LocalHabit is the first nationally branded product dedicated to supporting local media. We are in the process of creating our Publisher’s Toolkit and rolling out bits and pieces of it to our growing list of publishing partners. Although we are still in beta with the majority with both or web and mobile platforms, the tools we will unveil have been vetted and tested both strategically and tactically.

Our toolkit will include access to both resources and applications that will help turn each of our publishing partners back into the Market Leader. I firmly believe that the content creation machine is now a commodity with many powerful companies vying to own that business including some of our media partners. Our goal it to help make that a non-issue and help local media survive without the need to be an expensive content machine.

That process starts with building strong relationships in the local marketplace and turning the local business into your best marketing machine. We believe that process starts with teaching the business about online presence and managing their reputation and then providing them the tools necessary to create foot traffic and market to customers based on habits and behaviors. Let’s face it, we are all “Creatures of Habit” and our habit trails are created daily.

Understanding this habit trail for a growing list of consumers is both the responsibility of the local media company and the local business owner. The Publisher’s Toolkit will arm both with the tools to do so. The tools will include:

• Social Publishing, Reporting and Management
• Search Engine Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Local Search
• Reputation Management
• Email Marketing
• Group Buying
• Nationally Branded Mobile Strategy- Iphone, Android, Windows 7 & SMS
• Loyalty Programs including The Human Coupon™ and the rest of the Loyaltee™ line

If you would like to learn more about the Publisher’s Toolkit, please contact us using our handy contact form and we will get back to you right away.

According to a survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, only 20 percent of American adults reported using digital tools to communicate with their neighbors or stay informed about community issues at least once in the past year. Only one in 10 reported reading a community blog at least once in the past year.

There are a lot of traditional media companies riding the “hyper-local” news PR trail these days. They are rolling out new ways to get more content from their neighborhoods so they can try and remain relevant to users or get more local for advertisers. The problem with this strategy for most of these media companies is it is “Like Lipstick on a Pig”.

That probably sounds pretty harsh and it needs to be that harsh. What I mean is- If you are putting your content strategy in front of your revenue strategy you are doomed to fail. So, ride the PR trail now and get lots of good press about being innovative and trying new things but remember, if your revenue strategy is to sell more ads around that content to local advertisers, you are doomed to failure.

In today’s media world, your revenue strategy needs to be determined first. I would dare say that the leadership team of these organizations needs to be heavily comprised of top revenue people from inside and outside the industry. Your revenue strategy should not be based ONLY around the number of ad impressions you can sell to local businesses. As a matter of fact, that should be the last line item on your list. You need brand new revenue streams that don’t count on people reading content-

• Think Mobile First- Your website traffic is about to take a hit like it never has before. Between the Iphone, Android and the soon to be released Windows 7 OS, more consumers are going to have mobile devices in their hands than ever before.
• Reputation Management- If you can manage the SMB’s reputation and become their trusted adviser, you will open the door to other opportunities and have less barriers to run through.
• Social Marketing- Help your customers build and manage their brand across their developing social graph by becoming their social PR agency, creating content and teaching them how to respond in this new communicative world.
• Email Marketing- Use the consumer lists created through social marketing combined with the existing lists they already have to communicate and target deals and offers.
• Total Market Sales- Become the Agency of Record for the SMB. Stop selling your products as the solution when you know before walking in, it is a shot in the dark. Be bold, and sell your competitors too.
• Daily Deals- Use those consumer lists to begin a foray into the Daily Deals world. This is a space that is at its infant stages and has online users chasing it.  If you do this make sure you create apps for the social networks and even the local business site.

Knowing the location, habits and behaviors of your consumers is the key to success. Neighborhood content sounds necessary but being able to target information to those consumers that they desire at or near the time they are highly likely to make a purchase is much more important. Foursquare, GoWalla, Shopkick and others are out stealing advertising dollars.

According to American Journal Review these location-based players may be the biggest threat to the hyper-local news initiatives.

I’m not saying, Neighborhood News is a bad model to consider but if you are to consider it, make sure you start by building relationships with the local business owner first and let them push their trusted consumers to you.

