PinPoint Vision

Get Massive Exposure for Your Local Austin Business Without Spending a Dime

Christopher — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:56:08 +0000

Get Massive Exposure for Your Bu

A first step that anyone can do to dramatically increase the exposure of their business website is to take the time to list it in various directories.

Below is a comprehensive list of directories. Showing up in web searches means your website must first be found!

Make it easy for the search engines to find you by listing your business information.

***Psssttt - Nearly ALL are free to list your business!***

Search Engine Directories
Google Maps	Free
Yahoo! Local	Free
Microsoft Live	Free
Best of the Web	Free

Business Directories
Info USA	Paid
iBegin.com	Free
Localeze	Free
Magic Yellow Pages	Free
InfoSpace	Free
MatchPoint.com	Free
Insiderpages.com	Free
Yellow Pages	Paid
AOL Local Search	Free
AskCity	Free
SuperPages	Paid
USCity.net	Free
MapQuest	Free

Review Websites
Yelp	Free
Citysearch	Free
Local.com	Free
ZoomInfo	Free
GetFave.com	Free
Merchant Circle	Free
Hot Frog	Free
Kudzu	Free
Citysquares.com	Free
Judy’s Book	Free
MojoPages	Free
GenieKnows	Free
Tyloon	Free
tupalo.com	Free
Discover Our Town	Free
Open List	Free
Yellow Page City	Paid
TrueLocal	Free

HyperLocal (Austin, TX & New Braunfels, TX)
Austin City Guide	Free
City of Austin	Free
CityStar (Austin)	Free
Outside In (Austin)	Free
Hello Austin	Free
Texas Yellow Pages (Austin)	Free
Network In Austin	Free
New Braunfels Chamber of Commerce	Membership


Industry Specific
MacRAE’S BLUE BOOK	Free
(PDF download)

Thanks to:
Emarketing Matador

Post from: PinPoint Vision Chris Lagarde, the owner of PinPoint Vision, has been helping brick-and-mortar businesses reduce ad costs and increase their profits since 1998. Chris helps local business owners successfully market to their local clientele with inexpensive online marketing techniques. Free tools and reports for local business owners in Austin, TX can be found here PinPoint Vision

Get Massive Exposure for Your Local Austin Business Without Spending a Dime

Google Secrets Workshop

Christopher — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 21:19:29 +0000

Google

Google Secrets for Austin Small Business Owners

Get Your Phone Ringing and Your Doors Swinging
With Local Customers from Google

Tuesday, January 26th - 11:30 - 1:30 PM (includes lunch)
Hilton Garden Inn Austin Downtown

500 North IH-35
Austin, TX 78701

$47.00

Sponsored By Future Trends

Small Business Owners in Austin, TX are Ignoring at Their Peril an Incredible Profit Generating Secret:

Google offers every local business owner a no-cost benefit that can easily add thousands of dollars to the bottomline of any business

At this workshop local business owners in Austin will learn the secrets of showing at the top of Google's local business search results WITHOUT spending a dime. Google's local business search results are often displayed above all other search results!

Marketing budgets have been sharply reduced during the current recession. It's the owners who adapt, and take advantage of low-cost and effective marketing strategies, who will survive and thrive.

Attendees will get an almost unfair advantage over their competition by attending this workshop

This workshop is intended for established businesses who have an ongoing marketing effort and are looking to take advantage of the big push Google is making to match up local buyers with local businesses.

In this workshop business owners will be shown a few simple changes that can put them on the first page in Google search engine. Also, owners will also learn about a marketing technique that typically produces a return of $45.00 for every $1.00 spent and why most businesses fail miserably at implementing this technique.

Workshop Presenter:

Chris Lagarde, the owner of PinPoint Vision, has been helping brick-and-mortar businesses reduce ad costs and increase their profits since 1998. Additionally, Chris has trained sales teams and customized company databases as an ACT! Certified Consultant.

