Have you been working hard to get your company listed in all the directories and search engines but the flood of new traffic & sales still seems to elude your small business?

Today I want to dig into the topic so you can use local search marketing in your small business and go beyond just getting listed.

Local search marketing has come alive in the last five years and with all the new web tools at your disposal it’s so much easier than what we went through during the first ten years of the Internet.

Back in the beginning at The Tiny Store we didn’t have the entire local channels that you have access to today. It was the old search engines and it was quite a different game.

Today you have lots of options and opportunities that allow your small business to be visible and accessible, but the real question is this; are you capturing, connecting and cultivating every possible prospect in your target market?

As a small business owner you want solutions and results with any thing you do with marketing. You need results and not some guessing game, right?

Well, the great thing about the web is that it has evolved to the point where you as small business owner can micro-target your market. This means that all the local listing work you’ve been doing can be put to good use if you setup and establish what I refer to as a Lead Capture Funnel.

So for the remainder of this post I want to share how you can go beyond getting listed in the directories and search engines and target market, so you can see some sales coming your way.

After all you are in business to make a profit and you need sales to see one.

So let me share just one way to go about doing this…

Send out a simple survey to your existing customers and offer a gift or incentive to increase their response rates. Ask your customers a series of short questions, like do they use their mobile phone for web access and how often do they do it?

Now you’ll have to get creative and come up with simple questions like these so you know what your customer is thinking and this will allow you to better target your market.

This information is so critical to have and can bring little gems and nuggets that will prove to be very valuable in the short and long-term.

On another note:

Having a solid grasp about direct response marketing will take ‘Getting Listed’ to making sales and developing a list of subscribers.

 

You can get listed everywhere and be visible like the tallest building in the city, but this doesn’t guarantee that you will make a nickel or see a prospect walking through your front door.

What you have to do is attract the searcher, have a way to capture him or her and this is where direct response marketing comes into play.

So my recommendation to you is to study and learn direct response marketing and implement as much as you can in your small business.

The web is one big direct response ocean, so get listed, start fishing and capture as many new customers as you can afford to sell and service. And by the way – if any of the above is making sense but you need help putting all the pieces together – connect with The SmallBiz Mechanic. It will be worth it.

Dave Krygier
Publisher