It’s easy to get carried away with the opportunities online marketing holds for your business. Suddenly, the confinement to a particular locale vanishes… the world opens up for you to market your trade to businesses across the world. 15 years since the Internet gold rush started, you still read, each and every day, of businesses turning from backroom 1 man bands to multinational corporations in the space of a couple of years. Internet trading years are still deemed to be the same as dog years in terms of how quickly your business can grow online.

The truth is, without that exceptional piece of luck, phenomenal marketing tactic, or open wallet investor, trading online can be just as difficult as offline.

Why? It’s all about competition. Suddenly, on your local ‘turf’ where you were competing against 4-5 local businesses, online you’re competing against hundreds. Whilst the target market has expanded dramatically, so have the businesses within your market.

This particular blog article stems from a conversation I had last week. A business which had plied their trade within a traditional local marketplace had a common perception of what the ‘web’ held for them. They saw it as being, just as I described above – a wondrous opportunity to sell their trade to businesses across the country and overseas. This was a B2B service, running with a team of 5 people, who offered fantastic levels of service and support for their existing client base. Naturally, a business that wishes to expand, as we all do, but again, they viewed the ‘web’ as a marketplace for all.

We’re 15 years on since the Internet was introduced as a mass-marketing platform. This particular business had been in operation of 20 years. During the past 15 years they’d continued to perceive the ‘web’ a mechanism to build towards, rather than to build from. So, what has happened during those 15 years online? Nothing, their website has been continually updated from a ‘look and feel‘ perspective, but retained the same information taken from the same brochure published last century.

My conversation with the business owner continued. We talked SEO. What was perceived success for him in relation to SEO? Number One position for the related “widget” term. Simple as that. His business offered a product that was bought by businesses and consumers worldwide. His business offered a service to local business looking to own and maintain these particular products. His version of perceived SEO success was a polar opposite of what his actual business NEEDS at this time.

For any small business owner to shun the worth of No.1 ranking for terms such as “buy widgets Sheffield” or “Widget suppliers Sheffield” driving qualified traffic to their site is irresponsible business ownership.

Your business ‘grows‘ on the Internet. It does not establish itself as No.1 within any industry purely on the back of a generic term providing generic traffic. Single term phrases relating to a plethora of business or individual needs, are NOT the holy grail of search positions for any business. Especially, that of a provincial business working with local suppliers and local clients.

With such a tremendous gulf between where he felt his business should be online (through his own great expectations) and where his business could be online (realistic goals) then the company had simply let the opportunity of developing an online presence simply pass them by.

A key success to online growth for any B2B product provider or service is to get your message, your marketing and your expectations right. What better opportunity is there to continue building and developing relationships within your own locality to ensure these 3 imperative boxes are checked? Developing an optimised localised search presence not only drastically reduces your costs (your Adwords campaigns and content now focus on local based business and prospects) but also gives you a controlled environment in which to create and manage and effective online presence.

Yes, your offering my be of the same perceived value to a business located in your nearest village to that of somebody sat 1000’s of miles away, but don’t underestimate the power of ‘local presence’. The idea that a prospect may hit google with a search for “buy widgets Hereford” and land at your site, a Hereford based business offering the sale of widgets! Half of your sales job is now complete! It’s now down to your site content and contact visibility and follow-up skills to turn that prospect into a client.

The conversation highlighted above is a conversation I’ve been involved with many many times. It’s the struggle between where you feel your business ’should’ be and where you are.

Take advantage of the ability to target your localized prospects using tactical Adwords, SEO and Social Media to practice and perfect your online messaging. Then, and only then, will your achieved goals close in with your greater expectations.