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The Surprising Power of Business Directories
Aug 27, 2022
Have you ever wondered how some businesses are always getting new customers even when there is no marketing or advertising? If so, then this video is for you.
Discover the secret behind attracting new customers without any marketing or advertising. You might be thinking that it's impossible but trust me, it isn't. There are a few online directories out there where all you have to do is list your business and wait for the leads to come in. All of these directories work differently so don't worry about trying them all, just find one that works best for your business model and start driving traffic right away!
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0:00
Every small business owner wants the phone to ring without doing any sales and marketing
0:16
That kind of rhymes, doesn't it? But how do you make that happen
0:21
I'm even a Taylor. I'm the publisher of DIY marketers and the host of Bizapalooza chat
0:25
And in this session, we're going to share a forgotten. an often ignored recipe for getting right in front of your ideal customer often for free
0:49
With me today is author, small business expert and the CEO of Grow Biz Media
0:55
and I am so honored to say my dear friend, Riva Lysonski, welcome, Riva
1:00
I'm so excited to have you here. I'm excited to be here too
1:05
This is such a great idea. It's such a great idea. I'm so glad you thought of it
1:10
Thank you. Well, this is why I came to you because you are the queen of practical customer getting recipes
1:18
And so now I want you to share you. You gave me a really good one
1:22
Share it with our audience and tell us what problem it's all. Okay, so this is the problem of getting discovered
1:28
What business owner doesn't want to get discovered? In the old days, right, when we were kids, remember the yellow pages
1:36
Every single person got in America got a huge yellow pages in the mail in front of their door, tossed on the driveway
1:45
wanted to know something, picked it up, looked it up, there it was. They don't do that anymore
1:49
And so the way you get discovered now is through online yellow pages
1:54
They're called business directories. And there are just a ton of them
1:59
There's just a whole big number of them. And in fact, I can send you a list of them and you can send it
2:06
You can share it with your audience. So the idea of an online business directory is this is how people discover businesses today
2:14
They go online. They sit down at their computer. They generally start with Google
2:18
They started a search engine. The most use search engine is Google. That's where they start
2:23
and they start typing in what they're looking for. So you have to list yourself, make sure you are listed in all the business directories
2:34
You don't have a choice. Google actually probably has a list for your business, but it may not be accurate
2:41
So you want to make sure you want to go on there, Google yourself, go online, look at your company
2:45
and that it's that thing on the right hand of the page where look at what it says about your company
2:52
Is it accurate? Does it have your address? Does it have your hours? Does it have your phone number? Does it have the thing you want it to have? That's what people are looking at. So that's the first thing you need to do is check to see what's out there. Then you need to sort of own the whole thing. You want to fill out these listings. You want to get and make sure they're all the same. This is the key. So like I said, there's a ton of them. And when you start to fill them out, sometimes you'll put street and sometimes you'll put S
3:22
or Avenue or AVE, you want to make sure everything is exactly the same on all the directories
3:30
This can be really tedious. There are companies out there that do it for you that don't charge a lot of money because
3:36
it takes a lot of time and it's really exacting. Why should you do it
3:41
Because one, you're going to get discovered. This is what consumers are looking for to find it
3:46
It's going to generate fresh leads. It's going to put you in front of customers who may have forgotten about you, right
3:52
because they're looking for something and they don't remember. It's going to help your online reputation management because it's an online listing
4:00
And people can leave reviews. If you look at Google My Business, people can leave reviews about you
4:05
And it's going to improve your SEO. So what do you do? So there's all these benefits
4:10
So go claim them. You can go to Google My Business first because it's the biggest
4:14
Do that. And then you can do the others. Don't forget Bing, Bing
4:19
Oh, my Microsoft serves a ton. of people as well. And then there are industry-specific ones
4:26
You don't have to do them all if you're not in that industry. But think about Yelp is one
4:31
