Local Online Advertising for Dummies product reviews

I don't consider myself a 'dummy' internet marketer, which is why I was a little cautious about letting anyone see me read this book on my recent plane trip. I'm not sure the 'dummies' part is accurate - there is information in here that every website owner needs to know, and luckily for us marketing folk, most don't.

I was definitely a little surprised at how much of this thing called internet marketing that Local Online Advertising for dummies actually covers. Local online advertising isn't just limited to getting a good Google listing when your town name is part of the search query, it's more about leveraging all the various tools to create loyalty with the people who are most likely to buy from you.

The tone of this book is aimed squarely at website owners - offering a solid summary of what needs to be done in order to get a website started with organic SEO, Adwords, email marketing, Facebook / MySpace / Twitter, and the various map-based variations of the search engines. The "local" influence puts a stress on choosing keywords and content that will appeal to a local audience, and preparing your site and content for the next generation of devices which are designed to search locally (GPS driven phones, that kind of thing). The content is presented in an actionable format, and doesn't overwhelm with too much detail.

When I say the content is "actionable", I mean that there is something to start working on in every chapter. Need to know about email marketing? The book explains why it's important, then explains the legalities such as a requirement for an unsubscribe link, explains what makes for a good subject and interesting content, then points you at some hosted newsletter software providers. There isn't a great deal more that you would need to get the first newsletter out the door, though of course there is a lot more to be learned once you get started. If you need to know about organic SEO (my personal area of expertise), the book gives you enough information to get the basics right on your site before calling in the experts - which means the experts can spend their time on the complex stuff instead.

It's been my belief for some time that the website owner needs to be responsible for their own marketing - and that it can't easily be farmed out to a consultant (although individual parts of it can). I think this book gives a good overview of what is needed and enough information to put in place the various campaigns. It emphasises that online marketing is all about leveraging a number of different approaches rather than focusing squarely on SEO or adwords, and I completely agree with this logic.

I'll definitely be recommending this book to clients, if not supplying them with a copy directly.