He has identified key reasons why many local businesses owners lose money with their online marketing efforts, and how owners can avoid these money-losing traps.

Here's What Others Have Said:

Chris did a great job introducing the vital topic of how to achieve better google search results for local small businesses. For small business owners, this is a crucial area to understand and leverage. His insights were relevant, clear, and valuable.

Steve Rosebaugh
Certified Business Performance Coach / Entrepreneur
FocalPoint Coaching of Central Texas

PinPoint Vision worked closely with Compass Coins to create customized customer followup emails that achieved two goals:

Significantly increased sales with same customer after the initial customer purchase.
Additional sales made by identifying joint venture opportunities with complimentary business partners.

The charge for the workshop is $47.00 and includes lunch.

The workshop will be a 2 hour, roll-up-your-sleeves lesson on taking advantage of Google's latest push to match up local buyers with local merchants. Includes 1/2 hour of networking time with fellow business owners.

All attendees will receive three bonuses worth a total of $324

Detailed analysis of their website along with one hour of consulting time. The analysis includes a printed report - value $250

A PDF copy of the presentation delivered by email after the workshop - value $57.00

A report worth $17 titled "5 FREE And Incredibly Useful Tech Tools Every Business Owner Absolutely Needs". This report will be available for download immediately upon registration.

Guest Speaker: Dallen Stanford of Futuretrends
Topic: "Business Nightmare Scenario - Don't Let This Happen To You!"

You're busy. We know. Everything falls on your shoulders from making sure payroll gets completed to ordering new inventory. Sometimes crucially important task get shoved to the side until it's too late. By the time you hear that the harddrive making that strange grinding noise, it's too late. You have no backup

Or worse...you THOUGHT backups are being made...until disaster strikes.

"No worries!", someone says, "We've got a backup!". After fruitless hours trying to recover crucial business data, With a sickening dread in the pit of his stomach, the business owner finds out the backup procedure they diligently followed didn't work. The owner never tested his backup until it was too late! Dallen Stanford will briefly review a completely automated backup solution geared towards non-techie business owners.

Wouldn't you sleep better at night knowing your business data has been backed up against fire, theft, hardware failure--ANY possible disaster? In ten minutes Dallen will lay out for you a valuable backup gameplan that is completely automated and hands-off

Google Secrets

A Workshop for Austin Small Business Owners

ONLY 35 SEATS ARE AVAILABLE

$47.00

Interested in Attending the next Google Secrets Workshop?
Send an email with the words
"Google Secrets Workshop - Add to List" and you will be in the first group notified!

I want to ensure your happiness, and profitability, with the marketing techniques taught in this marketing workshop.

If you are not completely happy with the profit-generating strategies presented in any of my Marketing workshops, you can request your money back anytime within 90 days after the workshop ends. Your money will be cheerfully refunded---no questions asked!

WHEN:

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
11:30 AM - 1:30 P.M.

WHERE:
Hilton Garden Inn Austin Downtown

500 North IH-35
Austin, TX 78701

Hotel Phone: (512) 480-8181

DIRECTIONS:

From South Austin:
Take Interstate-35 (IH-35) north and take Exit 234C (6th-12th Streets). Turn left at the first traffic light (6th Street), then turn left at traffic light on access road. Turn right into hotel entrance before the next intersection.

From North Austin:
Take Interstate-35 South (IH-35) take Exit 234B (8th-3rd Streets). Stay on access road through 6th Street, then turn into hotel entrance before the next intersection.

Questions?

Call: 512-288-6334 or Email:

Borrell Predicts Demise of Direct Mail, Rise of Email

Chris Lagarde — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:03:53 +0000

Email Marketing

Businesses are abandoning paper-based direct mail in favor of email, according to new research from Borrell Associates.

One key advantage of email over direct mail is more metrics can be measured. When an email marketing message is sent, the sender can determine (roughly) how many people opened the email, what links were clicked on and how often, and even if the message was forwarded.

