What does it mean for your business that ads will now appear in local 3 pack results? The most important thing to know about the ad in the local 3 pack is that the ad will take one of the three spots available in the local 3 pack, making it a 2-pack (based on example in presentation) with one less spot for businesses to fight for. With a third of the 3 pack space going to the highest bidder, regardless of any of the SEO or reviews management local businesses use to get into the 3 pack, it makes the difficult job of getting into the found first in local search results much harder.
Clearly, this will be a huge ad revenue boost for Google. We can assume that user experience will suffer as organic results get pushed out and more clicks are required to get past numerous ad placements to get to top ranking relevant businesses. Additionally, businesses that have worked hard to earn a spot in the local 3 pack not only have less chance of making the 3 pack but will now be shown below an ad that could possibly be a low-quality result for the search; lowering trust in how Google ranked the two remaining spots.
Attendees of June’s SMX Advanced were given a screenshot of what the new 3 pack will look like, and Joy Hawkins tweeted a snapshot of that presentation:
Tweet Image of Google Presentation on Ad in the Local 3 Pack
Not the best photo. Luckily, Ross Marchant included a mockup of what the new local 3 pack might look like (based on the photo) when BrightLocal posted about the change in the local 3 pack:
Mockup of What the Ad in the Local 3 Pack Could Look Like from BrightLocal
It has been reported that the 3 pack ads will be part of AdWords Extensions. Ad extensions is a feature that shows extra business information with your ads such as address, phone number, and links. When and where extensions show depends on your ad rank and where your ad is positioned on the results page. Ad extensions add to the appeal of your ads, and there is no additional cost to add extensions to your campaign; you are just charged for clicks on your ad like usual.
Local extensions show your business address, phone number, hours and ratings by location. You’ll recognize this as the information shown in the local 3 pack. On mobile, they can include call, direction, and detail buttons that do count as a click for your campaigns.
Google's Example of Local Ad Extensions
The cost of clicks on extension are set the same as headline clicks, so the most you’ll pay is what is minimally required to keep your extensions and ad position. Ads in higher positions have a higher cost per click (CPC), so it is not a stretch to put the cost of the ad in the local 3 pack due to competition for prominence on search results pages. You’ll pay just enough to beat the ad rank for the advertiser with the next highest ad rank or the minimum ad rank necessary to appear in that position when dealing with ad extensions in AdWords. We’ll have to wait and see if Google makes any changes to the extension guideline to buy the ad in the local 3 pack.
Raise your hand if you excited about one more ad and one less earned spot in the local 3 pack. No one? No surprise there (and if I missed you, please leave a comment, so you get the acknowledgment you deserve). Curious how consumers would respond to the ad in the local 3 pack format BrightLocal surveyed 690 U.S. consumers. They showed them the mockup above and asked them to imagine they were searching for a local dentist in Google and were presented with the mockup results.
BrightLocal Survey Results for Ad in the Local 3 Pack
Key Findings:
–> 36% would click on the top (1st) business
–> 20% would click on the middle (2nd) business
–> 43% would click on the bottom (3rd) business
“… Reviews may play a big part here; the most popular 3rd listing has positive review stars, whilst the middle result with zero reviews was the least popular. Also, in terms of pixel space, both the 1st & 3rd listings take up more room due to their display of opening hours…”
Key Findings:
–> 47% of consumers picked a business because it had positive review stars
–> 16% picked a business purely because it was the top result
–> 13% picked a business that stood out to them first
–> 12% picked a business which a business name they liked
–> 13% either picked a business at random or are unsure why
“… A majority 47% chose a business because it had positive review stars. The paid listing may have the top position, but it doesn’t have the eye-catching star rating & orange review stars. This just shows that having a review strategy in place will only take on more importance once Google rolls out the paid local results…”
–> 60% of consumers did notice the Ad icon on the top result
–> 40% of consumers did not notice the Ad icon
“…Searchers are used to seeing PPC results by now & most understand that they are adverts even if they’re not entirely sure how they work. However, consumers may have a different reaction to being served paid listings in local results…”
–> 42% of consumers like paid Ads or are happy as long as the businesses are relevant
–> 44% of consumers dislike paid Ads or would prefer not to see them
–> 14% feel tricked by Google
“When served with a paid ad in the local pack, 58% of consumers have a negative reaction, whilst 42% have a positive or indifferent reaction. Furthermore, 14% feel tricked by Google.”
