Use Your IM Skills Locally
A New Plan for Using Your Internet Marketing Skills: Go
Local
Okay, you've made some money online and know the basics of
the business, if not, why? Here's a thought: why not take your skills and help local businesses
market their most profitable merchandise, products or services. You can also
help them scale up any underused capacity that they want to promote. Best of
all, you can plan it so they give you monthly, recurring payments!
This is the lat post in this series so I want to impress on you the money that is in local marketing online. Most brick-and-mortar local businesses know their business,
but don't know how to market their business effectively. Sure, they do what
their competition is doing, but they don't think outside the box. You, as an
experienced marketer, can help them in ways they may never even imagine.
First, you have to realize that what local businesses need
is not an education in online marketing. Truth be told, many of them won't understand anyway. They need someone to look at what they're doing with
fresh eyes and a willingness to listen to them. The worst thing you can do is
walk into a small business with a "business in a box" solution. You
need to know what the problem is before you offer any solutions.
Avoid making the same mistake that many new Direct Response
Internet Marketing hopefuls make: build a product or service, then check to see
if anybody is already buying something like it. Do your market research first.
Locate the hungry buyers for advertising and promotion.
Find out who is paying a lot of advertising money in your
local area. Approach these businesses first, before you think about helping smaller,
less profitable businesses. One easy way to start your market research is to
look at Yellow Pages books and business directories. Concentrate on those
businesses that have big display ads.
Full-page (or large) display ads cost a lot of money. In fact,
the amount is usually so much that they are paid for on a monthly basis. As I mentioned in a previous post, all
you have to do is call or write to these resources and find out the monthly
fees for advertising in their publications
You may be in for a shock! Small and medium-sized businesses
who do this kind of advertising can pay up to thousands of dollars every month in
advertising fees with no way to get an accurate feed on ROI, meaning that money is just disappearing. I refer to this as "hope marketing" because it ends with hoping that it is working.
Now you have an idea of which local businesses in your area
are already "hungry buyers" for what you can offer them. You'll be
able to approach them with confidence. Your marketing skills, applied to their
business and marketing plan, can really boost their revenue.
Avoid using IM "jargon" when speaking to these
businesses. Remember, they know their business. They don't know about
autoresponders, split testing, affiliate links, analytics for Web pages, etc.
You'll just make what you do seem foreign to them.
Instead, find out what their business and marketing plans
are. Help them target their most profitable merchandise, products or services.
Find ways to help them improve the marketing of any underused capacity or
products they have.
Think of their needs first, before you offer any solution.
You'll be more likely to get a new client and get more money every month for
helping that client.
I do wish to help answer any questions you may have about online marketing or business in general, so ask away.
