Businesses using digital marketing to reach out to potential customers and loyal clients employ a variety of strategies such as Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing, and Content Creation for customer engagement and lead generation. They try to cast a wide net to reach as large an area as possible. However, in their attempt to widen their reach; they sometimes forget the potential leads and customers closest to them: one of the most important strategies that these companies often fail to employ is Local Digital Marketing.
Local Digital Marketing is the employment of digital marketing techniques over a smaller area or location; such as a city or neighborhood. They are meant to target customers that are closer to the company or business’ physical location. To make the most of your local marketing efforts, here are a few tips to get you started:
Tip 1: Create a mobile-friendly website – Local businesses that want to increase their chances of being found by potential customers should make their site accessible to smart devices and mobile devices (such as tablets and smartphones). Optimizing your site for easy use with these devices will make your company more prominent, as most people who look for businesses (especially local businesses) do so using their phone or mobile devices. It will also make it easier for these people to interact with you. Also, search engines like Google™ have updated their mobile algorithms so that only mobile-friendly sites show up during mobile searches, so having one makes good business sense.
Tip 2: Create Local Business pages and encourage local customer reviews – Create Local pages for your business on search engines such as Yahoo Local™, Google+ Local Pages™, and Facebook™. Make profiles on sites such as LinkedIn™, Foursquare™, YellowPages.com™, Manta™, and Yelp™. You can also ask your local customers to leave reviews and feedback on these sites to help your company establish social proof and give your SEO a much-needed shot in the arm.
Tip 3: Use relevant Keywords – Keyword research is an important part of the marketing plan. It is important to find out which keywords people use when searching for businesses in your area, city, and general location. Include city and region names along with your industry-relevant terms. You can also use geo-targeting with your paid ads to specify the areas where they are displayed.
Tip 4: Include your Business’ Address and Hours and offer Multiple Contact methods – To make sure that your potential customers don’t confuse you with a business namesake; add your company’s complete address and your operating/business hours. While you’re at it, include various contact options for your customers including phone number, email, website contact forms, social media accounts, and live chat.
Tip 5: Make use of Social Media and Local media – If the area where your business is has an online newspaper site, be sure to advertise your business there and leave a link. Speaking of links, make sure to have your business listed in your city’s website. Be active on Social Media and post updates regularly to be able to engage your target audience and promote recall. Remember to use topics and content that is relevant to your customers. Use Videos and Photos that should always include a Call to Action (CTA).
Tip 6: Use Landing Pages – When people click on your advertisements, you need to take them to a proper Landing Page: this could be your index, main page, product or service page, or even a specially-designed custom landing page for a specific ad campaign.
While many companies desire to market their products and services online in order to reach a global audience; this could be a bad move if they focus solely on the broader market, as they would be in direct competition with companies that aren’t really targeting their customers. Instead, they should look into local digital marketing strategies to maximize their business’ latent growth and profit by harnessing their local market.eMarketing Concepts can assist your company’s Local Digital Marketing efforts with its Content Creation Services. We can also assist you with PPC Management, Video Marketing, Web Development, Search Engine Optimization, and Social Media Marketing. Contact us online for all of your questions and for more information.
