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Web Based Marketing Helps Local Service Businesses
By admin | August 28, 2009
While most large, local service companies have a rudimentary understanding of the potential value of marketing through the Internet, many smaller service providers are barely online at all. There are even some small, service businesses that don’t use the online possibilities at all.
I want to concentrate this article on those small service businesses whose online presence is clearly not as well utilized as it should be. If you own a small business such as a hair salon, a plumbing service or a lawn care business, do you simply rely upon a classified listing on an advertising site to bring your enterprise to the attention of the ever growing community of web users?
Increasingly your potential customers are turning away from print advertising media and using the Internet to locate services when the need suddenly arises, when they move into your community or when they move into their first homes. Do you really believe that a small, classified listing which lists your phone number and address is sufficient information about your business for them to make an informed decision? A plumbing service should promote online well just as any other service oriented business.
The first step is to create your own company’s website.
Establish your professionalism in the minds of your site’s visitors by publishing informating articles on your website. The focus of those articles should be related to the services you offer. If you offer plumbing services, you might write about how to keep drains running smoothly. A hair salon website could have articles about the latest trends in hair styles.
Develop a newsletter for your site’s visitors. The purpose of the newsletter is to develop a continuing relationship with your customers and prospects as much as it is to promote your business. Mostly send informative emails, rather than focussing entirely upon self-promotion. If you keep your blatant advertising messages, such as a coupon, infrequent, they will become more powerful.
Develop ways to promote your website, itself, so that it is displayed near the top of the search engine results for relevant searches in your community. Just having a website isn’t sufficient. You need people in your community to find it. One very effective way to promote a website is through a process called article marketing. You can write your own articles or you can hire others to write them for you quite inexpensively.
Some businesses prefer to start their Internet presence on a relatively limited scale and build it over time using some of the increased revenues. You will probably be pleased by how many new contacts your Internet marketing efforts bring over time, especially as you grow.
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