Many retailers, restaurants and businesses are struggling to keep their doors open, and you’re in a great position, sitting pretty generating profits with your Internet ventures. Wear your wealth well by investing in local mom and pops you want to see stick around.
Here are five easy ways you can give back to other businesses in your community:
1. Hold a free Internet marketing workshop at a local library or community center for small business owners in your area. Choose somewhere that has wi-fi and tell them to bring their laptops, then walk them through the steps of listing their businesses with online search engines.
2. Blog about what you love. Make a list of your local recommendations and put it prominently on your blog.
3. Twitter while you’re visiting a local fave. Make your followers see, hear and taste what you’re enjoying. Get their mouths watering to try it.
4. Take a local business owner to lunch and let him pick your brain about what makes your businesses successful. Don’t brag; instead, listen first. Then offer practical suggestions from your wealth of experiences that the retailer can instantly go back and unpack in his store.
5. Offer complimentary critiques of a few local businesses’ websites. Show them specific ways they can improve.
Tags: Internet sales, online marketing, workshops