1. The New Listing Score Introducing...
Hi everyone! Welcome to the weekly product webinar. Taking place every Thursday at 3pm Eastern, this is our fourth installment. This week’s topic is The New Listing Score.

2. Blair Nordstrom Product Marketing Specialist
CONTACT
Blair Nordstrom Product Marketing Specialist
[intro]

3. Renee Elder Product Owner
CONTACT
Renee Elder Product Owner
Ext 133
[Blair intro’s Renee] [She says hi]

4. Who We Are
#1 platform for agencies and media companies to sell digital solutions to local businesses. We sell only through our channel partners and succeed only when you succeed.
We’ve created a number of products that you white-label and resell, whether it's reputation management, our listings products, social marketing and others. And we have a full platform that so many of you utilize, for sales prospecting and sales enablement, for marketing automation campaigns for sales management and our marketplace so that you can bring anything and everything to market, so that you can make more money off of digital solutions.
We have about 400,000 local businesses that access our platform more than 5,200 sales professionals from organizations like yours that are connected through our platform and more than 550 agency and media partners. That's Vendasta today.

5. Reputation Management
Our Offerings
Platform
Vendasta Products
Marketing Automation
Snapshot
Social Marketing
Reputation Management
Digital Agency
Partner Central
Listing Distribution
Brand Analytics
Listing Builder
Recently at Vendasta, we have separated our solutions into 2 areas. Our platform helps partners prospect and sell to current or potential customers, while our products are used by businesses to manage and build their online reputation, which we also refer to as a business’s virtual doorway. That being said, any of our partners can utilize our digital agency, no matter how they utilize or integrate our products and platform!
On the right side, you’ll see the solutions we’ve traditionally been known for. You see our branded product suite that many of you sell today and you also see our platform that so many of you utilize as the infrastructure for selling solutions to your customers
Marketplace
Sales & Success
Center

6. Product Insider lp.vendasta.com/product-insider
Also, if you want to keep up to date on all our upcoming features and new products, don’t forget to sign up to the Product Insider weekly newsletter. You’ll find the links to register on the side of all of our support articles, or you can go directly to

7. Are you subscribed to our blog?
Another great place to find valuable information is through our blog. So sign up for our blog for great tips and keeping up to date on leading industry knowledge.

8. Let’s get started
Thursday, July 21, 2016

9. What are listings?
Let’s start at the beginning with the basics. What are local business listings?

10. Business listings
Business listings are profiles that contain all of a business’ NAP+W info (name, address, phone number and website) on various business directories across the Internet.
Citations are web pages that reference one or more pieces of a business’ NAP+W info.
Business listings are profiles that contain a business’ name, address, phone number and website on business directories across the Internet.
Citations, on the other hand, are defined as web pages that reference one or more pieces of a business’ info — for example, just their phone number.

11. Why are they important?
Now that we’ve got the definition down, let’s talk about why listings are important.

12. Buying Decisions Are Made Online!
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
60%
75%
83%
83%
85%
40%
25%
17%
17%
15%
Most people know what they are going to buy before they even walk into the store. Know the sad thing? This 15% number is gonna go even lower. I can guarantee it. This shift is dramatically changing the buying cycles and buying habits of customers everywhere.
Before Entering a Store
In-Store

13. Zero Moment of Truth Interest Research Purchase Experience
Partner Advertising:
SEM, /Text Marketing, Display, Print Ads, Radio, TV, Loyalty programs, Deals.
Research
Search engines, online reviews, ratings, relevant articles, word of mouth. The business’s reputation is what consumers say it is.
Purchase
In-store experience: talked with salesperson in-store, read product brochure, tried sample product. The decision to purchase is made.
Experience
Post-purchase experience: Facebook post, tweet, write review, discuss with friends, blog, Consumer compares expectations and reality.
Take Google’s zero moment of truth.

