Responses and communication

Yesterday, Toby Henderson of Omega Garage Door Service in Anaheim CA gave permission to identify his business, referenced in yesterday's posting. He sent this note:

In terms of local online marketing, yes we are on top.... (not to be confused with Florida's Omega Garage Doors), we are Omega Garage Door Service)....

Secondly garage doors seem to parallel plumbing in terms of acquiring the sale however plumbing many times can have a higher ticket price as in re-piping homes....

In terms of search-ablity try typing in garage door repair orange county... (more localized metro)

Henderson appears to have it "right" regarding local search engine marketing optimization. (I should note that since I am not in Orange County, the localized functions within the search engines will not give the same priority if searching generally.)

In a separate email Toby (wisely) asked if I could link directly to his site, which I have.

Meanwhile, earlier in the day, I received this comment to the posting:

Online marketing is now the best way (not to mention the most cost effective) to reach your audience. Sadly, many business owners who come to me for help at (embedded URL removed) say they're online marketing is working but the reality is if you are not getting enough customers, it is not working. And 99.9% of the time that is because they do not have the knowledge or skills to develop a strategy and marketing plan. They are just throwing things out there willy-nilly.

For someone like your reader who emailed you, owning the local market is vital, and eliminating anything other than that is important. Don't waste efforts where they won't get customers.

I responded by private email to the commenter, saying that I appreciated the remarks but am reluctant to publish comments with embedded links.

The commenter responded to my email:

I can understand you not wanting people to spam your blog, but does it also stop your readers from getting worthy information that might help them? If you take a moment to look at my website you will see I strive to give away valuable tips they can use without engaging my services.

But it is your blog! I highly respect you run it as you see fit, so DO NOT take this as a complaint.

Thanks for the posting, hope it helps your reader.

In case you are wondering why I am happy to post the links for Omega but not the person who commented about the posting, it is because (a) Toby Henderson communicated with me offline with in important and valid question, and, (b), he is not marketing his garage door services directly on this blog (which unlikely has that many readers within his Orange County service area.)

I have a distaste for embedded links in comments when they are intended to seek self-promotional publicity. If you want to build a relationship with me, go ahead and comment. If you want a link, please communicate offline (or request a sponsored link -- see the little box at the bottom right of the sidebar for more information.)

Free links continue to be available for blogs and resources relating to construction marketing but these require individual review and sometimes a little time to assess. And I may provide some publicity to the person who commented, whose site/service may be useful to the blog's readers. Right now, however, I need to finish getting five regional construction publications to press (yes, the old print media!)