With direct mail you can track calls received, but then again, that’s as long as you and your staff make the effort to note the origin of each received call. For a small business that can be a tall order! On the other hand, tracking email metrics is vastly easier.

For these reasons (and more) many businesses are switching to email marketing according to Borrell Associates. In the study published May 2009, Borrell Associates reports direct mail efforts will decline nearly 40% over the next five years from an annual spend of $49.7 billion in 2008 to $29.8 billion by the end of 2013.

Borrell Associates also found more coupons and catalogs are being distributed digitally which will continue to spur local email advertising.

How much of your marketing budget is spent on direct mail? It’s always better to start building your email list now rather than later.

Post from: PinPoint Vision Chris Lagarde, the owner of PinPoint Vision, has been helping brick-and-mortar businesses reduce ad costs and increase their profits since 1998. Chris helps local business owners successfully market to their local clientele with inexpensive online marketing techniques. Free tools and reports for local business owners in Austin, TX can be found here PinPoint Vision

Borrell Predicts Demise of Direct Mail, Rise of Email

7 Businesses Thriving During Recession

Chris Lagarde — Thu, 28 May 2009 03:46:00 +0000

From CNN Money (increases are compared to a year ago):

1. Auto Repairs 2. Home Repairs - 2.4% increase
People are not buying new, and instead are fixing what they already own.
3. Supermarkets – 6.7% increase
You gotta eat! Consumers are cutting back on eating out, and instead, are cooking in.
4. Trade Schools – 9.1 % increase
Many are going back to school to learn new skills.
5. Personal Care – 4.5% increase
Since the big indulgences are on hold, many are hanging on, and even increasing, personal grooming at nail salons, spas, and manicure salons.
6. Accounting – 10.2% increase
Now, more than ever in the depths of the recession, people are consulting with their accountants.

7. Dentists – 6.9% increase
Healthcare is very recession resistant.

Full article here

Creative Marketing – 800% Income Increase

Chris Lagarde — Fri, 15 May 2009 02:38:00 +0000

Ed is out of work. Ed’s friend, Todd, created this marketing piece to help Ed’s collection efforts. According to Ed, he enjoyed an 800% increase in gross income when he used this sign.

What creative marketing are you doing ? The internet allows a local business owner many opportunities to market their business in both creative and inexpensive ways.

Summary Thought:: “Internet marketing” is just a fancy expression that means “promoting your business online”. The best part is you don’t have to spend a bunch of money on internet marketing to see real results with your brick and mortar business.

————————————————-

More info on Ed here.

Blog

Chris Lagarde — Fri, 15 May 2009 02:27:47 +0000

Local Austin Business Marketing – Getting Google Love

Chris Lagarde — Mon, 11 May 2009 15:31:35 +0000

by Beny Shlevich

As a local business owner in Austin, Texas you know deep down in your gut that this internet thingy is not going away, and in fact, you can see it’s getting more important everyday. Yet you don’t know how to jump in. You get the calls from the companies promising to put your on the first page of Google. You know they are probably scams.

And while you may have a website, you’re not getting any business from it. The point of this post is to help you dip your toe into the internet marketing pool.

The foundation of showing up high in the search engine results is choosing the right keywords. When you type search terms into Google you are typing keywords. A keyword can be a single word, or it can be a phrase of two or more words.

Long keyword phrases that are specific but not used as often in searches are often referred to as “long tail keywords”. Chris Anderson popularized the term “long tail” when he published the book, The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More.

General keywords will bring a rather wide spectrum of people, but you’re not looking for every Tom, Dick, and Harry across the globe. Ideally, you want local customers who live in the Austin, Texas area.

Let’s say you’re an Austin attorney that specializes in drunk driving cases. What do you think is a better keyword to optimize on your website: “dwi” or “dwi austin texas”?

Let’s look at the Google results.

Over 13 million pages have the keyword “dwi”.

