Marketing on the Internet provides you, the local business owner, with the most effective advertising opportunity available, and one that is surprisingly targeted.
As a local business, it’s time to claim your piece of the pie. Internet users are more and more frequently searching for local businesses online.
Studies show that people who search for products or services online tend to have a serious buying intent. Therefore, it’s important for you to reach these potential customers—before the competition does. In order to find and be found by new customers, you need to be where they are looking. Local search is what it’s all about, and it’s where you’re new clientele will come from.
A study found these important benefits of marketinging a local business online:
Almost 75% of Internet users perform research online when shopping locally.
Nearly half of those performing local research had a buying intent.
The percentage of those who used printed directories decreased during the study period from 75% to 60%. The Internet is becoming the new Yellow Pages.
If you’re advertising in the yellow pages currently, it may be time to consider buying a smaller ad and shifting your advertising dollars online. Some of the printed directories also offer online services as part of a two-for-one type of deal which you may consider, but only if you were planning on advertising in the printed directories in the first place. If not, you should restrict your marketing efforts to the online sphere.
How do you start? The default setting on most Macs and PCs is to use a handful of sites for search: Google, Yahoo, Bing and AOL. These search engines offer a form of paid advertising known as pay-per-click (Bing and Yahoo have recently partnered with each other to consolidate their searches).
Of course, you need a web presence to take advantage of this. Also, you will want to concentrate on free strategies of Internet promotion before you consider paid options.
There are some commercial local search engines, and these may be of some value. You can use Google to do a search for “local search directory” making sure you limit the search to your own country.
Also, there may be online directories specifically related to your field a business. If you’re planning on experimenting with paid advertising options, you should create a separate landing page for each option so that you can track your results.
However, don’t forget the free options. You may find that most people find your site directly through a Google search. Many directories offer both free and paid listings. The major mapping sites such as Google Maps will also allow you to post a free listing for your business.
Finally, don’t forget to list the towns in your coverage area somewhere on your website. Someone who types your field of business into a search engine will probably get many thousands of results, but if they pair it with the name of their hometown, your business could show up on the first page. Good luck!