Many local businesses make the mistake of ignoring the internet and its potential, reasoning that local marketing works best for local businesses. While that may have been true in the past, our world has changed tremendously. Why is internet marketing important for an offline, local business? One of the best reasons would be that over 80% of all Americans have internet access in their homes, compared to 73% that still have landline phones in their homes. Less landline phones means less phone books—and let’s face it, the majority of people have moved on, and online. In turn, this means that people need an alternative way to get information about a business, whether it is a car repair shop, restaurant, or some other type of brick and mortar business. Those alternate methods are via the internet, and increasingly via mobile internet as well. Use the proper internet marketing tactics and you will see a spike in your business, especially if you have not previously implemented an internet marketing strategy in the past. Your online marketing tactics will make more sense than naming your business AAAAAAA, just for top billing in the telephone directory for your business niche.
1. Website Information Display
Once people get to your website, nothing is more important than having your complete contact information and the location of your business on prominent display. It is not overkill to have your phone number and address in more than one location on your site; in fact, it is a great idea to have it displayed on each page of your site, to make sure the most vital information is as accessible to the people looking at your site as possible. Your business hours are another thing that you will want to include, as well as services or goods your company provides. Another thing that is often a pet peeve of many people—pricing. Do not be afraid to display your prices for services you provide or products that you offer. You might also consider offering a special deal for first-time customers that find you online—a percentage discount, or some sort of freebie. People love free!
2. Free Local Business Directories
Get your business listed in as many of the free local online directories as possible; there are enough free directories that you should not have to pay for listings to create an online presence for your business, and the free ones typically receive the most traffic online anyway. These directories list businesses that are the closest match to what people search for in a specific area, usually by city. A few examples of these directories are Google Places, Yahoo! Local, Yellowpages.com, and Yelp, but there are many more as well.
3. Content
Your website should have additional information besides contact numbers, prices, hours and what you sell. You want your website to be interesting and provide lots of additional information so that people will continually return to your site and tell others about it. Include things such as the company’s history, biographies of the business owners or executives, and specific information on the industry that you are involved in. Provide potential customers coming to your site with content that is interesting to them, and make your website visually appealing as well.
4. Updates
By continually updating your website, your readers will have a reason to stop in and check it out frequently, other than to get the number or hours of your business. If you are providing information in your field on a regular basis, you may also build a following just by talking about your business, driving up your page rank and increasing traffic to your site. Also consider building a Facebook fan page and Twitter account to share updates and interesting industry information regularly. Google+ is also a great place to network and share information, and many SEO experts believe it helps your page rankings tremendously. Pinterest can be a great place to share visual information like photographs.
5. Competition
If all else fails, check out what your competitors are doing and do it better! You never know, they might have some ideas that you have not thought of yet, and the light bulb might go on when you peek at some of the competitor’s sites and get some unique ideas.
These are just a few tips to get you started; many other ideas will likely come to you once you start looking into ways to market your business online, depending upon your business and your target demographics. Do not overlook the importance of posting online video or blogging on your site or guest blogging on related local sites.
Denise Gabbard writes about SEO, social media, and finance topics like comparing home loan rates.
Yes – Marketing your Business online is a important aspect of generating revenue – with a e-commerce website or a website for a shop-driven product. Its important to now where you should market yourself and your Business in order not to waste any time on methods and channels that don’t work. Know your directories, know your research, know your strategy and what it will implement.
You are right, and what I have seen, both in practice and in articles and statistics from others, is that listing with local and industry-specific directories can be a strong catalyst for growth.
Also do not overlook the newest Google moves– they recently acquired Zagat, and have merged Google Places into a new tool called Google+ Local. Be sure that you have claimed your listing there.
Definitely this is something that every local business should look at doing or perish due to the competition.
You would think that goes without saying, but you would be amazed at the number of local business owners who still resist the idea—and feel that it is not important. Of course, these are also the businesses whose parking lots are empty….
Nowadays, it seems like information on the internet is getting more and more localized based on your geographical location determined from iP address so it is important to make sure your business is able to capitalize on that by maintaining an online presence targeting those people closest to you.
-Jean
Absolutely— I go to the internet to search for everything….and I know a lot of others who do as well.
In fact, I get angry when they bring us new telephone books…what a waste of precious natural resources!
It is really important to update the site regularly, to keep up with the changes and to provide information and products for new trends and needs. In addition, providing an address would bring more targeted visitors and improve the conversion rates.
Yes— keeping the site fresh, with lots of good quality content, is one of the most important things you can do. You cannot just put up a static site and expect people to stumble upon it– you should also put the website address on all marketing materials, and definitely be sure that the website has an abundance of contact information—telephone, email, and physical address—in easy to find locations.
Thanks for your comments, and for stopping by!
I absolutely agree with you, online marketing is the cheapest and most efficient marketing and advertising tool for small businesses, and you can find your audience (local or global, it doesn’t depend on this) in the easiest way. Some of the small local businesses are driven by only one person or a family, and if they choose this way and use the helpful tips you’ve posted, they can manage a well-working marketing strategy.
Exactly— My daughter has a friend with a dog grooming business.
She was struggling to get new clients, and asked me how to advertise. I told her to take advantage of the FREE ONLINE advertising she could get! Facebook, Google Places, and submitting her business to local directories and industry-specific sites, as well as emailing or posting on the websites of veterinarians in town…all of these things did not cost any money to implement.
In particular, for her business, Facebook is amazing— we added before and after pictures of the dogs and testimonials from clients….it really was so simple, and now she is a busy, busy girl!
Marketing your business through local directories is very important but be careful who you give your information to (**cough cough** Yellow Pages) or you will end up with sales calls from not only the company you gave your details to but also their third party “partners” who will try to sell you everything from electricity to mobile phones.
Hmmm….gave out your phone number to some overzealous marketers, did you? I try to NEVER give my phone number for anything— and if they insist, they get my old one, LOL. I figure they can email me, and if what they are selling is compelling enough, I will call!
I like your article about marketing business online. Local Business Directories concept is very good. This article is really useful for me to increase my online business. Thanks for sharing such a great article.
Thank you so much, Pramod….I am glad there are some tips that will be helpful to you. I appreciate you taking the time to comment on my post, because comments like yours make researching, reading, and writing about these things worthwhile.
Marketing is the food for any business. if you don’t market it then it will be weaker as if we don’t eat food then we will be weaker. So marketing is necessary to earn revenue.
Hi Atish— That is a great analogy! Continuous marketing will keep the business strong—some business owners think that it is just a one-time thing–build a website and they are done. They do not realize the work that goes on behind the scenes… Thanks for stopping by.