How to Market Your Small Local Business
Are you a small business owner? Do you have a physical address, instead of the online kind? If you do, you are a proud member of the local business crowd. The down side of having a small local business is marketing. The idea of surviving forever off the same customer is nice, but in today’s business world it just isn’t a viable reality. That’s why it is essential that you learn how to market your local small business.
Many times when we think of advertising, we think of online ads and YouTube videos. Realizing that marketing is needed can be a hard realization. The cost can seem never ending. But, you have to take to mind that every business needs to advertise for new customers if they want to survive, even storefront businesses. When running a small business it can be easy to not be noticed at all, advertising can be as simple as placing an attention getting sign outside the store. The bottom line is, you have to let people know you exist. If you don’t, your business won’t exist for long! Here are few great tips to get access to as many potential customers as possible.
Commercials
It’s no secret that customers of nearly every market watch television. By marketing your small local business on television, especially utilizing the local channels, you’ll get the best chances of increasing your business more than can be created any other way. In the old days of marketing, the newspaper was the number one method to reach as many locals as possible. Today, that’s just not true. The power of local television just can’t be beat.
Phonebook Ads
One method of marketing your small local business that the public has no idea effects them in such a profound way is the phone book. The first great step of attracting fresh business is to list your local small business in the phone-book. People looking for your type of services may see your listing, or ad, and give you a cold call.
The first step is making sure your local business is listed the yellow pages, also known as the business index. Being listed in the white pages is just as important. Remember, simply being listed in the phone-book is different than having a paid ad placed in it as well. In the yellow pages you can be listed and pay a small fee to have your business given a full color ad that people see at once when they turn to the page with your listing. The businesses that decide to do this will have a higher chance of getting clients than those who don’t.
Last but Definantly Not Least-The Internet
Even though you have an actual physical address, there’s no harm in utilizing the importance of the Internet. There are hundreds of millions if not billions of computers and Internet surfing devices, so ignoring the potential for sales that it can offer is just folly.
Spreading your small local business to the online market may seem a little ironic for those that have been operating a small business for the local public. It should be looked at like expanding your business to international levels. If you have a store you could now be selling your products to people in China, Europe, or even Russia. It could bring more business and leads to branch off business that you could ever imagine. The cost for online business websites can be as little as $20 USD a month and compatible with the vast majority of new windows based computers, making it very affordable and very accessible.
These tips are just a few ways you can market your small local business affordably and efficiently. These methods will bring new clients and maybe even relight the urges of past clients to come in for another visit.
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