|| Return to On The Road... ||
September 27, 1996
Memphis, Tennessee
My first workshop down in this part of the south was filled with many people from Little Rock, Arkansas, as well as Tennessee and Mississippi. Many people asked about their businesses and kept talking about how someone would find their site online.
This is the basic question I get and a good one. People are so filled with the idea that a search engine that returns 50,000 sites is what they should focus on. Or that there is some miracle out there that makes good sites easy to find.
I've moved around this country all my life and one thing I know as a newcomer, it's tough to find good businesses. If I want a dentist, I go to the Yellow Pages. What I get is often more pain than success because I don't have a clue where to look. So why should the Internet be different?
Why are we focusing on the ideas of maps and locations for the Internet? It's not about maps, it's about awareness and building sites that invite people to explore. Content and wrapping the interest of the audience around the content is what it's all about.
So I can't tell you where you should be able to find Memphis, but I'll tell you what I found. As an out of town stranger, I went to the blues bars downtown to listen to some local music. Real local, blues born and raised in the area, even made Elvis swivel. The heart of Memphis is the music, Elvis is part of that tapestry. But the whole tapestry that makes up the town is what will provide persona, feeling, and presence on line.
Just tap into that local feel of the area, promote it to a global market, and show them what's special about Memphis. Meanwhile, show them what's special about your business. Easy advice to give, but we are all so used to sharing a flash of inspiration, a fancy graphic, or some other somehow professional statement that most people don't get.
Can't we get beyond the impersonal corporate advertising and realize that the Web is just like your local store, where you should be there to greet people, show them around, and let them direct the sales process? While you can't be there in "person", a good Web site will act as your salesperson, one who never leaves. One who always shares a smile, some good music, and the comfort of Memphis.
If you could put Memphis into a Web site, you'd have one big success...someone will, but it won't be the businesses trying to be something they're not. Quality, customer service, nice words but not meaning. The real benefit of a business is what you do for the customer; the where you are is just a local flavor you give it. Like the amazing ribs I had downtown, the secret is to surround your product, the meat, with a mouth watering sauce, the local flavor. That's what will put Memphis on the map of the Internet, built not on location but on appeal, flavor, and the ability to direct a normal human being through a normal sales process...with a smile. People in the South are friendly, why shouldn't their Web sites be the same way?
Bottom line...you already know how to do it, because you live it every day. Put it online and make it local. Market globally, act locally...