Local Business - Harness the Internet to Increase Sales

It used to be "buy bigger and brighter ads in the Yellow Pages". It took all year to pay it off and unless you were diligent in tracking new customers, you never knew if it was worthwhile.

A LARGE expense often motivated by the fear your competitor might get the best spot. I'm sure it kept many local business owners awake at night. Well things have changed for the better for Local Business - thanks to the Internet and Google.

Local Business

Local Business is often referred to as "Bricks and Mortar" business. If you are a local business, it's most likely that 80% of their customers live within a 10 Km radius of you. For the best results you should target your advertising to this local market. Here is a sample of the outdated and ineffective Advertising mediums:

• Yellow Pages - what do you use yours for?
• Newspapers - declining rapidly
• TV - very expensive and ads are often fast forwarded
• Telemarketing - Do Not Call Lists have limited the effectiveness
• Direct Mail - very expensive with mostly 1% to 2% yield
• Magazine Ads - getting more and more expensive
• Email - inexpensive but emails are often dumped by Spam Software (can be ok if managed correctly).

Harnessing the Internet

The internet is the place to be for local business. Most people search on Google when they need something, particularly a service or a product from a local business. In fact searching on Google has virtually taken over from "Yellow Pages". Local searches are now recognised as very important, and have a new name - Google Places.

We Can Help

You can do it yourself for sure, but it will take up a lot of your valuable time. Most in local business feel like a juggler as it is without adding a new task.

It's not just about a website, but a whole strategy with a specific goal in mind - that goal could be an increase in sales leads. There are likely to be a range of components in the strategy, both online and traditional - but tailored to reach your demographic. It may for example, include an active referral program.

Everything is measured - there's nothing worse than spending advertising dollars and not knowing if it was worth it!

Give us a call on 03 9017 4390 to get things rolling.