Do you have a local business? Finding your customers and finding more customers is the secret to maintaining and growing your business, and unless you have a monopoly, you’ll need to reach your potential customers. You need to give them a reason to come to you. Simple as that. If you are competing with similar local businesses then you need to find what separates you from the rest and focus your promotions and marketing on that. The important thing at this time is to distinguish yourself from the rest. The days of sitting in your office and people knocking on your door are over.

You need to actively promote your business. It is the key to getting more customers and growing your business. The challenge is how? How can you promote your business locally and do it effectively and on a small budget? Advertising is the obvious solution, but with so many advertising channels available, it can take a long time before you find something that works. One of the most cost effective ways to buy advertising is with smaller local newspapers. Chances are good that your ad will be seen by the right people and because these newspapers are so small, advertising is still pretty cheap.

We’ve all heard of online advertising and have probably been beaten to death several times. The fact is, online advertising isn’t ideal for local businesses unless you can target your customers. Some of the more advanced advertising platforms will allow you to target geographically. In other words, your ads will only show to people in a certain town, city, or neighborhood. this can be very profitable as your response will be quite high.

Local business listings are and have been a great source of promotion for years and the Yellow Pages are a prime example. By being online now, you can seriously increase your exposure. However, the Yellow Pages are not the only or the best. Google allows you to add your business to their local listings and it will show up on their maps if someone searches for a business in a specific area. Yelp.com is another online listing that can give you great results by putting your business in front of people who are actively searching for your products or services.

You need to keep track of your responses as much as possible. You need to figure out what type of promotion works for you and then put 80% of your advertising and effort into that. Spend the other 20% of your effort and budget trying out new forms of advertising and promotion and try to reach more and more of your target market.