Preface
to How to Promote Your
Local Business on the Internet

Local business actually get significant business from the Web these days.

Question: If I own a local business that sells traditional goods or services, what good is the Internet to me?

Answer: If you live in a city of any size -- especially in an area where new people are moving in -- people are increasingly using the Internet to find local businesses. That may not be your preferred mode of research, but for many, especially younger people, the Internet is their key to knowledge -- both local and global.

In July 2004, Nielsen//NetRatings new MegaView Search service found that 24.4% of searchers on major search engines conducted searches that were local in scope, averaging 4.6 searches per searcher. In September 2004, a Kelsey Group-BizRate.com study found that more than 74% of respondents said they had conducted local searches. The study confirmed that 20% of all searches among respondents were local. Using the Internet to find local businesses is now mainstream and will only grow in frequency.

Businesses that can be helped by local Internet marketing include: chiropractors, computer retailers, travel agents, locksmiths, massage therapists, insurance agents, real estate agents, mortgage brokers, hardware retailers, plumbers, auto repairs, physicians, dentists, florists, limousine services, accountants, auto dealers, lawyers, restaurants, and movers, among others.

Fortunately, for a local business you don't need a huge, complex, and expensive website to be effective. You're not competing with the best of the best nationally, you just need to present yourself well to local residents and those within driving distance.

This book will explain how to use the Internet to market a local or regional business. It is not, however, designed to be a dumbed down guide for people who know nothing. I'll assume some understanding of how the Internet works (what a domain name is, etc.) and that you are willing to learn. There are many books that explain the basics so I won't cover them, but will focus on the particular Internet marketing techniques that are effective for local businesses.

Nor will this book describe all the traditional off-line ways to market your business. You'll need to use many of these to market successfully locally -- since the Internet is just one piece (though a growing piece) of the local marketing puzzle. If you need a great book on traditional local marketing, I heartily recommend Jay Conrad Levinson's Guerrilla Marketing (third edition, Houghton Mifflin, 1998), ISBN 0395906253, 400 pages, paperback.

But few books approach the Internet from a local marketing standpoint. The book you're reading is designed to be a brief, focused, no-hype how-to-do-it guide to marketing a local business via the Internet. It is meant to be suggestive rather than comprehensive since every aspect of the Internet is changing -- especially local Internet advertising -- so expect to use this book as a jumping off point for the areas that interest you.

I've been writing about Internet marketing since my newsletter Web Marketing Today began in 1995. Most of what I've studied pertains to successful national and international online businesses that sell products or services. But I've also worked with local Internet marketing, using a website to attract people to a local church as my current local project. So I speak not just as a theorist, but as a fellow practitioner of the art and science of local Internet marketing.

My hope for you is that you'll learn how to do effective Internet marketing for you local business and so increase the number of new and returning customers 25% or so. How's that for a modest but realistic goal?

God bless you,
Dr. Ralph F. Wilson
Editor, Web Marketing Today
January 26, 2005

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