BigHef

Something I am continually refining is how I'm getting my name and services in front of local businesses.

Refining because there's a lot of great ideas around here, but you still have to pick and choose which methods you use into your overall strategy.

My main strategy is using a local website to get 'in' with local businesses.

One cold call strategy which has worked extremely well for me is ringing to 'confirm the business details' for a new listing page on my site.

I pick out the businesses I want to work with (eg I might find them in the Yellow Pages with no website listed) and I ring to offer them a spot on the new page I'm building for their industry. I confirm I have their details right - I don't want to put the wrong details up right? Is this the best phone number, is your address still this, what's your website address? Oh you don't have a website...

Can you see where this is going?

Having a local website/portal can be of value even if you never make any money directly from it - it positions you as a local with genuine care for your community. Of course ... you can make as much of one as you like, but it can simply be the perfect talking point to get you in front of business owners.

Buford Mobley

Is your local website simply a listing of local businesses?

BigHef

It can be to get started.

Mine is expanding into local business coupons, local business reviews, local weather and local news.

You can do as little or as much as you like with them - you can use it merely as a piece of your cold calling puzzle, or you could ramp it up into a full scale business - the possibilities are endless.

Nail Yener

BigHef, this is a great idea and I have a similar idea to take into action soon. The way you approach business owners is brilliant; no business owner would resist talking to you when you show them you are doing something for their business for free.

AussieT

Good idea BigHef

Do you have a link so we can see one of these local biz sites?

Do you set one up for your city and have pages for different services like plumbers and electricians?

Or do you set up a separate site for each trade/service?

BigHef

Thanks.

Hopefully you'll understand that I don't want to post a link, but I just grab a premium wordpress template and set it up myself.

I have one site for the city. I build one page per service and obviously optimise it well for the search engines. I have generic listing pages done up so it's easy to just whack up another page for each industry.

I see a lot of people looking for the perfect template set up for local portals etc. I prefer to just grab a nice looking theme, customise the front page, and then just play around with pages/posts/categories to achieve what I want. Just take a bit of time to think it through when you first set it up, then don't worry too much more about it - just get up and going.

Really - a nice clean wordpress theme is much better than a ton of the crowded, overloaded portal templates I see out there anyway.

And the cleaner your site - the better it works on mobile devices

thesorcerersapprentice

An interesting and novel approach. What is your success rate though in converting these prospects into clients?

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scottuga44

I am modifying this approach and applying it to my business as a lead generator. Thank you so much BigHef this is exactly what I was looking for.

BigHef

When I come across owners who want a website, the conversion is good - 1 in ~3 or so. The beauty is I can find out are they looking to get one done, while positioning myself as an expert at the same time.

If they're not looking for a website, well I have their details to follow up in the future, and I have that whole law of reciprocity thing working for me

BigHef

No problem I hope things go well for you - I'd love to hear your modification if it works out well.

Tim Dini

Thank you for this concept!

I've been working on local SEO techniques (Google pages, etc.) for my own company. I now have a few business associates who have asked me what I'm doing, so I've share with them some of the marketing techniques. I have found that most of them first need help with their websites, if they have one at all.

This is a great business ice breaker idea.

Thanks again.

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BigHef

Thanks Tim.

You've pointed out another quick advantage of this method. If they in fact do have a website which you didn't come across, you can

A. Simply ask if they're happy with it
B. Mention you couldn't fin it when you were looking up their details ... Which can be a lead into a whole SEO discussion...

You'd be amazed at where this simple conversation starter can take you - simply from getting you talking with businesses!

Good luck

pruitts

What was your local business?

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danielkanuck

I like your cold calling approach. Any way we can take a look at some of your sample sites?

BigHef

Thanks, but sorry I want to keep the site on the downlow at the moment.

Don't get hung up on the site. Grab a theme, put some pictures of your town on there, make a page for each industry, whack some names on it, SEO your pages and you're away.

The key is contacting business owners and selling them OTHER services, such as web design, facebook, SMS etc ... not necessarily your local website.

I think you'll find that in time your local site will start to attract visitors and you may want to ramp it up, but the key in this strategy is selling owners on other services - in this example, web design.