Internet Marketing for Brick and Mortar Businesses

by Level343 Team on November 10, 2011

While performing some much needed inspiration reconnaissance, we came across the title of this article as a search term in our analytics. What an interesting thought – the idea that a business owner might want internet marketing without a website. How odd, and yet, how enticing an idea to explore!

Usually, people that come to us either have a website and want to market it, or need a website and want to market it. Either way, a website is involved. Whoever was searching our site for internet marketing for brick and mortar businesses gave us a whole meal of food for thought.

Today, we’re going to explore the possibilities, based on the current sites and technologies available to anyone. Follow along, if you will. You may find some ideas of use to you that can be adapted to fit your own business!

Are Websites a Thing of the Past? Er…

As soon as this thought crossed our minds, the obvious answer followed. No, websites are very much a necessary part of many businesses. However, there are some drawbacks to owning a professional website presence:

Cost of hosting: While you can use a free hosting service, and those services work well for hobby sites, they aren’t recommended for business entities. Therefore, the cost of hosting is a factor, and it can range from as little as $60 a year to as much as $200 and up (depending on your business’ online needs).

Cost of site development: If you aren’t using a content management system (CMS), the upkeep on a site can be extremely expensive through the year. A CMS takes initial development costs for the design, but usually doesn’t take a lot coding upkeep after that. Still, you’re paying for the cost of professional content development to make sure your site is ready for converting visitors.

Cost of maintenance: This could be time, money, or both. A website takes a lot of work to maintain, whether you do it yourself or hire someone to take care of that maintenance. If you hire someone, you better make sure you have a well thought-out budget set aside for this work.

Now that we’ve explored some of the drawbacks of a website (mainly because we website hussies have to pretend we don’t need one in order to step out of the box), let’s look at the possibilities!

Creating a “Website Free” Online Presence (Phew!)

We don’t need no stinkin’ website! But how are we going to market our brick and mortar without one? Well, like any good SEOs, we’re going to look at the search engines first. What are search engines offering the business owner?

Google Places for Business: As the number one search engine, it behooves business owners not to skip over the Big Daddy Google. Happily enough, the search engine provides an online business card just for your business.

Enter your name, address, and phone number (NAP), upload photos and videos (if you have a YouTube account), enter the hours you’re open, and business categories. You can also enter additional details, such as whether parking is available and what brands you carry, etc. Google Places for Business is very easy to set up, and quick.

Bing Business Portal (BETA): Yes, Google is big, but leaving out other search engines and putting all your eggs in the G basket would be a large mistake. It’s not as easy to get into the BBP as it is to set up a Google Place page; you’ll have to jump through some hoops. However, the results are worth it.

One of the things BBP offers that Google doesn’t is a mobile version of your business page, where you can offer your products and services with individual services and ratings. This offering includes a QR code. People take a snapshot of your QR code and have your business information instantly available in their phones.

Yahoo! Local: Yahoo! offers business listings much like Google, with a slightly different layout. With Yahoo!, however, you’ll have to upgrade your listing to “paid” if you want to add images.

With just these three places, you’ve already gone a long way towards building a “website free” online presence.

Unending Online Marketing Opportunities for the Savvy Business Owner

One of the great things about the Internet, in a business sense, is that there’s no end to the number of places you can input your business information and have it posted. Think of these places as “online business cards”. Most of them are easy to set up and get going. Such places might include:

Internet Yellow Pages (IYP): There are tons of these, so go for the bigger ones. To find out which local engines are best for you, try search for service and/or product terms in your city. For example, kundalini yoga Kansas City brought up Yellow Pages, Citysearch and Yahoo Local. Dentists Kansas city, on the other hand, brought up Super Pages, Yelp and Yellow Pages. It might take you years to hit them all; doing a little bit of research ahead of time can save you lots of work!

Vertical Directories: AKA niche directories, verticals give you ample opportunity to display your business listing without needing a site. Thanks to current technologies and social networks, these directories are reaching out to more individuals in more ways.

The problem with vertical directories is that they’re a dime a dozen. As with IYPs, you could spend a lifetime submitting to all of the directories out there and still have some left. –And, more are coming every day. So, how do you find the right ones for you? A post on SearchEngineLand, How To Find the Right Local and Vertical Sites for Your Small Business, goes a long way toward explaining the process.

Classifieds: This may be an online world, but that doesn’t mean the classifieds are out. Don’t forget that there’s an online version for just about anything in a brick and mortar world. Examples of online classifieds, just to get an idea, include Craigslist, Oodle, OnlineClassifieds and more. Be careful of the email you use to post your classifieds, however; a lot of places like these are an open invitation to scammers and spammers.

Moving Into Social

Of course, you can’t leave out social networking. We’ve written tons of articles in the past about using social media for your business. The difference is, you’re not pushing traffic to a website; you’re pushing traffic to your business pages and your brick and mortar place. Because of this, you’ll need to look at other sites we don’t always mention.

Moving Into Social

Check-in sites, are an excellent example of mingling business savvy with social media. Places like Foursquare, Bright Kite, Loopt, and Gowalla give you the ability to reach out to consumers. Those consumers can reach out to each other, as well as find, talk about, share and visit your business. These multi-phone platforms also allow you to share coupons and deals – and, you can specifically share them with users on these sites for extra incentive to come to your brick and mortar.

