Are you familiar with the story “Acres of Diamonds” by Russell Conwell?
- Image by Stewart Leiwakabessy via Flickr
The central theme of the book is the idea that inside your own community, your own backyard, is everything you need to enjoy opportunity, prosperity and achievement.
It tells a few stories that all focus on one lesson – people went in search of fortune outside of their own local area, selling their home for a small sum, which in the end bought a great deal of money to the new owner. What they sold up and went in search of was right there in their own back yard.
This reminded me of my own acres of diamonds story because for the last 5 years I have been working away at using the internet to attract and build a large audience of people looking for the product or service I offer. I thought that if I just went wide enough and made myself available throughout the world I could build a large monthly income for myself. Now, it is true and I do enjoy making a regular income from the work that I do but what I failed to see is the “acres of diamonds” that were right here in my own backyard.
Now in 2010 I get to share everything I know with the local businesses in England, and even more specific within Greater London. As a local business owner or a service professional offering products and/or services to your local community you have a unique opportunity to mine your own acres of diamonds by simply making the most of your own community.
It doesn’t matter if you are a small local business next to a large multinational chain store, you can still enjoy your own success and in fact, it can become so much easier for you because what people want is to know the person behind the business. Something that large businesses are still struggling to figure out how to do.
Finding my own diamonds
It was my local church that made me look into local search marketing but I didn’t know it was called that at the time. I offered to put a blog up for them and within a couple of weeks they appeared on the front page of Google (and stayed there!) as the Pentecostal church for my local area.
From that moment one event led to another – I can’t even recall the exact sequence of events – and I found myself searching for information on local search; what it is and how it can help a local business get found online. I already have all the skills needed to help local businesses all I had to do was make the decision to stop focusing globally and focus locally.
How can a local business benefit from local search marketing?
The internet has changed dramatically over the last 7 years. Now more than ever anyone has an opportunity to get their voice heard. Whether they are
• Making videos
• Creating audios
• Writing a blog
• Building their own social network
• Self publishing their own work
• Running a group on a popular social network
If you are an author you don’t have to wait to publish your book anymore, just go ahead and choose to self publish instead. As a musician you no longer have to wait to be signed up, just start your own page, add your music and build your following.
As a small local business or service professional you no longer have to rely on adverts in the local paper. As more people turn to their internet enhanced mobile phone or their laptop on the train. As more people go online to find what they are looking for – you have a unique opportunity to be found and get more new customers flooding through to your local business.
But finding new local customers isn’t your only opportunity. You also have an opportunity to turn your expertise into a second income for yourself. Whether you decide to start an online membership site or sell what you know through information products. You can now build your customer base and keep offering them more than just your local business product/service.
If you are a local Italian restaurant you can
• Blog about Italian food and Italy as a great holiday destination and earn an income
• Start your own membership site and add recipes that people can enjoy cooking – add them in video style so people can watch you cook.
• Supply regular money off coupons to your list of local customer subscribers who will all enjoy special treats because they stay on your subscriber list.
• Develop your own internet radio style show where you spend time talking about food, wine and anything else you choose to talk about.
• Create a theme based event on one of your quiet days and invite all your subscribers to “come on down!” and enjoy a mid-week night out at a special price – which you video and then add to your blog (of course)
Now all of this may sound scary and you may think it will cost a fortune but it really doesn’t have to and you can do it yourself, or get help from an internet savvy teenager/young person who can help you.
Your local customers are not looking for perfection and professionalism (obviously there has to be some standards but we are not talking TV quality here!) What they want is to be entertained, to be looked after and to know that when they eat your food it is more than just a place to sit and eat, but a place to come back to over and over again.
What about a plumber or electrician?
Don’t think that as a service provider you can’t use the internet because you really can. If you are a plumber can you offer:
Regular postcards as email reminders – time to get your drains cleared, or your last boiler clean was six months ago; call now to book another!
You can make sure your business is set up on Google local or Yelp.co.uk or any of the other similar sites and ask your customers to leave a review of your business. A business with reviews will always show up higher in the search results before those without any.
Could you get someone to video you while you repair a leaking tap or replace a tap washer? How about creating 5 or 6 videos where you provide tips and hints then add them to Youtube. Just remember to optimise your video heading with your keyword:
Title: Wimbledon Plumbers SW6 video help : How to replace a tap washer
Description: In this video SW6 Wimbledon plumbers J and Sons go through how to replace a tap washer
Keywords: SW6 plumbers, plumbers Wimbledon, London plumbers, replace tap washer
Do you see how easy that is? Your location in the title and in the description, plus in the keywords on the video site is all you need to help you get found when someone is searching for a local plumbing firm in Wimbledon or in SW6. Then you take those videos and add them to your blog AND to your Google local profile. One video but 3 different uses!
On your website you can offer money off coupons – Get 12% off when you use our drain cleaning service for the first time.
As a local business the opportunities for you to use the internet in new and creative ways are definitely here and grasping this opportunity with both hands will help you. You can not only find new customers but also promote your expertise online and get paid for sharing what you know.
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