14. Zero Moment of Truth
Interest
Partner Advertising:
SEM, /Text Marketing, Display, Print Ads, Radio, TV, Loyalty programs, Deals.
Research
Search engines, online reviews, ratings, relevant articles, word of mouth. The business’s reputation is what consumers say it is.
Research
Search engines, online reviews, ratings, relevant articles, word of mouth. The business’s reputation is what consumers say it is.
Purchase
In-store experience: talked with salesperson in-store, read product brochure, tried sample product. The decision to purchase is made.
Experience
Post-purchase experience: Facebook post, tweet, write review, discuss with friends, blog, Consumer compares expectations and reality.
But if listings are incorrect or inconsistent, the zero moment of truth dies at the research stage.
Gone are the days when the first touchpoint between a customer and service or product happens in store. Now, everyone looks up everything online first. [include personal example] When is the last time you picked up the phone and dialed the number of a pizza place to order take out? You likely looked them up first, checked out their deals and specials or at the very least looked up their phone number. But if listings are incorrect or inconsistent, the zero moment of truth dies at the research stage.

15. …the most frequently sought after information is:
According to Google...
…the most frequently sought after information is:
According to Google, the most frequently sought after listing information about a business is address, hours of operation, phone number and department.

16. The Stats
And it’s not hard to believe that 73% of people lost trust in a brand when their listings are incorrect. If you wanted to try out a new restaurant chain that opened up in your city but their online listing was incorrect and you only found out when you reached the destination - which was really a parking garage, would you go back? Would you ever trust that brand again?

17. Benefits of accurate listings
Accurate listings help people find your client’s business when they do an online search for local businesses.
And accurate listings also ensure that your clients are directing potential customers to the correct address, phone number and website.
Accurate listings help people find your client’s business when they do an online search for local businesses.
And accurate listings also ensure that your clients are directing potential customers to the correct address, phone number and website.

18. Benefits of accurate listings
Boost local SEO
Attract new customers
Avoid misleading customers
[CLICK] Business listings are one of the easiest ways to boost local SEO.
When local businesses have great SEO, [CLICK] that influences the likelihood that customers will discover them in local searches.
[CLICK] And accurate listings also ensure that your clients are directing potential customers to the right address, phone number and website.

19. The struggle is real Creating and updating listings is time-consuming
Maintaining listings is a headache
It’s difficult to show proof of performance
But here’s the problem clients face when they have business listings:
[CLICK] Business owners don’t have time to create and maintain listings on social networks, search engines, maps, directories and more. A change in hours or contact info forces business owners to navigate site-to-site to update their details.
[CLICK] To add to the headache, business listings reference each other’s data, and third parties can manipulate listing info without permission.
[CLICK] Another issue with the nature of listings is that it’s extremely difficult for agencies to show proof of performance.

20. Vendasta’s new Listing Score
Speaking of proof of performance, that’s one of the biggest reasons we’re introducing a new listing score! [Blair hands it off to Renee]

21. From a percentage to points
Here it is! Vendasta is leading the industry by moving from a percentage to a point-based system

22. Get ready!
Think of it like a credit score: It accurately reflects one’s performance and is clearly influenced by their actions.
No finite limit
Industry average and the 95th percentile
Think of it like a credit score: It accurately reflects one’s performance and is clearly influenced by their actions. However, unlike a credit score, there is no finite limit. Instead, there are benchmarks that are unique to each industry, such as the industry average and the 95th percentile.

23. How is the score calculated?
Top 100 Online Business Directories in the US
Scores each site based on popularity
Accurately reflects the ever-changing local search environment Continues to adapt to changes over time
How did we do it? With data from reputable sources like Alexa and Moz, we identified the Top 100 Online Business Directories in the US. We then assigned scores to each site based on its popularity. This research has lead to a score that accurately reflects the ever-changing local search environment and continues to adapt to those changes over time.

24. How it’s calculated Accurate = 100% of potential score
One error = 60% of potential score
Multiple errors = 20% of potential score
We assess the accuracy of your clients’ listings on the top 30 sites and adjust the score accordingly:
Accurate listing = 100% of assigned points
Listing contains one error = 60% of assigned points
Listing contains multiple errors = 20% of assigned points
The remainder of sites in the top 100 are assigned a score of five, regardless of accuracy, and all sites outside of the top 100 are assigned a score of two, regardless of accuracy. This includes some Primary Listings and Other Citations.

