We held our first 811 Business and Networking Meeting (8 people – 1 hour – 1 topic) in Etchingham at the Bistro@theStation on Thursday 23rd February at 08.00pm. The 811 Meeting format is intended to provide local business owners with an informal, comfortable, networking and educational hour-long session. Education and Networking is the prime focus. The first 811 meeting was over subscribed and in fact was a 12 – 1 – 1 meeting and was facilitated by Anthony Burke from the WSI Digital Marketing Agency based in Etchingham, East Sussex. Complimentary fine red and white wine was on offer, supported by some Spanish tapas from the Bistro@thestation. The renowned Tortilla Española from the Bistro was once again the favourite!811 Meeting – Search Engine Optimisation and Local Search
The business topic for the first 811 meeting was search engine optimisation (SEO) and the impact on local search. Most of the businesses present were local to Etchingham and the surrounding area taking in businesses from Burwash and Battle. All of the businesses have a target market of the southeast of England but a few of the businesses are targeting either the whole of the south east or the UK in general. Etchingham only has a population of about 500 so to get 12 local businesses represented was a great turn out. I even came across a couple of businesses that I was introduced to for the first time.
It was great to hear from business owners from completely different backgrounds that ranged from an audit services company, a musical and entertainment business through to one man companies. All with different backgrounds but mainly the same businesses issues which can be summarised as:
being better known by building awareness and recognition of their brand name and what they do
finding sales leads and contacts
the ability to communicate with customers and prospects
Online is the way forward for small businesses
There was general recognition by everyone that online is the way forward for businesses, including the traditional “bricks and mortar” businesses and therefore there is a general need for business owners to understand the business opportunities offered by the internet – without needing to be technical gurus. After the 811 meeting seminar quite a few attendees stayed behind at the Bistro to continue chatting and networking and here a couple of photos.