Lying is wrong. Business politicians master the art of manipulating and misrepresenting facts to elicited a desired response. They do this by making ambiguous assertions providing the necessary false impression with an accountability escape route.
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Local SEO marketing is a digital marketing method for small and local businesses to build an online presence that’ll expose them to potential clients and customers. This is so that smaller and independent businesses can gain custom and not be overshadowed by enterprises.
Like any digital marketing method, you need to find a strategy that works with your business model and overall business goals. What’s more, the ways in which we search shift at an outstanding rate, so it is crucial that you keep on top of the latest local SEO trends.
Cover the basics
Firstly, you need to cover the basics. Otherwise, your whole campaign can falter. You need to cover the title, and meta description tags as these HTML elements will describe your content and help it show up in the SERPs. Basically, it is a preview of your content.
When writing your title and meta descriptions, do not think longer is better. You want to avoid having your title and meta descriptions being cut off, so be sure to put your keywords sooner rather than later. However, be sure to make your content unique so that you do not suffer from a low click-through rate. When it comes to the title and meta descriptions, each and every character counts.
Tip: You’re a local business, so do not forget to mention your location. After all, this is the whole point of local SEO. Need help with finding such keywords? Experts like Trevor Tynes can help.
Claim your ‘Google My Business’
Google My Business (GMB) is incredibly important for local businesses, so be sure to claim yours and fill out all the required fields the signing up process asks for. You may have to set up a page on the GMB platform, or if you are already there, claim it and make sure the information is a) correct but also b) optimized.
Remember that there is a verification process, so be ready for this. Google will send you a physical postcard with a PIN on it, which you will then have to key in.
When optimizing your Google My Business, do not forget to do the following:
Write a solid and SEO optimized description of your business
Update your business’s operating hours
Make sure your business is listed in the right category
Include a logo and/or a photo of your business so that people can recognize it in person
Provide further quality photos of your business such as products and services you provide
Collect reviews from your customers
Reviews are gold dust when it comes to building a reliable and concrete brand. You want to be trusted but also seem real. For instance, while a negative or mediocre review may seem bad, too many 5-star reviews will make your business seem fake and unreliable.
It is believed that 88% of people trust online reviews, so be sure to spur on your customers to leave them. You can, for instance, offer a prize for your employees so that they win something if they get the most good reviews, or have the customer be entered in a raffle.
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Ever notice that some executives you interact with are instantly likeable, trustworthy and respected? Chances are they apply the following communication strategies in every conversation – eye contact, listening, enjoyment and benevolence.
It’s widely accepted that great communication skills are a key ingredient for business owners, executives and managers. How you communicate can make or break relationships, increase your team’s loyalty, set standards for your team and, strengthen your professional reputation. However, these fundamental skills are all too often overlooked.
Here are four strategies I suggest you use to earn trust in all your interactions.
Eye Contact
Essential for building rapport in meetings, interviews and panel discussions, sincere eye contact sends a message of trust. I do not advocate using eye contact to intimidate – which can happen. Narcissistic or intimidating eye contact sends a completely different message. A narcissistic gaze can be threatening and unnerving. If you want to build real rapport, I suggest a warm, sincere approach.
Listening
A crucial part of being a great communicator. Many clients of mine have realized they’ve gone about listening in a way that made them less effective communicators. Essentially in meetings if you are listening for your chance to interrupt or to add to the conversation or to impress you are exhibiting the opposite of leadership. Effective leaders listen to understand, not to interrupt.
Enjoy Your Conversations
I often advise clients to find joy in delivering their speeches. If you are enjoying yourself, chances are your audience will enjoy listening to you. The same is true for small meetings and 1:1 conversation. Take a moment to check in with your team member or colleague before jumping into work-related matters. This will make your colleague feel valued and appreciated.
Benevolence
Communicating with kindness is a valuable tool in almost any situation. If I have a client seeking a job or job promotion, I remind them that one of the most important goals for the interview is to have a pleasant conversation. The same is true for tense discussions, quarterly reviews and reprimands. In most conversations you cannot control how others will respond to your viewpoint. In an interview, you have no control as to whether or not they hire you, but you can control whether or not you are kind. This can make just as much of an impression as your accomplishments.
For more successful interactions, try these tools starting today and notice the shift in how others responded to you. Not only will you begin to earn more trust and respect, you will also help to create a more kind and effective work atmosphere.
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“I don’t know that there’s necessarily a correlation between leadership style and their email writing. I’ve never researched that specific connection.”
“Understood,” my CEO client responded. “Just review what my admin sends you and give me a one-page opinion on each of the four VPs. That’s all I ask.”
This conversation happened early in my career, and frankly, I feared that I might disappoint him in not being able to draw conclusions.
Within a few days, the CEO’s bundle of emails arrived, basically restating what he’d said on the phone. His executive assistant had collected emails from four of his VPs. Specifically, the emails were representative of those the four VPs had sent to 1) peers 2) their direct reports and 3) those higher-ups in the chain (the CEO himself or EVPs).
My mission: To describe their leadership style and general attitudes about their work as reflected in their emails. So I pushed through the pile of VP documents carefully labeled by his assistant.