During the Q&A portion of the SMX Advanced Local Workshop in late June, Ali Turhan, Google’s Global Product Lead for Local Ads, said that Google was still testing, and the ultimate result might be different from the grainy smartphone photo (or creative mockup) shown above. As Google engineers a final product for introducing an ad in the local 3 pack, there could be variations that have a purple “ad” designator or they could decide three organic results and one ad is the magic combination. What is for certain is the ad in the local 3 pack is coming, customer reviews are still important, SEO is a must, and optimizing your Google My Business listing is the only way you can compete for a spot in the organic results of the local 3 pack.
Zach Anderson is the co-founder of Reputation Loop (helping small businesses grow by generating customer feedback and online reviews) who loves online marketing and golf.
The post Google Confirms Ad in the Local 3 Pack is Coming appeared first on Reputation Loop.
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What is the difference between regular SEO and local SEO for brick and mortar businesses? The main difference is that local SEO uses geographical keywords and designators that let search engines know your businesses relevance in local search results. Another difference is that optimizing for local search lowers competition for the top spots in search results because you are competing only with businesses within a certain radius of your geographical location.
Mastering local SEO involves executing a handful of on-page and off-page SEO task that optimize your website for long-term local search visibility. When done right it helps search engines and search users find, sort and prioritize your most important information such as location, services and benefits.
You will rank higher on Google and other sites in local search results by location optimizing your web pages, creating a logical structure, and utilizing proper tagging and descriptors in content, URLs, and metadata. Terms like “site architecture” and “website organization” describe the proper structuring of your website for optimal results and as a small business owner focused on getting customers in the door of physical locations, you will want to focus on structuring your website to highlight your location and services.
Your home page is called “Home” for a reason. Ensure all important pages are clearly part of your home page navigation. Search engines look for you to build out logically from your homepage so make sure your best stuff (top selling products, most popular services, testimonials, etc.) are there with easy to use navigational links.
Each of your locations should have its own page. By having a dedicated page for each location, you let them provide location-specific information that internet searchers are looking for.
Is your main keyword or service and location in your URLs? It should be. Nobody loves a super long URL, but http://ift.tt/29QCGzr or http://ift.tt/29oNWUQ is the easiest and most effective local SEO you can implement. If your domain name does not contain your business name, get your business name or specialty and location in the URL of your web pages.
SEO-effective information to put on your “Location(s)” pages can include content that describes products or services. Concise content that is keyword rich, and properly titled with location specific headers (H1-H2) is loved by all search engines. Blog posts, videos, images, and event calendars are all additions that, when tagged and labeled correctly, add to your search-ability and give you a competitive edge over weaker websites.
Each page of your website has a meta description, and you have the opportunity to use title tags and image tags to help search engines understand what your web page is about. The metadata is the words that appear beneath your hyperlinked page title (title tag) in search results and explains what a page is about. Your meta data and title tags should include the keyword you are trying to rank for, as well as your city and state.
It is very important that you have off-page signals that let search engines know what you do, where you are located, and that you are a legitimate business. Google isn’t going to rank you high in search just because you had the foresight to buy the http://ift.tt/29QCJLp domain name and customers are going to trust it is true just because you said so.
Here are three off-page SEO signals that let Google and customers know you are a legitimate business, located in a search user’s area, that has been tried by other customers.
Accurate business listings and citations are the foundations of your local search optimization campaigns. Your Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP) has to remain consistent across the internet, or search engines will distrust the accuracy of your information or even your existence and drop you in local search ranking. Business listings management could cover hundreds of directories but here are extremely cost-effective ways to automate the management of your business listings. ALSO READ: The What Why and How of Business Listings and Citations
User-generated content such as customer reviews is a powerful way to affect local search engine results positively and provide the trust-building social proof that customers need to choose new products and service providers. ALSO READ: 3 Ways Customer Reviews Improve SEO
Google likes to keep things in-house as much as possible, so it favors its own accurate and current business listings in verified Google My Business accounts when giving local search results to its users. If you want any chance of showing up in the life-altering Local 3-Pack which prominently displays the top three most relevant results for local search, you have to verify and optimize your Google My Business listing (preferably with dozens of five-star reviews). ALSO READ: How to Optimize Your Google My Business Listing
Look at Google SERP results with your business type and city to see how an effective URL, optimizing for local search and getting 5-star reviews keeps brick and mortar business owners at the top of their city’s local search results. If you don’t like where your business is ranking in local search results then now is the time to use the tips in this Local SEO for Brick and Mortar Businesses post.
