1. Marketing Your Local Business Starts with Your Website
Web Marketing Today Premium, Issue 86, Winter 2005
 Competition for your website is limited to your local area. |
Competition for local or regional businesses extends to the practical driving range of people living in the area. Fortunately, you don't have to compete against the best nationally (like national websites must). Rather, you must present your business, products, and services in a convincing manner to people who live in your area.
The Purpose of Your Website
The most important decision you'll make is to determine exactly why you need a website. What is your exact purpose?
- To attract people to your office, store, or shop. For most local businesses, this is the chief goal -- to get more customers. This will be the focus of the book. Stores, restaurants, auto dealerships, beauty salons, and hundreds of other kinds of businesses can benefit.
- To facilitate in-store visits. Providing store locations, driving directions, store hours, will make it easier for people to visit you.
- To motivate people to telephone you. Certain kinds of businesses are looking for leads or appointments, such as attorneys, physicians, dentists, insurance agencies, CPAs, and remodeling contractors. A website can certainly help.
- To keep existing customers coming back. It is quite possible using Internet marketing to increase the visits existing customers make to your store, just by keeping in touch. Getting sign-ups for a monthly e-mail newsletter will help. You also might develop an online FAQ or Frequently Asked Questions section to help customers troubleshoot problems they may be experiencing. It'll save you time on the phone and help your customers get answers quickly.
- To sell products online. If you plan on serving just your local area, you probably won't sell online. Occasionally, however, you may want to allow local ordering and delivery of pizza or office supplies. If you do want to sell online, I've written a number of books that can help you -- just not this one.
- To earn money advertising. This isn't realistic, unless you are a large portal site in a metropolitan area.
So which one or two of these is your goal? Be very specific, since a clear focus on your goal is vital in building a successful website.
Writing a Website
I know it doesn't sound very exciting, but writing is the chief task in developing a website. You can hire a website developer to make it look pretty and put it on the web, perhaps, but a web developer won't write the copy for you. You'll need to do this yourself -- before you put up your website.
Fortunately, your task is pretty straightforward, to convince site visitors that:
- You have what they are looking for. Describe your services and products and how you will meet your customers' needs.
- You are trustworthy. Tell them about the passion that motivated you to start the business -- this adds to your credibility.
- You have good standing in the community. Mention here your membership in local organizations such as the Chamber of Commerce, the Better Business Bureau, etc.
- You treat customers right. Explain your customer service policy and returns policies. Be generous here. Stingy policies create mistrust.
The typical small local business website might look something like this:
Of course, your business may need more than this. If you sell online, you'll want an ordering system or catalog. But these are the basics. Large organizations, such as hospitals and schools, may have quite complex sites. But for 80% of the local small businesses you can get by with a website of 6 to 10 pages.
Why don't you pause now and outline the website you think you might need.
Your Home Page
Your home page is important in several ways. It should:
- Present an attractive introduction to your business. Try to include an attractive photo. Money spent on a logo or the banner design of your company name could enhance it.
- State the nature of your business -- your unique sales proposition (USP) -- in one or two sentences. Take some time to hone a statement of what makes your business unique and put it as the first thing on your home page. Don't make it difficult for a visitor to figure out what you do.
- Provide an index to the other webpages on your site. Explain clearly and simply what a visitor can find on your website.
Don't include logos or graphics which don't help you tell your story or add local credibility. Say only what is necessary. Keep the home page clean, clear, attractive and relatively short.
Photos
I encourage you to use several photos of your business storefront, staff, products or services, etc. Pictures tell a thousand words. But be very careful to have someone take the pictures who has some experience with photography. You don't want mere snapshots, but well-designed pictures that help tell your story. A local professional (or proficient amateur) photographer can help you here. You can also illustrate your site with stock royalty-free photos from Clipart.com or Photos.com.
Don't use clip art, however. Photos on your site look must more classy. And don't use background images, no matter how tempting. It's usually a sure sign of an amateur site.
Domain Name
You'll need your own domain name that differentiates your website. Fortunately, domain names have become quite inexpensive -- about $8 to $15 per year. I recommend a domain name that is (1) memorable, (2) related to your business or business name, (3) short, and (4) easy to spell if someone were to hear it spoken over the phone. The reason for a short domain name is that it is less likely to be inadvertently misspelled. But choose clear and memorable over short, if you have to choose. Don't purchase an expensive domain name -- it won't bring you any more local business. These days, domain names are often included with web hosting packages.
Maps
You may think that everyone in town knows how to find you, but there are always people moving in who don't know the territory. A map that shows your location is vital. Above the map put your exact address and perhaps driving instructions and freeway off ramps for people coming from different directions.
Many small businesses just copy and use the kind of map produced by MapQuest (www.mapquest.com) or Yahoo! Local Maps (http://maps.yahoo.com), but this isn't really legal. However, you can legally link to an appropriate map on the MapQuest site, using the long URL in the Address window of the map page you like best.
I recommend that you don't rely just on written directions, but have an actual map on your website. A graphic arts firm (or art student at a local community college) could draw you a simplified map of your area for $25 to $50. Then you could scan it in to your computer and upload it to your website.
Site Development Tools
Using current online tools, you can develop a perfectly acceptable website yourself. But you may need some help to put your best foot forward.
An increasing number of web hosting services provide online website building tools that use templates to give your site an instant professional look. Then you fill in some blanks on the web interface of the website building tool, pasting in your text and uploading and positioning your photos.
Let me offer several recommendations:
Yahoo! Small Business Web Hosting (www.wilsonweb.com/afd/yahoohosting.htm). They provide web hosting basics for $11.95 per month and up. The reason I select Yahoo! is because they have a superior online website building tool that the novice can use to make a pretty good looking website.
Interland Website Creation and Marketing (www.interland.com/website/diy.asp). Packages start at $15.95 per month and include a Site Builder tool similar to Yahoo's, as well as a basic e-mail listserver.
Ken Evoy's Site Build It! (http://sales.sitesell.com/buildit/). Site Build It! is substantially more than web hosting. It is a carefully selected group of powerful tools to help you build traffic to your website and appear higher in search engine rankings, including an e-mail newsletter listserver, webpage optimizer, and several others. Though specifically designed to develop successful national online businesses, Site Build It! offers several advantages to local businesses, too. Recommended!
You can do this. The first step is a good-looking website that presents your business to your potential customers. The next step is getting people to your website.
For more information on website design see my article: "12 Website Design Decisions Your Business Will Need to Make" (www.wilsonweb.com/articles/12design.htm). Also consider reading a basic book on website design such as Learning Web Design: A Beginner's Guide to HTML, Graphics, and Beyond, by Jennifer Niederst (Second edition; O'Reilly, 2003, ISBN 0596004842, paperback, 488 pages) or Web Design for Dummies, by Lisa Lopuck (For Dummies, 2001, ISBN 0764508237, paperback, 360 pages).
