businesses, likewise, take advantage of social media to connect with their customers in authentic ways. This means you definitely want to get on social media.  But beware the enthusiastic young adviser.  There are traps for the ill-informed.  It’s not something you want your 15 year old child to run for you.

Google Trends: Search for Social Media Marketing

Google Trends: Search for Social Media Marketing 2017-8

Social media outlets allow businesses of all sizes the chance to interact with customers in a comfortable environment. Customers can go to your social media page if they are attempting to contact you (using messenger apps) or are looking to learn more information about your products, services, or upcoming special deals you might be offering. Different platforms  offer a different set of advantages and disadvantages so you definitely want to take time to learn about each. Understanding your key audience demographic can make a difference in what social media platforms you end up using for your business.

Connect Now

Digital marketing is popular because it’s very cost-effective and the results can be immediate for connecting small businesses with customers. By creating your own website and using social media, you are giving your company a chance to get noticed and get the attention you deserve from potential customers.

Give yourself a bit of time to research the options and get this process started so that you might see the benefits for yourself.

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