Helping Out A Childhood Friend.
Hey fellow WA'ers.
I need as much feed back and suggestions on this as possible because I would really like this to be a GREAT Christmas present to a long time friend of mine. To put you in the picture. My friend Stuart runs a local company delivering home heating oil and is third generation in this company! I know, I will be using this fact in my marketing campaign. They started out breaking up, bagging and delivering coal. "Coal Men".
His Father Tom is old school and still physically writes the orders into a book!
I recently caught Jay's webinar regarding local businesses and this got me thinking.
How could I help out Stuarty and his business?
Well the flood gates opened with everything I have learned within the WA training, the WA community and various other places.
I have bought the domain and transferred it to WA hosting and I am about to go to town on the site. Nothing too elaborate. This is where you guys come in.The Company name already ranks pretty high as they have been established for so long. They don't even have their own website yet! (Well They Do Now!)
All of the traffic is from local business advertising sites. I told you that they were oldschool. That being said, I know I can do better for them. I am planning on running at least 2 ads on the most highly read newspapers in our area with an introductory coupon code. And of course their new website url as bold as they can print it! Also a facebook link that I am going to help update.
Yes they do have a facebook page which I was amazed at. Set up by Stuart's Wife I may add. Stuart neither has the interest or time for this as you can imagine.
I will do the usual step by step seo, keywords, meta tags etc.
What I am looking for is any other suggestions other than the above and a nice one page theme to use. I can't make it too complicated as I want to hand it over to my friend's control once I get it well established for him. Obviously optimized for mobile use. Once I get him involved in this side of his business I think it will be a BIG eye opener regarding a customer base other than word of mouth and reputation.
Any suggestions and help welcome.
Are You getting ready for Christmas yet?
Cheers
Darwyn
Recent Comments
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Jay's recent training on local business really showed another avenue it is kind of you to take him under your wing, coal and wood burners are coming back into favour. it sounds to me you are covering most of the bases already you could do article on types of fuel and oil and what works most efficiently, also the fact he has been around for sometime establishes a bit of trust
Hey Katie,hope you are well. My friends business is really well known and trusted but I just felt that he was falling a little behind his competition. They are all online in some capacity. The coal and wood burners are a great avenue to go down. Thanks for your input.
Cheers
Darwyn
Hi there, I'm still quite new to all of this so I'm not totally sure what kind of graphics are available to us but as I was reading your post it made me think of cozy fires and cute little puffs of coal smoke rising up the page. I think going with the cozy theme would be really nice so nice deep reds, maybe a 'glowing' fire in there (some how?) Hope that is in some way helpful! :0)
Hey Nat, thanks for dropping by. The picture in my post is actually an old photograph of their business back in the day before they advanced to home heating oil/kero. The gentleman in the middle is Tom my friends father! I will be using this on my site for sure along with another picture of their modern oil truck. I like your idea of cozy fires and puffy smoke. As they have been a small family run business for so long I am running with a family feel. So your ideas are very close to what I was thinking. Thanks for your input. Much appreciated Nat.
Cheers
Darwyn
Hey Nat, thanks again for your input. At some stage of your progress and site building you will need images etc. Please check out this superb list that one of our great Ambassadors has compiled and shared.
https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/loes/blog/images-photo-s-cliparts#
Hope these can help. Be sure like Loes says in her post to check the usage rights.
Cheers
Darwyn
I honestly hate to be negative because I think this could be really good. I have many friends and some family members that are struggling right now and I am convinced the internet and a little computer knowledge could help them immensely. The thing is though, that no matter how much I help them, they would never take the reins for themselves. Perhaps they would be grateful if someone built and maintained the site for them, but for some, learning new stuff like this just doesn't interest them. Considering that all they have is a Facebook page that your friend's wife put up, tells me that they haven't seen enough upside to warrant spending time taking it further. Not everyone cares about getting rich or even earning significantly more. It isn't worth the effort. They may be happy in their comfort zone. All I'm saying, is if you go through a lot of effort and they reject your idea, don't resent them for it. Sometimes gifts are really hard to pick out. If you have truly been friends for a long time, no matter what happens, don't let this get between you.
Thanks for the sound advice Broderick. I can totally see your point of view. I have a fair idea that my friend would take this on board but I reckon his father would take a little more convincing. I thought now would be a good time to give his business a little boost as it on the cusp of winter. Everyone likes a warm house. If he decides that this is not for him, well there is no harm done. I'll put it down to being a little case study for local business. We certainly won't fall out over it.
Thanks for dropping by with your views. Much appreciated.
Cheers
Darwyn
That is great that you are doing this. Your friend may have to plan to hire some additional staff ; )
Thanks for dropping by Ilyssa, If that is is the case I would be over the moon. They have delivered warmth to people's homes for decades and that is not just the heat. They are a lovely family and totally deserve the business.
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A big help you can offer him is to guide him, how he can use what he has and grow broader with WA.