Local Directory - how to get clients

Hey!

I want to run local directory and i need to know how to get clients.

I want to make it CHEAP - price of listing will be 5 USD per... YEAR. Yes, per year! Why? I want to get much companies as i can.

My point is to get 5000 companies.

5000 x 5 USD = 25 000 USD per year / 12 month = ~ 2000 USD per month so it is good money in my country.

My only idea now is cold calling - i have not good experience in this method, people just have no time to talk.

Mailing - better idea, i can get e-mail of every company in my city but... i do not know what to write to get them

I know i am NOOB but i want to get experience and learn many things, thats why i registered here. I hope You understand what i mean, english is not my native language but i think it is not so bad Thank You for every idea!

Local directories are like forums...pretty much useless unless they are populated and get traffic.

I recommend yu get yourself a good scraper and list every possible company you can get for free.

Give it a few months then you can start sending out emails offering an upgrade to a featured listing for a small fee.

Of course i know that i need traffic.
Before starting promotion i want to put about 100 companies for free because my clients need to know that it is not useless directory.

So traffic is not problem for me.

It is really interesting because i want to get only 5 USD per YEAR - it is nothing but i have to bring over these companies

emozzie said:

5000 x 5 USD = 25 000 USD per year / 12 month = ~ 2000 USD per month so it is good money in my country.

Click to expand...

Minus taxes, minus expenses, minus contingent overheads.

What makes you think being super duper cheap will get you more clients in the first place? I really think you're going about this the wrong way. Build up value and make them pay for that listing...they should want it. The free giveaway to build up is a good idea imo.

I'll be honest, don't be discourage but I tried this years ago......I failed. Too much work and not enough results ($$). First you need to build your directory, promote it and get traffic. Once you have some numbers you can start showing businesses some data and making some sales.

Populate your directory as previously mentioned and then you can collect leads and sell them or/and rent the positions/placements.

Also you can use the directory as a "bonus" or something extra to sweeten some other deals like web design, seo, etc.

Good luck.

Do it free

then offer them premium features for money

as above, unless they are populated you won't get much

I don't think the $5 model will hold up too long plus it sounds rather fishy to the owner as although people love cheap stuff, if it's too cheap when it comes to business, they'll be discouraged and think you're trying to rip them off somehow.

I'd follow the advice of what others have said. Also, keep in mind conversions for cold calling as well as collecting payments and following up as yeah you can automate collections but if a lot of people cancel their sub. you'll have to do some calling to convince them to join up again.

You better propose to your local townhall to manage their website for free and make it more attractive. Then go to the business owners and tell them you manage the town main website and you can add them to the website for a small fee of $..../month. You'll have an amazing impression of authority + you let the businesses pay for it. The question is if the townhall doesn't already have local businesses included?

you really were given some bad advice, if someone is wiling to pay $5 per year, they are wiling to pay $20 per year, charge $19.99 for a full year and feature the fact that its a local do follow link that google loves and offer the option for them to create and maintain an online blog, they can keep creating posts with do follow local links for seo. Now with these small changes you have something worth buying for $20 per year.
build a small client list and then branch out your services offered and partner with a local seo or web design company and offer your clients discounts for web design and seo services, there's so much more you could do here, but I don't have time to type it, just keep going, it could work well. Your thinking too small, think bigger and plan ahead for when you are successful. Don't just think of online value, think of services you can offer and the value they provide offline as well. Be creative, theres alot you left uncovered.

this is a great idea, and a good start Duffers

Duffers5000 said:

Local directories are like forums...pretty much useless unless they are populated and get traffic.

I recommend yu get yourself a good scraper and list every possible company you can get for free.

Give it a few months then you can start sending out emails offering an upgrade to a featured listing for a small fee.

Click to expand...

This is a long term project. Populate the site with scraped business info, and set up a way to sell them an "enhanced" listing for the $5.

Figure a year to get the businesses listed in the basic site, and another for SEO and local promotion, and you should be able to start charging by then.

Plan on a couple of grand in expenses for the dev to integrate all that.

I am doing a variation of this on a single service directory and it's a bitch.

Almost all the work I do is local. No matter what you're doin man, go talk to people. Meet them, know them, befriend them, help them. That will make everyone happier and wealthier.

Your $5 idea is a good market entry strategy. And you can use your cold calling idea as the second stage of the strategy. Some companies prefer mailing, while others prefer calling. So in order to cover the whole market you should do both.

It's a ton of work, but you could actually make it. As part of your marketing strategy I'd suggest sending out a letter - it's more ''personal'' and they'll surely be tempted to open it.