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Local business Proprietors: Buying Is Changing . Is Your Advertising?

By: Andrew Seese

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Literally, pretty much every few days I get this kind of call at my local business;

"Hi, I really need this thing. Do you have it in stock? I'm in Florida (or some other out of state place), and I can't find it anyplace"
These calls are for products that can be obtained anywhere merchants sell what I sell. Many of these things can be found at just about any local Wal-Mart.

Is it true that the patron can't find the part (or other item) anyplace?
Not at all. What it means is that they won't know where to look to find what they want.

So, how did they stumble on my local retail store?
Simple. I'm located on the i-n-t-e-r-n-e-t.

The customer types in a search phrase to search for a local merchant, and I'm one of the initial places that pop up. Yea!
Is it that I own a website? No. Thousands of dealers have a website selling precisely what I do. But their website is in "Website Purgatory". If you don't register your website on directories, post it to search engines, and write convincing Meta Tags Descriptions (the little ads you see when you do a search on the net), nobody will see your website.
So people are searching on the net...out of state...for stuff they can easily find listed in the Yellow Pages.

Why? Because far fewer people are making use of the Yellow Pages. More are going on the web.

The fact is, customers are searching on-line for products sold locally.
An extension of this is, consumers can get tons of information about a product before

they decide to buy...and who to purchase from.
How does this knowledge help you?
You can be the merchant they get their information from. You simply need to post lots of good quality information about the business you are in, and the things you sell.

Now, the first thing you might imagine is "Yup, they will pump me for information and then buy somewhere else". And that is correct, you'll get a few people getting information from you that buy somewhere else. So what? It didn't cost you any money. It wasted not any of your time.

Pretty much every week I have customers drive 30 miles or so to stop in my small business to buy things they could have bought less costly in their own area. But they saw the article I wrote. Like the one you are reading right now. They saw the videotape on my web page. They could have listened to a podcast.

You must be giving information in the places people are searching for information. You can write articles, post videos, or create podcasts. You can take the exact same information, and distribute it in different formats. My videos are just me reading my articles or reviews. My podcasts are just the audio from my videos. My blog posts are shorter versions of my articles or reviews.

The days of making a living just by promoting in the local weekly newspaper are coming to a close.

People are shopping online to find the information they need. They either buy online or shop locally. But they will buy where they are comfortable. Make sure that place is yours.

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

Small business marketing expert Claude Whitacre is author of the book The Unfair Advantage Small Business Advertising Manual. You can buy a copy at www.claudewhitacre.com or you can download a complete free copy at www.local-small-business-advertising-marketing-book.com

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