Building a business that will have long-term success means creating effective marketing campaigns that allow you to keep current customers engaged while also bringing in new and valuable leads. Many businesses use local internet marketing to reach valuable leads who will provide the company with repeat business.
There are many techniques that businesses use when attempting to bolster their local internet marketing. For instance, it’s common for companies to spend time optimizing their Google My Business listing, which makes it easier for a local audience to find the company in question.
Keep in mind that Google has made extensive changes to their marketing tools over the past five years, which has resulted in businesses having more tools at their disposal in regards to local internet marketing. The right amount of local marketing can help you increase sales and revenues. This article takes you through nine of the more effective local internet marketing techniques you can employ to strengthen your business and brand.
Optimize Your Google My Business Listing
The first step you should take when attempting to improve your local internet marketing involves optimizing your Google My Business listing, which should help your audience find your business. Google My Business is a powerful tool that allows business to manage and further optimize their business profile with Google.
This profile will appear in local Google search results as well as Google Maps. You can include your address, phone number, and website URL on your Google My Business listing. Your listing can be an effective method for becoming more accessible to the local audience you wish to cultivate. When you optimize your business listing, it will be shown more often in search results, which will increase visibility for your website and brand.
Perform local SEO with your Google My Business listing means adding your location, phone number, business description, and any other details that may be relevant to your audience. It’s also possible to add images to your listing, which should make it more aesthetically appealing. Placing your brand logo in the listing could allow the listing to be more recognizable to potential customers.
Optimize Your Site’s Pages with Localized Keywords
You can also improve your local internet marketing by optimizing pages on your website with localized keywords, which are keywords that the local audience is using during search queries. When you optimize your site content with these words, the pages on your website should start appearing towards the top of search results, which will likely cause site visibility and traffic to increase from local sources. In the event that your business obtains high revenues from local searches, this step can help your company grow in the months and years to come.
Use Google Ads to Target Local Audience
Google Ads are known to be highly effective at bringing traffic to a website when properly implemented. These are paid advertisements that require businesses to pay whenever someone clicks on the ad. If you want your local audience to see these ads, you should consider placing local keywords and an appealing copy into the ad before placing it online. Creating targeted Google ads should ensure that your ads are displayed to the local audience.
Manage Your Business on Local Business Directories
Local business directories are websites that display listings for companies in a specific town, industry, or niche. In most cases, these listings will consist of information that includes a business address, phone number, name, and website address. It’s also possible to filter by business type, business size, or location.
Also referred to as listing sites, local business directories include websites like Bing Local, Google Local, Foursquare, Yelp, and Facebook. You should be able to create a business directory with any of these websites by making a business account and providing the website with certain information about your company. Keep in mind that Yelp and Google Local are considered to be the most popular options at your disposal.
Creating a director listing gives you the opportunity to increase the amount of revenue you receive from advertisers. You should also benefit from obtaining more traffic to your website. While each of the aforementioned websites provides businesses with free tools that help when creating a listing, the tools that are available to businesses that make a Yelp account include:
- Speak with your customer privately and publicly
- Add a business description, history, specialty areas, and pictures
- Identify the total number of users who are looking at your business profile
Cross Promote with Other Local Businesses
Another option at your disposal involves cross promoting with other businesses in the area. Cross promotion typically centers around offering a special deal or promotion that your customers can take advantage of at another local business that isn’t considered a competitor. You can provide this promotion when customers purchase one of your products, which makes it more likely that your target audience will make a purchase.
The company that you’re promoting will then benefit from receiving more business. This is a great way to build great relationships with local businesses while also providing your audience with perks that will keep them engaged with your brand. Try to partner with several local companies for cross promotions.
Build Backlinks With Local Websites
Local link building can be done by obtaining backlinks from popular local websites. By performing link building with this strategy, you can improve organic positions in local search results, which should make it easier for your business to reach a wide local audience. This process requires businesses to seek links, references, and brand mentions from nearby businesses. An example of a backlink is when another website mentions your business and links back to your website in a blog article.
If you partner with the right websites and businesses, the backlinks to your website could benefit from a high number of clicks from people who are interested in your brand and the products/services you offer. Keep in mind that backlinks are considered to be part of a local SEO strategy. By obtaining more local leads, you should be able to generate higher amounts of revenue.
Manage Your Customer Reviews
An important step in bolstering your local internet marketing involves managing the customer reviews that your business receives. Reviews are a key component to the success of practically any business that relies on local customers. Many consumers will only take their business to companies that have at least decent customer reviews. If someone doesn’t know anything about a business that they intend to shop at, there’s practically nothing more effective than reading customer reviews to gain a better idea of what to expect.
In the event that users see that your business has a high number of positive reviews, they will be more likely to select your company. In comparison, a high number of negative reviews could push customers away from your business. Managing reviews should be part of your marketing plan and involves leaving feedback underneath any customer reviews that are written.
When you receive positive reviews, make sure to thank the customer for taking time to provide a review, which makes it more likely that the customer in question will do repeat business. When looking specifically at negative reviews, it’s highly recommended that you respond to any issues customers have had by attempting to resolve their problems. Negative reviews are inevitable. How you choose to respond to these reviews can determine how prospective customers view your business and brand.
Utilize Social Media
If you want to improve your local presence, one method of doing so involves using social media. For instance, you can create posts on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter that showcase the area you operate out of and how your business represents this area. Social media marketing can help you bring in new local leads while also nurturing relationships with customers that already do business with you.
Keep in mind that you can perform paid and organic marketing on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. While you can purchase ads to be displayed on these platforms, it’s easy to perform organic marketing by posting status updates, videos, and photos that help you keep your audience engaged.
The ads you choose to run on various social media platforms can be outfitted with localized keywords that help you reach your local audience. Social media can be effective at helping you reach valuable leads who are more likely to make a purchase or create a membership.
Optimize Your Website for Mobile Users
The final local internet marketing idea that could help you increase the number of leads who reach your website involves optimizing your site for mobile users. Mobile optimization is important because of the number of people who now browse the internet via their smartphones or tablets. During the second quarter of 2022, nearly 59% of all global website traffic was generated by mobile users, which is why you should consider taking the time to optimize your website for these users.
If your website is mobile-friendly and responsive, users will be able to browse your site and navigate across web pages without needing to engage in extensive scrolling or zooming. A mobile-friendly website can be made by implementing a responsive design, which means that your website will automatically adjust to the device that the user is currently using to access your website. Mobile users are invariably more satisfied with their experience when browsing a responsive website.
Performing local internet marketing can help you increase the amount of local traffic that reaches your website and visits your brick-and-mortar store. There are many different local internet marketing ideas you can implement with your business, which include everything from optimizing your Google My Business listing to managing the customer reviews you receive.
