 Over the last several years I've worked with small business owners all over the world. In that time, I've not only helped them grow using the power and reach of the internet, but I've also gotten a chance to learn a thing or two from some of the best out there. If you pay attention to online marketing techniques and methods as much as I do, you start running into some really smart ways to drive more business every month. Today I wanted to share a story that I heard about a few week ago. It's all about how a Chiropractor gets anywhere from 20-50 additional folks walking through his front doors and spending money on services (and how he does it every single month). The Funny Part is how what he's doing is so simple but yet so effective. I met Dr. Ben Adkins a few years back and he just recently told me the story of how he accidentally stumbled onto something he calls his "1 Email per Month Model" that worked so well for him (and has ended up working extremely well for everyone he's taught it to). Today, I'm going to walk you through his exact model so you can use it in your business. Trust me when I say that this is worth implementing in your business, even if you're not a Chiropractor. The Story behind How Dr. Ben discovered the "1 email per month" model. Dr. Ben tells me that he first stumbled onto his email method when he was first starting out in practice and was actually sending out Physical Letters in the mail. I'll Let Him Tell You About it in His Own Words: "It was funny. The first few years as a Chiropractor I would write a short letter and send it out to all my patients via physical mail. We did this once a month and, as we grew, it got really expensive. Between the paper, envelopes, and stamps, it got to be something that would cost us quite a bit of money." "We kept doing it with old fashioned mail because, even though it was expensive, it always worked and it accounted for a lot of patient visits and new business each month. That said, I am always looking for ways to cut costs. And then, it just hit me like a bolt of lightning one day. I needed to kill the physical mailers and just start emailing my monthly newsletters to my patients." "I didn't know if it would translate to email but I thought we would give it a shot. We sent out our first email and within a few minutes of hitting the send button, the phone rang. It was a patient of ours that hadn't been in for a while but had gotten our newsletter and decided it was time to come back in for an adjustment." "During the next few days we kept getting calls like this. The person would say that they had "just been thinking they needed to come back in" and then our email reminded them that they needed to call and book an appointment." Dr. Ben told me that this ended up accounting for an additional 34 patient visits that month and it averages between 20-50 patient visits every month that they send the newsletter out. He went on to tell me that it was so effective in his practice that he had to hire someone to help him write everything because he had gotten so busy from all the new patient visits. The Psychology of Why The Model Works. The super weird thing about the email newsletters that Dr. Ben sends out is that they never offer discounts or promotions and they rarely talk about Chiropractic stuff that you'll see most offices talk about all the time.  Dr. Ben told me that the secret to his emails was that the people he sent them out to were actually interested in the content. He always wrote about things that we relevant to the Season or month of the year and made sure that each topic positioned him as the expert in his field, without positioning him as boring and not worth reading. The reason the email newsletters draw people back into the business is because they serve as a sneaky excuse to remind folks that you still exist and that they love your business. The list of people that you send these emails out to are already customers and they are already fans of what you're doing in your business. All you need to do is send them a subtle and entertaining reminder that you're still there and that you are open for business. I don't care how cool your business is, people don't spend much time thinking about you as they battle their daily battles. The email newsletter is a cool little way to remind folks that you're around and that they should come back (without coming right out and telling them to come back in or offering a discount for your product or services). How to Write and Send out the same kind of 300-500 Word Newsletter that Dr. Adkins uses to Drive Business Each Month. The trick to writing great email newsletters that your customers/leads will open and take action on is to make sure that what you're putting inside of the email is something that your audience actually wants to read. There are 2 big mistakes that people make when sending out email newsletters to their customers and both of them can drastically affect your results. 
An Example of the Kind of Email Newsletter that Works:   The above email newsletter works because:
When you build out content like this, people will open it and immediately have a "good feeling" about the person who sent it (who they already like because they are existing customers). This leads to them wanting to come back in and do business with you. How to get the Same Kind of Results without having to wrestle with the tech or write any of the Content for your Email Newsletters.  You might be like a lot of my clients that I write monthly newsletters for. You're a savvy Chiropractor that realizes how profitable it is to send out a monthly newsletter every single month, but you don't have the time and/or desire to do it yourself. If you'd like to have us do everything for you, just email me or call me directly at 1(877) 500-5787 to get started ASAP. We can do everything for you for as little as $99.95 a month and help you get the same kind of benefits that sending out a monthly newsletter has gotten our other clients.  About the Author:
CinchLocal was founded in 2013 by veteran entrepreneur and SEO expert Cary Byrd. After founding eDrugSearch.com in 2007, Cary grew his website using Online Marketing and then went on to help other local businesses do the same with his Agency. Cary started CinchLocal to help local business owners market their business online, so that they can focus on doing what they love. 