Yes, You CAN!

You CAN have an online presence without a website. You really can. In fact, there are enough business listings out there – legitimate, frequently visited ones – that you can do very well with them. The only problem with a non-website online presence is the lack of control. Unless you’re using paid listings, these places can yank your information at any time.

After thinking outside the box for a while, we’re glad to be back in it. We like our website and all it entails – from the amount of time it takes to keep it maintained to the interaction we’re able to have with our readers. If you own a brick and mortar business and don’t have the time or money to keep a site going, we hope the above helps get you started with online marketing. For us, however, we’ll take keep our website and continue building her into her own, warm, friendly, yet somehow bossy, personality!

Level343 Team

This account is where everyone involved with Level343 content marketing efforts show up. You can say there is no "I" in this team. Sometimes we will chat about a certain topic with a variation of ideas, suggestions, even opinions. Then one of us will start writing the post, hand it over to someone else who will continue the diatribe. Eventually it ends up on our editors desk who either chops the hell out of it, or you're reading it right now.

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Tagged as: marketing strategy, Online visibility

{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }

Heather Smith December 28, 2011 at 11:13 pm

Good post!It’s true that you can build an online presence for your business despite the fact of not having a website without the help of internet marketing, I think it is hard for bloggers and internet marketing to promote their business and websiteA website is not only for building a reputation but it’s a great way to reach out to your customers.

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Gabriella December 29, 2011 at 4:04 pm: Exactamundo Heather…but I like to think we walk that fine line of reporting what’s out there. Good, bad, or ugly. Let our readers decide. Thanks for your input & Happy Holidays!

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Robin Roberson December 25, 2011 at 10:29 pm

Without the help of internet marketing, I think it is hard for bloggers and internet marketing to promote their business and website, because internet marketing is the building blocks of marketing.
Robin Roberson recently posted.. Hello world!

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Brian November 30, 2011 at 2:50 am

It’s true that you can build an online presence for your business despite the fact of not having a website. However, it is highly advisable to create one if you want to be successful in your business. People are fully aware that the internet is full of scammers. Without a website, you might lose a potential customer since they might think that you are a scam. A website is not only for building a reputation but it’s a great way to reach out to your customers and it has a great contribution towards increasing your revenue.

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Danny Twitter: dannynevill November 19, 2011 at 7:19 am

Websites are essential for every business out there!

What businesses need to understand is that : Face Book, Twitter, Stumble Upon, Blogs, You Tube etc are not your webpage/selling tool.

These are online marketing techniques for your business. Businesses should try and test most of the social media tools that are out there, but their main purpose using these techniques should be to direct visitors to their websites.

It is at your website you will generate sales, collect valuable date and create long lasting relationships. Too many businesses I see, seem to think that page likes are sales. Let me know the exchange rate on likes and where you can spend them, then I may change my point of view.

Good Post!

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Mike Twitter: SEOMilitia November 16, 2011 at 4:34 pm

While I think social media and directory inclusion has made small businesses reconsider whether they need a website or not, I still feel having a website is the most official way to communicate with your client base and target market. Many of those directories are not actively managed by business owners, so an official website can give the business owner the opportunity to market their products(even minimally) and to increase communication with their target market…which ultimately is the goal of all marketing.

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LanaeCEM November 16, 2011 at 3:31 pm

Really interesting alternatives to having a website for a brick and mortar business, but still have a web presence. While it could still help/be successful I think the lack of control is a big issue! My business is social networking and through my efforts in social media one of the first things I do after looking at someone’s twitter profile or fb page is look at their website. I definitely think websites are very important, no matter what the business might be?

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David Christian-Woodruff November 14, 2011 at 3:20 am

Whilst I can appreciate the aspects mentioned here of not having a website yet still forging ahead with an online presence, it seems to me at least, completely detrimental to any company not to have a fully functional website. What is the first thing that anyone will look for when trying to find a company online? Their website. The vast majority of the time, if that doesn’t exist or is of such a poor quality, people will simply look elsewhere. I’m all for looking at other avenues to extend the presence of your company online, but it should be as an accompaniment to a website, not a substitution.

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Frederick Twitter: vegau November 13, 2011 at 1:26 pm

While it’s great for B&M’s to use local and social outlets, it’s most wise to invest in their own site. Product/service information catalogs along with other resources belong on a company’s own site, not Facebook or some other type of social platform. Businesses who cover all their bases will be the most successful, IMO.

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Gabriella November 13, 2011 at 2:40 pm: I couldn’t agree with you more…but we have to be fair and consider all option for our readers. As a matter of fact one of my favorite posts was titled Online Marketing: 7 Reasons You Don’t Need Social Media Networks We want to share the information and let people decide what works best for them.

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Internet Marketing for Brick and Mortar Businesses

Are Websites a Thing of the Past? Er…

Creating a “Website Free” Online Presence (Phew!)

Unending Online Marketing Opportunities for the Savvy Business Owner

Moving Into Social

Yes, You CAN!

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Internet Marketing for Brick and Mortar Businesses

Are Websites a Thing of the Past? Er…

Creating a “Website Free” Online Presence (Phew!)

Unending Online Marketing Opportunities for the Savvy Business Owner

Moving Into Social

Yes, You CAN!

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