We all know the pressure that small business are under and none more so than those trying to provide something different in their high street and local community. So, from today, we’re putting live the next phase in our Priority Moments service – but this time with a truly local twist.

From butchers, bookshops and bakers, to florists, hairdressers, driving schools and local tourist attractions, the next generation of Priority Moments will enable small local businesses up and down the country to create offers and experiences that are relevant, local and immediately redeemable, hopefully helping businesses to drive footfall, build customer loyalty and boost profit.And the good news about the service – it’s completely free.

Small businesses told us that they struggle to find the time to market their business and that their focus is keeping your business going and staff happy, and that trying to find new customers or giving something back to your loyal customers is something you’d love to do. But, at the end of the day, it’s on a never-ending list of ‘nice to haves’. The service, which is completely free (just in case you thought it was a typo last time) to use, provides participating small businesses with complete control and flexibility over the offers and experiences they create, from the type and quantity of the offer, through to the length of the promotion. It takes three minutes to create an offer. That’s also the time it takes to boil a kettle, so whilst you make cuppa, create an offer and after 24 hours we’ll post it on the service.

We’ve also done some other things to help, working with lots of small retail businesses to develop the service. You can only run the offer for a week at a time to make it controllable and flexible, you can cancel it and we have given you lots of suggestions around what works – taken from our learnings around Priority Moments. The whole service is controlled by the small business – that makes it super flexible and can really help pushing the services that a business wants to promote. These could include anything from a glass of bubbly with a cut and blow-dry at the hairdressers, to end-of day-discounts at the florists or buy one get one free deals on pork chops at the butchers for a weekend BBQ.

Priority Moments will enable small companies in the UK to harness the power of digital, mobile and location-based technologies, reaching O2’s 23 million-strong customer network, and putting their brand on the map directly with the consumers they want to reach.

We’ve developed and built the service to enable independent businesses to respond quickly to the evolving needs of a changing consumer climate. With shoppers increasingly on the hunt for better value, special offers and unique retail experiences, Priority Moments enables local independent businesses to compete and gives local shoppers the opportunity to support their local retailers; encouraging business back to the high street and contributing to the local community.

The new service will help shoppers re-discover the benefits of the high-street by opening up a world of great value offers from hidden high street gems in their local area.  Have a look, as more of our small businesses sign up there will be loads of businesses that you will discover and love.

To find out more about the new Priority Momentsservice for small businesses, go towww.o2priority.co.uk/local. And if you’re a small business already registered with the O2 network you can sign up and start creating your own Priority Moment offers today.

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