1: Writing Letters
When have you ever received a letter from a business owner that’s not been about their business? Probably never. One of the techniques I have used to successfully network and integrate businesses together throughout the years is by writing letters from one business to another. Show an interest in their business, talk about their customer reviews and say it’s great to have them local. If you use their business, thank them and leave a testimonial on Google and Facebook about their services (avoid lying about any business just to network!)
The letter structure should be as follows.
1: Information about their business, what you’ve noticed and what you like for ¾ of the letter.
2: Information about you running a business in the final ¼ of the letter.
This will let them know that you also run a business but you are not trying to sell to them. You tell them what you do and then offer to give them a shoutout on Social Media if they’re on there or just finish the letter cordially. On average, for every 20 letters I have sent out, I have usually got one letter back. Quite a few of these responses have either gained customers for my clients, or they have shown some kind of interest in working together.
There are many ways that customers can mutually benefit each other which you can find in my blog here. There is no way you can’t help a local business out.
2: Business Networking Groups
A business networking group is a great way to potentially meet new customers, however a lot of people don’t know how to correctly utilise these resources. Many business owners or executives visit these events trying to sell their services. This is generally off putting as most people are there to sell their services. “What can I do for you?” Is kind of how they usually work, and like a magnet, two people looking to do something for other people repels the other party. What you have to do is be someone who is interested in “What can you do for me?” Show an interest in other people’s companies, and what they can do.
This is a completely different approach because this turns you into a hot lead, and it is rare that someone won’t follow up with a hot lead when they can benefit from potentially selling to them. Having a keen interest in the business of others and saying: “Keep in touch!” can end up landing you quite a few clients, no matter what field you’re in. Sometimes if a service isn’t bad, it can also benefit your business, so you will always be able to find some benefit from working within the groups.
In the three BNG meetings I had last year, I managed to get two customers by initially paying for services, then pointing out issues with websites and helping them fix them, this I did for free. The people I helped with their problems told two friends and I got one social media customer and one web design customer out of it so far. Each time I have thanked the businesses and let them know what happened, and we have a good working relationship to this day. I even recommend some of my clients to them.
3: Fliers
Fliers are hit and miss, but can work really well with certain businesses. For takeaways and restaurants that do deliveries, menus can work really well if your prices are good! For almost any other business, I have noticed that there doesn’t usually seem to be a decent return on investment for fliers, at least not which can be easily gauged.
If you do run flier campaigns for any services delivered by a website, you can give discount codes so you can track to see their success. I’d recommend keeping discounts down to 5-10% and keeping prices reasonable for everyone. This will grant you a lot better results than bumping up prices to cope with flier campaigns which can damage your reputation with regular customers.
4: Local groups on Facebook!
Buy and sell groups can be amazingly useful as a way to get services out to potential customers. Pages as well as people can join local buy and sell groups. You can easily place offers in them. Make sure as this is social media to respond to any queries and keep an eye on how well your business is doing.
You can hide comments on your posts if they are negative, and keep responding to them if there are any issues. This will cut down on any backlash you might have if you have either trolls or people who have had a bad experience with you in the past. It’s always important to protect your reputation above all else.
5: Look to work with Local Charities
Local charities are a great way to increase local business and build a positive relationship. The advantage of working with charities is that they are a great way to meet people and introduce your business subtly. Not only this, you can do things to raise money for charities which makes your company look good and helps you build a reputation locally.
In practise this can work really well, from my client’s restaurants joining local charity free food donations to assist care homes and the NHS during the recent pandemic to having staff members running marathons for local charities, I have seen this work very well. The public love a company that is giving back to society. Weather or not it pays for itself in terms of time can depend on talking about it on social media. You can also get the charities to share mutual fundraisers which will get your page and business attention on Facebook and other social media outlets.
Bonus Techniques!
For my tech savvy readers, here are two more great ways to increase your Local Business.
6: Geo Targeted Facebook Ads
When you are on your Facebook page, go to your Ad Centre and create an Ad. You will want to promote your page, rather than the other available options. This kicks out the fluff of adding too many steps to convert customers by putting out a deal which could be the only thing they’re interested in, or boosting other posts that won’t benefit your business. You want to go with the simplest technique. You will generally be paying a little more for likes, but the likes are more likely to be genuine interest, rather than passing fancies. Make sure you invite all these likes by clicking on the interactions number and inviting each person.
By setting a local audience in the minimum acceptable area, you will be paying a reasonable amount per like that you usually get. These likes are prospective leads that may have an interest in your businesses and services, so it’s always good to keep posting a few times a week. Whilst I only post once a week for my business as an advertiser using evergreen content, I recommend posting 2-3 times a week. Ignore anyone who tells you 5+ posts a week is a good way to run a business, you should ONLY do that if you are getting more than 10% of your total audience liking every single post you make.
7: Google My Business Listing
You can find some really great information about why you should use Google My Business in my recent article. You will also find some information on how to claim or launch your business on Google there. Google My Business accounts are really amazing for posting content. You can take your business to the next level by updating regularly.
From my experience, I find that traffic on my websites seems to increase on regularly used Google My Business accounts, so these are worth looking into!
I hope this is helpful to you, if it is, please consider sharing it!