Are you gathering and posting five-star customer reviews and testimonials on your site as well as top review sites? Should you start a business blog with better content to show your expertise and give the search engines more content to index and provide in search results? More traffic, more customers, and more profit starts with a search engine optimized website and smart structuring for local search, but there are many factors in play that you have control over as a business owner.
Zach Anderson is the co-founder of Reputation Loop (helping small businesses grow by generating customer feedback and online reviews) who loves online marketing and golf.
The post Local SEO for Brick and Mortar Businesses appeared first on Reputation Loop.
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What is the difference between regular SEO and local SEO for brick and mortar businesses? The main difference is that local SEO uses geographical keywords and designators that let search engines know your businesses relevance in local search results. Another difference is that optimizing for local search lowers competition for the top spots in search results because you are competing only with businesses within a certain radius of your geographical location.
Mastering local SEO involves executing a handful of on-page and off-page SEO task that optimize your website for long-term local search visibility. When done right it helps search engines and search users find, sort and prioritize your most important information such as location, services and benefits.
You will rank higher on Google and other sites in local search results by location optimizing your web pages, creating a logical structure, and utilizing proper tagging and descriptors in content, URLs, and metadata. Terms like “site architecture” and “website organization” describe the proper structuring of your website for optimal results and as a small business owner focused on getting customers in the door of physical locations, you will want to focus on structuring your website to highlight your location and services.
Your home page is called “Home” for a reason. Ensure all important pages are clearly part of your home page navigation. Search engines look for you to build out logically from your homepage so make sure your best stuff (top selling products, most popular services, testimonials, etc.) are there with easy to use navigational links.
Each of your locations should have its own page. By having a dedicated page for each location, you let them provide location-specific information that internet searchers are looking for.
Is your main keyword or service and location in your URLs? It should be. Nobody loves a super long URL, but http://ift.tt/29QCGzr or http://ift.tt/29oNWUQ is the easiest and most effective local SEO you can implement. If your domain name does not contain your business name, get your business name or specialty and location in the URL of your web pages.
SEO-effective information to put on your “Location(s)” pages can include content that describes products or services. Concise content that is keyword rich, and properly titled with location specific headers (H1-H2) is loved by all search engines. Blog posts, videos, images, and event calendars are all additions that, when tagged and labeled correctly, add to your search-ability and give you a competitive edge over weaker websites.
Each page of your website has a meta description, and you have the opportunity to use title tags and image tags to help search engines understand what your web page is about. The metadata is the words that appear beneath your hyperlinked page title (title tag) in search results and explains what a page is about. Your meta data and title tags should include the keyword you are trying to rank for, as well as your city and state.
It is very important that you have off-page signals that let search engines know what you do, where you are located, and that you are a legitimate business. Google isn’t going to rank you high in search just because you had the foresight to buy the http://ift.tt/29QCJLp domain name and customers are going to trust it is true just because you said so.
Here are three off-page SEO signals that let Google and customers know you are a legitimate business, located in a search user’s area, that has been tried by other customers.
Accurate business listings and citations are the foundations of your local search optimization campaigns. Your Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP) has to remain consistent across the internet, or search engines will distrust the accuracy of your information or even your existence and drop you in local search ranking. Business listings management could cover hundreds of directories but here are extremely cost-effective ways to automate the management of your business listings. ALSO READ: The What Why and How of Business Listings and Citations
User-generated content such as customer reviews is a powerful way to affect local search engine results positively and provide the trust-building social proof that customers need to choose new products and service providers. ALSO READ: 3 Ways Customer Reviews Improve SEO
Google likes to keep things in-house as much as possible, so it favors its own accurate and current business listings in verified Google My Business accounts when giving local search results to its users. If you want any chance of showing up in the life-altering Local 3-Pack which prominently displays the top three most relevant results for local search, you have to verify and optimize your Google My Business listing (preferably with dozens of five-star reviews). ALSO READ: How to Optimize Your Google My Business Listing
Look at Google SERP results with your business type and city to see how an effective URL, optimizing for local search and getting 5-star reviews keeps brick and mortar business owners at the top of their city’s local search results. If you don’t like where your business is ranking in local search results then now is the time to use the tips in this Local SEO for Brick and Mortar Businesses post.
