Small Trade Businesses Need Local Advertising

So many small trade businesses today need local advertising; but the traditional methods of an ad in the Yellow pages, and a weekly ad in the classified section of their local paper, isn't bringing them in the business it once did. So if people aren't using the yellow pages or the weekly classifieds to find a tradesmen, where are the people looking when they need some work done around the home?  

Over the past few years the Yellow pages has been a declining marketing medium due to the convenience that the Internet affords people who don't like scrounging through pages and pages of "busy, hard to read" ads all clustered together so tightly a pixel couldn't fit between them.  

What about the construction workers out on a job site who suddenly find they need the services of a Plumber, carpenter or painter and their Mate is working out of town; too busy or can't do the job in a timely manner? The yellow pages rarely get carried around in the truck and these days ringing Telstra or any other Telecommunications service to get a number from someone who doesn't understand what you are asking for, makes a difficult problem even harder.  

Now we have iPhones, Blackberries and any number of other mobile devices for making a telephone call and many of them even access the Internet. So many Engineers, Architects and project managers, and just about every other Tradesperson, now carry their own telecommunication work station with them in their workshirts. These days, if their mate can't do a job, they simply surf the Internet on the worksite!  

If you are a small trade business and you don't have a website, you've got Buckleys of picking up these profitable, random jobs. If you do have a website, but it isn't optimised for mobile devices then you are really missing out on choice opportunities for jobs at premium rates and or ongoing work opportunities.  

If you already know that the traditional methods of advertising a small trade business in the yellow pages and the weekly classies isn't working, and you have tried using Google adwords or some other contextual advertising service, only to find that you are now missing an "arm and a leg" due to the high costs of the cost per click (CPC) with very low, if any, return on your investment (ROI) then you may be at a loss right now as to where you should be advertising your services.  

Well, it's probably not much comfort, but the fact that you are reading this has already put you "streets ahead" of your competition.  

The answer is, advertise locally on the Internet. Google has just been granted the patent for their geotargeting technology which means that any trade business can now advertise their services by CPC where their ads are only shown to the areas they have asked for them to be seen. This gets you right where people are looking for your services at a cost that will make your "arms and legs" grow back faster and stronger than ever before. And it will make your employees feel secure, your dog to wag his tail again and your bank manager to smile benignly upon you once more.  

Best of all though, you won't be waking up at 0400 any more wondering how in the heck you are going to pay everyone this week or dreading answering the phone because you know it is more likely to be a Creditor ringing asking for the payment that you can't make rather than a client wanting work done.

Work locally and advertise your small trade business locally, but only to the people in your area, who need your services yesterday, if possible.