More and more people now use search engines to find local businesses. That's why local search is now an important marketing tool for every type of business. Local search engine optimization makes it easy for your customers to find you, whether they are searching for you on a computer, tablet or smartphone. There are a number of local SEO guidelines that local businesses, as well as SEO agencies who work on their behalf, should keep in mind to improve their rankings.
Include Complete and Accurate Information To optimize your local search listing, provide as much information as possible about the business. It's also essential to keep this information updated and accurate. The following are some of the most important things to include in local listings.
Create a Customer Friendly Website Although you want to keep local SEO in mind, the main goal for your website should be to make it appealing to visitors. The site should be visually attractive, easy to navigate and provide answers to common questions potential customers might have. You should also avoid elements that can detract from user experience. For example, flash media cannot be viewed on all devices and can slow down page loading time. The layout and style of the site should be consistent with the type of business it is. Make Sure Your Website is Mobile Friendly Another critical factor for local search marketing is having a mobile friendly site. Many people use smartphones to access the web nowadays. This is especially true for local search, where people may be driving around looking for a certain type of business. Many people use phones to make purchases online, so you certainly don't want to exclude your mobile customers if you are selling products from your website. Mobile friendliness is now also a search ranking factor; see Google's new mobile guidelines. If you use responsive design, your site will be equally accessible to all types of devices. You should test your site to make sure that it's mobile friendly. Encourage Customers to Leave Reviews Reviews and ratings can be very important when it comes to a customer making a decision whether or not to purchase an item or visit a business. You can remind people to leave reviews by providing links to review sites that are relevant to your business, such as Google +, Yelp, Angie's List, Trip Advisor, etc... You shouldn't try to bribe or coerce people to leave reviews, as this could backfire. You can, however, leave gentle reminders such as “We really appreciate honest reviews so we can better serve you in the future.” Having visible reviews makes local search results more compelling. Optimize Your Website for Local SEO If you want to succeed with local search engine optimization you have to think of the search engines as well as your customers as you build your website.
Add New Content Regularly Many business websites are fairly static. This is because the owners list all of the information about the business and think their site is done. Local search marketing, however, requires you to add new content to your site on a regular basis. The search engines always favor sites with fresh content.
Enhance Local SEO With Social Media You can make your local search marketing more powerful by being active on social media sites. Your Facebook page, Twitter posts, Pinterest pins and LinkedIn content can all point to your business website. To get the most out of social media, it's important to be consistent and interactive. Keep your pages updated and always answer questions and comments posted by visitors. Adding coupons, giveaways and contests to your social media pages can also increase traffic and encourage people to share your content. This all goes towards improving your local SEO rankings. Make Use of Images and Videos Visual content is becoming increasingly popular. People are now accustomed to seeing and sharing photos and videos on sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. Infographics are another visual type of content that can be very useful. Visual content is more likely to be shared than text. Videos are a powerful way to explain your business and products. Using visual content on both on your website and on your social media pages is an effective way to enhance your local search rankings. 
We, at CinchLocal.com, are among many marketing professionals who believe that a small business's website is one of its most powerful advertising tools. Any business can gain a significant advantage and improved image with a maintained and well-built website. If your business currently doesn't have its own website, there are many benefits you're likely missing out on including more sales, more prospects/leads, brand enhancement, and enhanced customer service.
