Featured article by Emily Roberts, Independent Technology Author
It’s no secret that online marketing is the most effective form of marketing in existence, offering the possibility of global exposure that is capable of generating a tremendous amount of leads in a relatively short time span. But what do you do when you don’t want global attention and you just want local leads instead?
In a case like that, the internet is still a gold mine for potential leads, as you can be sure that most of your local targeted customers are already online themselves. Thus, it’s just a matter of helping your potential customers and clients find your local business via various outreach methods. With that said, here are 7 ways any locally based business can promote their brand to regional prospects online:
1. Network with Other Local Online Businesses
Since the first step in developing a brand presence online is typically going to involve outsourcing some of the work to qualified professionals, it’s a good idea to work with creators and companies that are based within your region.
For example, if your company is based in Surrey and you’re looking for web design experts to help with your site development, the best approach would be to find local designers by searching for “web design Surrey” in Google to retrieve a list of local providers, which in this case would include Design by Pelling (https://designbypelling.co.uk). The primary benefit of working with local businesses is that they’ll be able to recommend your website to their client bases within a mutually beneficial arrangement.
2. Establish a Presence in All Major Directories
Once you’ve built your online headquarters into an impressive representation of your brand, it’s time to ensure that the site itself is easy to find online. The fastest way to achieve this is to simply list your business in directories like Google Maps and Yelp. This step will promote your company’s name, mapped address, description, and previous reviews any time someone searches for your business type with local keywords added. For example, if someone searches “web design agencies in Farnham” Google automatically knows to display the Google Maps list at the top of the search result.
3. Target Local Keywords
Your website serves not only as a place to host your brochure, marketing material and contact information, but also as a content hub that you can use to attract targeted visitors. You can complete this site independently by becoming familiar with popular keyword research tools and methodologies, or you can outsource it to an SEO specialist. If you do decide to outsource it, be sure to use a local provider as mentioned in tip #1 above.
4. Stay Active on Social Networking Sites
When it comes to building a large online network of local leads, active social networking is practically essential. Sites like Facebook make it easy to make your brand known within the community. In fact, some marketing studies have proven that social media is capable of creating abundant local brand awareness faster than any other online or offline advertising method.
5. Turn Existing Customers into Online Advocates with Referral Link System
Once you’ve started landing leads online, you can convince them to recommend your site to friends by providing a convenient referral-based commission incentive. In essence, you give them a special link that they can share with others, and whenever someone comes to your site and completes the desired action, you can track who the referrer was and reward them accordingly. Incentivised brand advocacy is an excellent way to build upon existing local momentum.
6. Advertising a Website in the Real World
Online advertising isn’t the only way to draw attention to your website, if you’re after local leads then you might want to consider the opposite approach – promoting your online brand offline. This can be done by handing out your business card with the website address included, or by mentioning the website name in any form of advertising material that you create (i.e. – a poster, radio/TV advertisement, newspaper ad, etc.).
7. Utilise PPC and Other Online Advertising Methods
Finally, once you’ve gotten the hang of online marketing, you may want to progress into more advanced forms of advertisement like local Pay-Per-Click (PPC). Although these methods will require a larger initial investment, they can be quite rewarding when executed properly.
The Importance of Geo-Targeting for Local Businesses
In conclusion, without implementing effective geo-targeting, most offline businesses will be wasting their advertising budgets on targeted “leads” that really just amount to random web surfers. Fortunately, by heeding the tips above you can ensure that a high percentage of your site visitors are in fact located within reasonable proximity to your business. Thus, fine-tuning online marketing efforts to focus specifically on your intended audience is always going be the best approach for a brick and mortar shop looking to solicit more local business via the web.
