Local Business Online Marketing – The Times They Are A Changin’

It has never been more important to get your local business online.

OK, that’s nothing new, people have been shouting it from the roof tops for a while.  So why do I say it again now?

Take five minutes to watch what is going on around you…

Right now, back in the real world there are several European countries on the brink of bankruptcy…

Uncle Sam has maxed out his credit cards too…

The gentle flutter of slow economic recovery we have been seeing is just waiting to be crushed again.  It’s bad news for all of us, business owners or not.

If your town is anything like mine, small local businesses aren’t surviving, retail and commercial units are empty or replaced by poundlands and charity shops.

Turn your sights to the online world.

The internet is the biggest social revolution ever.  The speed of development outstrips any other technological advance in the history of man.  In just over 20 short years it has changed the way we communicate, the way we work and the way we play.

And the internet is still changing – and fast.  Right now, old internet is shedding its skin, it’s on the cusp of a big change.  It’s not enough now to just have a website, it hasn’t been for a long time.  In the words of Bob Dylan, “The times they are a changin'”.

Enough doom and gloom!

You already know that your potential customers are not picking up the Yellow Pages directory or looking in the local paper for your business in the numbers they used to.  People are looking for YOUR local business online.

Can people find your local business online?

10 Reasons Why Your Business Needs to be Online

• More than a quarter of adults (27 per cent) own a smart-phone;
• Almost half of teenagers (47 per cent) own a smart-phone;
• More than a quarter of people use their mobile phones for internet access. In the first quarter (Q1) of 2011, 28 per cent of UK adults claimed to do so;

• In the UK, Google has more than three times the user base of any other search engine;
• Social networking accounts for more than a fifth of all time spent on the internet;
• More than 90 per cent of social networking time is spent on Facebook;
• Nearly three-quarters of internet users shop online. Visitors to coupon and reward sites increased by 25 per cent in the year to April 2011, when nearly 40 per cent of internet users visited at least one such site.
• Google had the highest reach of any online brand, with 79% of active internet users visiting its homepage, averaging 133 visits in April 2011.
• Facebook was easily the most popular website in terms of time spent on PCs, accounting for 169 million hours in April 2011 (more than two-and-a-half hours for every person in the UK), ahead of eBay (30 million hours) Google (28 million hours) and YouTube (22 million hours).
• Even the way we read is changing – Amazon.co.uk sells twice as many kindle books as hard-cover books

Is your local business online?

You see, you don’t need to SELL anything online…

…you just need to be where your potential customers are looking for you, on their PC’s, laptops, smartphones and tablets.

…you need to be where they can talk about your business on social and review sites

Is your local business ready to embrace the changes?

Yes?

Call me on 07847 554418 or complete the contact form and find out how you can start getting  YOUR local business online – and be where your customers are looking for you –  for less than the cost of a quarter page single colour advert in Yellow Pages.

Stats from Ofcom Communications Market Report: UK 2011
Top image © Phillie Casablanca