This is so wrong it's hard to know where to begin. I work for a very successful local company in Switzerland - have written about it before here - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2053665
The problem with local + is not local, it's us - us geeks. We don't understand it. We expect it to play out like the rest of the Internet - grow community, B2C, performanced based etc and we're wrong. And we're not listening...
Some of the fundamentals of local + are;
- don't waste an SMEs time. You really want to tell, say, a hair dresser they should spend a morning a week managing their ad campaigns (or similar) instead of cutting hair?
- be on the ground with a sales force - 75% of SMEs aren't interested in the logic of why yours in the best idea ever; they'd rather talk to someone they like and hear a sales pitch they can relate to
- bring genuine value - i.e. help them generate leads - stop trying to screw money out of them - I'd argue Groupon are an offender here
To the idea there's no money to be made, I can only smile.
Comments
This is so wrong it's hard to know where to begin. I work for a very successful local company in Switzerland - have written about it before here - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2053665
The problem with local + is not local, it's us - us geeks. We don't understand it. We expect it to play out like the rest of the Internet - grow community, B2C, performanced based etc and we're wrong. And we're not listening...
Some of the fundamentals of local + are;
- don't waste an SMEs time. You really want to tell, say, a hair dresser they should spend a morning a week managing their ad campaigns (or similar) instead of cutting hair?
- be on the ground with a sales force - 75% of SMEs aren't interested in the logic of why yours in the best idea ever; they'd rather talk to someone they like and hear a sales pitch they can relate to
- bring genuine value - i.e. help them generate leads - stop trying to screw money out of them - I'd argue Groupon are an offender here
To the idea there's no money to be made, I can only smile.
I could write loads more on this topic but already started that here http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2053665
Ultimately SMEs are those that need the Internet's help the most and are also those we're failing the most and IMO we're the ones to blame.