Directory Marketing

MarketBlazer Learning Center | Online Marketing

Directory Marketing provides business listing benefits all over the Internet. Directory Marketing is a poorly understood concept that has major implications for your business’s success, if you use it correctly. Moreover, it is almost a form of passive income (or at least passive leads), because once you’re listed in those directories, you often have to do very little to maintain them … and many of them are also free.

While getting started with directory marketing might feel overwhelming due to the huge number from which to choose, it is actually pretty simple concept based on familiar analogue technology. Once you get over the hump, you can add another useful marketing tool to your collection.

What Is a Directory?

Imagine a phone book. Now put it online. Boom: You’ve got yourself a directory. An online directory is simply a new take on an old concept, listing local businesses in a central location so consumers searching for a particular product or service can find choices easily. The benefit of being listed in a directory is that you can find prospects who would rather head straight to a trusted source than perform a search online; on the flip side, if you aren’t listed in that directory, you immediately miss out on those prospects, because they will most likely choose someone from the directory they search.

Which Directories Do I Need to List My Business On?

This depends on your business type, business model, personal preferences and what you think will be most useful. It also depends on whether or not your advertising budget allows you to pay. If it does, directories such as the Yellow Pages (which also offers a free listing) can considerably impact your local presence. However, if you can’t afford to pay for listings, there are still plenty of directories you can sign up with to increase your visibility. These include Google My Business (link to other MB page?), Yelp and Foursquare, as well as other search engines such as Yahoo! and Bing.

What Information Should I Include?

At its most basic level, the point of a directory is to provide customers with contact information: your business name, address, phone number and perhaps some email or social media information. However, remember in the old days how the Yellow Pages included short listings for all businesses, but at the sides there were big banner ads with pictures, slogans and short blurbs? Think of a directory as your chance to explain more about your business, and wherever possible, include as much information as you can.

Is It Really Necessary?

Remember up top when we pointed out that failing to list your business in directories means a guaranteed miss of customers who head straight to them? Sure, many customers will still perform searches and you may get enough traffic that way. Word-of-mouth marketing may also help you bring customers through the door. However, listing your business in as many different locations as possible buffers you against one of your other marketing endeavors falling short at some point, adds to the number of places potential prospects can find you, and enables people to whom you’ve been recommended to check up on you before committing.