Before the days of local business marketing – if you owned a local business you absolutely had to advertise in the Yellow pages to be found.
That was the big hang out for everyone.
Remember the marketing tactics for a successful Yellow Page ad? Like being listed first – so you would have “Apple Auto Glass” or “Aardvark Roofers”. Other tactics meant paying a little more so your listing in the ‘white pages’ was also highlighted in yellow.
You could pay for a BIGGER ad to try and stand out – although the drawback on this was – sometimes you were subject to the whim of the layout person who didn’t put you on the the right page, because there were too many other people with big ads, and you all couldn’t fit with the regular listings.
Then they came out with the multi-colour ads, full page, half page and finally those god-awful full page cardboard interruption things that you tear out as soon as you get your new Yellow Pages because they make it impossible to find anyone else. Do you notice it’s usually lawyers who buy that space? Who decided that effective advertising involved irritating a potential client was a good way to get noticed?
When was the last time you used the Yellow Pages? Do you remember? I do. I used them last week when the power was out so I could call the power company’s hotline to find out when I was getting the internet back. And the same the time before that. But the time before that was to look up my neighbours phone number not because they can’t be found in a Google search, because I didn’t try – The first time I had to call him (Just after I moved here and needed a load of gravel, I called the guy at the corner store to ask who I would call for something like that – and then wrote the number in the phone book – and there it sits.) I can never remember his name to look it up on the computer.
Back to the Yellow Pages.
For the most part, the Yellow Pages don’t work like they once did. As a matter of fact – AT&T has lost so much money on the Yellow Pages they selling them and using the capital to invest in their mobile services. You know they aren’t effective when even the owners admit defeat.
Online marketing for local business is an absolute must now and this is exactly what you need to know about.
Get into the bits and pieces of how to effectively compete in the local marketplace. All you need to know is how to be able to hang out your shingle as a local business marketer or marketing consultant.
Some important aspects you need to understand are pay-per-click. YOu can learn to become a local business marketing agent too and become Google Certified. It is a steep learning curve and you might prefer to hire a business coach.
You need to know how to sell. Google Hangouts can be used to network and find resources and people to team up with.
Discover how to get clients without having to go knocking on doors. How to outsource your work so you can spend your time managing your business and keeping your clients happy and – importantly – how you are helping your local economy by helping yours and other local businesses survive.
“You will get what you want – when you help enough people get what they want”~ Zig Ziglar
