Local and offline

The category most often skipped by people who grew up online, and still the largest source of customers for a great many Indian small businesses. A clinic, a coaching centre, a workshop, a shop, a services business serving one city: for all of them the practical catchment is a few kilometres and a few hundred people who already talk to each other.

The routes are unglamorous and effective. Presence where the buyer already is — the market, the school gate, the association meeting, the trade counter. A neighbouring business that serves the same person for something different, which is the most under-used partnership in small business: the uniform shop and the tutor, the pharmacy and the physiotherapist, the stationer and the coaching centre. Local groups, including the WhatsApp groups that carry more purchasing conversation in most towns than any platform does. Being genuinely visible: a legible sign, correct opening hours, a phone somebody answers, and a listing that is not three years out of date.

Measure it the same way you would measure anything digital, which almost nobody does. Ask every new customer how they heard of you and write the answer down. Count the enquiries a partnership produced. Local is not unmeasurable; it is usually just unmeasured, and that is the reason it gets abandoned in favour of channels that produce dashboards while producing fewer customers.