Local businesses are often sought out by consumers on the internet, who are looking for specific services. Additionally, mobile devices are gaining popularity among all age groups, enabling businesses to attract potential customers on the move. While traditional marketing still has its merits, online marketing is quickly becoming the primary approach for local businesses to reach out to new customers.
On this page, you will find an explanation of the significance of internet marketing for local businesses and a selection of ideas to help you begin attracting more customers.
Top internet marketing strategies will generate the most customers for local business
Now that you have comprehended the significance of internet marketing, it is essential to commence its implementation. Therefore, how can you increase sales, draw in more customers, and differentiate yourself from local rivals on the internet? The subsequent suggestions may lead to a greater local fan base:
1. Claim your local listings
To effectively utilize and stay updated on customer feedback, it is important for consumers to claim their listings on sites such as Google and Yelp, as these platforms offer reviews from other consumers.
If you are a hardscaping company and planning to invest in digital marketing, make sure that you have the right address, phone number, email, and website for your company. Additionally, include a few pictures of your business and the services you offer.
2. Create a mobile-friendly site
Previously in this article, it was noted that numerous customers utilize their smartphones for discovering businesses to support. Nevertheless, if you desire to capture their attention (and their business), it is crucial that your site is easily accessible and navigable. This can only be achieved if your site is optimized for mobile devices.
If your website cannot be accessed on the device that a potential customer is using, it is highly probable that they will become frustrated and abandon it.
Considering this, it might be beneficial to utilize responsive design to ensure that your website is accessible on different devices. Google also recognizes responsive design as mobile-friendly, which is important since mobile-friendliness impacts search engine ranking, potentially increasing the visibility of your site.
3. Provide useful content
Businesses today need to understand that consumers no longer just desire great products and services. Rather, many individuals seek advice and useful information from the brands and companies they purchase from. As an illustration, a regular customer at a boutique may expect the employees to provide insights on what fashion trends are currently popular.
Providing the information online is the optimal method for accomplishing this. While you might perceive it as unfavorable to freely share knowledge, consider this perspective: if you work as an accountant, potential clients can utilize the internet to search for topics such as “tax preparation methods” or “recommendations for real estate planning.”
It is likely that information on these subjects can be found online. However, if you can offer a superior answer, prospective customers will perceive you as a valuable information source and may contact you when they need to engage an accountant.
4. Create and optimize your Google Business Profile
One of the key factors impacting your local SEO ranking is your Google Business Profile. To begin, ensure you claim your Google business listing. Afterwards, verify that all the details within it, such as your phone number, address, business hours, products or services, and accepted payment methods, are kept up-to-date.
If you haven’t done it yet, these steps are essential for every business owner to significantly enhance the online visibility of their business.
To optimize your Google Business Profile, it is recommended to follow these steps: Firstly, set up Questions and Answers on your Google profile. Secondly, make posts including photos and videos. Additionally, encourage reviews from customers and respond to them.
5. Get and manage customer reviews
Customer reviews are included in your Google Business Profile and are therefore an integral part of your overall local internet marketing strategy. The majority of individuals have the same level of trust in online reviews as they do in personal recommendations from their loved ones and friends.
Furthermore, the majority of customers examine reviews, possibly multiple ones, prior to selecting a specific brand. Astute businesses capitalize on the impact of reviews by actively urging their customers to share their feedback.
You can increase the likelihood of receiving reviews by showcasing them on your website. Additionally, this strategy enhances their visibility to individuals browsing your site. Moreover, you can entice customers to leave reviews by providing them with an incentive, such as a discount or complimentary item.
One way to increase the number of reviews is by politely requesting customers to leave a review. Podium provides a free tool called Google Review link generator, which simplifies this process. Utilize this tool, along with Podium’s other features, to obtain more reviews and subsequently boost your business.
When you receive reviews, ensure to respond to both negative and positive ones. By doing so, you can regain the trust of customers who had a dissatisfying experience with your business and demonstrate to potential clients that you value their satisfaction.
6. Use social media ads
Before utilizing social media ads, begin by claiming and verifying your social media business profiles first. Acquire profiles on all the prominent platforms that your target audience is likely to be active on, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and YouTube. In case your target demographic encompasses younger individuals, it may be beneficial to also establish profiles on Snapchat and TikTok.