Are you gathering and posting five-star customer reviews and testimonials on your site as well as top review sites? Should you start a business blog with better content to show your expertise and give the search engines more content to index and provide in search results? More traffic, more customers, and more profit starts with a search engine optimized website and smart structuring for local search, but there are many factors in play that you have control over as a business owner.
Zach Anderson is the co-founder of Reputation Loop (helping small businesses grow by generating customer feedback and online reviews) who loves online marketing and golf.
The post Local SEO for Brick and Mortar Businesses appeared first on Reputation Loop.
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API stands for “Application Programming Interfaces” and they allow one program to talk to another. Whether the programs are on the same computer, or websites on external servers the allow for seamless software integrations API integrations connect the programs you use the most. Essentially it is a tool that helps developers write code that lets the software they developed interface with other software. Many companies supply their API’s for free because API’s help their programs interact with other programs which make their software more useful (and thus more valuable) to their customers.
Written in a standard code that all computers understand, API’s are designed to be used by computers, with the end-user (the other software) in mind much the same way apps in the app store are designed with the end-user (humans) in mind. To protect the humans who use API integrations, two computers using an API can establish trust using authentication and credentials to protect better any sensitive data that passes through.
Think of an API as super-charged automated data entry tool that has been pre-approved to:
API integrations make large amounts of data more manageable for computers by automating tedious and labor-intensive tasks that would take hours or days for a human to accomplish. They also let the computer programs and apps we use every day talk to each other so the things we need to do or know can be seamless done or delivered. With each passing day, the importance of API’s grows as customers (you), businesses, and programmers find new ways to use software to make their lives easier, their businesses more profitable, and their programs faster and more user-friendly.
Reputation Loop recently released two new API integrations that make it even easier for some of its users to gather and promote the five-star reviews that set them apart from the competition online.
Lenders and real estate agents providing services on Zillow can now use Reputation Loop to build and protect the ratings and reviews home buyers rely upon to choose the best real estate professionals and mortgage providers. Zillow is the leading real estate and rental marketplace with a living database of more than 110 million U.S. homes, serving the full lifecycle of owning and living in a home. The ability to post reviews on real estate agents and mortgage lenders launched in December 2010 and today there are more than 2 million reviews of real estate agents and mortgage lenders. Learn more about the Zillow integration.
Zillow’s review widget showcasing five-star rating
MacPractice Customers Can Now Use the Reputation Loop Platform to Generate Online Reviews Fast, Monitor Their Online Reputation, and Promote Their Positive Online Presence to Gain New Customers. Users of MacPractice will now be able to use one of the most powerful Reputation Marketing platforms available to build a positive reputation that attracts more patients. MacPractice is the leading Apple developer of the premier practice management and clinical software relied upon by over 30,000 users in 31 countries. This integration makes it easy for doctors to accumulate and publish patient reviews. Learn more about the MacPractice integration.
Over 20,000 small businesses use Infusionsoft to handle contact management, sales, email marketing and e-commerce because it’s the best sales and marketing automation platform on the market. Now Infusionsoft users can harness the power of Reputation Loop to enhance their automation as fully integrated software that handles the process of turning customer feedback into 5 Star reviews. Adding Reputation Loop’s innovative software API with your Infusionsoft account allows you to preset the entire process for generating customer feedback and turn positive feedback into online ratings and reviews. Learn more about the Infusionsoft integration.
Reputation Loop Directly Integrates with Infusionsoft’s Campaign Builder
Automatically share customer feedback and reviews on all your business’ major social media accounts and have your friends and followers help spread the positive word. Each shared review includes an image, increasing your likes and shares, and a customer review that highlights your company.
