There are a lot of things that you as a business owner that provides products or services to a limited geographic or local area you can do to try and grab people’s attention and get them to pick up the phone or visit your storefront.
There is of course all of the traditional media like TV, radio, newspaper, and direct mail that are available to you. There are the many online tools and resources like SEO, PPC, email marketing, banner ads, social media, and various other methods as well.
But no matter how you decide to market your business, if you’re missing this one critical ingredient your marketing efforts will fall flat and you won’t generate the type of response you need in order to continue growing your business.
What’s this one ‘critical’ ingredient?
It’s a killer offer. You see, when you invest your money marketing your business, if you don’t have something to motivate your prospects to actually get off their rear and either pick up the phone, log onto your website, or stop by your shop, all you’re really doing is spending money on branding, and at the end of the day it’s not a very effective way to grow your business today.
Yes, having a solid, well-recognized brand is an important element to growing a successful local business. However, paying money to do anything other than generate customer RIGHT now is a deadly mistake that should be avoided at all costs.
So, what makes for a killer offer and why is it so important?
A killer offer is essentially the bait that gets your target market to identify themselves as interested and/or qualified in the product or service you offer. It’s the carrot you dangle in front of the horse so they’ll come to you.
What should you offer?
Unfortunately, that ones a little tougher to figure out because there’s really no one answer that applies to every business. The killer offer for a dentist will be very different from the home theater installer will be very different from the lawn care contractor.
The key to figuring out what to offer starts with knowing your target market and understanding what it is they’re really trying to achieve. What is it that keeps them up at night? What is it they really, REALLY want?
Once you have an answer to that question, put together a product or service that solves their problem and you have yourself a powerful offer that will generate interested, qualified prospects.
Now, chances are it’ll take a few times to really figure out what to offer your target market. Again, there’s no silver bullet that works for everyone or for every business so you’ll need to spend some time working on your solution.
However, once you come up with an offer that is powerfully motivating for YOUR prospects and customers, you’ll solve 75% of your marketing problems and your business will start to grow like crazy.
Already have what you think is a great offer?
Share it with us in the comments section. Tell us who your prospect is and what you’ve found to be extremely effective in getting them to take action.
If you’re a local business and the idea of generating tons of new prospects and customers via the Internet seems like an exciting idea, you’re right on track.
However, before you jump in with both feet you want to make sure you’re starting off on the right foot.
As exciting as the Internet can be, it’s also filled with all sorts of pitfalls and stumbling blocks that can lead to headaches, frustrations, and empty promises. Because there are new tools being introduced every day, it’s important to make sure you have (at a minimum) an idea of what it is you want to accomplish online.
You see, without a plan of attack, you’ll quickly find yourself spinning your wheels trying to make tools like your website, a blog, PPC ads, and the many social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, or FourSquare work for you.
So, with so many tools and different methods for marketing your business online, where exactly does one start?
Well, as with anything related to marketing your business, the very first step in the process is to decide what it is you’re trying to accomplish. Without knowing where you want to end up, how will you know which direction to go? Or how to correct course when you get off track? Or even when you’ve arrived?
Chances are you already have a pretty good idea of what you want to accomplish. You know who you’re target market is, you know how your products or services satisfy their wants/needs, and you know what it takes to make sales.
The next is to decide which online tools are best able to help you accomplish those same goals online. To help kickstart the thought process, keep the following questions in mind:
- Which online tools best allow me to effectively reach my target market?
- What information is my target market looking for when they go online looking for the products and services I provide?
- How can I best communicate my unique selling proposition online?
- Can I re-purpose marketing collateral I already have for use online?
- Can I recreate my offline sales process using online tools? Which tools will help me do that?
Remember, marketing your local business online is no different than doing so offline. It’s all a matter of identifying your target market, figuring out where they ‘hang out’, and then presenting them with the information they need to make the decision that you offer the best choice for them.
The Internet provides PLENTY of opportunities and tools to do just that, but without a clear idea of what you’re trying to accomplish, it’s impossible to determine which tools can best help you achieve your objectives!
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If you’ve been online, trying to grow your business via the Internet for any length of time than you know how important it is to list your business in the local business listings. Unfortunately, it’s been a little tough to make this powerful tool work if you’re a home based or primarily service based business that doesn’t really have an office or storefront.
At the recent Search Marketing Expo in Austin TX a few weeks back, Google’s Director of Product Management for Google Local, Carter Maslan, hinted that we would be seeing changes very soon.
Well, that day has thankfully arrived sooner rather later!
If you’ll log into your Google Local Business Center listing and check the address information, you’ll now see the ability to hide your address information.
Hopefully this will save some of you from unexpected household visits from clients or prospects while you’re working (or lounging around) in your underwear!
Well, not anymore. Compete.com just released some recent analytics data that shows Facebook has overtaken Yahoo! as the second most popular destination on the web behind Google.
What does this mean for you? It means that if you’re serious about growing your business using the Internet then you MUST get serious about Facebook.
If you haven’t already, start a personal profile. Play around with it for a while. Search for some of your old high school or college friends.
Then once you’re comfortable, move onto setting up a Fan Page for your business, which is very similar to your personal profile. Here you’ll have the opportunity to develop relationships that could result in new business or profitable partnerships.
So, if you haven’t already picked up on the idea that Facebook should be a part of your multi-channel marketing efforts (notice I said ‘a part’, not ‘the whole enchilada’), hopefully this news will help open your eyes!
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