Competing at the neighborhood level against deep pockets like AOL and Yahoo will take a better strategy than trying to engage the community to write blog posts.

As we move toward launching some of our early publisher partners, I wanted to share some personal experience in selling reputation management directly to an SMB. I’ve done it over the phone, cold calling in person and with businesses I have long standing relationships with. The outcome was pretty similar.

The Process

In every case, the best practice is to first get the initial findings from the report in the hands of the business owner. Every RepShield partner has the ability to create prospect reports and should do so regularly.

1. We always represent ourselves as an agency focused on the growth of local business and transferring online research to offline sales.
2. We briefly discuss the research we are doing on local presence and reputation, explaining how there are hundreds of sites on the web and data is naturally dirty on the web due to the number of processes going on and the number of people touching data. (Not too detailed but enough to gain understanding)
3. We share the report and their Presence Score we pulled about them explaining the key elements and why it matters. Of course, they gravitate toward the ratings area but we focus them in on some of the key sites their business is listed on and the accuracy of that content- wrong phone numbers, wrong addresses, no products or services listed, etc.
4. At this point, the normal response is that they wouldn’t know how to start managing that process which leads to the offer.
5. The offer is 100% managed process, reputation monitoring, monthly reports, real-time notifications and a view of their competitors for $1500 or $200/ month with a minimum 12 month agreement. (Over the phone the close tends to be annually reporting and notification for $360 or $40/ month and a follow-up in person meeting)

The Followup

After the close, we layout the follow-up process with the customer.

1. We will begin updating 5 sites per month immediately using the information we gathered from you. We let them know this will be their master file.
2. Notifications will also begin immediately and they will get notifications when reviews are written about them, if they are mentioned in an article or content changes occur.
3. Monthly reports will be delivered to the email address provided beginning 30 days from now. The report will basically summarize the notifications for the month and give you our next steps.
4. Our next visit will take place in 90 days when we will review your progress and discuss additional options.

The Additional Options

The follow up appointment tends to lead to a few different options for the customer-

• Custom Facebook and Twitter design
• Business blog creation and content management
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
• Email Marketing- We love Mailchimp!
• Advertising Spend Auditing- We see a lot of spending outside of traditional media.

Selling Reputation Management is really beginning a consultative relationship with the business owner. Becoming an adviser, at first, with the potential of becoming their Agency of Record.

Regarding becoming the Agency of Record, look for an announcement from Dream Local in the next few weeks about our winter development cycle. We call it RepShield-SocialCast and it will put our publishing partners in the driver’s seat of every business relationship they have.

Greg Sterling has an interesting post covering BIA/Kelsey’s recent survey of SMB ad spend. The main finding is that online ad spend is a great indicator of the services an SMB is likely to purchase, with a strong dividing line between the small and big spenders. As Greg notes, this is no big surprise, but it does indicate clearly that a different strategy is required to approach these two very different groups.

The group of SMBs that spends in excess of $25,000 per year in online advertising is likely to be very active and knowledgeable, with an engaged in-house team who understands the need for SEO and SEM and may actively be pursuing better solutions to known problems.

For emerging services such as reputation management, such firms are probably the low-hanging fruit, although they are also harder to impress.

The group that spends less than $25K per year spends a lot less: the average of all SMBs surveyed was just $2,092. Capturing these marketing dollars will be challenging, but the need to manage presence online is increasingly felt by these same SMBs. The leading services will be those that present affordable, easy-to-use solutions that offer real value.

Meeting this second challenge, of course, is the only way to bring reputation management to the broader marketplace.

Guest post by Dream Local Adviser, Damian Rollison who is Director of Research & Development for Moon Valley Software.

I may be in the minority on this but everyday I make a pit stop at my garbage can before I enter my house with the mail. I make that stop because I get at least two postcards or mailers from businesses that I am a customer of. A lot of times it is my car dealer alerting me about a new service appointment I might need or a special offer they have for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love special offers as long as they are relevant and timely.

