A local directory website is a straightforward project that can turn into a lucrative business that earns you a good stream of passive income.
The success of a local business directory website depends on how much traffic it attracts, which in turn depends on what it has to offer. The main reason why people visit such a website is to view and possibly compare businesses and do business with the best possible ones. For this purpose, you need your directory to have as many listings as possible.
In 2021, a report reported that 94% of all consumers in the US use business information websites to research local businesses. The report also stressed the importance of having accurate information on your directory, with 63% of those who encountered incorrect information abandoning that business. There is a demand for sites such as yours, but for it to attract and maintain visitors, your website needs to be reliable and rich in listings.
In time, you will have businesses organically seeking listing slots on your website; however, before that happens, you have to go out and convince businesses to take up listings with you. You may be having obstacles to getting there, which is why we’re here. We will be looking at what your website should have and how you attract and retain customers with a few priceless tips.
How Do You Sell Business Listings on Your Local Directory Website
Here are 10 tips to help you make a thriving local business directory that connects as many businesses to their customers as possible:
Content Outline:
- Create the Perfect Website
- Research on the Local Businesses
- Understand What Businesses Want from a Local Directory
- Create Attractive Packages
- Write a Killer Sales Pitch
- Emphasize Visibility and Ease of Use
- Offer Discounts and Trial Periods
- Follow Up and Give Top-Notch Customer Service
- Take Advantage of Social Proof
- Establish a Social Media Presence
Tip 1: Create the Perfect Website
If you already have a website, you can use this tip to determine if your site has what you need. For businesses that haven’t created a website yet, we advise you to do it with WordPress over other content management systems. This CMS has many advantages, which is why it is the most popular.
With WordPress, you get to use the CLDirectory WordPress theme. In a few minutes, it gives you a full-fledged website with a clean and contemporary layout. It offers 2 magnificent homepage demos to get you started. The theme has 2 layouts for single listings and allows you to showcase your listings in a variety of grid, list, and map layouts. Other features that make CLDirectory enticing include:
- Multiple ad promotion and membership features
- Multiple map sources
- Multiple payment gateways
- Multiple search features
- Buyer-seller live chat features
- Robust store facility
- Listing gallery with slider
- Gutenberg editor addon
- Business hours showcase
- Email notification settings
- Auto-renew for expired listings
These aren’t even half of what it has to offer, and considering that it only costs $39, you can’t think of a better alternative for your directory. To install it, you just need to make the purchase and follow the rich online documentation to install and use in case you need help with anything.
Tip 2: Research on the Local Businesses
Before you consider contacting the businesses you’re targeting, you need to understand them. Your research should aim to discover their unique needs, pain points, and goals. Seek to know if they’ve ever listed their businesses elsewhere and their negative or positive experiences with such ventures. Only by understanding all these can you create a sales pitch that hits home with them.
You can do this research by going directly to these local businesses to get a hands-on feel for their situations. You can divide the businesses by industry, size, and customer demographics so that you can serve each type of business. From there, you can then mold your sales pitch to be relevant to your target market.
Tip 3: Understand What Businesses Want from a Local Directory
Any successful contemporary businesses understand how vital their online presence is to their dealings. Most of them already know what they want from a local directory, and they understand that these are connection channels to their local customers. You need to understand what they want from a directory like yours before you sell a single listing. Here is what they want:
- Optimized visibility: All businesses want to be in the spotlight, and your local directory offers the perfect stage. They need your website to give them prominence in search results, so you need to have effective SEO strategies to offer just that.
- User-friendly interfaces: Businesses always appreciate a local directory that has an excellent user interface. If they can navigate the website easily and manage their profiles without issues, they’ll love you for it.
- Accurate business information: Earlier, we mentioned the importance of proper business information to the customers; it is just as crucial to the businesses. Once your business directory website becomes a reliable source of their information, they’ll treat it as their digital business card.
- Customer reviews and ratings: Consumers will trust the word of fellow consumers more than that of the business. Positive reviews are a source of credibility and endorsement, while constructive feedback offers chances for improvement.
