How do you sell listings on an empty directory?

Hi There,

Well, i think you should try to contact some of local businesses. Ask them if they want to list their sites/info there.

I've been working on getting the design right and want to give the impression it's more popular than it is and hopfully this will convert some sales. The traffic is relatively low, about 30 uniques a day. I want the site to eventually run itself but want to get over the hurdle of the site looking rather sparsely popular.

Are there any tricks to overcome this?


iPete

It looks good; there is plenty to show, so I wouldn't worry it looks empty.

What does concern me is your statement that you are desperate for a sale; that puts you at a huge disadvantage. They get hit up constantly by people who radiate desperation, and they hate it.

I wouldn't even ask for a sale to start off; stand out from the hoards of salespeople by giving value first. Give them a free listing for a while, and just introduce yourself, show them what you've done, then build traffic, and offer them services when you are certain it will bring them a good return.

I think you will make vastly better money with less stress if you simply add tons of businesses for free (at least in the beginning), and tell them about it, gauge their gratitude level, and then offer a casual free consultation to the ones that are nicest to you; their gratitude should be your foot in the door for a 10-20 minute consultation. That is where you can really start building mutually profitable relationships.

I agree with Greg, I think giving the first 20-30 businesses a free listing in exchange for a link from their website would be a good way to generate goodwill, traffic and even help your SEO.

I've never made a directory, but I read a lot of threads about this topic. Offer them a lower price so that they buy now. For example, tell them that you plan on building your directory and that people will come to you to find local cafes. Give them 50% for the first 3 months and see if anyone bites.

Or, you can place a few local cafes on your website for free to make your directory look populated and to grow some traffic. Just take them off later once you have a few businesses that actually pay for their listing.

What is the value to the business owner of having a premium listing on a website that gets 30 visitors per day?

The first thing you should do is get traffic. Put all free listings in there if you have to. Have some banner ads. Links to the businesses website, and track clicks. Once you get a viable amount of traffic, you will have hard stats to try to make the sale.

Pretending to have a popular site so you can get someone to pay you is a ruse. You are giving absolutely zero value to your customers. You are only pretending to give them a service so you can get money out of them. You will not have success for very long with that business model.

I have no idea really as I am not in that space. But what I do know is that if you pretend to have a valuable product, and do not, your cusomters will figure this out and be pissed.

I also know that businesses often send out notifications that "Your business' premium listing is expiring. Renew now" to businesses all the time. And I know most of those businesses getting the notifications either never signed up for a premium listing or don't remember signing up for a premium listing. And I further know that some of those businesses do not want their premium listing to expire, so they act.

Nice idea but personally I think your niche is too small, I might be inclined to do places to eat instead, and use cafes as a sub-topic (build another site)

Make a nice page up for all the businesses in your area and start sending them traffic (you must track this)

Get you site to the top of Goog if it isn't already.

After a period of time, (your choice) contact each business owner in turn and tell them you have been sending them customers via your website, (give them the url and the search term that shows your site at the top of G), if you would like to continue to benefit from me doing so there is a nominal charge of x £ per month.

and then something like... "If you are not interested, no problem, thankyou for your time, I will remove your listing immediately and divert the traffic to other businesses in the area (be tactful and don't make it sound like a threat! )

Don't forget to offer them a custom page design to their own spec for more £££, FB page £, website £ etc and you can do this whether or not they want to pay for an ad listing.

Never tried this in the UK, but it works well in the US
Site looks good btw.

Focus on targeted traffic and fill in some listings. Nobody will pay to advertise on an empty site with no traffic.

I used to own an offline local business and was bombarded with sales pitches all the time. I was a good target because I invested in online marketing. I asked every directory what the average number of clicks for my industry/town was for existing listings. Most of the time I never received an answer, so I didn't bother.

If you can get traffic and clicks (track it all), you can sell premium listings. It's the outbound clicks that matter. If you can say X competitor received 43 clicks to their site in one month, you have something to sell. Assuming a click sells for $1, you can reasonably charge $43 per month as long as you continue delivering clicks. Many local clicks are worth more.

Also, when you continue delivering visitors to your advertisers' sites, you'll improve your renewal rates. If they don't renew, let them know how many visitors you sent them during the year. If it's hundreds of visitors, they'll do the math and will likely resign fearing they'll lose customers.

Offer businesses a free listing. Build up free listings first then offer premium listings when you have a few to play off each other.

Also try to get it ranked or get some traffic to it to show businesses the stats the directory is pulling in

Hope this helps

Your site looks nice but I have some questions. Do you own and control the whole site or just the Leeds section of it?

Did you do any keyword or other research to see whether this was something people were searching for online? When I type 'cafes in Leeds' into Google keyword tool it tells me there are only 110 local searches per month (UK).