25. Resources
A White labeled version of how the score is calculated is available in the Resource Center.

26. We’ve done all the work
And we’ve written an extensive blog post that explains the scoring.

27.
You can find this valuable blog, among others, at

28. The benefits
Let’s review the benefits.

29. Opportunities
New listings sites means more opportunity for the you — keep your clients engaged.
As industry leaders, Vendasta is actively monitoring the web for popular listing sites and adding them to our platform. With a point-based score, your clients will see these newly added sites as opportunities rather than unexpected drops in their Listing Score. These new opportunities position you to keep your clients engaged.

30. Proof of performance
With no upper limit, it’s easier for you to highlight the ongoing work you’re doing. You’ll never hit 100%!
We understand the difficulty agencies have around proof of performance for listings management. By eliminating the upper limit of 100%, we’re making it easier for you to highlight the ongoing work you do on the behalf of your local business clients.

31. Visibility
Higher traffic sites, such as Google, have a greater influence on the Listing Score.
As we all know, some listing sites impact a business’ online visibility more than others. To properly reflect those differences in impact, we’ve given higher-traffic sites—such as Google—a greater influence on the Listing Score.

32. Citations
Citations will increase the score over time. That means Listing Distribution!
The new score also considers Other Citations, meaning Listing Distribution will now increase the score over time.

33. Gamification
A point-based score opens up a world of opportunities for gamification. Our vision is to encourage your clients to complete tasks—such as activating Listing Distribution and/or Listing Sync Pro—in order to boost their Listing Score.

34. How to sell listings
Now Blair is going to walk us through how to sell listings.
[Renee hands it back to Blair] All businesses need accurate listings. Here’s how and why we recommend you talk to your clients about.

35. The challenge
Business owners are too busy to create, monitor and maintain their listings.
The listings ecosystem is complicated. Third parties can change listing info without permission.
Inconsistent business listings negatively affect local search and can mislead potential customers.
[read]
Business owners are too busy to create, monitor and maintain their listings.
The listings ecosystem is complicated. Third parties can change listing info without permission.
Inconsistent business listings negatively affect local search and can mislead potential customers.

36. Why clients need listings management
Fix listing data at the source.
Create a myriad of online citations.
Establish a presence on the sites that account for 80% of local searches!
Get discovered in navigation systems.
Instantly update info across listing sites at any time.
Protect listings from changes by third parties.
[read]
Fix listing data at the source.
Create a myriad of online citations.
Establish a presence on the sites that account for 80% of local searches!
Get discovered in navigation systems.
Instantly update info across listing sites at any time.
Protect listings from changes by third parties.

37. Questions? [staged questions]
Q: How many points can you get with Listing Sync Pro?
A: Listing Sync Pro creates and updates business listings on 42 unique sites, many of which are monitored in Reputation Management. According to our calculations, if your clients go from having zero listings to establishing accurate listings on every single site, their score can jump as high as 260 points within a few days.
Q: What is the highest score you can get?
A: There is no limit to the number of sites your clients can be listed on, and we’ve designed the Listing Score as such. Your clients can certainly have listings on all of the sites highlighted in Reputation Management. However, the Listing Score considers Other Citations where there’s an endless number of opportunities. Use the industry average and 95th percentile highlighted within the Listings tab of Reputation Management to influence your clients to keep going!
Q: How many points does Listing Distribution give you?
A: According to our calculations, if your clients go from having zero listings on the four aggregators to establishing accurate listings on all four, their score can jump as high as 200 points within approximately three weeks. Once the data aggregators are accurate, the score will continue to increase as new citations are created based on the data from those aggregators. Every new citation will give your clients an extra two points.

38. Blair Nordstrom Product Marketing Specialist
CONTACT
Blair Nordstrom Product Marketing Specialist

39. Renee Elder Product Owner
CONTACT
Renee Elder Product Owner
Ext 133