With local business owners across the country struggling to stay afloat in this economy, many businesses are branching out by offering new services and products in the hope that it'll spur additional traffic and revenue. With Botox now being offered in dental offices and teeth whitening pitched in tanning bed salons, it seems that almost all industries are expanding their services. 

This Wall Street Journal article, Time to Reset Your Business caught my eye because it argues that branching out to non-core offerings is the wrong thing for local businesses to do.

While I agree that offering new products or services doesn't make sense if: (A) It will require a substantial amount of both time and money that you don't have to spare   or    (B) You aren't adequately equipped to provide it as well as you provide your other, core services - I think it's important for local business owners to ALWAYS be open to the want and need of their local audience. Monitoring and responding to your local customers needs is what makes a local guy not only successful but a part of the community.

If adding a new service or product makes sense for you, the next step is to ensure that your local advertising and media planning strategy are aligned with your new offering. Consider the above example of a dental practice providing Botox services - their dental marketing plan should be revisited to ensure that their newly added service is utilized to reinforce the added convenience and value they offer to their patient base. By successfully and professionally marketing that they offer both valued services, the practice could very well increase repeat patient loyalty and recruit new patients.