Websites for Local Businesses

How can a website be of value to a local business?  After all, it is the ‘worldwide web’ and local business web-sites can easily be lost in the ‘traffic’.  Many local business owners may not realize that a well-designed web-site can be created to be a sound, strategic marketing tool.  It is only recently that the internet has gone local and Google, Yahoo and Amazon’s A9.com have laid the search infrastructure.  When companies such as these invest in local search infrastructure, going local has become “mainstream.”  They even offer paid local ads in the search results.  Google offers www.local.google.com, there is Yahoo Local (http://local.yahoo.com/), Local Pages (www.localpages.com) and a host of other local search directories.  Yahoo is even targeting women ages 20-54 with their Shine product, so if you’re providing products and services for woman there is yet another resource for you to use to reach your audience.  Search engines and directories will continue to segment the marketplace, it seems predictable that online marketing will someday offer search engines and directories that target every imaginable demographic.  Will you be ready?

Like everything else in a market driven economy, the consumer is showing us what we need to do.  More and more people each day turn to the internet to locate local businesses.  Consumer behavior is changing, no longer are the Yellow Pages the first place consumers go to find what they are looking for, they are going to the internet.  As a local business owner a web presence is a must.  If you already have a website, be sure it is structured properly to capture the imagination of the contemporary consumer.  If you do not have a web presence, now is the time to consider one.

Good web sites offer the local business person so many advantages over the more traditional off-line marketing options.  This will allow you to use your off-line marketing efforts more wisely.  It’s important that off-line strategies be integrated with your online efforts and, when done correctly your online efforts will drive your off-line efforts.

A web site allows you to make an emotional connection with your audience, distance is less relevant, and people can come back again and again.  What if you expanded your reach to a more regional, national or even global audience?  The possibilities are limitless and all based on your local business concept!  Research shows that a well designed website for a local business can extend their reach by 60 to 100 miles - that’s right, customers will travel from farther away to visit a business who has positioned itself as an expert and a resource!  Customers want value and a big piece of that value puzzle is a vendor getting it right the first time.

Here are just a few strategies for your website that can create a positive relationship with current and potential customers:

• Create a question and answer forum that provides immediate feedback.
• Publish web-only coupons to be used at your location.
• Offer a how-to section with other helpful resources.
• Collaborate with other businesses and cross market on each others’ sites or develop affiliate programs with them.
• Create an e-zine (online magazine) on topics related to your field.
• Collect an email distribution list and send out monthly newsletters which help drive traffic to your site.

Of course your site needs to have great content and be optimized for local searches.  It’s important that when planning a web site for your organization you keep in mind what consumers are looking for when they search the web: INFORMATION, INFORMATION & MORE INFORMATION.  Provide what they are looking for and they will find you.  Once they find you, they will visit often – virtually and by walking right through your door!

Contact us to schedule a free, no obligation consultation.