Only 404,000 pages have “dwi austin texas”

Which keywords are more likely to bring you real business?

The second keyword would mean less competition to rank on the first or second page of Google AND you’ll get better quality web traffic. Interested in doing keyword research yourself?

Here’s a link to a free quality resource to get started.

http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/

Post from: PinPoint Vision Chris Lagarde, the owner of PinPoint Vision, has been helping brick-and-mortar businesses reduce ad costs and increase their profits since 1998. Chris helps local business owners successfully market to their local clientele with inexpensive online marketing techniques. Free tools and reports for local business owners in Austin, TX can be found here PinPoint Vision

Local Austin Business Marketing – Getting Google Love

Attention: Austin Business Owners

Chris Lagarde — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 02:56:57 +0000

“Are You Looking for an Easier Way to Manage and Market Your Business on the Internet?”

Are you receiving little or no results from your current website?

Ready to get your business online but don’t know where to start?

Want to know how to use the Internet to get new customers… keep in touch with your existing customers… and make more money?

Let PinPoint Vision Show You the Ways You Can Utilize the Power of the Internet to Reach Your Business Goals!

No matter how great your site looks, or how many bells and whistles it may have, your site has to have visitors and targeted traffic to make money.

Internet Business Marketing is the term for marketing your business effectively on the Internet. Hi, my name is Chris Lagarde, and I’m an Internet Marketing Consultant for the Austin, Texas metro area.

After reading this useful info, I think you might want to call me. My direct line is 512-288-6334.

PinPoint Vision works one-on-one with small to mid-size businesses to use the internet to attract more new customers, sell more to existing customers, and bring back your customers more often, with less effort, whether they are located across the street or anywhere in the world.

From Independent Contractors to Regular Brick and Mortar Businesses, I Can Help You Use the Incredible Reach of the Internet to Grow your Business!

I pride myself in delivering powerful results to my customers by understanding your needs and working together to accomplish your goals.

I understand that you may believe the internet can’t drive foot traffic to your store. After all, it’s your local living and breathing customers here in Austin, Texas that pay your bills.

Here’s where I can help you, the local service provider, or local retail store: I can help you implement strategies that tie in the power of the internet to LOCAL business. If you need more international exposure on the internet, then sure, I can help make that happen also.

Bottomline, I help business owners who have little time to figure out how to MARKET their business to boost their bottom line.

“Let Me Show You How To Make Your Website Pull In 400% More Business Than Your Competition — At No Extra Charge!”

Do you know you can multiply the amount of new business your website pulls in by making one (rather small) change?

If you already have a website, did you know there are at least 49 simple changes you can make that will instantly bring in more new customers?

If you are thinking of creating a business website — or re-designing the one you have — do you know there are actually 2 types of website?

Most people build the first type, but the second type is much more profitable.

These are just a few of hundreds of tips, tricks and tactics I’d like to share with you during your FREE Internet marketing consultation….

I know that many small businesses either don’t have a website, or get stuck with an expensive website that doesn’t make any money.

Well, I specialize in creating small business websites that bring in fresh leads, new customers, and make money!

In less than 30 minutes, I can ask you a few key questions, examine your current website (or help you design one), and provide a very revealing analysis of how you can very quickly improve your
response rate.

For example:

When you call today I’ll reveal…

The single most important element (almost nobody uses) of a money-making website.
How to get the name and email address of nearly everyone that visits your website — then market your products and services to them for free!
The amazing 3-letter word that makes your customers want to read every word of your website. (Then buy everything you offer them.)
How to get your website listed on the front page of Google, for FREE!
The incredible 2-word phrase that forces website shoppers to call now and order your products and services.
And much, much more!

Then, after our call you do have options…You Can Freely Use My Advice To Improve Your Website

Or, if it’s appropriate, and entirely up to you…

Save Yourself Time AND Guarantee Your Results By Hiring Me!