Reputation Loop’s business listing management service ensures your business can be found everywhere customers are searching. Integration with leading online directories locks in the correct information from one single source that you control within your Reputation Loop dashboard. With real-time control of your listing across a network of 55+ leading sites, maps, and apps, you’ll have a guaranteed presence that you control across the web. Business listing management updates all the directories with basic NAP (name, address, phone number) information, bu also enhances your listings with the capability to add descriptions, maps, websites, photos, logos, reviews and more. Here are just some of the 55+ leading websites:
Reputation Loop actively monitors the top online rating and review sites, and you can connect your dashboard to these top sites to pull in reviews. New review snapshots are displayed on your dashboard along with a special alert and you are notified that a new rating or review has been found by the software.
Reviews are monitored on sites like:
… And MORE
Every API Reputation Loop builds is designed to create powerful integrations that are simple to use and quick to implement. A public API is also available to bridge the gap where an API is not in place with another service provider. The API listing gives you a link to the directory on the partner site and implementation instructions whenever possible. Click here to see a more detailed list of software integrations available with Reputation Loop.
Zach Anderson is the co-founder of Reputation Loop (helping small businesses grow by generating customer feedback and online reviews) who loves online marketing and golf.
The post What is an API? Reputation Loop’s Top API Integrations appeared first on Reputation Loop.
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If you have competitors that consistently outrank you in search, you should take a look at what they are doing on their website. Could be they’ve found the golden ticket to SEO success in your industry. Use the competitor research tools below to uncover the marketing activities that are boosting competitors’ search rankings. Compare the content, back links, and social media of top competitors to see what tactics you can incorporate to improve your SEO, SEM, and Content strategies.
With Alexa, you can see the performance of competitors’ marketing activities and improve your strategies to model successful tactics. Get the data you need with a competitive intelligence tool and a free (for opt-in) Competitive Analysis Template. To use the competitive intelligence tools you will need to buy-in on the $49 a month Insight Plan.
Alexa Reputation Metrics Screen
SEMrush is a leader in competitive research with reasonably priced service plans, but you can also search a domain, keyword or URL for free from the search box on the SEMrush homepage. Paid plans get you analytic reports on your competitors’ strategies in keyword selection, paid search, organic search, and link building. There are also tools to cross, combine and visualize data to compare competitive domains. Paid plans start at around $70 per month.
SEMrush Domain Overview Results
Netpeak Checker is a desktop tool for analyzing and comparing websites based on any SEO parameter you can think of: tags, meta data, keywords, canonical, status codes, links, and more. Add powerful reporting and the ability to merge URL’s under projects and there isn’t’ anything you won’t know about your competitors’ website. Pricing for Netpeak is $19 a month or $159 for the year with a free 14-day trial.
Netpeak Popular Website Listing
Just one of many tools provided by SEOBook.com, you can download the SEO Tool Bar with a free SEO Book account. It sits at the top of your browser and for any web page you are on it pulls in useful marketing data points for a holistic view of the competitive landscape with links to data sources so you can dig deeper. The best part is it is free to download, but note that it only works on Firefox browsers.
Exporting SEO Tool Bar Data
Track backlinks, keywords, brand mentions, and competitors’ activities. There are dozens of tools and reports to give you a comprehensive set of data to analyze both your competitors’ and your marketing effectiveness. Ahrefs plans start at $99 a month after a two-week free trial.
Site Explorer – Get a detailed backlink profile for any website with smart filters and advanced reports for tracking.
Positions Explorer – See the keywords your competitors are ranking for in search results and which pages are ranking high for both paid and organic search traffic.
Content Explorer – Uncover the content getting the most shares and backlink and use the list of sites linking to content to build a list of content marketing outreach targets.
Position Tracker – Track daily keyword ranking with daily position history over time and automated weekly and monthly ranking reports.
Crawl Report – Check of issues that may be hurting your site including response codes and loading speed.
With the MozBar Chrome extension, you get a top-of-screen browser toolbar that shows you the SEO metrics of any website you are on. Get top SEO metrics at a glance while surfing the web the way you usually do. You can also create custom searches, see the difficulty level in ranking for given keyword, and see page elements with the Analyze Page overlay feature. Plus, the MozBar lets you view social metrics for Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. This free tool promises to streamline your SEO and competitive analysis.
