Becoming an expert in your niche locally isn’t much different from becoming known as an expert online. The only difference is that you will need to connect personally with people more often than when you’re conducting business with long-distance customers, so that they can build trust in you. The best way to start attracting local business owners is to choose the right topic.
Choosing a Topic to Attract Local Business Owners
Get to Know Your Audience
In truth, your local audience won’t be much different from your international audience. However, they may not be as savvy with online information in some cases, but gradually this is becoming less likely as the population becomes more technically inclined.
Find Out Who Is Popular in Your Local Area
You may have competition locally that you need to get to know. Who, if anyone, is doing what you want to do locally? Even if you find someone who isn’t direct competition, it’s a good idea to get to know who is popular in your local area and who is giving out the type of advice, products, or services that you want to provide.
Get Involved with Small Business Initiatives
Via your local SCORE, Chamber, or another type of business-focused center (could be through a local school or college), there is a huge need for volunteers who will concentrate on small businesses, as most of these groups focus on bigger businesses rather than a home business. They need you. If you get involved, you will become known.
Find Events to Attend and Sponsor
Start attending small business events in your local area. Find some to sponsor too so that people get to know your business name. Even if you can’t be there, if your name is announced a lot the local community will begin to know and trust you more.
Fit Your Expertise in with What’s Needed
As you attend events and get to know what is happening locally for small businesses, you can start to figure out what part of your expertise is needed most. That will enable you to fit into the local happenings without butting up against a fierce competitor in a way that stifles your ability to help and become an expert to the local people.
Develop a Signature Talk
While you’re getting to know people, start working on a signature talk so that you can give impromptu speeches, plan speeches, and maybe even eventually paid speeches in your local area.
Go to Lunch
When you meet people that you think you have something in common with at events, start inviting people to lunch. Get to know individuals on their own so that you can help each other. You can refer them, they can refer you, and everyone can work together to get even more of the public involved locally.
Host Your Own Events
Once you are known enough, start hosting your own events based on your targeted topic that you’ve chosen after getting to know people and seeing what’s needed in your community. Your events can be paid workshops, free workshops, and more.
Once you get to the point of hosting your own workshops and events, you’ll have developed the perfect topic. One of the topics you already cover online will likely work best for you. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Many of the same rules you use for attracting your audience online will work for attracting your local audience.
Now that you’ve become a local expert in your chosen niche, and you have some experience creating and hosting your own events… perhaps it’s time to start your own local networking group.
How to Set Up Your Own Local Networking Group
Starting a local networking group is a great way to become known for your expertise in your local community. But before you start one, you need to think about a few factors. Number one is what your overall goal is for having the group – both from the members’ perspectives and from your own.
Know the Goals You Have for the Group
Understanding why you want to start a networking group is important. If you’re hoping to find clients and make money from the group, then you will want to have a group that covers a good cross-section of your ideal audience. If you really want to network with your competition, such as an industry group, that will have far different goals than a networking group made up of your ideal audience.
Laser-Target Your Niche
Think of this again from the perspective of your goals for this group. If you want to connect people with many different niches, you will still need to find out what they all need. But, if you want to network with your peers, then you’ll focus on a different niche entirely. The key is to find a niche topic that appeals to everyone that you want to come.
Invite Local Leaders to Your Events
A great way to kick things off for your first networking event is to invite local leaders to your meetings. When local leaders start showing up, it’ll become the meeting to go to in your local community faster.
Use Technology to Your Advantage
Just because an event is local doesn’t mean you have to give up online technology to help organize your event and your members.
Software like WildApricot.com, Facebook Groups, event planning, sign-up software and more will all help you make your networking group amazing and effective.
Tell Everyone about Your New Group
Even though some of your friends might not be perfect for your new networking group, you should still tell everyone you know about your new group from the moment you’re sure you’re going to create it. That way, the word gets out to everyone, and those who may be interested can contact you to help.
Survey Attendees to Perfect Your Group
Once you start having meetings, make it a habit of sending out a survey to your group so that you can get to know your attendees better. The more you know the people who show up, the more you can learn about them to attract more people who show up.
Be Consistent
Once you start a networking group, it’s important to be consistent. You may feel tempted to cancel meetings because you don’t have a lot of participation at first. But the worst thing you can do is start and stop. Instead, be consistent in your activities so that more people will start joining over time. Give it at least a good full year of monthly meetings before you give up.
Set Up for Growth
If you set up your group for growth and have steady growth, your group will become very sustaining. Set it up so that you don’t have to be involved after the group gets going. Assign officers and a president or director so that you can eventually let go of the reins for someone else to lead.
Starting a local networking group will make a huge difference in how your audience sees you. You can use your local group for so many activities and situations that will help you grow your business, too.
