User:Oskar1351/LoveLocal Maryland

LoveLocal Maryland (LLM) is an initiative sponsored by 9 statewide business organizations to improve the competitiveness of small businesses in Maryland.

www.lovelocalmaryland.com provides powerful, low cost emarketing tools to small businesses designed to "level the playing filed" with big businesses. The technology is based on Microsoft Word, allowing the small business owner to create and update the web site whenever desired. 82% of Marylanders are Internet users and 97% of Internet users use the web for product and service research. 46% of those making purchases indicate that they were influenced by what they found on the web. Only 7% of retail sales in 2010 occurred on line while over 90% occured in brick and mortar stores. Those businesses that do not have a web presence or if their presence is weak, they do not exist for those looking for products and services on line.

LoveLocal Maryland was created to address not just the 46% of small businesses that have no websites but also those business that have a weak web presence. LoveLocal Maryland provides tools that allow businesses not only to create and update their own websites but to send out email campaigns; connect with social networking; upload marketing brochures, price lists, menus, photographs and logos; and provide mapping and directions to their places of business.

The Maryland Association of CPAs is encouraging small businesses to use the tools to help grow revenues. While the Greater Baltimore Committee points out that LoveLocal Maryland reflects a commitment to small businesses to help them grow and prosper.

Currently, LoveLocal Maryland is working with chambers of commerce, merchant associations and economic development groups to bring more businesses on line. Baltimore Main Street, a division of the Baltimore Development Corporation, is working with LoveLocal Maryland to assist in developing a web presence for all businesses within all ten of their districts.

References