How do customers find your business?
One of the first specific questions you should ask yourself is how customers find your business. If you don’t know the answer to this question, take a break from reading this and go ask your customers. Nothing is going to be more important to your future than the right answer to this question!
- If it’s foot traffic, then make sure your store front is as inviting as a designer can make it.
Let’s face it: you’ve got enough on your plate, and window displays are probably not your strong suit (if they are, perhaps you’ve just discovered a new side business). So hire someone to review what you’re doing and provide some new guidelines to follow. My guess is that this will show almost immediate results. If you’re not sure who to hire, walk around and ask other shop owners who helped them—at the very least you’ll get some free advice that could make you money!
- If it’s through recommendations, word-of-mouth, or even dumb luck then you have a real opportunity to change the course of your business right now.
All three of these methods of finding customers have one thing in common: they are all forms of local searches. Asking a friend for advice, or a co-worker for a recommendation, is quickly taking a back seat to “Local Results-Based Searches” online. Yep, the web is now the first—and often the only—place people turn for advice on what to buy and who to buy it from. Think about it. Google has just replaced your customer’s friend, co-worker, and neighbor when it comes to influencing buying decisions—so what are you doing to make sure Google is recommending your products and services? If you’re like the majority of businesses, the answer is “Not enough!”
- If it’s through web search (Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) then give yourself and your team a huge pat on the back, and then ask yourself, “What can we do moving forward to ensure that this continues to drive results?” The web is fickle. What worked yesterday may not work tomorrow; you need to stay on top of the trends or find someone who can do this for you. In the future we’ll look at Local-results based searches and how you can take advantage of this growing trend to make your business more profitable.
“Local Results-Based Searches” and how they will make or break your business
Local Results-Based Searches should be a major point of emphasis for your business. Simply put, these are online searches, primarily on Google or through an “app” on your phone that uses Google to find results for local suppliers of products and/or services. These searches are quickly replacing all other forms of advertising as THE place to promote your business. And the best part is that more often than not you can get listed for free!
The power of local results-based searches came to me one afternoon while I was looking for a new softball bat for my daughter. Instead of asking her coach or another parent (that required more time and patience than I wanted to spend), I got online and started looking for recommendations and reviews. Once I had a short list of candidates, I needed to see who had them locally: enter “Local Results- Based Searches.” Google not only provided me with a list of local stores that carried the items, it also provided reviews of the businesses, a phone number, and turn-by-turn driving directions to each store. I remember thinking, “Now that’s a powerful selling tool,” and wondering if my customers could find me just as easily.
The answer, unfortunately, was worse than “NO.” Apparently MY customers could find virtually all of my competitors—but not me! I wondered how much business I was losing, if it was too late to get started, and whether I had the time to undertake yet another project. Then it hit me: this was how I could use that time I had created by eliminating unnecessary tasks (especially since golf was not an option!)
Online Marketing
The truth is that in today’s connected world, you stand a better chance of finding oil in your backyard than you do of finding business success without some form of online marketing strategy. Today, customers are discovering that Google is a far better deal finder than the Sunday paper, a better business locator than the Yellow Pages, and a lot faster than asking a friend. Accurate or not, we all feel better about a recommendation from Google than just about any other source. So ask yourself, “Can my customers find me on Google?”
Can customers find your business? How local searches work
The first key to success is knowing if you or your competition is showing up in local searches.
Want to see how this all works? Or if your business can be found through “Local Results-Based Searches?” No problem. Simply pull out your mobile phone, launch your “Maps” or “Places” App, and do a search for what you sell. You can also do this on your computer simply by going to Google and searching for “[your product or service]” accompanied by “[your town].” Does your business show up? If not, you’re missing out on one of the fastest-growing marketing opportunities available to small business owners today—“Local Results-Based Searches.”
Your next step depends on your situation.
- If neither you nor your competitors are showing up in local searches, then you have a very real opportunity to generate quick business, real cash, and win more customers with just a few hours of work.
- If your competitor is listed but you’re not, then the one thing I can tell you for certain right now is that you’re losing real business and income every day. For every day you delay changing this situation, you’re losing out on sales and handing real customers to your competitors. Fix this now!
- If you’re the only one listed, then bravo, you have real market advantage! Now figure out what you need to do to ensure that as your competitors learn about this (and they will),you and your business stay at the top of the list. Ignoring this advantage and not doing whatever you can to maintain it can have dire consequences for your business.
If people don’t find you in a search, you’ve got virtually no chance of them buying from you. They will not ask about you, so there is no customer and no sale.
What we did
So what did we do for our business? We researched what’s available, what’s working, what’s not, and what’s likely to return real results. What we’ve discovered is that some of the big names on the web have really opened the door for small businesses to thrive with free or low-cost solutions. Companies like Google, Twitter, and Facebook have given us access to a variety of affordable solutions that in the past would have cost us a small fortune to use.
The trick is understanding how to utilize these solutions effectively. The good news is that if you have the time, you can set up a basic Google Places page in a matter of hours, create a business page on Facebook, and get found quickly in web searches. If you don’t have the time or the desire to sort this out on your own (and I don’t blame you), then I strongly encourage you to seek out someone who has the skill set to help.
But where will you find them? Ok, trick question. You’re most likely going right to Google to do a search for “web marketing” near “[Your town]” and if you were thinking that, then CONGRATULATIONS! You’re already thinking in terms of “Local Results-Based Searches.”
Happy Relationship Building!
The Jian Small Business Marketing Team