In order to ensure that your social media profile includes essential business information, it is important to include your logo, a brief summary of your brand, and a link to your website.
It is important to have a Pinterest profile, even if you do not use it for social media marketing, in order to avoid any confusion that may arise if someone mistakes another profile as belonging to you. This is significant because you have no control over how another profile may impact your online reputation.
After setting up your accounts, proceed to register for ads. Both Facebook and Instagram are excellent options for social media advertisements due to their user-friendly and efficient targeting capabilities. Utilize these targeted ads to specifically target local customers.
7. Use Google Ads and pay-per-click
Examine the digital marketing budget in your area and divide it between Google Ads and PPC advertising. Keep in mind that PPC ads enhance the visibility of your brand by appearing at the top of search results. Additionally, Google Ads provides extensive targeting options and valuable data and analytics. Incorporating both platforms into your local online marketing strategies can have a substantial impact.
8. Improve your communication channels
In order to increase customer engagement and foster loyalty and trust in your brand, it is important to guarantee that your customers can reach you whenever necessary. It is essential to consistently maintain clear and functional communication channels. Ensure that you are available on all communication platforms preferred by your customers, including Facebook Messenger, email, and texting.
If you are uncertain about the channels your customers desire, you can send them a survey or examine the communication methods offered by your competitors.
Managing communication with your audience on multiple channels should not be overwhelming. By using Podium’s Inbox tool, customer communication becomes faster and easier as all conversations are consolidated in one place. Additionally, the CRM functions of Podium allow you to view the context for these conversations.
9. Take advantage of local listings and directories
When considering local marketing strategies, it is recommended that you include your business in various local directories and listings, as long as they are relevant. Start with popular platforms like Yelp, Apple Maps, Bing, and your local chamber of commerce, and then explore additional options. It is important to provide precise information, ensuring that the exact business name used on your Google Business Profile is consistent.
If the information on every directory matches your business profile as confirmed by Google, your ranking will increase as Google assumes the accuracy of the information. On the other hand, if the contact information does not match, your local search rankings will be negatively affected.
Adding your business to local listings and directories not only increases your backlinks, but it also offers another avenue for potential customers to locate your business online, which is a factor that Google takes into account when determining rankings.
10. Do local SEO
When looking for products and services, some individuals choose to check local directories, while others depend on Google and other search engines to obtain information about local businesses. For instance, if you are the owner of a shoe store situated in Memphis, it is essential for your store to appear in the search results when someone searches for “shoe stores in Memphis.”
To ensure that people searching for businesses like yours can easily find you, it is essential to perform local SEO. This involves optimizing your website to achieve a high ranking for both your business category (such as restaurant, bar, shopping, etc.) and your specific locality, be it a neighborhood, town, or city.
Why is Internet marketing for local businesses so important
In the past, simply having an appealing storefront on a busy street was sufficient to establish a loyal customer following. However, nowadays, individuals walking by are too preoccupied with their smartphones to pay attention to your establishment. Although your longstanding customers have faith in your ability to provide an exceptional experience, potential customers require additional persuasion. Utilizing internet marketing can serve this purpose.
To begin with, the Internet has turned into the main source of information for the majority of consumers.
Due to limited time, individuals may not always have the opportunity to physically search for a favorable dry cleaner or restaurant. However, they can effortlessly locate such establishments through online platforms. In fact, a possible customer might have unknowingly passed by your business location while heading towards a competitor’s, purely because the latter was more readily discoverable on the internet.
Perhaps that potential customer had knowledge of your company, but decided to trust one of your rivals due to their impressive online presence.
Online marketing differs from traditional marketing by not only focusing on driving sales but also emphasizing the importance of gaining trust and creating a positive perception among consumers regarding purchasing from your business. Although hard selling techniques can still be effective occasionally, businesses that provide free advice, useful tools, or entertaining distractions are more likely to catch the attention of consumers.
Local businesses that engage with customers on a personal level rather than solely focusing on financial gain are more likely to attract their attention. The utilization of social media, mobile marketing, email campaigns, and other online marketing avenues facilitates these interactions. Consequently, local businesses that employ online marketing strategies tend to outperform those that do not.
