Can my website have effective
LOCAL market reach?

Many small business owners and professionals, when prompted to make an investment in a website for their business or practice, often throw out the excuse "we are too small to need a website." What they're really thinking is: why would a business like mine need a website? Because they are money-sensitive (who isn't?), they are afraid they wont see any results.

They couldn't be more wrong. More and more small business are using the Web successfully to reach a tightly defined local audience. Let me give you some examples:

1. Katz's Deli (they make the best pastrami sandwiches in the whole world) found at www.homedelivery.com/katzdeli offers local delivery anytime between 8am-6pm, and also has a selection of meats, apparel and condiments available to ship by mailorder. Lest you think they are alone, visit www.homedelivery.com enter your zipcode and the type of items you are looking to have delivered (butcher, gourmet, wine or more) and they'll show you the local stores that can handle your order, and get you fed! If you are a merchant to offer any foodstuff or any of their other categories, become a member - its worth it. www.delibistro.co.uk does the same; get your order in by 9:30, and they'll deliver it at lunchtime.
   
   
2. Many opt-in email lists ask for zip code as part of their demographic profiling. You can call a list broker such as Netcreations and ask for names that fall within your geographic area. This is usually done by SCF (the first three digits of the zip code), so if you were in Brooklyn, you'd ask for all names that fit your target audience that were in "112". An email offer sent to these people could drive traffic to a local small business, especially if there's a special offer.
   
   
3. A landscape contractor could outfit their trucks with large portable billboards that boldly proclaim: VISIT US AT WWW.LANDSCAPEKING.COM AND GET ROYAL TREATMENT. They might also post signs at jobsite and drives prospects to their site where they could show examples of jobs, explains the design build process, all building credibility before the next design appointment.
   
   
4. As everybody knows, it makes little sense for a small deli shop to advertise on a national search engine like Yahoo or AltaVista -- far too many of the people seeing the ad are outside of the store's area. On the other hand, it is infinitely easier to get your website listed on the regional sections of these search engines. If I were, for example, a mortgage broker who served customers in Tarrytown, New York, I'd submit my website to Yahoo and target my submission for Real Estate: Tarrytown, and would have no competition.
   
   
5. Virtually every state in the United States has a local portal site and most of the larger cities do as well. The number may be small compared to the millions and millions that national search engines contain, but remember that these are very targeted listings and are usually very easy to get into. Regional search engines may not be getting anywhere near the number of visitors as the national ones, but the visitors are usually from the area the store is trying to reach, and the numbers are much more than many other forms of advertising that businesses take advantage of. For example, NJave.com gets more visitors than the amount of people that will see the store's ad in a weekly newspaper, more than the amount of people to see a billboard on the highway, even more than will see the store's commercial on local cable television.
   
   
6. Build up a good mailing list of local customers. Mail special offers to the people that sign up, but not too frequently with the condition that in order to redeem the offer, they can only be used in the store -- not for mail order.
   
   
7. Teach! By gosh, if you're good at what you do, then go and teach. Here in New York City, besides the dozens of colleges and technical schools, there are a myriad of adult education programs offering workshops on everything from spiritual healing to dancing. Contact a few, ask for the person who books speakers and teachers, and ask how you can apply to teach a workshop in your field. Spice it up by offering to do the first workshop for free even! If you can spare one or two nights per month, you can teach a 60-to-90 minute workshop, and pass out your businesscard (with your website URL on the card of course) at the end to everyone. Now tell me, when your student needs someone of your particular expertise, whom do you think they will call or recommend?
   
   
8. If you choose to make use of coupons that can only be redeemed in the store, either for slow inventory movers or for loss leaders, you make sure that people start using the website. But make sure to code the coupons so that you can track promotion efforts.
   
   
9. I heard recently of a golf resort that had hard-to-predict blocks of unsold times, but didn't want loudly proclaim the word 'sale' for fear of tarnishing their conservation reputation. They sent offers for their slow times to their email list of local players they had built up, positioning them as "members only exclusive offers" and usually never had a problem booking their time slots.
   
   
10. Have a contest and invite people to register at your website! Many companies are more than willing to sponsor a prize for an online contest. The company receives exposure on your site; it gives them a chance to create brand awareness and name identity for their non-competing product or service, and it gives them an opportunity to display their product or service and generate interest in it. After the contest, you and your sponsor can exchange information with each other and each grow your customer base by adding the new contact names to your respective marketing list.

I can go on, but I only wanted to stimulate your thinking. My goals is not to catch a fish for you, but teach you how to fish - how to create a mindset, a better way of thinking. Yes, your business can effectively reach your local market and make lots of money in the process!