My issue isn’t really with the offer although they do need to get better. My issue is with the delivery model.

These messages aren’t targeting me to become a new customer, they are 100% retention and loyalty programs geared to get me to shop there again. In each of these places I have given my email address and mobile number and in some of these places even my twitter and Facebook info. So, why are they still spending the money to print a postcard and pay postage to let me know my tires need to be rotated or my dog needs to be shaved? I don’t know!

The cost of postage continues to rise. The government is very close to reducing the number of days mail is delivered– I’d be happy with just Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Everyone owns a mobile device of some sort with a very high percentage moving to Iphone, Blackberry, and Droid. I can’t imagine there is a high percentage of people without email addresses.

So, where is the disruption to this space? Possibly Twitter, Foursquare or Facebook? Maybe! Can local media get involved in this area and make the electronic delivery of loyalty programs more prominent? Or better yet, there should be an “app for that.”

I read stats all the time that tell me how many people call the phone number on the mailer but I never hear stats comparing them to electronic delivery.

Besides things that are mandated to be mailed like government and school information, these are the only things I get in my mailbox. Why?

The RepSquad combined with top industry consultants and local experts will begin offering publishers a different approach to managing their SEM strategy. Unlike others providing SEM services to publishers we will not be assessing management and placement fees. Instead, we will work directly with the publisher and local business to set goals for actions like clicks and transactions and set a budget to reach those goals.

The RepSquad will become Google Certified as they begin the RepShield process and will be able to combine the tasks needed for reputation management with the SEM work, which provides us the ability to scale rapidly, efficiently and profitably.

When we reach those goals with money left on the account, the publisher and Dream Local will split the remaining money. This will allow more transparency and keep us goal oriented instead of a business run on management fees alone.

Because Dream Local is focused on the SMB in our local markets with an average SEM monthly spend of under $500. We know the roads aren’t going to be paved with gold but this is a service that is necessary for the success of every local SMB and we believe the expertise of the RepSquad and the local knowledge they will gain from working with publishers and bringing on local experts will be beneficial in developing successful local campaigns.

Along with this, we are researching a relationship with Trada to provide additional expertise and supplement our process. The crowd source model that Trada has created is compelling but needs to be vetted to see how it will scale locally. Our goal is to give our local experts additional exposure through the Trada network.

Initially, we will support Google, Yahoo and Bing with a goal of bringing Facebook into the mix in 2011. Along with the SEM play, we are establishing our HabitFormer™ algorithm to deploy our HabitAds™ network and will be adding publishing partners to deliver those ads to as well.

Dream Local is in semi-stealth development of a neighborhood platform that will both interact with existing local product and add a little twist. Once the ball begins rolling and we open all the doors for people to come in, our unique mixture of databases mixed with our patent-pending HabitFormer™ algorithm and reputation management offering will produce some of the most compelling neighborhood based shopping information.

We are taking off the wrappers on phase 1 in October and will continue to enhance the product after that. The enhancements will include combining our custom development with the following API to create a virtual window into your neighborhood:

• Foursquare
• GoWalla
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Blippy
• TheDealMap
• Savings.com
• Groupon
• and a few others TBD

On top of those API, we are going to accept feeds of relevant data from our local publishing partners and some of their data providers to complete the circle. We will also have several unique loyalty programs in play that will act as both a promotion for the local business and the network itself.

Some of the key information we gather and tools to gather it will be packaged into widgets that will be shared with the local publisher to use on their site and with the local business owner to use on their site as well.

Once the full implementation is complete, we are going to be able to answer the question, “Are you a local habit?” for every local business and product that does business in the neighborhood.

So, Are you a local habit?

We are speaking to a lot of local media companies and getting a lot of the same questions, so I would like to use this post to get some of them answered.

What is RepShield?

RepShield is a mixture of Social CRM and ORM offering that  helps advertisers to understand their presence and reputation wherever their business may be found or mentioned on the Web. The product monitors all data and mentions on the Internet for a particular business, and provides that information in an easily digestible report with recommended action items. Dream Local handles those action items behind the scenes and advertisers get to see how those steps are helping them to be found and patronized by customers.

