Simple Online Marketing Guidance for the Local Business Owner
"We show local business owners how to master online marketing
themselves with easy-to-follow, step-by-step
video tutorials and written guides."
This website is for every business owner who can answer yes to ANY of the following:
- You operate in a LOCAL market
- You don't even have a website
Yes, we will show you how your company can rank high on Google when you don't even have a company website!
- You continue to invest in expensive, yet ineffective offline marketing because you don't really understand online marketing
When was the last time you used your Yellow Pages? Why pay for expensive advertising just because it worked in the past?
- You know online marketing is the future ... you just don't know where to start
This is the NUMBER 1 reason small business owners stick to marketing offline, rather than online where most of their customers now make their purchasing decisions
- You don't have the budget to pay professionals to manage your online marketing
You may even have tried this in the past, without results, and now have a fear of being burned twice
- You don't have the budget or technical knowledge to continually pay for traffic to your website via pay-per-click etc
- You don't want to be tied into large costs or lengthy contracts for professional help
As a local business owner you will be acutely aware of the massive switch from offline to online activity by your customer base. People no
longer trawl through the Yellow Pages when they need a service, just so they can call some faceless company based on a few words and a phone
number. In fact how many put the Yellow Pages straight in the bin these days?
And we all know the newspapers are struggling. Not because there's no news these days - it's because their advertising revenues are way down because companies realise their customers aren't looking there any more. Who, these days, would choose a company from the three that are advertising when they can find 50 to choose from online ....... then visit the companies websites and read online customer reviews to help with the buying decision?
With the dawn of the smartphone internet usage is booming. There are 4 billion mobiles phones in use today. Already, a quarter of these are web-enabled smartphones. Mobile internet is set to overtake desktop internet in the next 2 - 3 years. In fact research by Morgan Stanley suggests that global shipping of smartphones will exceed that of desktop PCs and notebook PCs combined by 2012!
This all points to a marketplace within the next couple of years that will be predominantly online. These people, your future customers, won't
even consider using Yellow Pages or a newspaper. Many of the internet generation will have NEVER used Yellow Pages or even bought a newspaper (why do
that when you can visit your chosen newspaper's website for free on your smartphone, right?)
FACT: small business marketing is changing rapidly and many local business owners risk being left behind due to either a reluctance to change, not knowing how to change, or a combination of the two. Did you know:
In April 2011 Google published a document called 'The Mobile Movement - Understanding Smartphone Users'. No local business owner can afford to ignore the facts presented in this research.
We have listed some of the statistics below - the ones we believe are most relevant to the local business owner. Together they demonstrate where your customers are heading before making their buying decisions ... and if you're not there waiting for them you will never have the chance to sell to them.
FACT: 89% of smartphone owners use their phone throughout the day (other than for making calls). It has become part of their everyday lives and is second nature to them. These owners wouldn't dream of looking for a local product or service in a phone book or newspaper.
FACT: 77% access search engines via their phone.
FACT: 95% seek information about local businesses or services. (Thai restaurants in Liverpool, electricians in Coventry etc)
FACT: As a result of seeking local information 77% contact a business and 44% make a purchase.
FACT: 36% take IMMEDIATE action and 88% take action within a day
FACT: 79% of smartphone users rely on their phone to help with shopping. For instance, 54% use it to locate a company, 49% use it to compare prices and 48% use it to find and use offers.
FACT: 85% of all mobile devices will be web-enabled by next year.
FACT: Even without mobile phones, 1 in 5 of all searches conducted on desktop PCs include a location - suggesting these are searches for either a local product or service.
Summary
- Web-enabled smartphone sales are expected to exceed sales of desktop/notebook PCs next year.
- Smartphone users use the internet throughout the day, wherever they are.
- They expect the convenience of IMMEDIATE information. Waiting till they get home to dig out the Yellow Pages is not an option.
- They use the internet to find local businesses, read reviews of those businesses and find those with offers in place. You may be the best salesperson in the world but if you don't make the cut in this process then you simply won't receive a call in the first place.
We show local business owners how to market their business online
The facts above may have come as a shock to you. Or maybe they just confirmed what you already feared. Either way, the time is rapidly approaching where the majority of customers (regardless of the industry) will make their buying decisions online.
There are many positives to this - restaurants can offer a discount to a group of people in the bar just down the road looking for something to eat right now. Local tradesmen can instill confidence in potential customers with a list of positive reviews from existing customers - that alone could transform the number of people calling you. Add in a call-to-action like a discount/offer and you could be streets ahead of your local competitors.
But to market your business effectively online you need to know how to .... and that's where we come in. Unlike most online marketing companies, Be-Seen Marketing doesn't charge hundreds of pounds a month to do the work for you ... and here's why:
- You can do most, if not all, of it yourself once you know how .. it's not hard .. and it won't take up a lot of your time.
- When you pay those hefty monthly fees your business is only one of any number of clients. With our ongoing guidance YOU will be 100% focused on YOUR business.
- Most local businesses simply can't afford to spend £100's a month in professional marketing fees ...
- ... And even if they can they will be on a financial treadmill that never ends as they will never gain the knowledge to take control themselves.
How we help local businesses
We provide local business owners with guides to the most important elements of online marketing, telling you not only the 'how' but the 'why'. This means you will understand the reasons behind what you are doing and over time your knowledge will grow and grow.
Our guides are supported by simple, step-by-step video presentations that show you in detail exactly what you need to do. These video demonstrations are typically recorded live, using a real local businesses. They don't assume any previous knowledge or groundwork - so if a video lasts 30 minutes then it should only take YOU 30 minutes to do the same for your business.
We also ensure you keep up to date with the rapidly changing world of online marketing. What works today may not work so well (or at all) in the future but our members are kept up to date with such changes via regular newsletters.
On the next page you can see all the topics we will cover in our members area plus order a FREE REPORT explaining how just one of these initiatives could see your business ranked on Page 1 of Google ..... even if you don't have a company website!