Online Marketing for Local Small Businesses

**JerseyMVP** · 12-22-2010 01:45 PM

It is just my general assumption that the vast majority of many small businesses in my area have not implemented any online marketing strategies. Would this be a bad assumption or is it true?

Furthermore, for those of you that offer online marketing to small businesses, what is the general attitude small businesses have toward the idea of online marketing? Are they normally open to it? Or are they harassed daily by people trying to sell them these services?

I am just curious because I am considering researching the concept more and might even play around with the idea of starting a small business offering online marketing to businesses in my area. My sister manages a prominent restaurant in the area and they do absolutely no online marketing, aside from a small website I built for them. I imagine they would be interested though as I live in a vacation hotspot in Florida and many tourists go online to find restaurants.

Additionally, I have fooled around with some Adwords and SEO and know a fair amount about general online marketing but I would definitely not trust my knowledge to try to sell it to businesses and try to expect results. What would be my best option? Learn it myself and eventually do all the work? Or contract with a company online to get wholesale pricing for these services and resell them in my area?

I appreciate any advice you can offer me. Thanks in advance!

John

**Dur** · 01-12-2011 07:02 AM

Small businesses are quite reluctant to opt for online marketing.
They are confused about how it will help them plus they are also skeptical of the cost associated with using online marketing!

**zeppelin2036** · 01-13-2011 10:43 AM

I hope this is the right thread for this. I am trying to start something like this in my area. I have jobs where I live so I had to start something, I thought I could start this on a very low budget, I built my own website. I had so little money to start on, it makes it harder. My model has a little more to it, I would be offering listing on a website, and in a local paper at the same time. There are local papers here that cost twice as much to list in, but the problem sinking me may be that i have not begun printing or arranged a distribution yet. After that is worked out, I would start to buy some digital kiosks and sell space on those too.
I have no money do a print with or kiosks to put the papers in, I'm new to this but don't plan to give up. However I am having a nearly impossible time getting people to buy my adpsace. Not enough money is one of my problems but not all, so is it the businesses I'm trying to reach? anyone know how I can sell this?

**rogercbryan** · 01-13-2011 11:32 AM

Originally Posted by zeppelin2036

I hope this is the right thread for this. I am trying to start something like this in my area. I have jobs where I live so I had to start something, I thought I could start this on a very low budget, I built my own website. I had so little money to start on, it makes it harder. My model has a little more to it, I would be offering listing on a website, and in a local paper at the same time. There are local papers here that cost twice as much to list in, but the problem sinking me may be that i have not begun printing or arranged a distribution yet. After that is worked out, I would start to buy some digital kiosks and sell space on those too.
I have no money do a print with or kiosks to put the papers in, I'm new to this but don't plan to give up. However I am having a nearly impossible time getting people to buy my adpsace. Not enough money is one of my problems but not all, so is it the businesses I'm trying to reach? anyone know how I can sell this?

I don't understand the kiosk idea?

**ChrisHeggem** · 01-13-2011 11:53 AM

Online marketing is a tricky thing for local businesses because you are competing head to head with larger chains and brands. Trying to be competitive with SEO and advertising will be hard, however, lots of local businesses are able to leverage their customers to generate more traffic from the social Web. Several restaurants and specialty shops gives discounts to their customers if they check-in on Facebook, FourSquare or some other geo-location network.

They give me 10% off my purchase in exchange for a promotion from me to my personal network. Not a bad deal for anybody.

**zeppelin2036** · 01-13-2011 09:16 PM

Originally Posted by rogercbryan

I don't understand the kiosk idea?

The kisok would be a digital lcd screen that plays ads. I'm selling space, but for now all I can afford to do is online space on a site I built, should I be mentioning the loneg term plan for this on my site? also want let people seel directly on the site for a fee? I would do this now if I knew how set up the web design and credit card billing, it might do better? am i right in concluding that online only space for a fee is next to impossible to sell while being on paper might be different?

**rogercbryan** · 01-14-2011 08:21 AM

Originally Posted by zeppelin2036

The kisok would be a digital lcd screen that plays ads. I'm selling space, but for now all I can afford to do is online space on a site I built, should I be mentioning the loneg term plan for this on my site? also want let people seel directly on the site for a fee? I would do this now if I knew how set up the web design and credit card billing, it might do better? am i right in concluding that online only space for a fee is next to impossible to sell while being on paper might be different?

Do you actually think anyone is going to stop and look at ads in a store like this? I don't think this is a good idea. People have zoned out to in their face advertising. The 'kiosk' idea is being done in taxi cabs in NYC where you have a captive audience that can not ignore the ads being played (well actually they can shut the monitor off). Successful adverting in this arena needs to be passive and blended. This means that in the taxi cab they are doing 30 second news clips then 30 seconds of advertising. With that they are also advertising shows and restaurants in NYC which is something the people in the taxi might be interested in.

