Digital Marketing Mastery: Insights, Strategies, and Tactics for Success

Tips for Marketing a Local Business

Google Local Pages
Google Local Page

There are online businesses and offline businesses. Operating an offline business, or a brick and mortar business does not indicate that a web presence is not needful. Actually, in today’s competitive market, it is necessary to have a website as well as a web marketing campaign in order to succeed. The average customer will go to the internet first when looking for a business in their area whether it is a restaurant, contractor, professional or a supply store. If we think about it, for the brick and mortar customers are going to be coming from their own backyard. For this reason, it is imperative that businesses have a local marketing campaign. There are several ways to market a local business using online resources. Here are a few tips for building a successful local marketing campaign.

Local Search Platforms

Make sure that you claim your business in the local directories provided by the search engines. Google+ is the biggest local search platform, but it is well worth it to register with Bing Local as well as Yahoo! Local Listings. This is a strategy that can drive business your way. Everything that is listed with Google+ and Google My Business is indexed by the crawlers through Google search engines. Make sure that these pages contain correct information. It is important to claim local pages in the search engines and then build a good listing. The search engines will help to guide you through the verification processes.

Online Reviews

Yelp! Is an excellent review website. It is still one of the more popular sites which are used to help people find businesses in their area. Encourage all of your customers to submit a review of your business online. This will help build a connection with local customers. This offers a way to get feedback from customers and the more positive reviews the better image that is created for your business. By generating more reviews, search engines will see the online activity and it will establish authority and value with them.

Build that Website

A website is essential for every single business and business type. A site which is designed for a local business can be a very useful tool. The contact information such as address and phone number should consistently be on every page of the site. This will help the search engines index it and register it in the region. It is also important to make sure that it is optimized for mobile users as many are turning to mobile devices to find local businesses. Using local SEO strategies will ensure that the site makes it to the top of the SERPs so that local consumers can find you.

Social Media Marketing

Building a successful business is about building strong relationships. The Web 2.0 provides many different social media platforms which help foster relationships between business personnel and clientele.  There are so many platforms available that it is neither possible nor wise to try to use all of them. Sort through all the various social sites to find out which ones will be most effective for your particular business. They have to be manageable; do not overdo or you’ll never be able to keep up and you’ll eventually lose customers. Choose just a few, maybe as few as 2, to start with that provide the best platform through which you can connect and interact with your clientele. Once you have established an online presence and connected with local customers through social media channels, make sure to remain consistent in your endeavors. This is a major key to the success of local social media marketing strategies.

 

 

 

 

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