What is the RepSquad?

The RepSquad is the sales, marketing and client services team behind RepShield. They are the team that-

• fields questions from your sales team and local business owners,
• manages and edits business content on the web,
• trains and develops your sales team to become local business consultants,
• generates new revenue from non-traditional business categories

How long  does it take to get set-up?

Set-up of your private label takes only a few hours. After we receive three things our team will produce your private label that same day. Those (3) things are:

• A 1000 x 90 header.
• An email address to use for reports and notifications.
• Your URL pointed to our IP address

How long will it take to get my sales team ready?

Although the technology behind RepShield is pretty complicated, the sales process is actually very simple. Your top sales reps and managers will be ready to close business the same day we train them and every sales rep on your team will be able to discuss and sell the product to customers within two training sessions.

Is it expensive?

No, not at all! There is no set-up fee unless you need us to create the header for you. The monthly fee is minimum and can be waived by following our sales process. The revenue share ranges based on your volume. There are other costs if you decide to use the RepSquad for sales and lead generation. Contact us for details.

Who is the typical customer?

Any business with a door, phone #, or reputation to monitor.

My team is swamped, how will fulfillment happen?

Your team is not responsible for fulfillment or management of the product. As a matter of fact, while we are working with you we may find other products to fulfill for you such as your local directory product.

Does this replace my current local directory?

Although local directory sales are nearly impossible these days with the amount of competition, we in no way will ask or even hint you get rid of your local directory product. We will work to bring your directory product into our system and have the RepSquad manage fulfillment and even sales of it for you. We call that the Universal Profile.

What is the sales process?

We like to keep things very simple. Here are the (3) steps we find very successful-

1. Get every business on your active list an annual subscription to the RepShield Report. This is the best marketing tool we have and will definitely lead to your phone ringing.
2. Promote a local reputation training class. Since your advertisers already have a report, they will want to come to get answers and your team will sell them an advanced package.
3. Set an Appointment & Follow-up. Since every advertiser on your list is assigned a representative, they should follow-up immediately. The advertisers with reports in their hands will have questions that need to be answered. Use telemarketing to target non-traditional categories. Dream Local will either provide scripting to help you or our RepSquad to sell for you.

If you are interested in learning more about this unique offering use our handy form to contact us or simply email info@dreamlocal.com.

Online reputation management (ORM) has become a necessity for small companies, mid-sized businesses, large corporations, and educational organizations alike. No matter how big or small the enterprise, no matter the service or product, the ease with which consumers can generate web content makes everyone vulnerable to a brand attack. ORM involves not only recovery of your brand position after on online reputation fiasco, but also comprehensive, preemptive measures for the prevention of crippling brand attacks.

The point of ORM is to be consistently dedicated to the protection and promotion of your brand, and to be persistent in the rooting out of negative consumer commentary. Not only will you be protecting your business or organization; you’ll
be involving your enterprise in the everyday lives of your target audience. It serves to build gaps where bridges are missing, and can lead to new, more effective approaches in your sales, public relations, and product promotions tactics.

If you are interested in finding out more about Dream Local’s ORM solutions please feel free to use our handy contact form or simply email us @ info@dreamlocal.com.

I’ve been reading a lot about Web 101 training being performed for both newspaper sales people and local businesses. It should be a simple program:

1. Profile your customers.
2. Target people like them.
3. Listen and socialize.
4. Advertise where they are.
5. Keep ideas and offers fresh.

Keep repeating this and everyone will be just fine!

Oh, I forgot! The sales model for the publisher is:

1. Know your strengths and weaknesses.
2. Understand your competition better than your own product.
3. Listen and socialize.
4. Understand the business you want to advertise and figure out the best plan for them (even if it includes your competitor)
5. Become the “Agency of Record”
6. Report, refresh and move forward

We don’t have to train every business on every product available. They are already busy enough. Sell yourself as the expert and help them let you lead the way!