Practicing proper local marketing techniques can be incredibly beneficial for your business. Whether your business is a traditional storefront with a lot of inventory or you strictly run a web-based store, you can experience that benefits that local marketing brings. Increasing your market exposure will only bring more business your way and guarantee that you see success.
Here are some of the best marketing strategies you can pursue.
Google Places
Having a verified Google Places page if one of the most useful local marketing techniques. It’s extremely simple to create a Google Places page and add some photos and relevant information. Google can verify the business through phone or a pin on a postcard you will be mailed. Google Places are easy to rank on Google and will encourage people to visit your website.
Website Authorship
When you add Google Authorship to your website you immediately add SEO value. After seeing someone’s photo in Google many people will click through the photo to the corresponding website. This will result in more visitors and a higher page ranking in Google. Ignoring Google Authorship would be like choosing to ignore one of the most effective local marketing techniques there is.
Listing Your Website
One of the most important aspects of local marketing is making sure your business or website name, address, and phone number has been submitted to local directories and search engines. This effective form of local marketing is a great way to get your name out. It’s possible to claim local listings using a variety of online resources as well. Ensure that the information in the listings is relevant and valid.
Don’t Forget Print Advertising
While many businesses run strictly online, print advertising can still be successful. Having such forms of print advertising like business cards are a great way to show you are a reliable person to do business with and will make your online endeavors seem much more realistic to perspective clients. They also enable you to inform people of your website without having to blab it out in an awkward conversation scenario.
Encourage Testimonials
Recent studies have found that the majority of consumers are using the Internet to find out more about businesses in their area. They typically check reviews and testimonials first and these forms of social media greatly influence the decisions people make. Google+ and Yelp are the websites people check most often when looking for more information. Encouraging people to leave honest reviews is a great way to not only get feedback of how your business or website is operating but also encourages businesses to interact more with their customers. Gaining positive reviews is a great form of local marketing.
Social Media
With literally billions of people using social media platforms, if you’re not using them by now you are almost too far behind. Similar to reviews, many people will check online forums and social media to gain more information about the website or business they’re interested in. An active social media campaign will help you build loyalty and encourage trust with your target demographic. Social media is also much easier to manage than a blog or many other forms of advertising.
Direct Links To Your Site
In order to be successful a website needs to have quality backlinks. Any site that links back to your website is a backlink and the better quality of website that links back the better quality of traffic you will gain. Relevant and quality backlinks will allow your website or business page to rise through the search engine ranks and encourage more people to visit your site. There are also a variety of ways to gain backlinks such as listing your site in directories, posting in forums, and guest blogging.