People don't think of Yelp as an online business directory, but it is
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And people think, oh, Yelp is for restaurants. No, Yelp is for everything. People are leaving reviews everywhere
4:41
So you want to make sure you are fully represented and you want to keep it up to date
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If you are a retail store or a restaurant and you have special holiday hours or your clothes make sure you go in there and update it because that what people are looking at and you really don want someone showing up
5:00
at your door to see, we're not open yet, sign because they're going to be really mad
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So make sure you keep your information updated. It's easy to change all the, you know, to go in and change holiday hours and then to take
5:13
them back down again. It's really easy to do. It's a no-brainer
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in a lot of cases. Some will cost you a little bit of money. Some are free, but all in, this is
5:23
cheap. It's easy. It's accessible. And it's going to give you access to just potentially
5:29
millions of businesses. Millions of consumers. Right, right, right. Well, in businesses, too
5:36
right? Because that is a gripe that I happen to have is that even if you're B2B
5:43
people are searching, right? So I want to talk about something very
5:47
briefly, and I don't know if you know anything about this, because it has been literally decades
5:53
right? But I want to talk about different business types and maybe different directories. I'm going to
5:58
start with the manufacturing sector and these like super technical companies. Riva, do you remember the
6:04
Thomas Register? Like, you what, 26 volumes, bright green. Right? Well, I have to tell you, I got a call from a past client of
6:15
mine who said that he a Thomas registry rep had contacted them and everything. So I sort of want to
6:23
talk about different types of directories for different types of businesses, right? Google for
6:28
everyone. Yes. Google for everyone. And yes, I totally get, if you're in the consumer services
6:37
business, Yelp is easy to understand anything, whether it's hairstyling or what, but I want to talk about
6:44
like professional services, more like the B2B folks. Let's chat. What do you say
6:50
So for me, LinkedIn has a company directory, right? There's something more LinkedIn, more B2B than LinkedIn
6:57
That's why I'm going to send you this list. So I think one is called Manta also B2B
7:02
There's a lot of them that are one of the things that that is sort of a takeoff from this
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that's information is today. There used to be B2C marketing and B2B marketing
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and never the twain shall meet. Today, B2B marketers are acting more like B2C marketers
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And B2B buyers are acting more like consumers. And so if you are selling B2B services
7:28
you need to change your approach. You need to approach them more like consumers
7:33
They're taking longer. Their customer journey is longer. They're looking online. They're checking you out
7:40
They're checking your online reputation out. So they're looking at these directories, but they're also looking at your social feeds, just like a consumer might look at your social feed before they come into a store or a restaurant
7:53
And so you, as a B-to-B seller, you have to think as if your buyer is a consumer and market to them the way you would market to a consumer
8:05
I could not have said that any better at all. I've been on this soapbox for the last 30 years, Reba, because I was in B2B industrial marketing
8:16
And I'm like, so what happens to Joe Purchaser when he walks out of the building and goes to
8:22
buy toothpaste? So what? Does he suddenly change? No. Right. Right. He's a human being
8:29
Human beings make decisions. And I definitely can't say enough. And I don't know if this is true
8:35
I'm going to find out, you guys. I don't know if it's true. but I have heard that the more you engage with Google
8:42
like if you update your directories and you upload pictures and you do these things
8:48
you know, they're going to reward you. They're going to like give a little extra love
8:54
You're never going to get a straight answer from that. You know that. Google is like the great
8:58
they do things that like if you do something wrong, they just tell you
9:03
they just penalize you. They don't tell you what you need to. They just say
9:07
you did it wrong. we can't tell you because you could somehow use that
9:11
Like, what? Like, that makes no sense. It makes me, like, rip my hair out
9:16
That just really makes me mad. But they do. There's all sorts of things that Google gives you to reward you for being a loyal Google
9:25
