Since Eureos opened an office in downtown Annecy, the team has rediscovered local commerce. Our butcher prepares ready-to-heat lasagna for us when we’re short on time at lunchtime, the wine merchant across the street supplies the bottles for employees’ birthdays, our banker and our insurance agent regularly drop by for coffee in the morning.
And it was while talking with the latter, who is rather open-minded, competent and dynamic, that we engaged in in-depth thinking on a subject that is not so easy to address: how can local shops and businesses make the most of the new promotional tools offered by the web, with limited means?
Useless websites
First answer: create a SUPER website. With Flash animation, professional photos with models, grandiose messaging… the whole package. Tough luck: the insurance agent in question is part of a group that already has a website and that would take a very dim view of this kind of kamikaze move. And besides, let’s be clear, everyone knows what home insurance is. No need to repeat it on yet another website. What its customers are looking for above all is a local player attentive to their needs.
The chimera of organic search
A good web agency salesperson may be able to convince a local business, but let me be perfectly clear: don’t expect to land on the first page of Google for “home insurance” if your budget isn’t that of a heavyweight in the sector. You can try an approach on “home insurance Annecy”, and maybe you have a chance of getting there in a year. And then what? Do internet users often add the city name to their query? And what about those who live in Seynod, the neighboring town?
The Yellow Pages
Second answer: bet on the Yellow Pages. Why not. The fact is that it works in our insurance agent’s case. But the others, those who type “looking for an insurance agent” into Google, how do you reach them?
The other route: landing page + local web advertising
Third answer: rethink the entire chain and tailor it to local businesses:
- A website? No, a simple page (called a landing page), simple and straightforward. Much less expensive, and created in one to two half-days.
- AdWords ads? Yes, but local, limited to a 20 km radius around the business, so as not to waste your budget and to maximize the chances of getting inquiries in return.
- An effective contact form? Included directly at the bottom of the page. Straight to the point.
- Statistical tracking: 10 minutes to set up Google Analytics (free) and only one metric to monitor: the conversion rate.
How much does it cost? Far less than the budget you’re already wasting on newspapers.
Want to give it a try and stop using ineffective and costly methods: contact us. You can also stop by the office for coffee 🙂
