Every business owner wants to find new customers. Finding new customers is an essential key to growing your business and increasing profitability. Yet, until recently -finding new customers online was difficult. While creating a web site is fairly easy to do – creating a web site that can actually get found by the very people who are searching for the products and services you provide is another story.
There was a time when – if you wanted to advertise your business online – you had to invest big bucks in one or more of the “alphabet soup” services offered by web professionals such as PPC (Pay Per Click) online advertising or SEO (Search Engine Optimization) or SEM (Search Engine Marketing). While advertising online was effective – the most effective options were anything but free and anything but easy.
Fortunately for business owners today – those days can now officially be referred to as “the old days” because today there’s an incredibly effective from of free local business advertising available – and it’s all because of the introduction of the new “smart” cell phones and the death of the traditional printed yellow pages.
Maybe you’ve seen the ads for the new smart phones – those amazing cell phones that not only act as a telephone but also as a portable personal computer. Many of the cell phones available today have the ability to access the internet and they allow users to quickly and easily access the internet to find the information they need when they’re searching for products and services. Not only can these smart phone users find the products and services they’re seeking – they can also get turn by turn directions to get them to your store as quickly as possible.
One of the smart phone user’s favorite web tools is the local search map.
The local search map – (an example appears to the left) takes up most of the screen for mobile phone users – and provides a local map with “markers” showing where the options to buy are located.
Not only do smart cell phone users see these maps – but your prospective customers who are researching their purchase at home see these ads as well.
There are over 200 local search directories online – with more launching every day – however only a handful are worth your time and attention.
Getting your business listed in these essential local listing directories is easy and it’s free. Business owners who have edited and begun using their free listings are reporting increases in sales of 25 – 30% within the first 60 days.
Whether you’re trying to find new customers online – or you want your current customers to be able to find you – be sure to pick up a copy of the Business Owner’s Guide to Local Search which provides step by step instructions on where to go and what to do to claim your free and valuable local search listings.
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