Flathead Guide Celebrates First Year Anniversary Exceeding Plan

KALISPELL, Mont. - Feb. 26, 2014 - PRLog -- When introduced last year, the Flathead Guide assured local businesses that it would aggressively promote their listings in the new Flathead Valley Business Directory and help them attract targeted customers.  The objective behind this new service was to help local businesses maximize emerging trends such as new search requirements and mobile responsiveness along with compelling social interaction and promotion.

The Flathead Guide launched with a great idea and a new website; there was no social activity, yet the plan included a commitment to help local businesses attract new customers.  In the year since its launch, it now has a Facebook following of more than 1,000 and over 500 Twitter fans, more than 1,200 Pinterest followers, and a YouTube channel boasting more than 420,000 video views.

The Flathead Guide targets the 91,000 local residents of the Flathead Valley and the 2,000,000 visitors that vacation in the Flathead each year lured by Glacier National Park, Flathead Lake and skiing in Whitefish.  This handy mobile-ready guide makes it easier to find businesses, shopping, restaurants, services and things to do and see in northwest Montana.

A basic Flathead Guide business listing is essentially a mobile friendly mini-website with an unlimited description, photo slideshow, Google map, all contact information and links to major social sites with the ‘Tap to Call’ functionality of a smartphone and Tablet PC.  All listings are optimized for search by the editor, a twenty-year Internet marketing professional.

Client companies are especially pleased with what they have seen this first year. Doug Kintzler, owner of Blind Man Window Treatments said, “Business is brutal online so anything that can send new customers to my website is great, and the cost made it impossible to refuse.”  Alice Barten of Windmill Storage & Business Park says, “We started receiving traffic from our Flathead Guide listing within days of it being published and it continues every month.”

In one short year, the Flathead Guide has grown to become a marketing force in the Flathead Valley and provides local businesses with other important benefits.  As an example, “Internet mobile traffic is now at 25% and web traffic from mobile devices is up 78% year over year”.  Capitalizing on this trend is just one of the objectives of the Flathead Guide.

Very few company websites are mobile-ready in rural northwest Montana, but their listing in the Flathead Guide provides a detailed mobile optimized presentation that is responsive to all mobile devices along with standard desktop and laptop PCs.

In the off-line world, the Flathead Guide is promoted in local print publications and radio commercials because they share the same marketing challenges that every business faces, creating top-of-mind awareness with consumers.  Promoting the Flathead Guide online and off means that all listed businesses benefit as a result of this advertising.

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Tom Heatherington, founder of the Flathead Guide says, “Smartphones and tablets are now mainstays of life in 2014 and the millions of visitors that vacation in northwest Montana every year no longer lug their laptops with them. Today they use their smartphones to get directions, find restaurants, motels, campgrounds and virtually every service available in the Flathead Valley.  The Flathead Guide helps to connect local businesses with the people who are searching for them.”

Heatherington continued with, “I have been in the Internet business for over twenty years and have been involved with numerous Internet startups, but this has been the most enjoyable and the most rewarding for me on a personal level.  Imagine the result, we’re helping businesses attract new customers and we’re giving everyone better customized information formatted for their mobile devices.” For more information, please visit:  http://www.flatheadguide.com

About:

Tom Heatherington is a recognized Internet business author, SEO expert and marketing consultant.  His books include the "SEO & Social Media Marketing Guide" and "The Complete Small Business Internet Guide" (published by Macmillan).  Tom is the former President (co-founder) and COO of Opinioneering Corporation and President of Netcom Interactive. In 1993 Tom co-founded PICnet, one of the first ISPs in the nation. He worked 13 years for NEC America where he served the last five years as Vice President of Wireless Products Sales.