net-culture series
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A series of "non
technical" articles about internet marketing for small business.
Article No. 3, December
28, 2003
The perfect time to get your local business online
The three most important reasons your business or service IS
NOT online are these:
- Your clientele or target market is mostly LOCAL. So why
bother with a website aimed at reaching the entire world?
- You know friends or colleagues who have websites that get
no traffic. Or you've tried it in the past. It is just a big waste of time
and money!
- People don't use the web for local services. They use
more "flexible" local media such as the local newspaper, and (especially)
the Yellow Pages.
Let's look at each of these concerns one at a time.
Reason #1 for not being online...
Your clientele is mostly local
Small business people often think many local people are
either not online, or are not net-savvy. But there's no reason in principle
this should matter. Local people are just as likely to look on the web for
your information and services as are "non-local" people. The problem is, there
may not be enough net-savvy local people to build a viable business on. And
many of the locals who are not net-savvy will never find your business on the
web.
This is all true. But as we know, things are changing
rapidly. Within a very few years almost everyone will be net savvy, and
virtually every business (local or not) will be online. That will make the web
the default source of LOCAL information as well as non-local.
The most reasonable strategy is to build a website for the
future that is inevitably and rapidly coming. And then optimize it to
reach your local audience. This is easy and relatively cheap — much
less expensive than running even a small Yellow Pages ad. And there will soon
be services (like ours) that can help you focus on the local market.
Reason #2 for not being online...
Local websites don't get any traffic
Most websites don't get any traffic. There are two
important reasons, and they are the same for any website, whether
they're local or non-local.
First, NO CONTENT, NO TRAFFIC. The first rule for
generating traffic is "Build valuable content that people want to look at." It
doesn't have to be earth-shatteringly creative. It just has to be "stuff" that
your target market is interested in. It could be information (like this
article), or it could be products or services.
If you have a landscaping business, for instance, then you
have a built-in source of "stuff" for your website — a description of your
products and services. People will come to your website because they want to
see what you do. And then you can throw in informational content to flesh out
your presentation — the kinds of plants to use in various locations; the
impact of soil types, drainage, etc. on growth; how to protect your plants for
the winter; how to get rid of pests and insects without using pesticides,
etc., etc., etc.
Much of this information is readily available from your
suppliers, or is already in your head. All you have to do is make it available
to your prospective clients.
Second, NO PROMOTION, NO TRAFFIC. If you don't
promote your website, no one will know it exists, and, guess what? You won't
have any traffic. If anybody tells you "Build it and they will come" ask them
to show you an example where this has worked, and then copy their
promotional methods.
The exciting news is that promoting a LOCAL website is
much easier than promoting a non-local one. For more information on this,
see my article called
"Strategies for Reaching Local Markets." In a nutshell, the advantages to
the local marketer boil down to these:
- Creating a distinctive "Locally Focused Identity" (LFI)
is relatively easy, because you can grab a very striking and distinctive
locally-oriented domain name. Just take the snappiest one-word description
of your product or service, and stick your location name behind it. Voila!
You have a distinctive LFI (locally focused identity). The chances of
finding an available domain name like this are still very good because there
are so few others interested in your specific geographical area...
plants-waterloo.com
pizza-houston.com
indian-food-denver.com
curry-orlando.com
banners-hongkong.com
video-buffalo.com
(And by the way, how long do you think names like these are going to be
available?)
- Getting good ranking in Google and other search engines
for sites with domain names like these will be relatively easy. You don't
have to compete with every Pizza place in the world — just with the ones in
your local town or city. If you get a jump on the competition, chances are
you will be able to easily dominate search categories such as "plants
waterloo" or "fish markets salt lake".
Yes, it is true there are not a lot of searches done on terms like this yet.
But imagine what will happen when the web becomes the default source of
information for local business.
- Turning your domain name into a locally-recognized
brand is MUCH EASIER on a local level. Plaster your distinctive domain
name on every vehicle, sign, promotional piece, business card, and ad you
send out to the public . . Sponsor local events such as golf tournaments and
prominently display your domain name every opportunity you get.
Reason #3 for not being online...
People don't use the web to find local services
Generally it is true that most people use "traditional" sources such as the Yellow Pages
to find local information, but things are changing rapidly.
The reasons people prefer looking up information in heavy,
hard-to-read, environmentally-unfriendly books is that the alternatives are so
inadequate. Since people don't use the web for local searches, local merchants
and services often don't have websites. So when you look for "lawn maintenance
Buffalo", your favorite lawn maintenance guy isn't there. You look in the
Yellow Pages instead.
But two important things are changing.
First, Google and Yahoo — the two most heavily used search
engines — are developing local search capabilities.
What this means is that webmasters will start to build sites specifically for
local services. And people will start to learn how to do local searches.
Eventually — within the next year or so — local searches
will reach "critical mass", and every business wanting to reach a local market
will NEED a website. The importance of local web searches will dramatically
increase, and the use of clunky old Yellow Pages books will dramatically
decrease.
And you can be sure that as soon as local people have a
cheaper advertising alternative (the web), they will drop their overpriced
Yellow Pages ads like hot potatoes. And as soon as the Yellow Pages people
lose their cash cow, this service will disappear altogether.
If I'm wrong about this, I'll eat my clunky old (rarely
used) Yellow Pages book.
All of these things should serve as tremendous incentives for local businesses
to jump on board sooner rather than later.
Richard J. Hendershot,
www.small-business-online.com
We specialize in helping small business reach local markets through the web.
This article is called "The Perfect Time to Get Your
Local Business Online", and is No. 3 in the Net-Culture series.
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