Literally, pretty much every week I get this call at my local business;
"Hello, I really need this thing. Do you have it available? I'm in Detroit Michigan (or some other out of state place), and I can't obtain it anyplace"
These message or calls are for products that can be bought anywhere businesses sell what I sell. Scores of these things can be obtained at practically any neighborhood Wal-Mart.
Is it true that the consumer can't find the part (or other item) anywhere?
Not in the least. What it means is that they won't know where to look to find what they need.
So, how did they find my local retail store?
That's easy. I'm located on the i-n-t-e-r-n-e-t.
The buyer 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 possess a website? No. Many thousands of dealers have a website selling precisely what I do. But their website is in "Website Purgatory". If you don't list your website on directories, post it to search engines, and write compelling Meta Tags Descriptions (the little ads you see when you do a search on the internet), nobody will see your website.
So people are searching on line...out of state...for things they can easily find listed in the Yellow Pages.
Why is that? Because far fewer people are using the Yellow Pages. More are going on line.
The fact is, customers are searching on the net for your product sold locally.
An extension of this is, customers can get tons of information about a product before
they resolve to buy...and who to buy from.
How does this information help you?
You can be the guy they get their information from. You simply need to post lots of good quality information about the business you are in, and the thing you sell.
Now, the first thing you may think is "Yup, they will pump me for information and then buy somewhere else". And that is accurate, you'll get some people getting information from you that buy somewhere else. So what? It didn't cost you anything. It wasted not a bit of your time.
Every week I have people drive 30 miles or so to stop in my retail store to buy things they could have bought cheaper 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 website. They could have listened to a podcast.
You ought to be giving information in the places people are in search of information. You can write articles or reviews, post videos, or produce podcasts. You can take the same information, and broadcast it in different formats. My videos are just me reading my articles or reviews. My podcasts are basically the audio from my videos. My blog posts are shorter versions of my articles or reviews.
The days of earning profits just by promoting in the local weekly newspaper are coming to a close.
People are shopping on line to find the information they need. They either buy on-line or shop locally. But they will buy where they are comfortable. Make sure that place is yours.
Author Resource:
Business marketing expert Claude Whitacre is author of the book The Unfair Advantage Small Business Advertising Manual. You can buy a copy at http://www.claudewhitacre.com or you can download a complete free copy at http://www.local-small-business-advertising-marketing-book.com
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