Free Business Directory
You could spend months or even years becoming an expert on all things marketing-related, but few small and medium sized business managers have time for all that. Marketing boils down to one key concept: making sure that customers who are thinking about buying your product know where to find you. In the days before the internet, choices of business were limited to those within your own town, or the businesses which took out a listing or advert in the Yellow Pages. Things have moved on a bit from the days when we were encouraged to “let your fingers do the walking” through the paper directories when we needed a plumber or a dentist. Nowadays, we’re much more likely to head straight to a search engine.
Online Business Directories – What Are They?
An online business directory is the 21st century replacement for the traditional paper directories. Some of the big brands which made their names in paper directories have switched into offering online directories too. But there are many new directories in the marketplace too, and the trick from a business owner’s perspective is knowing which ones will deliver the best results for your company. Most business directories are structured in the same way. They let customers search for businesses operating in a particular field such as plumbing, hairdressing, sports centres, or they allow a more general search for all businesses located in a particular postcode area. There are also business directories which cater for companies in one specific niche only, and those tend to cover a larger geographical area.
Getting Listed in a Business Directory
Most business directories will allow basic free listings for all qualifying businesses. Setting up your basic listing is easy – most directories will only ask for basic contact details for your business, along with your website address, opening hours and for a brief description of what you do. There’s also usually the option to pay for a more prominent location on the web page, or for extra services to help market and advertise your business. The best advice is to start off with the simple free listings and then where visitors to your website are coming from. Invest a bit of time and effort in the channels which are profitable, and stick with just the free ads on the ones which aren’t as successful. Review your listings periodically to make sure you’re still using the best combination of listings for you.
Choosing a Business Directory
Getting listed in every business directory going isn’t the best strategy, as if you’re listed in irrelevant directories, this can be seen as spamming. Quality, not quantity, is the concept to keep in mind here. 118businessdirectory.co.uk have years of experience in helping small businesses just like yours to maximise the effectiveness of their marketing spend. Why not trust the experts to manage your marketing spend? All you need to do is sit back and watch as effective free business directory listings drive more customers to your website, which you can then convert into sales.