Five Star Contractor Referral Service Your source for reliable contractor referrals in Olympia & Thurston County

The title says it all. Networking works. I would like to take this time to thank Scott Smith of Four Seasons Home Repair, for his referral of Caleb at "XYZ Company" (confidential). Simply because of his introduction, Caleb was very interested and well-informed about what we do at RelyLocal.

That's exactly how referrals should work. Not just handing someone a card, but giving them an introduction about what you do and maybe some examples. As a result, Caleb called me, and we met for coffee yesterday. This company is just now expanding its use of the Web for advertising because, as we all know in this economy, you need to do everything you can as reasonably as you can. He had even taken the time, ahead of time, to visit my site and learn more about what we do. This made my job of explaining the details much easier and I believe more digestible.

The other half of "networking-works", is listening. Many of you may have heard we have two ears and one mouth. So we need to use those ears most effectively. By listening to Caleb tell me his story about XYZ Company, I was more enlightened about his industry as a whole. This too, makes my job easier by helping me differentiate them from similar companies.

All-in-all, networking really does work when it's done right. So I encourage you all to do it right and help Oly5Star members grow to their full potential.

When I started RelyLocal - Olympia (an online business directory and Internet Marketing company) 2 years ago this month, I knew it had the potential to get good traction in the local market. With the trend reversing to "Buying Local" and supporting our local economy 1st, my services looked as though they would be positioned perfectly for Thurston County. Already an extremely loyal community, I was very happy to see how quickly my business grew. This wasn't my 1st attempt at an online directory service though.

Over 8 years ago, with the help of some techie-friends, we launched OlympiaHomePages.com. It was very much the same format as RelyLocal is today.  However, without Smartphone technology and Social Media to propel the idea, we were waaaaay too early into that market and failed miserably. That was then and lessons were learned.

Fast forward to 2010 - Once I had a few dozen clients on board, I continued to research ways to increase exposure for them. Since we only charge $25 per month, I really didn't think much would happen too quickly. However, much to my surprise, customers began calling/emailing me and letting me know that they were getting more phone calls and Internet traffic to their websites than they had in the past. Some were excited to say that they had even reached the 1st page of Google! Hmmmm, I thought, could this be from my efforts?

Month after month, at network meetings and Chambers, I would hear similar stories from clients. That Google was now indexing our site more often, and client's page rank was increasing, made me hunt for even better ways to increase their exposure;

• Better use of key words,
• better content and copywriting
• more pictures
• coupon marketing
• and now, adding video.

All of those elements coax Google into pointing at our directory more often and raising their listings organically (free).

This post is really not meant to brag, but to provide some inspiration.

At a network breakfast just 2 weeks ago, Carie Tindill of Cakeitecture Bakery stood up and gave some great testimony. Earlier that week, she had gotten an email from a woman in New York and a call the next day from another in Texas. Surprisingly....she did business with both of them. The next week, she mentioned she got a request to make a custom cake for a 16 year old....from their Mom in Afghanistan. Okay, I was blown away too!

Lastly, this Friday at another breakfast meeting, Carrie Boyd of Belize Tee's had thanked both ThurstonTalk and RelyLocal, because we apparently have reached out beyond Olympia, Tumwater, Lacey and Yelm, because she was getting calls from as far away as Korea!

I'll close with this...regardless of how you market your company or what your budget is.... Market Your Company.

Remember - "Stopping advertising to save money is like stopping a watch to save time." (Henry Ford) 

Be well and continue to shop local. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

1st, let me say, THANK YOU for your attention during our presentation on Social Media and Blogging this afternoon. I was pretty sick yesterday and wasn't sure I had the stamina to do it.

We, of the Marketing Committee, hope that many of you got some valuable information during the presentation. Our goal is to help YOU.

Some have assumed, that Blogging has long been thought of being written by computer geeks. When in fact, the Blogosphere is dedicated to allow for conversational information to be read and shared by anyone interested in the "subject matter". 

It's the perfect platform for YOU to become a SME (Subject Matter Expert). This helps to build TRUST with your audience and (hopefully) convert them into customers.

The best blog.....is your next one.

Enjoy. I look forward to reading about you and your business.

Thane

Owner of RelyLocal - Olympia