MozBar Features
Modeling itself as a market intelligence platform, SimilarWeb Pro gives you comprehensive analysis for any app or website. With the pro plan, you get website analysis with engagement, SEO, and PPC metrics as well as audience interests, industry leaders, traffic sources, and app analysis. SimilarWeb Pro’s basic plan is $199 per month.
SimilarWeb Pro Audience Overview Report
You’ll find that many of the tools you use to monitor your website performance also work as competitive research tools to track what your competitors are doing. If you are looking just to dip your toe in competitive research tools you can try one of these:
Google Alerts – for monitoring mentions
SocialMention – for researching keywords and mentions
Monitor Backlinks – have competitor backlinks sent to you
Zach Anderson is the co-founder of Reputation Loop (helping small businesses grow by generating customer feedback and online reviews) who loves online marketing and golf.
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Facebook has proven to be an effective way to reach local customers because you can reach people interested in your business whether they are looking at their phone, tablet or computer. Facebook’s local awareness ads have been helping businesses connect with people and spread their local message, and the native store locator takes it one step further. With improved metrics and an offline conversion API, Facebook looks to use local awareness ads to encourage and measure foot traffic and in-store sales.
As mobile search overtakes desktop and laptop searches, over 90% of retail sales still take place in-store according to eMarketer. With local awareness ads and Facebook Locations, businesses with multiple locations receive more insight into the people nearby and create local ads for each store. This month Facebook launched a native store locator. The native store locator can be added to any local awareness campaign. You’ll use it to drive people to your store and measure the amount of store visits and in-store sales from your Facebook mobile ad campaigns.
The native store locator shows Facebook users a map of all the locations of your business nearby their current location. The user can click on the map in the ad to see information like estimated travel time, address, hours, website and phone number without leaving the ad or app. Your ads are now a one-touch portal to all the information a buyer needs to get to your brick-and-mortar locations to make a purchase.
“Store Visits” Metric Added to Ads ReportingHow are your in-store sales affected by your Facebook ad campaigns? It’s been hard to measure the impact, until now. By adding “store visits” to Ads Reporting, Facebook has made it easier for you to understand how store traffic has been affected by local awareness ads. Store visits data is based on information from users with location services enabled on their phone. Store visits reporting lets you see how many people come to your store after seeing an ad so you can better optimize ad creation and targeting.
If you want to connect in-store and phone transactions to your ads you can use the offline conversion API. The offline conversion API lets you match transaction data from your database or P.O.S. system to Ads Reporting. Now you can see real-time results as transactions happen and gain demographic insight about customers to optimize future ad campaigns and track campaign effectiveness.
Advertising on Facebook can seem complicated. However, what you will find is it is the same with any new system – once you get it, you’ve got it. Facebook wants you to get it, so they’ve developed a handful of resources to help you become a better advertiser.
Completing the Facebook Blueprint is like getting a Masters in Facebook for business. With over 50 e-learning modules you’ll learn everything you need to know to leverage Facebook features to grow your business.
Facebook for Business is the hub for doing everything you want to do for your business on Facebook. You’ll learn about marketing and get to read success stories. Create your page or create your ads. Everything starts right here on Facebook for Business, and if you need help, there is a “Learn How” section that gives step by step instructions.
Here is where you get everything on Local Awareness Ads. Learn how to:
Facebook Basics is a quick and simple overview of using Facebook for Business. If you have some experience with online advertising, you’ll be able to use this page to be up and running in no time with your Facebook page and ads. Here you’ll find short write-ups and quick links to:
The Facebook Ads Guide is a comprehensive “What, Why, and How-To” on all things Facebook Ads. Click through for visual tutorials, recommendations, and tips on creating, optimizing and targeting your Facebook ad campaigns.
Objectives covered include:
Zach Anderson is the co-founder of Reputation Loop (helping small businesses grow by generating customer feedback and online reviews) who loves online marketing and golf.
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Customers are the heart of your business. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software helps you run your business better. To leverage your list of leads and connections you’ll need more than the contact list you’ve been saving on your smartphone, note apps, or (gasp!) an actual pen and paper notebook. Stop it! We are going to share with you the best free CRM software out there and show you how to pick the right free CRM software for your small business.
