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Part 1 - Growing Your Business Online

This is part one of a multi-part course titled Internet Marketing For Small Business.
The remaining parts of this course will be published over the next few weeks.

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The question I get asked the most often is “if I own a local business that sells traditional goods or services what good is the Internet to me?” Well the web might not be where you do business or how you find the products and services that you use but it has become the resource that an increasing number of consumers and businesses do use. Regardless of the size of the city in which you live or the kind of business you have the Internet is increasing where people find information.

The Internet Revolution – and It’s Going Local

In 2007 over $250 billion dollars was spent on-line. That number doesn’t include the amount of local business influenced by the web. It doesn’t represent how much business is being directed to your business or that of your competitors. In a down economy getting your share of this business and being the company that people seek out on the web is more important than ever. It may be the critical success factor to not only prospering but staying in business during these difficult economic times.

The Internet is fundamentally changing how people find suppliers. The Yellow Pages, the big yellow book, is being used less and less. People are using the web for their searches. People use websites like Google, Yahoo! and MSN Search to

• find answers
• buy products
• and locate professional services

Consumers, both business-to-business buyers and individuals want to know about you before they ever call you or enter your store. Consumers expect to learn about you first - your locations, your products, your hours of operation - before they will do business with you.

Right now there is a important trend happening - quietly. The web is going local. It’s not fancy. It’s certainly not flashy. It’s just a fact. The biggest Internet names are creating local sites…Yahoo Local, Google Local, and MSN Local. They see the change…and they see the danger so many are ignoring. Regular advertising such as Yellow pages and newspapers is becoming ineffective. What worked just a few years ago isn’t reliable anymore. Being on the Internet and having a website used to be optional, especially for a local business. Now promoting your business is quickly becoming the backbone of any good marketing campaign.

Nielsen NetRatings, a major Marketing Research firm, reports that 70% of people use the web to find local businesses for the services and products they want. 70% of your customers, 70% of your prospects are using the web, 70%. This means that the lion share of your market, the biggest part of every dollar is being either spent or researched by buyers on the web. This business and these dollars are either going to go to you OR your competition.

So what will the Internet do for a local business? It will help you get your share of the 70% of the dollars being influenced by the Web. Unfortunately most small business are reacting slowly or badly, by either not having a web presence at all or not thinking things through. It’s common for a small business to slap up a poorly conceived website, hoping that somehow people will find it and become new clients. This is an opportunity for individuals that take their time and use smart tactics to create a purposeful website that drives new customers to their local business.

30 Minutes Is All It Takes

I know that the Internet can be a confusing place full of conflicting advice, hype and jargon. Please don’t let the Internet intimidate you. A local business has a very simple goal: to get more business. That means that you don’t have to learn

• eCommerce
• on-line advertising
• programming
• or the other confusing issues of being on-line

In fact most of what you already do everyday - marketing, direct mail, email, working with customers, prospecting - has prepared you for going on the web. All most people need to successfully grow their business on the Internet are some resources and the knowledge of how to use them. The purpose of these articles is to show you how you can get your business on-line quickly, easily and inexpensively.

The ’secret’ to getting more business is to deepen your relationships with existing customers and to find new customers. This will involve two simple things: better communications through email and having a value based website - more on this later.

You can accomplish both of those items in under 30 minutes. There are new web tools, such as autoresponders, website templates and other resources that make using the Internet easy. You no longer need to be a programmer, graphics designer or webmaster to use the Internet. You also don’t have to spend a fortune to go online. By having a website and communicating regularly with your customers and prospects you will

• Give reasons for prospects and customers to return to your business
• Motivate prospects to use your products and services
• Increase the value of your current products and services
• Extend your products and offerings beyond what you currently selling

The Internet rewards people who maintain a web presence for a long time with regular updates. This means that over time as competitors come into your marketplace you can remain the leader because you have first mover advantage. You established your website first and enjoy the constant flow of traffic that comes from having a long standing web presence.

It’s Not Too Late To Get Into Online Marketing

There is no good excuse for not having some kind of online marketing. Just having a website that shares information about your business is a start. A website can - and should be - leveraged by using other marketing methods, such as including your web address on business cards, letter heads and brochures. The real power comes when you use the web as a marketing process to help generate a constant stream of eager clients just dying to purchase from you. While this is not a straight forward process the principles behind it are quite easy to follow and merely draw from the skills you already have.

If all this sounds a little confusing and vague don’t worry, I’ll be explaining the principles to make the Internet work for you as a marketing tool. This is the first article in a multi-part series to teach small business owners the process of creating a website that sells and brings in more business to a local store, office, or service company by using online marketing. The important thing to understand is that right now is the best time to start building an online marketing system. I guarantee there are people out there searching the web for what you offer.

Read the next article in this series Part 2 - Preparing to Use the Internet to find out the ‘right’ thinking needed for a local business. There are many mistakes people make when starting out - the ‘ready, fire, aim’ method. With a little planning your web efforts can be more than a static site that exists out there in ‘cyberspace’ but does nothing to increase business.