Monday, October 19, 2009

Small Business Internet Marketing: Identify Local Opportunities

It’s time for local small businesses to get on the internet marketing wagon. Just about every business has a need to identify internet marketing opportunities. It is not only for ecommerce, but also for brand awareness, lead generation, and reducing acquisition cost. It is just as critical for small businesses as any other company to be competitive on the web.

Generally, local customers would prefer to use local service providers or get products from a local store. It is easier for major corporations to compete for online or internet marketing space in major cities like Philadelphia, New York City or Chicago because they have the cash-flow to do it. They usually want little to do with small markets, what a surprise! Is that where small local business reside? Most small businesses operate in a 15-30 miles radius around their office location. This means that if your business is located in Reading, PA, you can curve out a respectable niche within the Berks/Lehigh markets with limited competition for the “major” cities. This is such a great way to increase your business and the internet should be utilized to its fullest potential as a marketing tool.

Not only is internet marketing effective for brand awareness, but it can also help to develop automated processes (efficiency = productivity). An example of this would be a contact form on your website. The contact form could the lead to your email database, completion of the form generates a trigger email (Thank you!), which populates directly to your email service provider tool, and you can continue to market & nurture the leads with a newsletter or promotions!

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