Recent research has indicated that roughly half of all global small businesses are currently operating without websites. If your small business is one of them, here are 20 benefits that you're missing missing out on . . . 1. Expanding Your Horizons When you operate solely out of your brick and mortar location, your reach is limited to your local audience. By going online, your reach is expanded on a global scale. Likewise, your website makes it possible for potential prospects to gather information about your business and make purchases at literally any time. 2. Cutting Back on Distribution and Printing Expenses Unlike information on printed materials, you can change the information on your website at any time. Businesses that utilize CMS (content management systems) with their websites can make substantial changes to their content in no time, and at no cost. 3. New Customer Relations Rather than your customers referring their friends and family to you by way of a company address or phone number, they can simply refer using your URL (website address). 4. Ease of Use If your website remains updated, easy to use, and maintained, it will remain useful to your customers. At CinchLocal.com, we can help you keep your website as accessible as possible. 5. Capture Reviews Connect your website with Angie's List, Google + page, Facebook Page, Yelp, TripAdvisor, etc... to capture reviews, gain trust, provide excellent customer service to drive more customers to your business and back again – it's word-of-mouth marketing at its finest! 6. Creating Your Own Online Identity With a short website domain, such as www.yourbusiness.com, you can establish a solid brand identity online. 7. Increasing the ROI of Your Marketing Once your website has been added to your promotional materials, your customers will have another simple way to easily access your business from anywhere, at any time. 8. Increasing Productivity Many small business owners see an increase in their productivity after employing the help of a website. Customers can easily pull basic information from a small business's website rather than spend time emailing, calling, or visiting the physical brick and mortar store location. 9. Enhancing Your Reputation Become an expert in your industry on a global scale by taking your expertise online. You can write articles and posts on your own website, and you can even guest post in other areas of the web to share tips and advice, as well as route leads back to your own domain. 10. Serving Customers More Efficiently With a website, your customers don't have to wait until regular business hours to request or obtain information. Auto-responders and forms can assist customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 11. Providing an Education Portal If customers need advice about your services or products, they can easily refer to your website. There's no longer any need to supply the same advice several times in a row to various customers. 12. Use Media to Sell Your Products and Services With an online presence, you can demonstrate your products and services for customers who are browsing from the comfort of their own homes. For example, you could add photos, videos, and detailed guides to your website so that customers can learn on their own accord. 13. Use Social Media to Sell Your Products and Services Build a social community around your brand by creating a Facebook Page, Twitter, Google +, Pinterest, Instagram, etc... to gain trust and emotionally connect with your potential clients. You do this by listening, being helpful, showing transparency and connecting them with valuable or entertaining resources. 14. Smooth Stream of Communication With a website, your customers will be able to provide feedback quickly, contact you, and even inquire about product availability. 15. Easy Access to Store Details When customers need to quickly find your business's phone number or address, they can use your website to do so. 16. Appeasing International Prospects If a customer from Hong Kong wishes to order a product or service from you, you can satisfy his/her needs quickly with a website. 17. Affordable Market Research Rather than spending money on surveys and polls, you can place these elements right on your website to tap the minds of your customers. 18. Hiring New Employees Using your website, you can advertise available positions and widen the margin for potential applicants. Likewise, applicants and obtain information and apply online. 19. Email Communication At CinchLocal.com, we'll help you set up personalized email along with your new website. Everyone employed by your company, including yourself, will receive personal email addresses for corresponding with suppliers, customers, etc. 20. Ease of Changing Locations Lastly, you'll find it a lot easier to keep your customers in the know if you ever decide to relocate. Not only will you be able to inform your customers of your location change via your website, but your prospects can still obtain information and do business with you online. 
 Click here to purchase our manual submission to the Top 50+ Local Business Directories/Citations for $65!
Having your business listed in local business directories is critically important in determining how well your site will rank in the local search engine results. These listings (also called citations) which feature your business name, address, and phone number are considered by a leading number oflocal SEO experts to be among the top factors considered by the search engines in ranking your website for relevant keywords. Why Business Citations Matter Local directory citations are similar in effect to inbound backlinks. While citations don’t pass on ranking authority from linking websites, they do lend a degree of credibility to your site that confirms your status as a local business to the search engines which can give your website a local seo boost in rank. As a local business, your website is eligible to be featured in the local search results – which are typically much easier to rank for than the organic search results. The Importance of Accurate Citation Information The Internet is all about sharing information and resources – and that includes your company and products. Inaccurate information that gets shared with search engines or directories could cause confusion as to your business identity. If this confusion raises “red flags” about your business, you could lose citations as well as valuable customer testimonials, and not receive the search rankings that you deserve. A simple yet highly effective way to ensure that each of your citations is accurate and up to date is to create a file on your computer with all of your basic business information. Whenever you need to create a new directory listing, simply cut-and-paste the contents of this file to your new profile to avoid being penalized for inconsistent or inaccurate citations. Local Business Directory Submission Submitting your business information to all 50 of these directories by hand is the best way. However, it can be time consuming and tedious work. To help with this you can either use an autofill add-on for Firefox or you can hire a reputable company like Yext, Yahoo Local Works or Moz Local. The Top 50 Local Business Directories Your Company Needs To Be Listed In: (Local Business directories are listed in ABC order)
Need Help With Manual Directory Submissions? IF you're short on time CinchLocal.com offers an affordable solution that is guaranteed to increase your local presence of you or your client's website. These are foundational links that are hand-submitted to over 50+ directories, we also find 10 niche directories, include your social profiles, business logos, pics and more! Click the link below to learn more about our stellar Directory Submission service that is guaranteed to give your website a BOOST! 
