Chris Brogan posted some great tips on Marketing for Small Local Businesses on his blog yesterday. A friend of his runs a mobile massage business (where she takes her massage table to a client’s space), and was looking for advice on how to drum up new business.
Chris’ advice is designed to help this ultra-local business (most of her clients will be within a 30 minute drive) develop relationships within the community and foster loyalty and repeat customers. This is the basics of business that our parents and grandparents understood, but younger generations seem to have forgotten. Life Is Local folks, and if you’re looking to drive customers to your local business, it’s all about the community.
One extra tip that I included in the Comments section on Chris’ site is about finding the connectors in your community. There are people in every community who know everyone, are networked to the max, and love to make new connections. They enjoy meeting, helping, and connecting people because ultimately it helps them do business. Find these folks and help them out, and you can really accelerate your business efforts.
Take a look at the article, and if you have any more suggestions, I’d love to hear them. Just use the comments below.