customer for using all their services. And that's the other thing. You know, it's sort of like being in a world of choosing the world of Android or choosing
9:34
the world of Apple, right? Once you're in that ecosystem, other things feed into it
9:41
So it's the same thing. You can deny like I said Google the biggest That where everybody It not where everybody goes It where most people go And everybody picks up the stuff from Google So there are many other search engines and you again many other directories
9:57
you want to be in all of them, but you start with Google My Business
10:01
Absolutely. And maybe find those top 20% out of all of those and kind of start
10:08
Check them out. Look and see. For example, there's a business directory if you're selling software
10:12
called Get App or Captera, you know, or all of those folks, right
10:17
So there's all kinds of directories. Yes. It really makes sense to go in there and look at those because the more you engage and
10:25
and I would, I actually want to say something else. I have to give a tip because I am always looking at directories
10:33
And that is don't put yourself in every category. Yes. Please don't do that because what that directory is going to do is it's going to lump you
10:42
into people who maybe aren't like you at all, and then you're not more likely to get chosen
10:49
You're better off, in my opinion, I want to hear what you have to say. I think you're better off
10:54
Let's say, for example, I have a client who's an elder law attorney, right
10:59
He does estate planning, but he really, really, really does elder law
11:03
Now, he does other stuff too, but no, we say we're doing elder law, we're only doing elder law
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for example, even though estate planning is part of it, it's estate planning for older people
11:16
So make that way, you're not going to get as many tire kickers and you're going to have more
11:22
quality than quantity. Exactly. And that goes for almost everything you do. There's a lot of
11:28
research that has shown as a small business, the more specific your niche, the more you're going to
11:36
attract likely customers, right? Like you said, we don't have time to
11:40
deal with tire kickers, people who are just out there looking to see because you've got a
11:45
constant, you don't have a big staff, you don't have a lot of resources, you've got to concentrate
11:49
on the people who are likely to give you money. And that's why the more niche you are
11:55
the more likely it is you're going to find somebody who is willing to spend money with you
12:01
I don't know, look through your list and let me know what is a good directory for
12:07
like, let's say service providers. Maybe your consultant. maybe you're a freelancer
12:12
For example, do you consider Upwork, like a directory or not? It's kind of more a marketplace than a directory
12:20
You know, I think you can start getting into what's a marketplace, what's a directory
12:25
I would consider Upwork on Marketplace, right? It's a place where you go and you're actively
12:32
It's almost like eBay. So eBay's a marketplace, Upworks a marketplace. You're not necessarily a directory
12:39
but I don't know. At the same time, I give that advice quite a bit
12:44
If you're looking for new customers, get yourself up there. You never know, again, be targeted, be specific. Right
12:51
But be aware of what customers might. So on upwork, right? People kind of expect a bargain, right
13:00
And so if you are not, if you're not willing to offer, you know, a bargain
13:07
And if you don't have the bandwidth to take on smaller projects, don't, you know, don't go there, really concentrate
13:17
You know, like the yellow, I started out talking about the Yellow Pages. The Yellow Pages has an online directory
13:23
So there's, there's that, I think there's one called Merchant Circle that is for everybody
13:30
It's for retail stores as well as consultants. Like I said, Yelp, there's a lot of more service, like accountants who were going on Yelp, that kind of thing
13:42
Really? Yeah, I know. You know, I think it's because everybody knows the name, right
13:49
When you say to somebody, hey, can you review me on Yelp
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People go, yeah, because they know what it is, rather than go, what, what's Manta
13:58
Like, you know, an everyday consumer might not know that. So you have to, like I said, I'm going to send you this
14:04
list. It's a HubSpotless. Great. So it's from HubSpot, which I think is one of the best companies
14:10
in terms of sharing information. And everybody can look at it and go
14:14
that's not for me. Oh, that makes sense. Like, remember, like, one of the first ones that were out there
14:22
marketing was Angie's list, right? And she was really doing it for
14:26
home service companies, right? You want an electrician, you want that. And now it's just called Angie
14:32
