Do You Have A Small Local Business (1 to 10 employees) That Is Offline?Local Business Owners... Matters Have Been Changing Rapidly More and more, your potential clients are forsaking those heavy Yellow Pages paper books for Google and other engines. It's easy and fast to do a search for "lawn care Montpelier" -- and if you don't find one in the town of Montpelier, widen the search to "lawn care Vermont" -- try widening your search with Yellow Pages! And it's not just the clients. Faster and faster, local businesses are coming online. They are using the Net to... •build trust and deepen relationships with existing customers by providing friendly, personal information about the business, great content (ex., valuable "do-it-yourself" articles), "web site only" specials, etc. (but this is only the first and most obvious step) •raise their profile above that of competitors •promote locally and take customers from competitors •continue to stay "top-of-mind" and deepen relationships with customers through an e-zine (and build sales, too -- ex., "It's spring, which means it's time for aerating and fertilizing your lawn." - OR - "Announcing our Web-site-only-10%-off-your-next-oil-change coupon") •build targeted traffic to find new customers, even add entirely new income streams (ex., as a chimney sweep, your articles on fire safety not only endear you to customers, but will attract global ones too -- you can monetize this traffic through Google AdSense ads and affiliate programs, as we will see below) •leverage their expertise and knowledge for global clients, selling their goods online, even through online auctions (see monetization article below). It's time -- develop a solid Web presence, generate targeted traffic, build loyalty through a newsletter for customers, get the edge on the competition, and add new income streams. How do you do that? Think Of A Web Site As A Super-Yellow Pages Ad This "ad" delivers 100 times the results... at 1/10 of the price. People are searching less and less by the offline and more by the online ... If your business does not use a Net presence to promote itself, keep in touch with its customers, extend its reach, and take your competitors' customers, your competitors will do it to you, and soon. Yes...
|
