Most local business marketing is shockingly bad – if it exists at all. While a rival’s website may look okay, the ineffective content on it may just inspire you to become a dominant player.
Lack of confidence and/or a fear of upsetting customers often leads businesses to hunker down in silence and ignore marketing. It’s an odd thing, and yet, because everyone has adopted this mindset, it’s become almost, well… normal.
Yes, a website may indeed be online, accessible, fast and optimised, but generally speaking, people might not be paying much attention to it. 🤔
On the other end of the spectrum are websites chock full of low-quality self-absorbed drivel that exists for the sake of it and might as well have been vomited up by AI tools or monkeys with typewriters. 🙈
Be Competitive Through Better Communication
Warren Buffet said something to the effect of “only when the tide goes out do you see who has been swimming naked.”
If your leads and enquiries dry up because recession, it may be that your prospects are becoming more analytical, being more critical, and ultimately spending money with businesses who actually communicate. They’re pickier.
Less Time Wasters, More Qualified Leads
Communication through marketing is not just about getting attention. It’s about supporting networking as well as inbound and outbound sales.
If you’re a small firm operated by a skeleton crew of staff, can you afford to be fielding enquiries or attending appointments that don’t turn into business? 🎲
Do you want to waste an hour on a lead that hadn’t been sufficiently warmed up? ⌛
If this describes you, there’s a good chance the same principles apply to your competitors’ marketing. They are missing out on all the same opportunities, so act soon before they figure it out for themselves, or another year will have gone by with no improvement.
Bogged Down in Crap Marketing
This is still annoys me, but I’ll tell you anyway. For a website I created many years ago, the client asked me if I would “come up with a bit of bullshit text, you know, just a few words to explain things a bit.”
This request was apparently inspired by what others in his industry were also doing with their websites: putting bullshit on it.
The point is, everyone is imitating each others’ approach, tone and style of marketing. They are destined to exist in a proverbial trench warfare business stalemate because no one wants to “go over the top.” 😶
So, how can you do some decent content writing to stand out in the local landscape?
The Opportunity is Right In Front of You
Marketing is usually low in the order of business priorities. In larger companies, it’s the first thing to get cut when the budgets are under scrutiny, and in some companies, there is zero marketing to begin with. 📉
With that in mind, here’s a question:
If you sold your stuff at the exact same price as your competitors, how would you differentiate yourself?
This is a useful thought experiment because it forces us to not to play the “lowest prices” game that seems to become the default approach in the absence of decent ideas.
If marketing is undertaken – not as a one-time project but as an ongoing commitment driven by research, trends, knowledge, expertise – then it’s a huge opportunity to outclass rivals by doing what they will not or cannot. 🏆
Cornerstones of Good Content: Expertise, Authoritativeness
Writing useful articles, reports and FAQs should be the bread and butter of your website. Start there. You’ll need to put your thinking cap on and dig deep into your experience, authoritiveness and expertise (known as EAT). 🤓
EAT is appreciated by the potential customers who need your help. With a deluge of rubbish AI-generated content now polluting the internet, it’s more important than ever to have a human touch.
Side Note: Seriously Consider Video as a Content Format 👇
By the way, if you want some good advice on content, seriously consider YouTube. It’s free, and videos you create can be embedded on your website. 😉
You need to plan, prepare and execute well, obviously, but it’s easier than you think. Especially when rivals aren’t prepared to do it. 🤐
What Is Missing from the Average Business Website?
If competitors are lazy, get disciplined. If they’re stupid, be clever. Exploit whatever inabilities of theirs have arisen.
This opportunity goes way beyond “low hanging fruit”. It’s much better than that. It’s windfall and it’s everywhere.
Bridge the Gap Between Ads and a Website
Look through the local advertising magazine that gets posted to your house, and you’ll see the exact same businesses running the exact same ads from 10 years ago.
All boring. All public notices.
Where’s the demonstrated expertise? Where’s the problem solving angle?
Use your website as a marketing funnel. Think about:
- 📄 Producing marketing content on your website that taps into needs/wants
- 🧐 Converting the reader of the ad into a consumer of content on your website
- 🏅 Converting the consumer of that content into a subscriber/enquiry/sale
Digital Ads Should Point to Specific Landing Pages
Similar to the terrible print marketing example above, I’ve seen businesses running Google Ads which, when clicked, just send the potential customer to their website homepage.
For God’s sake!
Unless the homepage is set up with a specific call to action, that potential customer isn’t being led towards a specific action.
Homepages are normally just an overview/introduction. A generic welcome page. Instead, build a landing page on the website that is only ever seen when someone clicks a specific ad that sends them there.
This way, the content of the landing page can match the wording of the ad itself. Once visitors are on the landing page (having clicked the ad) the page needs to be a workhorse that converts them into a good, qualified lead.
QR Codes and Short URLs
QR codes and short URLs are brilliant ways to funnel people into your site, especially if you are a company that wants to get serious by designing/printing campaigns with purpose.
This kind of “scrappiness” is inexpensive, clever and tactical whereas bad ads are an expensive dead end. Most of it goes in the bin anyway!
Even business cards promoting certain pieces of content answering common questions and addressing problems in order to build trust is ten times better than your average fare.
Summary: Lazy, Lazy Everywhere, Cos No One Wants to Think
Good marketing can bring in business for months and years. It’s initially hard, which is why no one bothers to do it, but basic keyword research and data insights will help you figure out what potential customers care about and where to put your effort.
You might even be able to sell your business if you transform it into a fine-tuned lead-generating money machine.
Otherwise, it’s yet another boring website that looks, sounds and tastes like all the others banking on chance encounters with the target audience.