For example, I can provide a custom made website (or re-design of your current site) that…

Gets you listed on Google, Yahoo & MSN and brings in plenty of targeted traffic.
Gets you more calls, more customers, and more profit.
Gets you a lower cost per lead than any other advertising you are currently doing.
A domain name for your business. (For example, YourCompany.com) — You’ll also have company email, like
you@YourCompany.com
Secure “hacker-proof” website hosting to keep your files (and customer data) safe from prying eyes.
Web-based software that captures the name and email address of your customers, then automatically sends them information about your company while you sleep.
Tracking software that shows you exactly which pages of your website your customers visit… how long they stay… which products they’re interested in… and where they go afterwards!
And too much to list!

But even if you don’t decide to work with me today,after our brief discussion you’ll undoubtedly get more value from your website than ever before.

Call Me Now At 512-288-6334

Schedule your FREE 30 minute consultation today –with no obligation whatsoever — simply call me now at 512-288-6334 and discover how to make your website a profit center for your business.

Regards,

Chris Lagarde

Internet Marketing Consultant

Twitter: A Useful Marketing Tool, or A Colossal Time Waste?

Chris Lagarde — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:31:14 +0000

by jmilles

Everyone is Twittering these days, or so it seems to me. Even people you wouldn’t expect to Twitter are jumping on board this social phenomenon.

Yesterday I was doing some work out of my home, took a five minute break and flipped on the TV. Scrolling through the channels I landed on Jerry Springer just as Jerry is asking his TV audience to follow him on Twitter. Wow. Jerry Springer tweets (or more likely, someone tweets on Jerry’s behalf). It looks like tweeting is heading towards mass acceptance much like what has occurred with voice mail, email, and the internet previously.

Initially, I didn’t get Twitter..at all. Why would I be interested in your tweet on what you ate for lunch? But I’ve also found some useful case studies of effectively using Twitter.

Here’s my challenge to myself. I will find useful applications of Twitter and post the best of these applications here on my website. No need to present frivolous uses of Twitter. Already too many to list. Keep an eye out for my updates by visiting again, or you can always sign up for email or RSS updates at the top right of my website.

Post from: PinPoint Vision Chris Lagarde, the owner of PinPoint Vision, has been helping brick-and-mortar businesses reduce ad costs and increase their profits since 1998. Chris helps local business owners successfully market to their local clientele with inexpensive online marketing techniques. Free tools and reports for local business owners in Austin, TX can be found here PinPoint Vision

Twitter: A Useful Marketing Tool, or A Colossal Time Waste?

Why Use Email Marketing

Chris Lagarde — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 22:05:30 +0000

Teajai Kimsey asked:

In 1867 the Pony Express made its fastest delivery – 7 days and 17 hours. The route: St. Joseph Missouri to Sacramento California. The average speed: 10 miles per hour.

The message was President Lincoln’s Inaugural Address.

The riders were from 11 to 40 years old and all weighed less than 125 lbs. To make this delivery, horses had to be changed every 10 to 15 miles.

By contrast, the US Postal Service delivery now takes at least a day, longer the farther away from the destination, Federal Express can get it there overnight by 10am the next business day.

Chances are many of you will leave this meeting and go back to your office where you will open an email that was sent from across the nation, maybe even around the globe within a matter of minutes. Only a fax machine can compare to the speed of email.

The simple truth is that of the 94 Million American Adults that use the internet every day, the number one reason for going online is to check their email. According to a DoubleClick survey, 81% of internet users go online daily to check email. That’s too big a number to ignore.

Why is email so popular?

Because it’s easy, fast, cheap, direct and it elicits and immediate response. When you add email to your marketing mix you spend less time, money and resources than with traditional marketing vehicles like direct mail or print advertising.

From a marketing standpoint, email was initially primarily used for gaining new customers – often via spam techniques. It has since shifted to promotional and customer relationship marketing.

Consumers expect emails to confirm transactions and shipping, and they are open to the ideas of their email addresses being used to promote ancillary offers.

