How can you market your local business online? Here are some tips to help you get started.
Local businesses usually find it difficult to sell their products and services effectively online due to a number of reasons. Some of the most common reasons include lack of time and resources, the inability to produce content that resonates well with the target audience, and the steep learning curve involved in understanding how various marketing channels work.
While these challenges seem daunting enough, you should not let anything dissuade you from marketing your business online. Here are some simple yet effective tips to help you get started on the path to business success.
Have an online presence. Just because you are not selling online doesn?t mean that you don?t need an online presence. You need to let people know about your business and your product(s) and the best way to do this is by establishing your presence online. Keep in mind that Google is the new Yellow Pages and that majority of consumers (about 97%) use the internet when researching local products and services.?
Create local content for your target audience. Instead of merely mentioning your business address on the ?Contact Us? page, consider adding a map or a list of the cities you serve. This will give a local signal to the search engines and bring you highly targeted traffic from neighboring cities. You should also consider creating individual pages for each of the areas you serve to send more local signals to the search engines.
Encourage online reviews. Online reviews on sites such as Google Reviews, Angie?s List, Merchant Circle, Foursquare and Yelp can improve your company?s reputation, help you rank higher in the search engines and increase the number of links pointing back to your site. More importantly, positive reviews often lead potential customers further down the sales funnel and increase your chances of making a sale.?
Be social. Social networking platforms such as Facebook, Google+, Twitter and Instagram may not give you impressive results as far as conversion is concerned but they can help you connect with your target audience more effectively.
Capture leads. Instead of simply using your website to advertise your products and wait for interested buyers to call you or visit your retail location, use it to capture leads.
Use digital banners. You can reach a wider audience by taking advantage of what Google?s display ad network has to offer. With Google?s technology, your ads would only be shown to people who are within your specified area.
Consider online marketing platforms. To optimize your online marketing campaigns without doing any hard work, consider using online marketing platforms such as ThriveHive, LocalVox, ReachLocal and Leadsquared. These platforms can help you market your business more efficiently online and enable you to get impressive return on your investment.
