One of the best recent small business ideas is the central theme of Sharon Fling’s new e-book, “How To Promote Your Local Business On The Internet.” It is must read for small businesses interested in growing locally. Her advice, “Forget the global economy – the future of the Internet is local.”

She believes that local businessmen should learn from successful online marketers who:

• Give away free email accounts, then send prospects offers.
• Give away a free service, and then sell the upgrade.
• Give away free e-books or reports, with links back to your website.

According to her, the key to success is to build credibility and trust through repeated contact using the Internet. How do you do this? Optimize your website for its #1 mission – collecting email addresses. Email offers a permission-based marketing approach to build/maintain rapport with your existing and prospective customers.

According to a Dunn and Bradstreet, 40 per cent of small business owners have a website, but 56 per cent said it made no difference in profitability, 1 percent said it hurt, 32 percent said it helped. Because most people spend 80 percent of their income with 20 miles of home, my candidate for best small business idea is to focus you website on its #1 purpose: collect email addresses.

Email the killer application for using the Internet for expanding small business. Over a year ago, at one of my local Rotary meetings a speaker asked the audience how many had email? The response was that nearly everyone did!

We know that individuals generally will open and respond to email from a know person or company. So the essence of this small business idea is to use email to making a prospect feel comfortable enough to make purchase. Email is a powerful way to supplement traditional forms of marketing to get before current and prospective customers.

The book’s formula for success centers in:

• Getting that email address
• Sending the customers useful information, and
• Build your relationship over time to the point that the prospect feels comfortable buying from you.

You publicize your business and your URL (website address) by adding it to all your traditional advertising – “viewing local online as a part of your total marketing mix.” At the same time, you keep improving what you are giving away to get folks to sign up for your “freebies” offered through your website. The key effort: “Find them, or help them find you.” (Click here for for additional ways your can use your website to promote local business.)

Here are some recent stats presented in the book. Over 50 percent of small businesses advertise to get new customers (79%), grow revenues (61%), keep current business/customers (56%), and/or to better position the business in eyes of customers (51%). Direct mail, website, email marketing on the rise nationally. Most businesses with websites now include a web address in all traditional forms of advertising. Over 76 percent of businesses have a domain name.

The book covers a wide range of approaches for attracting locals to the website. Two examples are to put your daily/weekly specials (coupons) on your website, and to consider offering services to non-profits and other needy organizations.

And what is the investment? Sharon Fling, herself a professional website designer, recommends that small businessmen do it themselves – today’s tools make it easy and, according to Sharon, no technical knowledge is required. She provides a layman’s website development and hosting service at www.geolocal.com (she offers a free 30-day trial).* I have tried it and developed a professional-looking website in less than an hour. If you wish to know more, click here for a free course on developing your website to sell your products/services.

This small business idea is so important the e-commerce expert Dr. Ralph F. Wilson has just started a complete website devoted to the topic. You can access it by clicking here – just click on the “NetAssisted” tab at the top of the page.

Click here for a free sample of Sharon Fling’s, “How To Promote Your Local Business On The Internet.”

My advice to you is to take this best of small business ideas and get started – and don’t stop.

I look forward to seeing you on another of our pages.

Best of success,

We are a business consulting, training and development company dedicated to helping good managers and their companies prosper by reaching for the top.

*Even though Sharon has her own site development software, she is a great supporter of Ken Evoy's Site Build It! business development software (now with full HTML editor support). Click on the Help to Business tab to see some of the things that I am doing that are based on the ideas Sharon presents in her book using Ken's Site Build It!