and it's for like everything. Right It not just Angie list It just Angie She sold it I forget who owns it now So you want to you want to make you know check it out if it works for you And if the directory is free and it broad like the yellow
14:50
pages, you should be there. You know, for a broad one like that, you should, you should be there
14:55
because you don't know what people are going to turn to. And wouldn't those directories also
15:00
that's another thing. This could be a nice of some nice little shortcut around advertising and
15:06
syndication almost is because those directories probably have very good Google placement
15:13
Yes. So you can, if you're listed and someone searches for you, you might actually show up if your
15:20
website might not. Yeah. And you know, here's the Better Business Bureau is considered a directory
15:26
So if you have a good score with the Better Business Bureau, which you should, right
15:31
People go there often. It's like their second directory choice. like they'll find you maybe on Google or Bing or something
15:40
And then they'll go, hmm, and they'll go to the Better Business Bureau to see what are people saying about you
15:46
What does the better business bureau say about you? So you want to make sure. And that's the other thing
15:51
You should check to see if people have, you may not have claimed your business on Yelp
15:58
but people may have been on there complaining about you or actually saying nice things about you
16:03
If you haven't claimed it, you get no benefit from it. or you don't have the opportunity to say
16:10
I'm so sorry you had that experience. Let me make it better for you
16:15
Let me make it up to you because that goes a long way in saying to other consumers
16:20
Ooh, that's a business owner that cares. They're going to take care of me
16:24
I'm going to do business there. So I want to go back to managing all this, right
16:28
Do you have a recommendation or something that you've seen that you think, like
16:34
let's say a number of directories that's like a small business owner could effectively manage, right
16:41
If you have to update stuff, yes, you're going to update Google first. But, you know, I see a lot of people not having updated their directory listings
16:49
And that makes me nuts because in this world of COVID and disruption, you can count on another
16:55
disruption your customers want to know. Exactly. I think that wherever you're listed, you need to update that and manage it
17:04
Like I said, there are companies out there that do it for you. I don't know
17:08
You know, I'm not going to recommend any. I don't. We're not the kind of business, you know, we have Google my business, but, and, you know, the other, the main ones, but we're not the kind of business that has to worry about somebody's showing up at our door or anything like that
17:25
So, so we don't, we don't use anybody because what we need is very limited
17:30
But if I had a retail store, I would sure as heck, see if I can employ a service
17:37
Because let's say, okay, I have a retail store and it's now November and I have holiday listed
17:42
So you have to go in to each place that you're listed to say, here are my holiday hours, right
17:48
You don't have time for that. So I think these companies that manage it, do it like, okay, here it is, it's done
17:54
And it doesn't cost you a lot of money. You know, that's one of my lifelong bugaboos, a small business owner
18:00
owners sometimes think they're saving money by doing it themselves. And there are certain things
18:07
that they shouldn't do themselves. It's just not worth. It's not worth that. Time is money
18:13
You know, if you sell your services for $100 an hour, is it worth, you know, your $500 and maybe it'll
18:20
take you five hours to do this, to do that when you can probably hire it out for like a tiny
18:26
percentage of that? Yeah. Exactly. That is just absolutely. great advice. Can't wait to see the list. Yeah. So just give me the list and we'll have it set up for you
18:38
Anything else you want to share with our audience? So this is, this is like, I don't want you to listen to me and go, oh yeah, I'll get to it
18:46
This is fundamental. This is just a fundamental thing. If you're a startup or if you're already in business, it doesn't matter
18:54
It applies to businesses, no matter how big you are, no matter how small you are, no matter how young you are or how old your business
19:00
is get it done now. Because really, it's kind of, if you hire somebody
19:06
it's kind of a set it and forget it thing. Like you do it, you hire somebody to keep track of it
19:11
you can go on to do things that are important to your business
19:15
that are going to bring in even more money. I love this tip because it's like so obvious
19:20
and nobody thinks about it anymore. Reva. Exactly. Thank you so much
19:25
Appreciate it. Oh, my pleasure
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