In today's highly competitive marketplace, it is simply impossible to stand out and attract customers without a robust social media strategy for your small business or organization. Almost every niche of business has many competitors, and it takes a lot for customers to notice one over all the rest. Furthermore, the rise of social media and mobile devices means that marketing that incorporates social media tools is quickly becoming a critical part of digital marketing. In this post, we will explain some basic ways to take advantage of social media to drive more customers to your business and help you convert leads.
Separate Your Profiles It's crucial to make a division between personal and professional accounts. You need to have a Facebook page for your small business, and when you want to talk about your business on Facebook, use that account as a clearinghouse. Don't allow personal chatter to leak into the professional space -- it is off-putting to people who find your page because it looks unprofessional and exclusionary. That goes for Twitter and Instagram as well. Create separate accounts to use for business. Build On Success Marketing is part art and part science, so what works for others might not work for you. It all depends on your business and your intended audience. Take careful note of what works and what doesn't, and then concentrate on building on the success stories. Marketing initiatives can fail for any number of reasons, many of which are outside your control. On the other hand, it is much easier to find out why something worked. You will learn more from studying your wins than your losses. Use that mentality to guide your future strategy and design. It also helps you to stay positive and look on the bright side, which is important for staying in business for the long term. Think Long We touched on this in the last point, but you have to be ready to think about the long term. Don't pour all of your energy into short-term results. First of all, if you are just starting out, then you may well wind up disappointed. It's hard for new businesses to make a splash, so don't be surprised if it takes a while for your work to pay off. Next, keep in mind that business is a marathon, not a sprint. Your strategies for social media are not just to create short-term buzz-- they are designed to funnel a steady stream of visitors to your business. If you try to create buzz with aggressive campaigns and shock value, then you might see more traffic in the immediate future, but it will die down over time. Work From The Heart If you want to be convincing on social media, then you have to be able to write from the heart. It is a safe assumption that you care deeply about your business. You need to let that shine though in your posts and updates. Your passion about your business and your field will excite visitors and customers, increasing their interest in what you have to say. Furthermore, if you demonstrate that level of passion, then you also appear more credible. Enthusiasm and passion are not easy to fake, so you will look more genuine and dedicated if you write with passion. Viewers are also more likely to trust that you know what you are doing, because they will assume that someone with such obvious interest must have a good understanding of their business. Building "Real" Relationships There are a lot of social media strategies for small businesses that can help you bring more people to your site and encourage them to buy from you, but the bottom line is that you need to forge "real" relationships and make an emotional connection with people (future customers) to succeed. Customers want to feel wanted-- they want to feel that you as a business owner value them personally. The personal connection is what turns a casual browser into a loyal customer. The value of the product is attractive, but without that personal touch it is nothing more than a matter of prices and value. When you can use social media, both posts and messages, to show customers that you value them, then they are even more likely to keep coming back to you. After that, it's not just about the money anymore— it's personal, and the customer likes coming back to you even above the value they gain from your product. If you keep these principles in mind, you are sure to start gaining followers and customers. Remember that you need to be personally invested in both the business and the marketing to be successful— combine your personality, passion, and ambition into results. For more helpful information on growing your small business, be sure to "Like" our CinchLocal Facebook page to learn more and connect with fellow business owners like yourself. What Are Your Thoughts? If you have any question, comment or just want to share what has worked for you please post it below. O would love to hear back from you! |
Cary ByrdThe founder of CinchLocal, is a seasoned entrepreneur that has over 18 years of experience in search engine optimization and online marketing. Categories
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