How to market my business locally

If you start a business it can be very stressful at first. You are constantly thinking about it and ways to grow.

Local marketing is key to achieving a successful business. The first few months can be tough and not a lot of work coming in but if you have been marketing you will soon see the rewards from that.

Best places to advertise

Google maps- 

This is a free service plus if someone is looking for eg. a builder in Sudbury, Suffolk then Google will put you on the map and you should come up on the first page. I strongly recommend registering your company with Google Maps its free and effective.

Yell.com-

You can sign up for a free listing, You can pay for a bigger listing but money will be tight so a free listing could be best. This is still effective as they will put you online as well but once you are online you will be bombarded by different companies trying to sell you ads it happens its free information for them and they use it

Thomson Direct-

Once again its a free listing or you can pay for a bigger listing. Get your company profile anywhere which is free you are losing nothing but could be gaining work.

Manta-

This is a worldwide search however it is free and someone in your area may use it plus if you have a website the more places you register your web address the more backlinks you get which means Google will rate your site higher for specific keywords eventually raising from page 5 on Google to maybe 1 or 2 under your specific keywords relevant to your trade.

Townpages-

This again is worldwide I think, But it list's all different trades and you specify your area and it will then bring up the trades, you choose what your looking for and a selection of companies will come up.

Business Magnet-

This will just list all  the companies in alphabetacal order that it has registered with the Business Magnet. worth doing as it is free

Leaflet distribution-

Can be efeective but the only way to find out in your area is to go and do it. If you a window cleaner or gardener it is best just to knock on doors. You are not seeling anything but a service, People hate cold calling but usually only when you are trying to sell them new windows or something.

Word of Mouth-

One of the best ways is word of mouth because someone is recommending you. If you do a good job at customers A's house who recommends you to B's house who recommends you and so on etc.

Van Advertising-

Very cost effevtive. I made my money back from my van advertisng in 3 day's because of the work my van got me.  If you have a memorable name or logo and you work local it sticks in peoples minds that's why you get crazy adverts on t.v with no relevence to the product.