Successful small businesses make the most of every relationship. They also know how to save money and when to spend money on the tools that make their business grow. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software can seem expensive to a small business but a survey by Baseline found that the average ROI for CRM was $5.60 for every dollar spent. That’s a nice return, but do the math on spending zero dollars and you’ll want to check this “Best Free CRM Software” list.
CRM software is going to save you time by tracking and automating many of the tasks that need to be done to gain and retain customers, while working at increasing revenue and growing your small business. A good CRM software system is going to handle all your interactions with current customers, leads and prospects. It organizes, synchronizes, and automates sales, and marketing activities. Many CRM programs also handle customer support on an easy-to-use and integrated platform to simplify the management of your small business. If you don’t currently have a CRM system you’ll be amazed at how all that customer data previously scattered between five salesmen and the four corners of your office is now organized, in one interface where it can be used to analyze and grow your business.
There are dozens of CRM software options for your small business. Automating business processes is a lucrative industry and the big names running big businesses usually have a low-cost small business option. But they also have option and features you’d never use while spending, in some cases, over $100 a month to track and manage customer relationships. We can give you a list of the best free CRM software options for your business to increase sales and improve productivity, but which one is the right fit for your business?
Essentially, your CRM serves as a database that organizes all your customer information and interactions in one place, providing insight and tracking for improved sales and marketing functions. Since your CRM is a contact list on steroids it can also serve as contact manager for vendors and business partners. Use this checklist of CRM features to decide your business needs. Research the features (by clicking the links below) of the software listed on the Best Free CRM list find the one that fits your business needs.
[ ] Easy to learn and use.
[ ] Third-party integration.
[ ] Cloud-based and/or mobile access.
[ ] Order tracking and invoicing.
[ ] Lead generation.
[ ] Prospect nurturing.
[ ] Sales forecasting.
[ ] Sales rep performance tracking.
[ ] Email marketing.
[ ] Competitor tracking.
A small business that just needs to manage contacts and send invoices won’t benefit from a robust CRM that requires a lot of data to run simple functions. Those looking to leverage the technology that automates the business functions that drive growth and revenue can find free CRM software that delivers professional results at no cost.
What does it take to make the Best Free CRM Software for Small Business list? Besides being absolutely free (no free trial teasers or credit card numbers required here!) and loved by customers and reviewers, we’ve narrowed down the list to intuitive and flexible systems with powerful tools and useful reporting that make it easy to manage contacts, segment clients and automate tasks.
(In alphabetical order – no affiliate links)
“Use Capsule to keep track of the people and companies you do business with, communications with them, opportunities in the pipeline, and what needs to be done when.” – Capsule
“FREE UP TO 100 USERS AND 100,000 CONTACTS. Our Free edition is limited to 100 users, 100,000 contacts and no campaigns, no technical support and expires in 1 year.” – CRMPro
“CRM and Project Management. Easy. Powerful. Affordable. Manage leads, contacts, organizations, partners, vendors and suppliers. See everything from background, email history, events, projects or opportunities.” – Insightly
“Less paperwork, more business. Simplify your daily agenda, keep track of everything that’s going on, and boost up your business with one of the most easy-to-use CRM solution.” – Raynet
Really Simple Systems Features
“Everything you need to manage your customers, prospects and sales – completely free! Our CRM software has been designed with small and medium sized businesses in mind. It’s easy to set up and simple to use.” – Really Simple Systems
“We’re changing CRM for the better – less cost, more dynamic and flexible features, faster deployments with no vendor lock-in. SuiteCRM over delivers on functionality when compared to Salesforce, SAP, Siebel, SugarCRM and Microsoft. It’s customizable to suit any business size or requirement and more importantly, it’s FREE and Open Source.” – Suite CRM
Zoho CRM Features (scroll down on pricing page for “Free Edition”)
“Close more deals in less time. Zoho CRM gives you a 360-degree view of your complete sales cycle and pipeline. Identify trends, spot opportunities, increase efficiency, and reduce costs with the right answers, right now.” – Zoho CRM
“Zurmo is an Open Source Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application that is mobile, social, and gamified. We use a test-driven methodology for building every part of the application. This means you can create and maintain a custom-built CRM system or platform with the assurance that future updates are not going to break your installation.” – Zurmo
Zach Anderson is the co-founder of Reputation Loop (helping small businesses grow by generating customer feedback and online reviews) who loves online marketing and golf.
