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Locally Focused Web Site Tips for Connecting With Your Customers: Part Two
By Nick Berliner | April 14, 2008
Last week, I identified five tips for fostering connections with visitors to your Web site and promised five more. Without further ado, here are five additional tips for adding local considerations to your Web site:
6. Provide a virtual tour of your store or restaurant. Letting people see inside your establishment before they get there breeds familiarity and can also be the driving force in bringing that customer to your store. If you have a giant wall of door hinges or the most manicure stations in town show them off with a slick virtual tour.
7. Engage in community/neighborhood philanthropic activities and promote it on your site. Supporting the community or neighborhood where your business resides is not just smart, local marketing; it’s the right thing to do. Link to and promote upcoming community projects to further enhance the connection with your customers. Giving back and contributing to improving your community creates good will towards your company. Promoting timely, local events also gives you fresh content for your site and another reason for visitors to come back (to see those fun pictures of your staff cleaning up that playfield).
8. Add a newsletter sign-up…and then actually send out newsletters. Similar to blog posts, newsletters don’t have to be six pages long and written like a college essay. Simply send people a few notes on what’s new and notable at your local business. Start small with quarterly newsletters before ramping up to monthly. Put the newsletter sign-up box on your home page and treasure each submission, because these visitors actually want you to tell them about your products on a regular basis.
9. Tell them how you really feel. Use the messaging on your Web site to connect with your customers. If you’re fulfilling your dad’s dream to provide the best brake repair service in town, tell them about it; if you went to high school in the area and always wanted to open a pizzeria, let them know; if your kids play soccer at the local field, assign them half-time snacks (this may be pushing it…). People like people. And people like to spend money with people they like. As a local business owner, you can’t afford to be anonymous.
10. Introduce your employees. Some companies may be too large or have too much turnover to do this, but an employee page with pictures and a few factoids about each employee is a great way to connect with customers and cultivate familiarity.
Your Web site is like your store greeter or restaurant hostess on steroids. It has to be friendly, charming, helpful and saleable all at the same time. Most importantly, it needs to tip the scale so the visitor will choose your business rather than the myriad alternatives. Creating that local connection puts more weight on the scale. Well, that and the steroids.
Topics: Web site, Neighborhood, Local Advertisers, Community, Content, Uncategorized |