Location based marketing just got easier. Joanne Westwood of Westwood Virtual Associates, LLC has announced a new service, helping local brick and mortar businesses attract more traffic by using location based marketing tools online. The newest social media trend is using Yelp, Google Places, Foursquare and Gowalla to engage customers and encourage them to help promote businesses. Now small local businesses can leverage the web to draw more customers to their locations, thus the term location based marketing, business owners can focus on their skills and business while WestwoodVA professionally creates your presence online, gets business up and running with a roadmap on how to keep the momentum going. Westwood VA is located in Ohio but is positioned to help businesses nationwide. WestwoodVA has immediate openings in the work schedule to begin a new campaign for any local business. “I love helping small business leverage the same tools that the big corporations have been using. Our country was built by the work and services of small businesses, and these economic times have increased the need for economic marketing options and small businesses can now take great advantage of this huge opportunity.” 

Call Joanne today 51-317-3049.  WestwoodVA.com will create new location based marketing account, coach you on best practices to engage customers and provide you with in-store signage to announce the online marketing campaign. 

Customers of WestwoodVA have said:

“As a small business owner, it's difficult to do everything so having a resource like Joanne Westwood is essential. She was able to assist me in growing my business with consulting to improve and grow my Facebook business community as well as offering assistance with my affiliate management, eNewsletter strategy and social media marketing efforts. She is knowledgeable, helpful, innovative and someone I trust to recommend to others. Thanks Joanne for helping grow Girlfriendology.com!”  Debba Haupert

“I'm excited to see that Joanne has now started her own business. Her knowledge of new media technologies, and her passion to see people (and businesses) achieve their potential, make her a great asset to any business. Add to that a great personality, and willingness to listen, and she is an absolute joy to work with.” Vickie Sceifers

“Joanne is a rare gem. She is not only extremely efficient and highly knowledgeable but also pure positive energy. She has been a joy to work with. Given any project, Joanne proceeds with speed, accuracy, and a drive for excellence. I look forward to using Joanne's service again and again in the years to come. She is like a secret weapon against stalls and slow downs. I highly recommend her services.” Michele Parrish

To get started immediately, call Joanne. It’s time to realize the American dream, using location based marketing to attract and retain customers in an engaging process. Learn more now.

If you have a website or blog and you are not monitoring your
traffic, how do you know what, or if, what you are doing is working? It is critical for you to be aware of where your traffic comes from, what keywords are used in searches to find your site and what your visitor views when on your site.
Google Analytics is a free service and is one of the best.
Whether you are a pro and want deep statistics or an amateur and just need the basics, Google Analytics is a must.

Here are some of the basis stats you will see.
Visits is the total number of visits to your site.
Absolute Unique  Visitor I the number of individual visitors to
your site. It does not count them if they come back 2-3 times in the month.
Pageviews is the total number of pages visited by your
visitors
Average Pageviews is the average number of pages visited by
your visitors.
Time on Site is pretty easy to figure out!
Bounce Rate is the percentage of visitors that leave fairly
quickly upon arrival. A high number is not great, you want to see that number
lower over time.
New visits refers to the percentage of visitors visiting for
the first time.
Let me know if I can help you setup Google Analytics on your site and I also monitor it for you on a monthly basis.

Are you offering visitors to your site a call to action?
What is a call to action? You've done all this work through SEO and advertising
to draw traffic to your website, now what? What is the visitor supposed to do
once they get there? Help them know what the next step is.

Sometimes you need a few steps. Don't jump the gun. You don't
ask people to buy from you before they get to know you. It is no different on
the web. That's what all this social media, blogging and eNewsletter process is
all about; building relationships.

The first time a visitor comes in perhaps you just want to capture
their email address so you can continue to provide information. Encourage the
visitor to sign up for the eNewsletter. That is a call to action. Perhaps you
have a document on the Top 10 Tips in your industry, ask them to sign up to
receive this free information. Maybe it is more appropriate to have them call
you. Whatever call to action you want, be clear. Decide the strategy you will
use and be very clear on your website what the next step is.

To receive notification of new blog articles, subscribe to
the feed by clicking on the RSS feed or RSS via email links at the top of the
right column.

I often ask clients if they received an inquiring call from a potential customer, would they not ask for name and contact information? Then why do we allow potential customers to visit our website without asking for contact information? It's imperative that you have a subscription box on your website giving prospects the option to continue to learn more about your services. You want to begin the process of developing a relationship.
There are so many sites, TV shows, and activities vying for your customers time that you need to have a way to touch base on a regular basis. A monthly--if not bi-monthly--e-newsletter is a nonintrusive way to provide tips and reminders of your services.
Another reason to use an email service instead of standard email is that emails with too many email addresses can be captured in spam filters and your customers won't receive them. E-mail services do not have that issue.
There are many services available these days. I like the ones with great autoresponder services. When your website visitor signs up to receive your newsletter, they will immediately receive a welcome letter from you explaining what they can expect from your e-newsletter and how often you plan to send it.
Autoresponders can also be used to provide a series of articles. Suppose I did a series of short messages that you receive each day for 5 days. If I sent you one thing to do a day, do you think you would take the time to do it if you knew it would improve your business? You bet you would.  You might be overwhelmed if I had sent you all 5 steps at one time. But you could take a moment once a day to digest one short message and the one tip for the day.
Open an email service account today and begin to communicate in a professional manner with your customers and prospects.

If you are only accepting invites to connect in LinkedIn, you are missing a tremendous opportunity to develop your reputation as an expert in your field. With just a few minutes a day or a week, you can respond to discussions on LinkedIn, establishing your credibility and authority within your field. Over time, this will establish you as the go-to person.
You should be joining groups where your potential customers hang out. They are seeking information from their peers and you can provide direction and information. There are also general Q&A areas where other LinkedIn contacts are asking questions. Check out the subcategories that match your industry area and offer assistance. Again, you will be establishing yourself as the go-to person.
Many people think this is a lot of time to commit. But I recommend you set a time and dive in for 15-20 minutes. When the timer goes off, get back to other projects. Just that amount of time once a week will make a big difference.