Local Marketing - Are You Sure?

Most locally owned small businesses think they are focusing on local marketing. Here are 7 things you must do to have a successful local marketing plan.

1. Local opportunities – Every community is different in what marketing opportunities are available for small businesses. Most communities have a Chamber of Commerce, local newspaper, local radio, billboards, etc. Business owners should research each local opportunity and gather the demographic information for each, before making a decision on where to spend their money. Remember - inbound marketing is more successful than outbound marketing. Make choices wisely.

2. Email Marketing – Every local business can be successful with email marketing. The type of email marketing will depend on the industry. A properly planned email marketing program will grow the business and build a loyal customer base.

3. Long Tail Keywords – One of the most effective ways to target locally when performing SEO, is to use long tail keyword phrases with the name of the location targeting. Some examples – ‘seafood Destin FL’ or ‘residential painter in Atlanta’.

4. On-line directories – This is another way for your business to be seen in internet searches. These directories are also used for customer comments. Not only should you be listed in these directories, you should be monitoring the directories for positive and negative comments. Respond to all comments in public. Some of the top online directories are Merchant Circle, Yelp, Manta and Local.com. There are others you may need to consider depending on your industry.

5. Google and Bing Places – Reserve your name and place on the major search engines. When someone types in a city to search for a specific business, the search engines will give you a map with the locations highlighted for your search results. A must for all businesses!!

6. Social Media – This has become known as “Word of Mouth on Steroids” and the foundation for most locally owned businesses marketing is word of mouth. Facebook has become the most powerful social media tool on the internet today. Start a business page and begin connecting and communicating with your customers and others. Offering deals, posting interesting information, commenting on local events, etc. will have people to ‘Like’ your page to see what you have to offer.

7. Blog – The latest statistic I heard about blogging was – businesses with an active blog receive 55% more traffic to their website than those that do not blog – this coming from Hubspot. Blogging adds new content to your website, pages to your website, increases traffic to your website and increases links to your website – all of these will increase your ranking with search engines.

Do you have anything to add to the list?