Can you tell the difference?
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A friend was looking for a local carpet cleaning company the other day and started browsing the phone book. He couldn’t tell the difference between one cleaning company and another by their ads, they all looked alike, and there was no way to tell which company had a better track record than another.
He decided to go online to check them out.
What he found was simply amazing, and proves that local businesses that are not using these technologies are probably losing money faster than they can imagine.
You see, he found a listing of companies that were closer to his home. All he did was use a local search directory. Everything he needed was right there at his finger tips. But on top of that when he dug a little more he was able to see that some of these businesses had reviews about them on different web sites.
Some of them had even posted videos on places like youtube.com and viddler.com to bring their potential clients some value.
Most people would wonder why companies would do this instead of sending them to their business.
Well, since the company is already helping people for “free” they’re creating trust. By putting up videos designed for local customers they’re getting better results in the end because of the good will and trust they build.
More and more businesses are leveraging online technology to improve their communications with customers, get the word out faster, and ultimately put more money in their pocket.
These types of tactics are paving the way for new and old businesses to hop on the technology band wagon and start using it to make some money.
Now is the time for them to start getting prepared. The economy is dismal and overall spending is down and that’s the main reason local businesses need to look for way s to market to their target audience and do it for little overall cost to them.
Because 97% of internet users are gathering information online before they shop for anything, local companies need to roll up their sleeves and jump in.
The first place to start is by using a local city search directory. These websites are highly optimized for local search and categorized the way people will be looking for a company. They’re cheap compared to offline advertising and in many ways get better results.
The next step is to get reviews posted on the web by your clients. It gives the social proof people want to see before they work with you.
Next it’s important to start creating informative articles, videos, and other free information about what you’re offering. It draws people in and gives the search engines tons of information they can use to get you ranked for your city and your product or service.
It may seem complicated to those businesses owners who have stayed away from the internet, but it’ll be those business owners that fall with hard economic times because they don’t want to keep up with current trends.
The businesses that will flourish during and after the upcoming recession will be those that continued advertising and used the internet to leverage their money 10 fold. They will be on top with more business coming through the door and a boat load of happier clients.
