This is nothing different than marketing an offline business, but since it was just a website he wanted to promote, it was a bit different.

So here are the things that we tried to promote his online business in local market. It did work, it gave his website a lot of traffic and sales online.

Please note that these methods are not free, you will have to invest a small amount in marketing.

City Magazine Advertising

The guy happen to know other business guy who owns a City Magazine for the local politician. The magazine earned a lot through Advertising, no doubt in that. So it was obvious and the primary choice to advertise his newly launched website. Many major cities can have a city magazine, if not then no problem, you can try some other options.

Local Radio Station

Every city has a local radio channel if not a magazine. This can be the best option to promote your local online or offline business. Radio Jockeys will simply give a shout out of your business or create an audio advertisement for your produce, service or shop. I had heard a lot of advertisements of Quick Heal Total Security on radio so i recommended this idea to him and again it worked.

This referred a lot of customers to his shop and also increased traffic to his website.

Other local websites and forums

Many cities have a website created by one of the citizen for discussing local issues. It would be good to talk to their webmasters for advertising your website on theirs.

Local Advertising

Billboard advertising

Billboard advertising was one of the best method to spread a word about his shop. It bought in a lot of calls to his shop. The best place we thought of putting the huge billboard was on the Railway Station.

So many thousands of people travel in and out of the city every day, so that was the spot with the highest reach. Since the website was to serve only locals, it was the best place to let citizens know about the website and his online service.

Business Cards

He printed business cards to distribute it to the people he met, he already had so many visits at his office being a business man. That also helped him get a permanent identity for his business.

Domain name and Hosting

Get a relevant domain name and a good hosting account for your website. You can start with some good shared hosting and then move on to the dedicated ones after initial success or get a dedicated hosting at first place, again that depends on your budget. Your business online cannot survive on a free domain or free hosting servers.

CMS Platform or Custom eShop

Decide what service you are providing or what products you are selling. There are many open source  e Commerce CMS that you can use like Magento, Zen Cart, Cube Cart, etc. Each one has its own unique features, modules and add on. Try their demo first before using it on your website. If you are high on your budget, then you can also get a custom eShop designed for you.

Advertising

Advertise your website on internet using PPC networks to get targeted visitors. Using Google Adwords you can start advertising at your local currency at a low budget daily. If you are providing a service, it is likely that you will get members to join through PPC advertising. There are many such networks that you can join depending on your geographical targets or type of advertising, for example banner, text, audio and video, popups, popunders, etc.

Other methods of spreading a word about your online store or service are

1. Press Release
2. Try getting back links from relevant websites in your niche
3. Join business related forums

Local Marketing

If your online business is very local, then you need to advertise it in your local market. Advertising on a city newspaper or a magazine helps a lot. Many local business spread brochure with special offers to grab attention and attract customers.

Distribute your small business cards to the people you meet. Also word of mouth marketing helps a lot. Tell your friends and relatives about your home or small business. That can increase the potential of you getting clients through referrals.

Trust and Safety

If you are running an online store then you need to get Trust Certificates to provide transactions on a secured socket layer (SSL). That makes online shoppers feel safe about their credit card details and personal information from being leaked. You can get such trust certificates from VeriSign and GoDaddy.

It is also necessary to provide your complete mailing address and contact number for clients or customers to reach you just in case. That is the foundation of any established business.