5 ways to optimize online marketing for local businesses
Marketing your business at a national or global level is different than marketing locally. Local optimization is required if your target audience is in your immediate area. For instance, if you are a neighborhood dentist, your focus needs to be on building a loyal patient roster from the surrounding community. Accomplishing this objective requires a different strategy than that employed by a national dental chain with offices all over the country.
A local business needs to focus on both SEO (search engine optimization) and SMO (social media optimization), with a particular focus on local issues, local needs and local content. Here are five tips for finding your local clientele and bringing business through your door.
1. Register your business with Google and other local directories
If you are a new business or you simply haven’t done this yet, it is imperative that you get your business officially recognized by Google. Go to http://www.google.com/mybusiness and follow the steps. Google will then send you a postcard in the mail with a special pin number for your registered business address. This is to verify your address and that you are a legitimate business. Once you’ve responded and verified the business, Google will add you to Google Maps, an absolute necessity for local businesses. In addition to Google, you should also register on Yahoo Local, Bing Local, and YELP, at a bare minimum. Basically the more local search directories you can register with, the better!
2. Ensure your address and phone number are listed on every page of your website.
This can be easily accomplished if you place this information in the header, footer or sidebar of your website. It is important that you use text and not a graphic for this information. Search engine web crawlers can read and index text for their search results; they see images almost like a blank space. So always make sure that your contact info – and any important content – exists as text on the page, not within a graphic or image. When properly formatted, the text of your address and phone number will show up as clickable for mobile device users. For example, clicking your phone number gives them the option to call you, and clicking the address pulls up a map app with turn-by-turn directions. If you want to add an extra level of location directive, embed a map on your contact page so people can look up directions directly form your site.
3. Don’t neglect Facebook
Whether you love or hate Facebook, it remains a massive digital network with almost 1.4 billion active monthly users. Facebook allows you to create a special page for your business, which you can set up as a local business page (it’s one of the category option you select during setup). Again, it is vital to have your address and phone number listed on this page. You should also list the hours you are open. Once your page hits 25 “Likes”, you will be able to change the default web address your assigned (usually something like Facebook.com/pages/1234567890) into a custom URL that is more marketable – preferably your business name (e.g. Facebook.com/JoesCoffeeShop). From there you can explore the wide world of Facebook Ads, which is a relatively inexpensive way to target your local region since you can drill down to very specific demographics with a very specific area. You can also “boost,” or pay to promote, the updates on your business page, targeting a specific geographic area.
4. Form a direct connection between social media and your website
Once you’ve set up all your social media accounts (we recommend business pages on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, at a minimum), it’s critical to establish direct links in ALL of your marketing. Link to your Facebook, your Twitter, your LinkedIn and any other social accounts you set up for the business – if it’s social media related, link to it! Put the links in your emails within your signature. Make sure all your links are in your mailing list, place them on your business cards, signage, etc. It isn’t always necessary to spell out the entire link either. In fact, this is why QR codes were invented. Some sites, like Facebook, also give you the ability to abbreviate your link, like FB.com/JoesCoffeeShop instead of having to spell out Facebook. Make sure you have social media sharing enabled on your website, or some other way for people to connect directly from each page of the site to your social media accounts. Why is all this interlinking so valuable to online marketing for local business? Because all those accounts form a network that promotes you as a local business. If you’ve set them up properly, with your address and phone number, and your neighborhood mentioned in your intro text, then you’ve widened your net to capture prospects from your area. Bottom line, think of your social media accounts like mini business websites that all refer people to your main site.
5. Support other local businesses and local causes
Part of local optimization is not only promoting yourself, but also finding other local businesses, as well as local causes, and supporting them. This kind of goes along the lines of, “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.” It also allows you to blog about local issues, post about local topics on social media and generally encourage people to see you as a result on your local scene. On Facebook, “Like” other local businesses as your business page (there is a special option in the drop down when liking a page). Follow other area businesses on Twitter. Add people to your LinkedIn circle who own other local establishments. Follow, like, a promote good local charities and non-political local initiatives that would be popular with your target market. Visit these companies’ websites and social media pages and “Like” their posts, “retweet” them, comment on them – whatever it takes to engage them and build some rapport. As a bonus, you might also make some new friends and allies who can help you succeed in your endeavors.
Want more insights on online marketing for local businesses? Request a consultation to learn how our professional local optimization services can help your business reach the next level.
