Local- Is It the norm?

[Glendadrumnc]

I will start this topic too. Come on, folks, let’s get this forum up and running! So, is most of your business done locally both for marketing and deliveries? Mine definitely is. My orders mostly come from local customers delivered to local recipients for personal use – birthdays, funerals, get well, these are the norm. If so, how are these customers reaching you, from your website, Google search for whatever their need is, repeat customers? Are you marketing to these customers in some way, if so, how? Mine would have to be having a website and an online presence through it and being listed with yellow pages both print and digital. If it’s a repeatable occasion, then I do email or text them the next year, which works out pretty well. I haven’t been a member of our local chamber of commerce in many years, so that would have been to market to other businesses naturally. It worked to some degree, but having been an ambassador, which took up my work time, it didn’t really seem to pay off for the time and financial input I had, plus the leadership changed as it always does and that affected the effectiveness of the organization. We’re here to share, right?

[creativegifts]

Thanks, Glenda, for your efforts to help get this forum going. For me, local was my biggest income producer. Even with Internet, I had a lot of people, who were not local, who ordered through my website for local delivery. So I would say, local is easier and faster to be profitable.
But all that changed for me when my husband died two years ago and I had catarct surgery that left me blind in one eye for two months. I had to stop local delivery as I did not want to hire someone to do it for me. I now depend on online sales for shipping only. And, let me tell you that is harder to profit from particularly since AI has changed the way Google handles organic search. I still am profitable but not nearly as much but I’m working on it. Why? At my age I should have just retired. But tha isn’t who I am nor what I need. I enjoy the challenge and it gives me the opportunity to communicate with others online and continue to learn as I deal with AI and Google’s new algorhythm.

If you are just starting out, start with local. It is so much easier and quicker to reach profitabily.

[SherryCooter]

Well, I think you both know how I get biz already, but posting to add to the conversation. When I think of my website, it is to let anyone know around the world that wants to send a gift to someone in my area. It’s about local delivery for me. I ship mostly regional gifts, but that has declined drastically due to a number of people doing nothing but regional gifts and doing a lot of Google ads.

[Lise46]

Local deliveries have become a challenge for us; most of what we do, even in the greater Chicago area is shipped via UPS. Our local courier charges upwards of $50 to deliver downtown and that is just not sustainable. Folks also don’t realize how big the Chicago area is; conservatively it is 100 miles top to bottom, 40 miles side to side. So MOST of my business is either being delivered in the Chicago area or is from folks in the Chicago area, but I get easily 50% of my business off the internet, excepting my few very large holiday clients who I have through networking.

[creativegifts]

Interesting, Lise. Since I live in a much smaller town, I never thought about the size and difficulty for hand delivery in a big city like Chicago. It is probably much like Phoenix with its many surrounding subverbs. But one thing that really interests me about your post is the statement that you get 50% of your customers from the Internet. This is getting harder and harder to do as the search engines change. Would you mind what, if any, secrets you have for accomplishing this?

[Lise46]

No real secrets. Old website helps. I update the website with a new picture, new design, something every two weeks and my blog posts to my website every two weeks so the spiders read that as a very active and updated site. Everything gets Meta tags and key words. We do a lot of social media posting – usually once or twice a week. This year I started doing google ad words and we *think* that it is making a difference; I had an absolutely killer September and that is the only thing we have changed. I am a member of three local organizations with high ratings( I forget what that is called) that point to me – two chambers of commerce and the local tourism bureau. I also belong to several small business directories that do a fairly good job of promoting their members, but I JUST joined those so not sure how that will shake out. And on some level, pure luck – which can be very up and down.

[SherryCooter]

Couriers have become so expensive. December 2020 & 2021, it was busy for me, but not so much for couriers. I used a courier where deliveries in my city and some close surrounding cities, were $20-$22, more for further out. December 2022, when things were getting back to normal, but fewer people to do the work so wages increased, the courier tab was way more than I had expected (yes, I should have asked 1st!). $30 for a 3 mile trip…and way higher the more mileage! I charge what my biggest competitor charges with a fleet of vans, $14.95 for my city and a little higher further out with a smaller delivery area than I used to have. It works out when deliveries are fairly close to each other. When I got the bill in 2022 for 2 weeks, I was thinking that I could have just sat on the couch and watched Hallmark Christmas movies based on how much deliveries took out of each order, especially lower priced baskets! I like making deliveries, and that works out for most of the year, but December is a whole other thing. I’ve run out of people I know that don’t have a job. The lady that did my deliveries last year, moved out of state where her family is.

[creativegifts]

Wow. That can make a big difference in how profitable you are and that is exactly the reason why I quit making local deliveries when my husband could no longer do them for me. More expensive than customers would be willing to pay and I’m in a smaller city than you are.

[Glendadrumnc]

To you, Lise, I have a question about Google AdWords the same as Google Ads? I looked it up by searching Google AdWords and it showed me how to get started advertising with Google Ads. It starts out with a $500 for the first 60 days to unlock the credit. That sounds expensive. I’m ignorant as to this Google AdWords thing you’re talking about. Even the meta tags and key words, I know that’s using the SEO, and I guess I’ll need to get in contact with my webhost to discuss that.
To you, Sherry and even Lise as it regards your particular delivery situation, both of you being in big wide spread cities, I can imagine that this would be a big issue for you both. I think this is indicative of the “locale” that we’re each in as well as “local”. I started to start another topic about “locale”, because of the obvious impact on each of our businesses. As the saying goes, location, location, location. That makes each of our cost challenges different. For me, I have a local delivery set at $15 for up to 15 miles on my website if they don’t call instead of ordering online. Most times that takes care of where I would go, but even in my rural county I could go up to 25-30 miles one way. So yes, delivery fees can be a significant issue to deal with and then like you said, Sherry, even finding someone to do it. How about Door Dash? They have solicited my business and that wouldn’t work for me. People want their product/meal ASAP, so I couldn’t deal with that, but they may have an option for giving a certain amount of lead time for something like a gift basket.

[Lise46]

I’ll be honest Glenda, I use a professional to handle my Google Ad/Adwords. I don’t know if there is a difference. I do know that you don’t have to start with $500 – that is where they want you to get the credit. I think I started with about $150.0

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