Set up an attractive storefront on a heavy traffic street to build a loyal customer base. Those days are long gone! Today, people are too busy on their smart devices chatting, checking directions while others are on social media. They will barely recognize the well-done storefront. What is more, consumers are using the web to find local businesses that sell products they are want to buy.
So how do you ensure you market your local business effectively in today’s digital age? In this article, we delve discuss three effective digital marketing strategies for local businesses. Are you interested in finding the secrets?
Well. Let us dive right into it.
Claim Your Local Listing
Are you interested in increased online traffic as well as physical shop traffic? Consider local business listing services. You need to claim a listing to appear on the search results. Local listing means showing your customers where you are located.
Through local business listing, search engines will display your business name, the address and the phone number on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
Local business listing is a chance for the local business to increase their sales. Consider local listing as a lead generation avenue. It is a way to wow clients who are ready to purchase!
To achieve this, consider enlisting your corporate location and information on the popular business directories as well as the mobile websites. The business listing directories work in the same way yellow pages works.
It is simply a record of all businesses in the area. The local listing services providers also classify the businesses into a certain class, by area, or even size. For a successful local business listing, add photos, social links, as well as the contact links. Benefits of using the local business listing service include:
- Ability to grow your business fast
- For local businessmen, you get top position in local searches
- It is an opportunity for developing the brand image
- Presence on local listing makes you a trusted brand.
Create a Mobile Friendly Website
A mobile-friendly website is one that renders well on small devices. Think of your website as your most valued salesperson. If the salesperson is not customer friendly, your sales numbers will not grow.
Being your marketing brochure, the website needs to contain all the important information. Above all, it should be user-friendly and offer a better browsing experience for your visitors like what has been done with Thrive Themes – it’s fast and user -friendly. Moreover, a mobile-friendly website makes it easy for customers to find products. In addition, it is a ranking factor used by search engines.
When local customers find your business on the search results, the next thing is that they navigate to your website. This is possible using a mobile device. The responsiveness features matter. The website should be easy to navigate with a simple background for faster loading time. This also contributes to increased average time on the website. Customer’s patience decreases when a website is loading slower than expected.
Social Media Presence
Another killer strategy is the use of social media to market locally. The social media platforms offer geographic targeting which is useful in targeting customers near you.
For instance, let us say you are running a restaurant in town. You are targeting people who work at the nearby business complex and want to attract them to your restaurant for lunch. Running a targeted ad on Facebook, an hour before lunchtime is a very good marketing strategy.
The advantage of setting up social media ads is that they are cheaper and more effective. You do not need to pay for an expensive website design. In addition, you can run a timed advert for say one day or just lunch hour advert. This makes it an effective marketing strategy for startups. Social media marketing campaigns also allow you to determine the budget as well as customize the ads to the objective.
For a successful social media marketing campaign, understand your audience and customize the campaign to meet their needs. Moreover, determine the goal and build a campaign using the right content. Set the budget and schedule the social media campaigns to ensure effectiveness. To determine which campaigns to optimize, make use of analytics tools.
Key Takeaway
Those are the most important digital marketing strategies for local businesses. Make sure that your business is listed on the local business directories, has a mobile-friendly website and maintain an active social media presence. Alternatively, you can contact an expert to assist you.
