"The Desktop Global Marketer" (tm)

   A free on-line newsletter of Sidereal Designs, Inc.,
   for Internet Entrepreneurs, and those who are
   considering becoming one.
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                 November 2002

In this issue: "The degree to which people are increasingly
turning to the internet as their source for information, and
the diversity of information and services businesses are
making available to them, make the web more important for a
local business today than it was for a global business only
a few years ago."

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   "The Desktop Global Marketer" is free, and may be 
   re-published freely with permission. We encourage 
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   	http://sidereal-designs.com
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Many businesses are by nature local. People are not going to
drive a thousand miles to buy nails at your hardware store.  For
this reason, many proprietors of such businesses ask if it really
makes any sense for them to have a web presence. They may be
reaching hundreds of millions of people, but very few of them
will become customers.

The answer is almost certainly yes. You may not be attracting
business from those millions of eyeballs around the world, but
these days people are turning to the web in the expectation of
finding services and information on-line from any business. The
web is rapidly replacing the telephone book and other traditional
sources of information, and if you're not there you will be
driving your current local clientelle to your competition.

Among the things that people turn to the web for regarding a
local business, and which you will want to provide are:

* An attractive website that sells your products and services 24
hours a day. When I say "sells" I don't mean just, or even
particularly, on-line e-commerce. Studies show that the greater
part of on-line sales results from people who use the web for
comparison shopping before buying in person. If you're not there
they decide among those who are.

* Contact information such as maps and driving directions, phone
numbers, mailing addresses, fax numbers and e-mail addresses. 
These things are among the most frequent things for which people 
turn to the web when dealing with local businesses.

* Pricing, information and details of available choices, models,
options and out of stock items are frequently accessed by people
who want to get the answers before they bother to make a trip to
the store.

Additionaly, there are things you will want to offer to people
visiting your web site to enhance your marketing and provide
services to your customers. these may include:

* Collecting e-mail addresses from customers for later follow-up
via e-mails telling about specials, new products, coupons, etc.

* Registration for on-line newsletters that allow you to
proactively reach ouit to your clients with news of your
industry, useful information and helpful tips.

* Autoresponders to provide product and service information, and
PDF format files (which can include brochures, formatted text and
images) that can be downloaded and printed by the client with
extended product information, instructions, guarantees, etc.

Finally, don't write off the people who are finding you on the
web by search engines or other means, even if they are only a
tiny percentage of the gloabl internet population. People are now
searching the Web for local services. They simply include the
name of the city or region in their search, and if you've
properly set up your keywords and registration (including
local-area listings in on-line directories such as Yahoo) then
they will find you.

The degree to which people are increasingly turning to the
internet as their source for information, and the diversity of
information and services businesses are making available to them,
make the web more important for a local business today than it
was for a global business only a few years ago.

Thanks for reading this month's issue!

Ernie Kent


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"Sidereal" is pronounced sy-DEER-ee-all, and means "of
or pertaining to the stars, the heavens, etc."


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Sidereal Designs, Inc. "Making The Web Simple."   http://sidereal-designs.com