Customer service is another area of opportunity for email.

According to an October 2004 Doubleclick survey, nearly 8 out of 10 consumers have used email for customer service. A consumer expects a service inquiry response immediately but up to 24 hours is acceptable.

More than that, businesses spend 80% of their marketing budget on gaining new customers but cultivating the current customer base costs less and generates greater revenue. Every email contact with a prospect or customer is a marketing opportunity in that is it a brand building and relationship building tool.

So what is the difference between an effective email marketing campaign and one that is tainted?

The email recipient is the sole decision maker of what constitutes spam. And the recipient pays for the email. Among the top reasons an email is deemed to be spam: Deceptiveness and unknown senders (of course), frequency and irrelevancy (even though permission was granted).

1) You must have some relationship with the recipients. Relationship is a broad term in the eyes of the FCC.

If, for example, you have a list of email addresses belonging to people who are members of the same affiliation or organization as you that can constitute a relationship. If you have a list of email addresses belonging to people who have previously done business with you that constitutes a relationship. If someone has emailed you asking for information about your product or service, that constitutes a relationship.

The ultimate relationship is the opt-in list, people who have specifically requested or “opted” to receive email from you.

When you email these groups, it’s a good idea to make it clear what the affiliation or relationship is to lessen the risk of being considered spam.

Bottom line: relevant, valuable emails sent to people who asked or agreed to get them are the best people to market to via email.

2) Second, you must have an opt-out on each and every email. The best way to handle it is an automated process so you won’t have to deal with finding each address one at a time to remove them from the list. This is one of the reasons why many companies use a broadcast email service to handle email marketing.

Use a Broadcast Service

Another reason to use a broadcast service is that the email sent does not disclose the addresses of the people to which the email was sent. This an important privacy issue.

Many professionals are under the impression that Outlook will hide the addresses to which the email was sent. This is not the case.

Design for the Recipient

When designing an email for marketing the first thing to consider is the recipient, of course.

Different email programs will interpret your message differently. For example, there are web based email programs like Horde and SquirrelMail that will not read images so the email is either garbled or filtered out as spam. (sckansas email handout)

Other email programs offer the option of viewing or not viewing images. So your email may show up with several blank spaces.

The solution is to have 2 versions of the email that are sent in tandem. That way the email program of the recipient can determine which version to display.

Know What Words to Use (Examples 1 / 2 & Triggers)

Another thing to consider is the subject line. Because of the words that trigger spam filters, the subject line as well as the message needs to be free of these words – in fact the word free is often a trigger. The header cannot be misleading either.

The Message

When structuring the message, again you have to remember to stay away from certain words, phrases or dollar signs. Now this part can get to be challenging. This is why you may see legitimate emails with special characters.

Email messages should be concise, to the point and carry a strong call to action. The idea is to get the recipient to interact with your company so give them plenty of opportunities and incentives to do so.

Remember, email is a brand building opportunity so be sure that you reinforce brand messages, encourage communication and interaction through links to the supporting website and reply to email addresses.

Track the Results

Be sure to track performance of your email marketing program. This is yet another reason to use a broadcast email service. Through third party services you have the ability to see how many people opened the email, how many people clicked the various links in the email etc. This also allows you to better target your emails to a specific audience or give more information that the recipients are genuinely interested in.

Like any advertising, email must be done consistently. And, like many marketing strategies, the program must flex to any new challenges or new opportunities. Don’t be afraid to vary the format, timing and offers to find the email that works best for your company. And definitely integrate email marketing along with any other marketing – loyalty programs, print ads etc. “join our email newsletter and get even more discounts, savings etc.”

———————–

This article written by Teajai Kimsey, Interenet Marketing Strategist, Ideas That Work – May 2005. First presented to the Wichita Professional Communicators, May 2005

It may be reproduced and reprinted provided the author’s information including web link is kept intact.

Email Marketing For Brick and Mortar Businesses