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Local Business
Do you have a small business (1-10 employees), that is largely offline? Are your clientele mostly local? For example...
* a real estate agent or lawyer in Tampa, Florida.. or New York, British West Indies --
* a landscaper in Juno, Alaska -- get the jump on competitors
* a gas station in Hudson, New York -- build a devoted clientele
* a Mexican restaurant in Vista, California -- run "Net specials of the week"
* a bagpiper in Ottawa, Canada -- get hired for "gigs" for 100 miles around
* a grocery store in Bristol, England -- differentiate yourself and take business from competitors
* a local manufacturing company -- attract and support customers.
You might think that the Net, more specifically your own Web site, offers few opportunities for businesses with a customer base clustered in a small geographic area. After all, the Web is "world wide"... a "global medium."
And you would have been fairly correct, up until recently.
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 local 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 local 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 local 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 local 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 local competition, and add new income streams.
How do you do that? It's all in the process.
To read the complete and essential guide for a local business go to: