Thanks for dropping by….

Just for the record, I do use MC for most of my clients but only after I have optimized their website.

But after you remove all of the bad marketing that MC does, what value in the end do they really add to the whole system?

They optimize on business trade names, service + locale and coupon + locale, generate lots of traffic so that they can marginally represent a business AND make adsense $ and get some recurring revenues from their SMBs (and they have done this with 17 people).

So they know how to optimize for the above? That is a short term benefit that will someday be lost at the flick of a Google virtual switch….I don’t see what long term value they really provide.

Mike

All they are really doing is they have figured out how to make

Okay, okay, I can hear someone ready to quote the famous Zen proverb “When two thieves meet no introduction is necessary.”

Be that as it may, we have numerous examples of “VERY” satisfied MC customers, some of whom would be willing to be ‘dissected’ by phone or email. These are not remote minority examples, but rather the MAJORITY of LSM clients whom we have initiated into MC

The point that we will iterate is that often we read these blogs critical of MC and we find that ‘even’ amongst the local search and seo experts that MC truly is misunderstood… like when Blumenthal says he “couldn’t find the ratings…” Ratings are NOT reviews on MC, they are something different.

We have realized MC’s potential and have made it a cornerstone of our broader LSM mosaic.

A world of metrics I find especially interesting is actual sales conversions. In the most driven marketing circles, I know marketers take the approach that you can sell anything with the right pitch. In my own experience, sales depend heavily on a good product. Being responsible for conversion rates for a poor product would not be a task I’d like to take on.

So, while, yes, marketers should have responsibility for the usefulness of their services, I would be hard put to determine what the degree of responsibility is, Mike.

Miriam

I agree with you, when multiple distributional channels are linked to the single tracking location ROI calculation gets fairly simple.

Complications arise when coupons are distributed across Internet eliminating single referral point. With today’s opportunities it makes sense to syndicate coupons on the other sites, use social sites/blogs to push business content through widgets/apps, take an advantage of mobile web and distribute coupons through sms/apps and etc. This distribution strategy is equally applicable to various business content such as: service offering, products, specials, events, job listings and etc. allowing businesses to actively or passively (track this!) build local brands online.

Here is also a challenge. Coupons for Marketer and Coupons for Business Owner are two different animals. Marketer sees coupon as a tracking instrument, in disregard of the business specifics. On the other hand, business owners are very cautious about coupons because of multiple reasons that have to do with particular business nature, customer attraction, up-sale of services/products, loss of potential revenue and etc. That is why tracking ROI by coupons only would be very deceptive, especially if business owner is reluctant to cooperate by putting coupons on the site(s).

In regard to ROI, I don’t think it has to be such a challenge. It requires one of two things on the part of the advertiser, trust or attention.

Trust: “Hey Mr. Advertiser, let me install this code on your site and manage your local listings for you”
Attention: Mr. Advertiser says “How did you find us? Oh, online huh? Can you tell me on which site?”

I prefer the first because I get, as an old partner of mine would say, “the first count” (he was previously in gaming, no not D&D).

Much like direct mail, email is among marketing’s pariahs which when well executed can be super-effective.

That’s an interesting point.

I asked Chuck why he hadn’t reprised his email to the campaign as it had been so successful the first time and he said that he just hadn’t had time. It’s always fascinating to me how often in small business when there isn’t time to do something again that had garnered such positive results. Speaks to the active participation once again…

Mike

## In Chuck’s case the putting the coupon on his site would have worked IF he had optimized his site as well as MC…there is redemption after the email push, even now…

considering the curve of open rate for email campaigns and compulsive checking of known destinations for new content by small % of recurring customers (out of the initial email list), i would not be that surprised if coupon would work on Chuck’s site. He would’ve loose a customer or two, but I don’t think it can be measured in double digits.

Eugene