- Analytics and insights: Businesses appreciate accurate data and insights into their online performances. Seeing how potential customers interact with their profiles informs them on what to do to meet their expectations.
Tip 4: Create Attractive Packages
Creating excellent packages with competitive pricing is one sure way to gain attention and conversions. Ensure that you cater to businesses of all sizes and budgets. You can create basic free listings and premium ones that have appealing advantages. For instance, packages that have priority placement and other promotional perks will draw the attention of competing businesses.
Make sure to clearly highlight the value and benefits of each package in relation to the businesses that they suit. Show them why they should feel okay with signing up for free listings but also why they should strive to be the early bird that gets the premium options. Tell them about the added visibility of higher-priced packages and what that means for their businesses.
Tip 5: Write a Killer Sales Pitch
Work on a sales pitch that systematically draws the attention of your targets to their need for your directory website. We have worked out a tried and tested method of delivering the most effective sales pitch. Here you go:
- Consider starting with the strongest benefit that the businesses want to experience.
- Bring it home with the most glaring and excruciating pain point you’ve discovered about them.
- Towards the end, throw in other smaller benefits and pain points to complete the big picture for them.
- Before concluding, reiterate your strongest benefit so you can leave it lingering in their minds.
Consider connecting all these benefits and pain points with a story that brings the pieces together. If you choose to go this way, craft a normal-sounding but relevant story that may be fictitious, belongs to someone else, or yours if you’re lucky enough to have one. A story gets the emotions of your target, and emotions are what compel people to take action!
Tip 6: Emphasize Visibility and Ease of Use
All businesses want exposure, which is the principal reason why any of them will accept your offer. Articulate the visibility that comes with your local business directory website and how it will match them with their competition, if not take them way ahead. Explain the SEO benefits that you have to offer and how they lead to success.
Since some businesses may not be ready to introduce a digital perspective into their business, emphasize the ease of handling their profiles on your site. We can guarantee this user-friendly interface when you work with CLDirectory, and it works wonders with the technology-shy users.
Tip 7: Offer Discounts and Trial Periods
One of the sacrifices that you must be ready for if your website is to take off is an initial financial one. Giving initial discounts and trial periods for the premium packages will draw many new businesses to your website. Clarify the value of the incentives you offer before mentioning them to make them more attractive.
For instance, you can give a discounted rate for businesses that sign up for the first three months. On the other hand, you can give a trial period on the premium package for a month. You can even insert coupons into your activities, with which CLDirectory is compatible.
Tip 8: Follow Up and Give Top Customer Service
If businesses take too long to respond to your pitch, feel free to follow up with them. Seeing them again is a great basis for forming a relationship and provides an opportunity for adding any newfound information. Ensure that your follow-up communicates patience and concern as much as a willingness to do business with them. You can go to the business yourself or use emails or phone calls.
Contact with the businesses you list is paramount to forming a good relationship. Ensure you give them top-tier customer service by responding promptly and being as helpful as possible. Personalized support, one-on-one consultations, webinars, and other efforts at showing up yourself will draw them even closer to you. You can give them an analysis of the performances of their businesses to help them improve too.
Tip 9: Take Advantage of Social Proof
Once you start getting positive testimonials and success stories, utilize these in your further outreach efforts. Positive information from other businesses about your business directory will have an indelible effect on them. If they know the businesses that are vouching for you, that’s even better. Social proof adds to the credibility and attractiveness of your project.
Tip 10: Establish a Social Media Presence
Social media can be one of the best additions to your strategies when getting the name of your directory website out there. You can do this by creating regular social media posts and seeking connections with local people and businesses. Your posts should aim at brevity and conciseness while following our four steps in tip 4. You can also get in touch with businesses on the same platforms and give your pitch.
Conclusion: Sell Your Directory Listings to Local Businesses Successfully
Starting to sell listings on a local business directory website can be a challenge, but like any wheel, getting rolling is the hard part. If you stick to the methods that we’ve outlined in this piece, you will raise your chances of success astronomically. These are thoroughly tested methods of launching and growing your local business directory website. All the best as you take your directory venture to the next level.
