Caro Interview about OHM and local marketing
May 29th, 2010 | By Michael | Category: SEOI want to send a warm thank you out to Caro McCourtie from OHM and 30dc.
I also want to send a thank you to her partner who helped set up the camera equipment and helped produce the OHM method.
If you want to learn more about the Offline Hero’s Method please go check it out here:
OFFLINE HERO’S METHOD
The OHM course teaches you how to attract business clients and teaches you how to help them build an online presence. I used many of the same tactics taught int he OHM course and I was easily able to bring in a very nice income. I think Caro and her partner really hit this course on the head when they laid it all out!
Some of my favorite quotes from Caro’s speech was:
“If you have any level of IM experience currently, you ALREADY know more than they do!
Remember to ask the client questions, not make statements, as the power is with the person who asks the questions (as you become the informed one).
You are NOT selling services; you are providing VALUE, this is a HUGE shift in thinking and how you approach your prospective Client – it’s about helping them get more customers, not demonstrating all you can do for them. ”
Here are some very solid tips everyone who owns a local business should be utilizing.
1) Register your business in Google Places.
a) When you register your business in Google Places be sure to fill out your profile as throughly as possible. Connect as many pictures as possible, video, etc. Also be sure to use your keywords in descriptions and for the IMG ALT tags on the photos.
b) Get as many reviews to your Google Places listing as possible. Offer new customers a discount in exchange for a review or contact some old clients that you have a good relationship with and ask for a review.
The more complete your profile is and the more positive reviews you have the better your listing will preform.
2) Build local back links!
a) Goto Google and type in (Your State) (your niche) blogs. Then start doing blog commenting on all the blogs in your niche for the state. After you do many of these narrow your search even down to seeking blogs in your city or adjacent cities.
b) Start finding all the directory type sites in your niche and create profiles and drive a few reviews. (A good example would be to get a profile up on Yelp if you are a restaurant.)
3) Try migrating your website to a server that is closer.
a) I talked about this in one of my news videos. In our testing we saw a small difference on rankings depending on where your server is located. Chances are your server is States away or possibly even in a different country. Locate where your server is actually at and move your website to a more local server.
4) Put these three steps above into action.
a) From my experience, finding good information to learn is not the problem. I could go on listing more tips, but the problem I see is people don’t put what they learned into action! I want you to take these three steps and really work hard on these. Build local back links and fill out a Google Places account. Even if you already have a Google Places account I want you to go in and review it. Can you add more pictures? Can you drive more reviews?
5) For USA readers…try filling out an Angie’s List profile.
Check out Caro’s own video now!
CARO’S VIDEO
Michael R Roberts
Great interview. Lots of fantastic tips. I believe off-line methods work. I have gotten a few clients already. Unfortunately many off-line busiesses do not realize the benefits to using the Internet.
I look forward to the next 30 DC.
thanks, Michael.
Albert Grande
pizzatherapy.com
All good advise Micheal.
A fun story – I did this for a client in the USA, by targeting three cities for their industry, where by I had them find a local address in the centre of each city and we optimised the listing in Google places for each city – the result, they were positioned under Google Inc, in the the Google place directory for their industry (Google’s head office) … I took a screen shot of that one :)
I am from New Zealand and recently I helped one of the countries main web marketing companies roll out a solution for local businesses ( I created the sales and marketing program, with hundreds of sales now). We also offered the service of optimising the Google Places listing which I specialised in.
Helping local business is great, because most of them don’t know how to use Google Places effectively. The hardest thing to work around is getting face to face with them so you can provide the education and then the service – most are too busy in the business and think you are trying to sell them old push marketing.
Thanks Mike. I think Caro is a fantastic teacher and although I have not met her yet, I am certain that her new product will be great. It is great to know that there are real people making selling good products.
I agree, brick and mortar businesses need to know how to use the Internet, now more than ever…
whether they sell product on the Internet or not, it’s the best way to be found these days and can impact their bottom line so much!
Thanks good stuff except: I don’t like how you leave us hanging there: ” I could go on listing more tips but…” this was GREAT STUFF but don’t hold out we can handle it, even if we don’t use it we will appreciate reading it but don’t leave us hanging there. I mean if you DON’T want to share don’t mention the fact that you could share more but you won’t.