If you were to take your idea one step further and go to 47" LCD's that were playing advertisements for products inside the store where they were placed you would have a better idea... so good in fact... stores are already doing that.

I like the way you are thinking but you need to tweak your idea... find a niche.. find a way to do passive blended advertising... if you can do that you might have something.

**zeppelin2036** · 01-14-2011 09:50 PM

i actually wasn't just going to put them in stores, anyway thats something i would do later on, right now what is succeful out here is printed newspapers with business ads in them, they would be a great place to start, it seems though that evryone out here does not trust online either, they prefer paper so i will give them paper.

**rogercbryan** · 01-15-2011 09:18 AM

Originally Posted by zeppelin2036

i actually wasn't just going to put them in stores, anyway thats something i would do later on, right now what is succeful out here is printed newspapers with business ads in them, they would be a great place to start, it seems though that evryone out here does not trust online either, they prefer paper so i will give them paper.

I'm not sure I understand this either? First off I'm trying to help. I'm trying to focus your idea on something that will work. Where are you from? In the US print media has been in steep decline for a decade. This includes newspapers and magazines. The ones that have been successful are the ones that have moved to online income streams. You mentioned that people don't trust what is online... that is only partially true. People have learned to tune out the garbage. Now they go to only trusted sources for their news and information... the key is to become a trusted source.

So what is your idea here... to start a newspaper? To start an advertising firm that sells newspaper spots? Or to become a broker for the newspaper selling their space? All of which are Billion Dollar Industries... none of them are easy but you can make money.

**veikoh** · 01-15-2011 09:52 AM

I think Google has implemented local business marketing very well. When you are making a search using a keywords that are supposed to be local, it shows local business listings at first.

**rogercbryan** · 01-15-2011 10:07 AM

Originally Posted by veikoh

I think Google has implemented local business marketing very well. When you are making a search using a keywords that are supposed to be local, it shows local business listings at first.

You are absolutely correct here. I've been working on this for three months now and have just had my first client reach the top of the rankings using their places page. The very first day they got there they received a catering order for 130 people. The new local places page has a trust element to it because the page is a google page and not a clients website. People trust the content on the google places pages more.

There is a lot of money to be made selling a service that sets up peoples companies for this!

**zeppelin2036** · 01-16-2011 01:52 AM

Originally Posted by rogercbryan

I'm not sure I understand this either? First off I'm trying to help. I'm trying to focus your idea on something that will work. Where are you from? In the US print media has been in steep decline for a decade. This includes newspapers and magazines. The ones that have been successful are the ones that have moved to online income streams. You mentioned that people don't trust what is online... that is only partially true. People have learned to tune out the garbage. Now they go to only trusted sources for their news and information... the key is to become a trusted source.

So what is your idea here... to start a newspaper? To start an advertising firm that sells newspaper spots? Or to become a broker for the newspaper selling their space? All of which are Billion Dollar Industries... none of them are easy but you can make money.

Well, to explain why a paper for now, I live in a rural area north of Dallas, TX. Out here there are 3 of these papaers like this and only one os shrinking really bad, the others seem to have taken its business. And the reason I start here is alot to do with the fact that I had to start my own business since no jobs were available, and I am not able to get a loan right now. although I had
a more diverse idea in mind than this, I could only start it on a shestring budget which meant I hard to start only one service at first then I woiuld new ones later, with the longer term plan to have an online marketplace like ebay and some other stuff, other ecommerce services and so on.. So I would add these as it became possible, It's very flexible with alot of potential. I want the print to be a place to start and feel fairly certain that it will work and coupled with online adspace service it will have an on AND offline exsitence.

**zeppelin2036** · 01-16-2011 01:56 AM

Originally Posted by rogercbryan

You are absolutely correct here. I've been working on this for three months now and have just had my first client reach the top of the rankings using their places page. The very first day they got there they received a catering order for 130 people. The new local places page has a trust element to it because the page is a google page and not a clients website. People trust the content on the google places pages more.

There is a lot of money to be made selling a service that sets up peoples companies for this!

How much does it cost to get ranked on the first page? and can you tell me more about this local search listing?

**rogercbryan** · 01-16-2011 09:59 AM

Originally Posted by zeppelin2036

How much does it cost to get ranked on the first page? and can you tell me more about this local search listing?

Each city/search term is different... You can check out some of my services on RCBryan.com - RCBryan.com Provides Business Consulting Services for the Small Business Entrepreneur

If you can tell me a little more about your business I can get your more accurate pricing
- Where are you located
- What is your website
- What industry are you in

These three pieces of info will get me started

**Dollarmaker** · 01-17-2011 05:02 PM

Hi,
I studied marketing in Berlin and work with SEO-tools. It's a good business and you earn good money, if you're in the right company.
Maybe I can travel to America, just have to do a free green card lottery application. We'll see...