subject: Market Your Local Directory [print this page] To get your local directory off the ground, whether in a large city like Atlanta or in a small city, there a number of things you can do. The real secret is to keep working steadily. You will get results in time. You have one of the best platforms available to build a business on, and there now some things you can now do to help make your site a valuable advertising and promotional tool for your advertisers. Getting advertisers to see the value of what you offer is the key.
The Importance Of Listings And Content
The biggest secret to steady growth is to simply add some listings to your directory in the beginning yourself if required. A full directory looks more attractive to new advertisers. Many advertisers will want to see some listings in your directory. This can be as little as 5-10 per category. Entering these yourself takes a little work, but it is well worth it.
Business listings, plus the new articles you create, are what helps you to get more and more free, or "organic", traffic from the search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. Without this content, you site's traffic from these sources will be more limited. However, your site automatically submits your new listings and content to the search engines using its built in "site map" feature. As you ad more content and listings, your ability to market yourself to local advertisers increases.
Build Your Social Media Presence
While you are building up your organic search traffic, you should also work on creating fans at Facebook, Twitter and others. Sometimes having a large number of fans at these social networking sites can be more attractive to advertisers than search engine traffic, they are that effective.
Go After Advertisers Of All Sizes
When you talk to the bigger, high-end business in your area, you know that they obviously have larger advertising budgets. You will likely want to call and set an appointment with them. These types of business may require a complete presentation, detailing your visitors and their numbers on Facebook and more. For the smaller businesses in your city, you may achieve your best results using fliers and sending out emails in bulk. Do not forget about these "mom and pop" businesses. They can provide you with a large revenue stream!
