Reno Web Design Blog

You want more local & national clients customers don’t you?

• 28/09/11
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I’ve been doing a lot thinking lately about my mum and dad. My parents probably lived through bigger changes in their lifetime than the previous three generations of their families put together.

My mum was brought up in a small town in Yorkshire called Keighley in Great Britain. Keighley was a textile mill and coal town, which basically meant that most of the population of the town worked either in the local textile mills or the coal mines of the area. They did this for over three or four generations. In my mum’s lifetime all this has changed as the jobs disappeared.

Well, in the past 5 years I feel we as owners of small to medium businesses have seen more change in how we conduct business and effectively market our businesses than any time in the past 100 years. I really think that we have lived through more changes in the past 20 years than our parents lived through during the whole of their working lives.

The sad truth is, that I feel that a lot of Northern Nevada business owner haven't really thought out how they, as effective business owners, are really going to adapt to these changes. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of these social media consultant junkies that say you just need to concentrate solely on social media to really promote your business. No I truly feel that newspapers, radio, television and print still have their roles in effectively promoting your business. However, what we have now are a lot more choices, many that are cheaper than anything we had 5 years ago. Some of our choices only cost time and effort.

What are your online choices that can get you some real results?

1: Google Places:Any local business that does not truly develop its Google Places page is really missing out big time. I’m not going to go into how to do this in this article because it would take up too much space. However I would strongly recommend to all local business owners that they take a hard look at Google Local Places.

2: Google Local Paid for Click Campaign AdWords Express: This is a really powerful tool to drive traffic to your business website; you do have a nice business website don’t you?

3: Advertising on Facebook :Love it or hate it, Facebook has 750 million people logging in daily. You can set up really effective local advertising campaigns that are aimed at your target audience.

4: Email marketing: A lot of small business don’t really effectively use email marketing. You see them setting up a Constant Contact account and sending off some really horrible looking email campaigns that don’t really get any results for them. There’s a big difference in an effective email marketing campaign and the normal rubbish that most of us get in our inboxes. I just happen to know a locally owned email marketing company that can do a great job for you. For less than you think, you can have quality advertisements delivered right to your client’s door. For those who rely on repeat business, this simple tool will keep your customers coming back for more. 

5: Social Media Facebook business page, Twitter  Google+: No, you not going to get quick results from this. However on the other hand it’s really cheap and if you don’t have time to do it yourself you can hire people to do it for you. My own company offers this service to local business i.e. we can do full social media campaigns.

5: You business website is your company’s public face 24 hours seven days a week. When is the last time you visited your own company’s website? Does it really offer anything of value to its visitors? If you were a potential client or customer does it have clear calls of actions for you? Is it up to date, does it look professional and modern? If you are not sure, you may consider having it looked at by a professional web developer as you may be surprised by what you are missing.  

My final comment is this; yes you can get new clients and customer. However you can only get them if these possible new clients and customers know that you exist and that you can give them a powerful and well developed argument on why they should use your firm or buy your products. The good news is, that by using the tools I have outlined in this article there has never been a better time for a small to medium business to get its message out there at a very affordable price.

I hear a lot of local business owners saying things like this, I just don’t have the time for all this online stuff, but in the same breath they will say that they want more clients and customers. If this is you or if you need any advice on anything I outlined just give me an email jonathan@digital-delirium.net or call me on 775-297-4184. I am here to make sure your business succeeds!

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