Selling Local Services on the Web
by: Rick Hendershot
Do you have a product that you can sell online to your local market?
If you are already in business and you are thinking of promoting your products or services online, one of the first questions you have to ask yourself is "Do I have a product I can sell online?" Or perhaps in your case the question should be, "Can I sell my current product line online? These questions are at the very heart of the decision whether or not to try online marketing.
Most of the problems with products are the result of delivery issues. Either your product must be delivered within a narrow time frame (like pizzas and fried chicken), or it is too fragile or too large to be economically delivered, or there is not enough profit margin built into your pricing to allow for delivery. Most local businesses address these issues by a combination of strategies. Either they do not provide delivery, or they charge for it, or they will deliver only within a narrowly defined geographic area.
This question will take different forms for different products and services. If your business is selling specialty household items like custom made candles, the chances of modifying your current sales approach to reach a broader online market are pretty good. But if you sell a service like pool cleaning or home renovations, your online objectives will probably be different. Unless you are prepared to travel hundreds of miles to perform your services, you are probably only interested in reaching local prospects.
Are some products suitable for marketing online and others not?
Think of all the plumbers, home renovators, auto refinishers, pool cleaners, landscape suppliers and so on in your community and ask yourself if it is feasible to market these kinds of products and services online.
For instance, say you sell landscape products such as paving stones, top soil, crushed stone and so on. And say you already have an established business in your local area. Your geographic market area is roughly the area you can reach with your trucks in less than, say, 30 minutes. In other words, your target market area is any place within about 25 miles of your shipping depot. Dealing with customers beyond this radius becomes to expensive because of the shipping costs.
Would it be worth marketing your landscape products online specifically to this narrowly defined target market area?
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Selling Local Services on the Web
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