‘Local’ is the new black—or at least the new green. Many modern people are eager to support their communities and help the environment by buying local. This can be a boon for small business owners, but only if you market your small business brand as a local option.
One of the big challenges in developing and marketing your small business brand is that the cheapest and most available marketing methods are online. This means that you must adopt a hybrid approach that combines your local brand with online marketing strategies. Here are a few tools to help you get started.
How To Market Your Local Business Online
#1 Get listed with online classified ads.
Which is easier: digging through the yellow pages or getting the same information on the internet? With the emergence of high speed internet and smartphones, many customers will hop on their favorite device rather than picking up a phone book. However, many businesses make the mistake of not getting listed on the most popular online classifieds. Google, Bing, and Yahoo all have free local classifieds that will place local businesses at the top of a search. Google will even show the customer a map to your location. It only takes a few minutes to get your listed, so put it at the top of your ‘to-do’ list.
#2 Take advantage of social media.
When you think of social networking, you probably think of sites like Facebook and Twitter. While it is important to maintain a presence on these more traditional social media sites, it is equally important to develop a presence on websites that combine social networking with local search. You have probably heard of Yelp and CitySearch, and you may even be listed on these already thanks to customer reviews. However, you need to take control of these pages. You can give additional information about your business, respond to negative feedback (if there is any) and use them as an opportunity to communicate with potential customers in your community. Best of all, most of these sites are totally free.
#3 Offer online-only deals.
Recent studies have shown that small businesses are spending more on promotions than ever before, and online promotion sites are likely driving this trend. Sites such as Groupon allow you to offer exclusive deals for online customers. Because many people use these sites to find special deals, you can develop an entirely new customer base this way.
#4 Include your location in your search engine optimization.
Many small business owners have discovered and profited from the boost in internet traffic that results from search engine optimization. However, you may be losing out on foot traffic if you don’t include your city and/or suburb name in your keywords. Make sure your SEO gives your website a definite place that crawlers will pick up on.
#5 Encourage check-ins.
Many customers use their mobile phones to access the internet. Websites such as Facebook allow you to create a loyalty program that gives special points or deals to customers who check in on their phone while physically at your location. This encourages customers to physically walk into your locations—from there, it’s easy to make a sale.
These are just a few of the ways you can market your local business online. Just remember to always be on the lookout for an opportunity to engage your customers both offline and online.
