Day 3: Chambers of Commerce

So, you think now that your ad is displayed prominently on Google, clients will beat a proverbial path to your door? Well, think again, proverbial Chester. Advertising is just one aspect of marketing (But, an important one. We’ll be coming back to it.) — another is networking. The goal of networking is to make contact with people who could be, or could put you in touch with, potential clients. This is particularly difficult for people like myself, because it conflicts with our goal of never leaving our houses.

But, network I shall. Today, I contacted the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce and the Yukon Chamber of Commerce about joining their organizations. Both chambers offer the possibility of getting to meet many small business owners — our primary market. The OKC chamber promises access to marketing and demographic data, which could be useful in planning our advertising. Lacking a real web site, the Yukon chamber is more of a mystery, but also holds great potential. There are plenty of small businesses in Yukon that do not have web sites. And, when I contacted them, I casually mentioned that we would be happy to redesign their site for them. A little good will and free advertising can go a long way. We’ll see what happens.