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They are not a ton of “dumb luck” successful small businesses out there stealing your customers and eating up your market share. High performing businesses have developed small business marketing plans and deployed digital marketing strategies that increase sales, grow market share and build brand awareness. (Yes, even the smallest mom-and-pop or basement startup has a brand.) To survive your marketing has to be efficient, but to grow your digital marketing has to be masterful.
Are you struggling to grow your business in a crowded market?
Are you looking for a better return on investment for your online marketing dollars?
Are you utilizing the most cost effective digital marketing channels?
The importance of good search engine optimization has been repeatedly drilled into your brain. You are profoundly aware of what a game-changer it would be if your business showed up number one in search results. As part of our small business marketing plan you’ll want to publish quality optimized content (website pages, blog posts, videos, images, etc.) that cater to the latest search engine algorithms and you’ll rank high in organic search results.
Done right, effective SEO is cheaper and longer lasting than paid advertising. That is why SEO deserves all the attention it gets. However, when it comes to lead generation and website traffic, it shouldn’t be your only focus. Planned with ROI in mind, online advertising such as PPC (pay per click) and retargeted ads work well to get your business in front of consumers who are interested in what you are selling. It’s important to remember that paid advertising isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it strategy. If you are new to paid advertisement online, start with a small budget and remember you must monitor and analyze the data from your paid marketing campaigns and then make metrics-based improvements to get the best return on investment.
When looking for the highest return on investment with your small business marketing, reputation marketing is a clear winner. Your online reputation is largely made up of SEO friendly and keyword rich content that is continually refreshed in the form of customer reviews. Because good reviews have to be earned and can’t be bought, reputation marketing is one of the most cost-effective and influential marketing strategies you can employ. Review monitoring is essential, and marketing those reviews to attract new business is easy which makes reputation marketing such an effective tactic.
Consumers have become very internet-savvy with the research phase of their customer journey. They know what websites will give them reviews and ratings they trust to make their buying decisions. “Trust” being the most important word in this entire section. Consumers trust reviews on reputable sites like Yelp, Google, and Angie’s List. That is why it is crucial that you build a positive online reputation with stellar customer reviews and market that glowing reputation on your website and the sites your customers turn to when they need to pick the best provider for the product or service they are going to purchase today.
Some businesses don’t try to collect reviews for fear of getting a negative review posted online. If you don’t create a profile on Yelp then no one can leave a review good or bad, right? Wrong! Customers are online talking about their shopping and buying experiences, and you want to monitor, if not control, any part of those conversations you can. Did you know that some review sites allow people to create a profile for a business that hasn’t claimed a profile? As you can imagine, that level of investment just to leave a review is more likely to come from a very dissatisfied customer. Claim and optimize your business profile on the review sites and directories that matter most to your business and respond professionally to any negative reviews you do receive with future review readers in mind.
Most business owners and managers don’t think to include business listings management in ther small business marketing plans. Your business’ listings in online directories make your business visible to both search engines and customers who are looking. The more listings you create; the better chance you have of customers finding you.
Your business listings and citations are important to search engines like Google, so they should be extremely important to you. These are factors in the ranking algorithms used to create search engine results and a business with more citations will (if all other factors are equal) rank higher than a business with fewer citations and listings.
Knowing the importance of local search results to your business, managing your business listings is not something you want left undone or haphazardly maintained. Ranking high in local search results is highly dependent on search engines being able to confirm your correct contact information and properly categorize your business.
You can easily automate your business listing management, saving time and ensuring your business is listed and managed accurately in the online directories that secure your online presence. Managing all these critical business listings on your own can be time-consuming, so if you choose to go it alone start with the most impactful listing and claim, verify, and optimize your Google My Business profile. Google pulls from these profiles for search results that include customer review star ratings and search users trust these search results pages.
Zach Anderson is the co-founder of Reputation Loop (helping small businesses grow by generating customer feedback and online reviews) who loves online marketing and golf.
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