There are several different ways. First you have to realize that a directory site requires you to put in about 30 days in intense work to make it sellable and presentable, unless you want to cold sell on a pre-launch, which is a bit harder sale... but the thirty days is sooo worth it, because after that, you have something you can make sales with over and over creating residual income.

Even 2 listings per weeks at $97 per month creates over six figures per year in PASSIVE RESIDUAL income within 12 months...and its reasonable to sell 5 per week or ten if you really go at it. even more if you REALLY go at it.

Kudos. I believe Directory sites are the greatest offline business model ever for several reasons.

There are a few different angles to take, in answer to your questions, but I'm going to give you one or two ideas here for creating perceived value, prior to selling... that will make people want to buy premium listings when you are just starting. Also a synergistic way to make a call list and fill your directory with listings before you even start calling...

Also, not to be rude but...

Please no PM's, I cant afford to answer 20 questions via pm on this for 50 people everyday...:

Here's is how you set yourself up to have perceived value that will make people want to buy...

A: Pick the top competitors in town, the most prestigious ones, and give them a free premium listing... create it for them.

B: Contact them and tell them you gave them a free premium listing that you are going to be charging $XXX.XX per year for. Ask them to look it over and make sure you got their info correct and find out if they need any changes. You can do this via email or maybe even lead them through it on the phone.

C: When they write you back they are going to say THANKS!

D: Tell them No Problem "Hey if you want to help me out though, you dont have to, but I could really use any testimonial or thanks I can get, to help me attract other business owners, if you dont mind offering a couple of nice words".

E: They will usually want to help and offer you a couple of lines, but if not you have their thanks, and their permission to list them at least.

NOW, you have something valuable that you can sell off of...

When you contact other business owners you can say "Hey Im ______ with____________ you probably know some of the other business people advertising with us like _________ or ________, or maybe you have been to the site and read their testimonials?"

That gives your premium listings some perceived value.

Now...

Once you have a couple of mock premium clients listings up in each category...

1: Go ahead and take a couple of hours and put up 100 free 3 line listings (Non Premium) for other businesses. You can get them in the phone book, or however you are generating leads. This is also going to be your initial call list. It literally takes 10-20 seconds to put one up. Within an hour or two you can easily put up 100 free 3 line listings copied right out of the phone book.

Now your site isnt empty.

Note: Its most optimal to visit other directory sites and make this list out of people who have premium listings with other directories already, they are proven buyers.

2: Once the listings are up either contact those people through email and ask them to check out their free listing to make sure the information is correct... or call them and do the same, going over their information with them on the phone.

While you are at it tell them that _______ has a "premium listing" and proceed to pitch them on the opportunity to upgrade like Bob did.

I have about 5 other ways of doing this, and some require no cold calling at all, but Im not going to type them all out here.

For now, this is one way to make sure your directory isnt empty when you start selling.

Fill it up with more free NON premium listings for an hour everyday before you start calling, or in the evenings after you have finished calling for the day, then the next day make those listings your call list for the day, and just call to make sure you got their info correct and to offer them an upsell to a premium listing.

Get their email address also and put them on an email list.

Hope this helps.

-John

Ps. The process of getting sellable doesnt have to take 30 days, if you stay on it you can do it in a week.

In a nutshell...create free listings on your site for local businesses...and make your own site your call list. They are half obliged already because you already gave it to them for free with no catch...you are just calling to have them look it over and make sure the info is correct...so it gives you a MUCH better chance of getting your premium pitch in. You will be able to pitch practically every one of them.

Spend an hour per day putting up free listings on your site, and the next day that is your call list. Your site is always growing and never empty.

Sorry I missed the link iPete, if you want to pm it it to me, I will make an exception on the pm thing and check this one out.

The basic idea is to call them up, make sure you didnt make any mistakes on their free listing. Dont tell them "we are offering you a free listing", say "We have GIVEN you a free listing Already", and you just wanted to make sure it was correct. That will generate a thanks and instant rapport... Now: "While I have you on the line Bob, you can see that _______ has taken out an actual premium listing with us, which has alot of advantages...just so you know; what that is is......." and pitch them.

-JD

Actually, back in the 90's I owned an internet cafe and created a listing of cafe locations as well as set many up. Sadly, that service is not necessary anymore. People now have broadband in their homes and do not need me. Also, people can use their smart phone to check email when they travel over seas.

Back to your question on getting traffic:
1) I did promos
Free coffee
Free T-shirt (I could get them for 50 cents each)
Free Doughnuts (A friend had a restaurant)
Free CD

2) Created movies of people at the internet cafe.

3) Posted a lot of picture of people playing games.

Try to do something that others are not doing now. For example, video is a good idea as people like to watch movies. I did scan in some menus. People like to know what a restaurant serves. Also, include a list of prices.

All the best to you.