In order to encourage businesses to sign up with Yahoo! business listings at a local level, Yahoo! Local is giving away a free 5-page website to businesses who sign up for their services. According to Yahoo! you can “Promote your business to highly qualified prospects in your area by listing your business on Yahoo! Local. Each listing features detailed information that sets your business apart. Plus, now every business in the U.S. can get a FREE web site.”
This new offering not only encourages businesses to jump onboard the Internet train, but also take advantage of Yahoo!’s Enhanced Local Listings offering as well. Yahoo! is trying to tap into the ‘late adopters’ to the Internet, marketing to this group specifically. And just what is the number one way to market to people? Yes, that’s right, give away something of value for free.
Consumers and businesses alike, like to receive freebies. Whether you’re talking about Hotmail.com giving away free email service or Google and its free 1 or 2 Gig Gmail service or free ad stats utilities, search boxes, news feeds or whatever, the word “free” is like gold. Once you get a customer onboard by offering a freebie, then it is much easier to market to them.
By providing a free website to business owners who have been thinking about the need to establish a web presence, Yahoo! is establishing would could be many long-term business relationships. So giving away something for free could turn into a fortune for Yahoo!.
