SMALL rural companies often think of it as unnecessary to create an online presence for themselves, as they rely mostly on a local crowd for their business. This thought process is flawed because it stems from the belief that everyone who has the potential to be their customer is already aware of them. In most instances, it’s a misbelief and the companies are simply not aware how much bigger their potential customer base can be.
Growth of eCommerce in Villages
Thanks to the Digital Scotland Initiative and the Scottish government backed Smart Village Program, even some of the remote rural sections of the Scottish nation now have access to fast, reliable internet. In the more populated villages and towns, entire eCommerce economies are already in development. The trading scope for businesses around the rural locale is now much bigger than it was just five years ago. Therefore, local businesses are not only losing out on the growing eCommerce, but they are also losing their present customers.
How Local Businesses Can Easily Maximise their Situation
Given a choice between ordering online or going to the market, some customers will always choose to order online, even if it is infrequent in some areas. The question is, why can’t those online purchases be made from the same business which provides them with the option to shop offline?
Customers in small towns and rural areas prefer familiarity and they are likely to order online from a shop that they know and trust from their real-life experiences, rather than from a place they are not already familiar with. It’s an opportunity to capitalise on both fronts for local businesses.
Getting Started: Launching a Website
Creating an online presence starts with launching a professional, business website and it does not have to be a complex process at all. It should function to serve two primary functions:
- A point of introduction for the business
- A point of sale for the business
Contact an experienced company such as Webheads and they will work with you in devising the most cost-effective strategy for a business site. The London based web designing company has worked with numerous businesses of all sizes in the last twenty-six+ years, many of which were small rural companies at one point themselves.
Launch a Small Marketing Campaign
A small social media marketing campaign across a limited set of channels, and a few careful investments in SEO marketing should be all it takes to help a local business’s online presence to become more prominent within the target local crowd. Make sure you invest in a good SEO tool to support your marketing strategy. Sometimes, it is extremely convenient to have a smaller target group, which is precisely what the situation is here. In fact, it might not be a bad idea to think about a few offline marketing strategies for popularising a local business’s new launch into the digital world.
For brand new, online-only start-ups in rural Scotland, the opportunity is still only being created. For established offline businesses though, the opportunity to capitalise on both fronts by joining the eCommerce sector is tremendous in these parts.
