Using the Internet to Build Your Business in Your Town, USA

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Using the Internet to Build Your Business in Your Town, USA

The Internet is able to connect you to hundreds of millions of
people worldwide on a daily basis. But, how useful is that to
you and your business when all you have is a brick-and-mortar
establishment serving the locals in Your Town, USA?

YOUR LOCAL INTERNET POSSIBILITIES

According to CongressOnlineProject.org website, 56% of all
Americans have access to the Internet.

Now, how many people live in Your Town, USA? Once you have done
the math, you might find yourself getting excited about the
real possibilities of the Internet in helping to grow your
local offline business.

Before you go off half-cocked, let me share some important
considerations with you.

Running off and building a website to promote your business
to your local marketplace is not the end all solution to your
desire to reach your local population. Building a website is
just your first step in maximizing your online reach and
potential.

AN INTERNET STRATEGY FOR LOCAL BUSINESSES

For the local business targeting the local marketplace in Your
Town, USA, certain tools should be employed. Those include:

- A billboard website.
- Pay Per Click Search Engine Listings (PPCSE).
- http://www.geobytes.com/GeoReport.htm
- http://www.geobytes.com/GeoPhrase.htm
- An email mailing list.

Let me explain how to use these tools.

Your billboard website only intends to tell your visitors about
your business, its products and services. It also tells how to
find your business by providing maps, hours of operation, phone
numbers and other contact information.

Depending on the type of business you operate, PPCSE listings
can pay off by targeting people who are searching for XYZ
product in Your Town, USA.

GeoReport is a $29 per year paid service that permits you to
obtain very specific data about the geographical locations of
your website visitors. For the local business website, this
type of tracking data is very helpful in determining the
success of your locally oriented advertising and promotions.

The free GeoPhrase technology permits you to address visitors
to your website with geographically targeted keywords. You can
tell visitors from Your Town that they can come by your store
to take advantage of special promotions for visiting your
website.

You should ask your local visitors to subscribe to your email
notification list. Offer them incentives to do so. Web-only
promotions and drawings are two types of incentives that work
well for local businesses who are online. According to the
CongressOnlineProject.org website, 79.9% of Internet users
consider email to be one of their favorite online activities,
so your emails have a strong likelihood of actually being
read and acted upon.

OFFLINE PROMOTION STRATEGY FOR YOUR WEBSITE

Whatever you can do to bring visitors to your website is within
the range of the activities you should wish to undertake.

Be sure to put your website URL on all of your promotional
materials:

- Brochures
- Menus
- Newspaper advertising
- Radio and TV advertising
- Business Signs
- Ballpoint pens
- Business cards
- Press Releases
- Etc.

Since press releases are designed to bring a newsworthy item
to the press, the development of your website, which focuses
entirely upon the local consumer market, may provide the kind
of news information that your local newspapers wish to share
with their readers.

Your real goal is to get people to your website to learn about
your company and your offerings. An additional hope would be
to get people to sign up to receive your email notifications.

WHY TO DIRECT PEOPLE TO YOUR WEBSITE

Your website should be designed to inform your potential
customers about your company. Once people have visited your
website, they might be more willing to agree to receive email
from you in the future.

Your email list should be developed for the purpose of building
a relationship with your potential and existing customers. This
is why it is worth every penny you invest to create additional
incentives to people for joining your mailing lists.

FOUR TIPS FOR DEVELOPING YOUR EMAIL LIST

TIP 1: You should never make your only incentive offer
contingent upon signing up to your email list. If you do,
people will subscribe only so that they can get their free
gift, then they will unsubscribe and move on.

TIP 2: Strike while the iron is hot. Send an automatic email
message to your subscribers when they subscribe. It will catch
their attention when you are on the top of their mind. It will
also help them to remember you when you deliver your next email
to them. Don’t let them forget about you before your next email
arrives. If they forget you before they receive the first email
from you, they might cry foul --- and you do not want to be
seen as a possible s/p*a/m*m/e*r.

TIP 3: Incentives could include a monthly giveaway to a lucky
reader or monthly coupons for all mailing list members.
Incentives could also include information that is relevant
to the lives of your customers.

TIP 4: Do not ever make a promise to not send email to your
subscribers. People subscribe to your mailing list for the
express purpose of receiving email from you. Don’t pass up on
the opportunity to use your email list to communicate with your
customers and to build a relationship with them. People whom
have a relationship with you are the most likely persons to
buy from your business in the future.

ON THE GROUND IN YOUR TOWN, USA

Advertising and promotions designed to build your website
traffic and email list subscriber base should be done primarily
on the ground.

What I mean by that is that your promotions need to be directed
to your local marketplace. The web is a vast territory with
millions of users. Yet, your target customers are but a very
small portion of the whole Internet community.

Your promotional expenditures will be far more effective if
they are directed to your geographic location rather than the
whole of the Internet community. Therefore, promote your
website and mailing list on the ground in your geographic
area.

By attracting people who live in your local geographical area,
you will be better able to maximize the real potential of your
online activities.

To learn more about how to promote your business in the local
marketplace, you may visit:

http://www.geolocal.com/index.cfm?affID=tpwcom

Resource Box:
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Romeo Salvitti is the owner of Have Consultants Will Travel, who
specializes in helping small to mid-sized local businesses to
use the Internet in growing their customer base in their local
marketplace. If you need help in developing a website or an email
list to promote your offline business, please contact us for more
specific information. URL: http://www.localcomputerservice.com/
24 Hour Toll Free: 877-869-0059 Email: romsalv@foxepromotions.com
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