Here are a few stats for you:
- 96% of PC owners conduct local searches
- 79% of mobile phone users conduct local searches
- 50% of local searchers are looking for businesses they haven’t used before
Those numbers give an indication of how important online marketing is for local businesses. It might be more important for local businesses than it is for other types of businesses.
And these are just the numbers for online search, which is a major part of online marketing, but it doesn’t include social media, email and a couple other areas that are important for local businesses.
If you’ve been looking to start an online search effort or if you’re looking to improve your current strategy then we have some tips that will help…
1. Vision
Just like with your business, it’s important to have a vision for your online marketing strategy.
Most likely, this will align with your overall business vision.
A vision is simply a declaration of what you want to become, what you want to happen. The vision allows you and your team to better make decisions so you’re all working toward to achieve the vision.
For example, if your vision is to become a well-respected, family-oriented business in your community while providing the best product/service in your industry then your social media manager (more on this person below) can better determine the type of content they should share. They’ll keep it PG, family-friendly with anything they share.
2. Manager(s)
Many local businesses are strapped for resources. And that’s understandable. Very rarely does a business have unlimited resources. Many are on a bootstrap and just doing what they can to keep up.
But as with most things in business, that can be tricky when it comes to online marketing. You can dip your toe into social media and creating a website, but if you really want to see results it takes at least a full-time person to be responsible for the efforts.
The manager could be someone that you hire. It could be a freelance contractor or it could be an agency that has the experience to handle your online marketing efforts.
Or it could be you. But know that if you’re committing yourself to online marketing then you’ll need to give up other things. If you just add on more work to your plate and try to keep doing everything else it can lessen the effectiveness of what you’re already doing and lessen the impact you can have with online marketing.
3. Long-Term Commitment, Consistency (Organic Channels)
This is true really for all online channels, but more so for organic channels like search and social media. It takes time and a consistent commitment to see results. There are no magic SEO tricks. Well, there are some and they might work in the short-term, but they always fail in the long-term.
The best strategy in life, offline and online is to focus on the long-term.
That means committing to social media for the long-term. Looking at what other businesses do that succeeds and emulating those things while also experimenting with more strategies to improve on what others are doing.
That means seeing what companies rank well in search results and seeing what they are doing and doing the same or better. Do they have a regular blog strategy? Is their content really good at describing what they offer customers? Do they connect well with the local media? Do they have an email program? Etc.
4. Designer
You probably don’t need a full-time designer, but it’s good to at least have one or perhaps even two that can help you with your online marketing effort. You’ll need a designer for just about every strategy that you’ll implement.
A designer can help you with images for your website. They can help with images and graphics for your blog, social media and a variety of other things. Email is another one.
You can usually find a good freelance designer in your area or find a design firm that you can keep in touch with when you need help. Put them on retainer and use them every month for the images and designs you’ll need.
5. Website-First Mentality
A lot of online marketing today is spending time on channels that are not your website. That is fine, but only to a point.
The best approach to online marketing is still to invest in your own property: your website.
Social media sites like Facebook, Instagram and even Twitter (they’re working on it) understand the importance of building the value of their sites. They want people to come to their sites.
You want the same to happen. On your site, you control the experience. You control the information.
If you put more effort into maintaining your Facebook page than your website then your online efforts will run through Facebook. If that happens you’re at the whim of Facebook and any changes they make. That’s risky.
A better strategy is to focus on your website as the final destination for your target customers. You want to make connections through other channels like social media and search while bringing those people to your site to convert into customers.
6. PR, Outreach Strategy
A PR strategy is still very important for local businesses. Getting a spot on the local 5 PM news is great exposure. And with online marketing you can make some really good connections with the local media.
Part of your online effort should be to build relationships in the community. You don’t need to go around spreading your own agenda. Just like in real life, look to make connections. Ask questions. Look to help others.
Over time you can build goodwill that will pay you back in various ways that will expose your business to new audiences.
For example, it might be connecting with local business leaders on LinkedIn. Following them and seeing what content they share or what questions they’re asking. Then providing help and answers.
Real connections can form and opportunities will arise for you and your company.
7. Channel Discipline
Running a business requires two types of discipline.
One, you need the discipline to push yourself to improve and grow.
Second, you need the discipline to limit improvement and growth. Because if you try to do too much you can get in trouble. Burnout, stretched resources, etc.
Channel discipline falls into the second category.
Online marketing is great. There are many opportunities, but you can only do so much. You can ease into more channels as you go, but when starting out it’s best to figure out the best opportunity.
An example here is social media. It’s hard to maintain one social media profile for your company. Try to maintain 3 or 5? Craziness.
8. Search Basics (How people find you)
When it comes to local search we can go back to the source of the stats linked in the introduction.
In that study, people were often looking for the basics when it came to local businesses.
Address, category, hours, etc.
This information is the basic information that your customers should be able to find when they search online. The way you do that is by putting the basic information on every page on your website (header or footer) and submitting the information to the channels people use to search.
Google has a place for local businesses.
If you’re on Facebook make sure to include the basics there and any channel that you’re using or that you know your customers are using.
9. Email Program
Don’t overlook the power of an email program. Many businesses today invest time in Facebook and that’s fine, but it comes at the expense of more important channels like email.
Post something on Facebook and some of your followers will see it.
Send an email and chances are that the people who opted in will see that email and open it.
Work to get more subscribers. Commit to sending at least a monthly email with company updates, offers, etc.
10. Fresh Content Strategy
Finally, commit to a fresh content strategy.
This means two things (at least):
One, going through your site every six months and doing an audit. Look at the content and make sure it clearly tells new people what you offer. Then make sure the content works the new person through your sales process. It’s amazing how many websites don’t say what a business does. Also make sure things like menus, events and more are updated.
Two, commit to a blogging strategy or another regular content strategy; something that is adding new content to your site on a regular schedule. It might be two blog posts a month or one podcast or video a month. keep your site fresh.
Conclusion
Local businesses have a lot to gain from an online marketing strategy. But it’s usually more effort than anticipated. Follow the steps above and you should be in a better place to see results from online marketing.
Photo credit: Hachi Gatsu via VisualHunt / CC BY