After submitting my one-page opinions on each, the CEO phoned again. “You’ve pegged them exactly! … Now, I want you to meet with them one on one to debrief them. Tell them what’s apparent in their writing. Give them the details about what you found. See what they might want to change.”
The first three meetings went well. The VPs seemed quite shocked that their writing revealed so much about their personalities, attitudes, and leadership style. But basically, they agreed with my evaluations and the emails discussed as examples.
But the fourth meeting (scheduled last because I dreaded it) didn’t go so smoothly. As I suspected, the SVP reacted quite differently. Mac listened in almost total silence as I delivered my conclusions.
As tactfully as possible, I pointed out that his emails to the executive team sounded friendly, but vague and cavalier. On the other hand, emails to his staff sounded indifferent at best and harsh and dictatorial at worst.
His general response that day: “Not interested in making changes.”
A few months later, I learned that Mac was no longer with the organization. Although I don’t know all that contributed to his termination, I do know that his writing did not add to his credibility, influence, or results with clients, coworkers, or higher-ups.
4 Ways Your Leadership Style Is on Display in Your Email
What can you apply to your own situation?
Unwillingness to Share Reasoning
When Mac presented a recommendation to higher-ups, he supported it with data or at least his reasoning. Not so, with staff. With them, he simply announced his decisions and expected compliance.
An Attempt to Bluff
When answering questions from higher executives about projects, budgets, or problems, Mac often responded with sketchy details. The tone was, “All is well, just trust me, and don’t probe.” A reader easily got the feeling that Mac took offense if the boss asked about any skeletons in the closet.
No Requests for Input
Mac wrote to his staff almost entirely in directives. He requested no opinions or ideas from them. When he informed them of a decision and upcoming action, the tone was, “Make it happen and don’t bother me with questions.” The difference between Mac and a mafia boss? Mac dealt in mortgages. Mafia bosses deal in murder and other mayhem.
Lack of Personal Accountability
Even though I analyzed more than a hundred of Mac’s emails, none contained an “accountability” statement – not even close.
No statements of goals (specific goals would have set him up to explain any shortfall)
No acknowledgement or apology for a mistake or misunderstanding
No ownership for poor outcomes – his or those related to his team’s performance
No feedback or praise to his team or colleagues
Granted, Mac didn’t send his entire email stash for the CEO’s evaluation. But reason would suggest that he’d sent his best – a collection aptly reflecting his leadership style.
Just as Mac’s writing did, your email can alter the trajectory of your career. Leaders master strategies to improve what they say, how they say it, and what NOT to say in email. And in my three decades of experience, I’ve observed that clear communicators become leaders in every industry.
Find out what secrets your own emails reveal about your leadership.
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If you want to improve the success of your business, then first and foremost, you need to think of your customers. They are the ones that are going to make the difference between the business being a success or not. Because without any customers, there is no business. So what are the things that you can be doing to improve the relationships that you have with your customers? The answer is an obvious one, but it is often overlooked: improve customer service. No matter how great your team are, how good your business idea is and what you do or sell is, one of the things that customers are likely to remember is what the interaction with your business is like; both negative or positive, it will be remembered.
A strong company will want to have, and hopefully, already strive to have, great customer relationships. But a smart company will be looking for ways to improve and really getting down to the bottom of what good customer service is. It is all about listening carefully to your customers’ needs and wants. You need to make sure that you’re able to keep up, otherwise, they are likely to take their business elsewhere. So here are some ideas to help.
Strengthen Your Customer Service Skills
First, it is a good idea to make sure that your customer service team, if you have one, has the right skills for your managing the needs of your customers. They are what customers will have first contact with, so it needs to be a good experience, even if the outcome isn’t necessarily positive. customers’ needs. No amount of software or things like CRM can compensate for any shortcomings with your team’s customer service.
Improve Customer Service Strategy
You and your team may have the skills to provide some good customer service, and have no problems with customers interactions. But what strategies can you start to implement to please your customers even more? You don’t want customers to come to you with problems, if they can be dealt with ahead of time.
Getting personal with customers can be a good idea, as it can allow you to have another level of interaction, through sites like Twitter or Facebook. You can also look to improve how you do certain things, such as your logistics or supply chain. If you are noticing that there are things going wrong, then look to do something about them, such as looking into semi truck leasing or other ways to improve deliveries, before big issues come up and people then demand more from you. If you deal with things before they’re an issue, then it really does provide a good customer service experience.
All Customers to Provide Feedback
No matter how proactive you are in the things that you do, there will always be one issue or another that you never manage to get on top of. So to make sure that you learn about all sides of the experience that your customers have with your business, then it can help you to create a simple way for them to provide you with feedback.
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Lying is wrong. Business politicians master the art of manipulating and misrepresenting facts to elicited a desired response. They do this by making ambiguous assertions providing the necessary false impression with an accountability escape route.
Local SEO marketing is a digital marketing method for small and local businesses to build an online presence that’ll expose them to potential clients and customers. This is so that smaller and independent businesses can gain custom and not be overshadowed by enterprises.
Lisa Wentz, author of 
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