But thanks for what you did share.
Russ
Hi Michael,
Awesome video and content. Thank you for sharing it with us!
I agree that most businesses have no clue what to do when it comes to Internet Marketing.
This is a little off topic but I was wondering if you could tell me who you had do your video intro with the Michael Roberts and the music.
I would be very interested in having something like this made for me so that i could use it for the begining and end of my videos.
Thanks again and keep up the great work.
To Your Continued Success,
Karl
I like the tips. Here is a twist on the blog commenting you mentioned: Set up a google alert for blogs in your niche. Start broad and go narrow if you get too many to comment on. I get an email every day with 50 new blog posts, most of which have comments open. This puts you on the top of the comments and makes it more likely someone will read your comment and follow your link.
it seems everyone is pushing local SEO nowadays. I will be curious to see how much this costs relative to some others I have seen. I hope there is some sort of outsourcing service with it.
Bah too bad Caro’s course is closed already! Great interview non the less. Ken Envoy was pushing this offline thing years ago. I should have listened to him!
I believe she plans on opening it soon. She is testing it out on the smaller conference market and refining a few things before she opens it back up! The course she gave to me is awesome though! I don’t think there is much to improve on!
Great strategy, I would do this for all my business, can’t wait for 30 DC…
Thanks Michael, I noticed this message a couple of days ago in another email on phone up north but I was at a wedding reception and looked forward to seeing this interview with one of my favourite contributors to thirty day challenge last year Weeblies cool, you too buddy traffic bug is fun and your video’s are great. Good to see your having fun and well done Caro too. :)
Cool videos..Traffic bugs and 30 DC are really good combination :)
I did the 2009 30 Day Challenge and found Caro to be an excellent teacher (and Michael too of course!). I’m sure the product will be great and wish her the best of luck with it. Great video!
Nice work, Michael. Thanks for the value of the content you listed here :-)
Great Interview! I really like Caros ideas!
I’m sure the 2010 30DC will be amazing!
Wondering if you know the company that Caro and partners have that do Local Listing, SEO and Web Design. I would love to outsource to them. Then I can focus on my business.
I’m gonna buck the trend a little here. I love what you and Caro contributed to the 30DC. I love the fact that’s where I got my IM birthing. But (never start a sentence with the word but!) I think I and many others got into IM because we DONT want to have to deal with other people, face-to-face, seller-to-customer, in our working lives. Of course, I can see how that offline stuff will work wonders. You HAVE to interact with people if you are doing business, full stop. But at the same time, a lot of what I see as positive about the methods of IM that I am into, is the complete LACK of dealing with clients. It’s about making income without the day to day hassles of dealing with people who think you owe them more than you do.
OK – so you’ll tell me I’m leaving a lot of money on the table.
Well good! Let them have it. I suppose it’s horses for courses. I hope you succeed with your offline course Caro. Of course, I can see how this business model will absolutely rock it for some people and good luck to them. And hey, Michael, keep on putting out these cool interviews with the wiggy graphics.
Please don’t take this as a downputter. I just see so much hype around offline recently, and for some of us, that’s the last place we’re going.
Good luck
Wow, Beau, if you are looking to outsource that stuff you certainly hit the jackpot by landing here. Local listing and SEO will go hand in hand. To find a company that will pull of the website design will be the cherry on the cake.
Good Luck
Good interview, except the music intro and music a few seconds after the intro and the ending music just about drove me through the wall it is so loud. Caro has a soft sweet voice and one needs to crank up the volume to hear her and the music then just about blew out my walls. Respectfully suggest it be toned down a little. Just a comment to help.
Thanks
Great interview. Looking forward to seeing Caro’s Product as well. Great work!
The 30DC (especially this years 30 Minutes a Day Challenge) was great — Caro is a great teacher. I love helping local businesses reach more customers. Providing good content, combined with multiple ways for customers to find their company is a formula for success.
Nice interview Michael. Google Local is the way to go, it’s going to open up a lot of opportunities for us all. Caro’s pretty sweet too and she’s one helpful lady.
Hey Michael,
Great interview and nice job on the production! Who produced your intro?