Sharon Packer, CrawleyOnTheWeb, Crawley, West Sussex, UK
Jul 20, 2002, 06:10
My site is designed as a portal site, purely for local Crawley (UK) residents.
We found it very difficult when we started and had to pay for direct mail leafleting in the local area on a rotational basis. We then followed this up by talking to the local clubs and getting them to send our flyers out with their promotions etc.
They have become so competitive that one night club is now getting bags from all the local shops and stuffing them with our leaflets then returning them to the shops for them to distribute. This has all happened in the space of about six weeks.
It has been very difficult for us to source local e-mail addresses. but we now have quite a lot which again will be e-mailed in batches in the same way as the leaflets and at the same time we will advertise for the first time in the local papers.
Search engine placement has been very important in the .co.uk engines. We are now prominent in the .co.uk area.
So far these simple tactics have worked. We opened our online shopping centre and experienced sales through it. The shops are all local companies with online ordering facilities.
