The SiGNAL team know exactly how tricky 2020 has been for the many small business owners that belong to our community. You only have to look at hashtags like #excludeduk to realise that millions of small businesses like ours have had their revenue streams terminated or disrupted with no help at all form the government.

As we start down the path of post Covid-19 economic recovery we know how important it is for small business owners to be able to find new customers. And we know that more often than not, getting customers is more about helping them find you than you trying to find them.

We know that there is a massively increased interest in 'buying local' at the moment. We all appreciated our locally available goods and services during lockdown and it seems that this new trend is here to stay.

The idea of the twenty minute neighbourhood, where everyone can access all the services they need within a twenty minute cycle or bus ride is much discussed at the moment and forms the basis for new town developments like the one that we are involved with in Whitehill and Bordon.

So its never been more important to make sure your neighbours can

find you and your business!

Improving the visibility of your business is essential to drive traffic, generate enquiries and eventually encourage conversion ??" but it's easier said than done, and can be expensive. You could divert hours of your time to your SEO strategy in the hope that your business will climb the slightly mystifying organic rankings of Google, or you could head to social media to embark on the all but hopeless task of reaching prospects with free organic posts.

Or, from this week onwards, if you are an East Hampshire business you could sign up to the 'My Town Online' Business Directory and help your customers find you ??" and lots of other wonderful local businesses too.

The NEW My Town Online Business Directory will be an online index of webpages for the hundreds of small local businesses that are right here in your postcode. With a powerful search bar, visitors can search exactly the product or service they're looking for and be presented with all relevant local businesses! Not only does this make supporting local businesses easier for customers, it also helps your business grow as part of the community.

Let's get a sneak peek at how it'll look…

Interested? Well, we are also running a Founding Member offer to give your business that extra boost for joining the directory. There are limited spaces, so register now to get these founding member extras:

You will have the opportunity to write a detailed guest-written blog piece for the SiGNAL website.

Not only will this improve the visibility of your business but it will also give you the opportunity to exhibit your expertise and knowledge to our local readers (your prospective customers). Gaining authority and generate backlinks will also help the SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) of your own website and help you climb the organic rankings of Google searches for your products and services ??" meaning your customers can find you easier!

You will feature in a corporate video that will sit on the SiGNAL website.

This is a great opportunity to show the face behind your brand and communicate with your local community in a more personalised way.

Your business will be named 'Business of the Week' across all of our social media platforms, including tags and direct links to your website where possible.

This will give you access to our followers across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn as well as the opportunity to share the post to your own social channels.

And if you sign up now you don't have to pay anything until January 2021!!

We truly believe the My Town Online Business Directory will help local businesses thrive!

Get involved here or for more information, you can get in touch with one of the SiGNAL Team via [email protected].