Marketing for your local business is something that everybody should be looking at if they want to grow. Digital marketing is a modern-day method that reaches a larger audience that is more qualified. If you are a local business that is struggling to grow, digital marketing might be the method for you if you are not already doing it. Luckily for you, you do need to be a digital marketing expert to achieve your goals.
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Optimize Your Website For Local SEO
There are many ways for SEO to improve your website’s visibility online. Local SEO might be complicated for most people, however, once you get a true understanding of local marketing, your business will benefit. Aiming for a local area will benefit you a lot more than targeting a national scale. Not only will you be targeting people who are interested in your product/service, but you will also be reaching out to people in your local area.
Nine times out of ten, if somebody needs a product such as tracksuits, they are going to Google it. The same goes for those who are looking for a particular service such as a plumber or an electrician. The only difference with this is that they will type in the location along with this as well. Targeting a more specific area that is local to you will attract even more people.
If you are a local business that is looking to attract more people to your business within the area, you need to ensure that your website is optimized properly for that. On your website, you need to optimize your location. That way, you will be reaching your target audience.
If you are looking to expand outside of your local area then you can also do this by optimizing multiple web pages. That way, you can optimize your service for a specific location. This means that you are going to get a lot more visits to your website.
Google Business Profile Listing
This should be at the top of your to-do list once your website is up and running. If a potential customer wants to see if you are a legitimate business or not. A good way to prove that you are is by having a look at your Google business profile and reading the reviews of your business. Your Google My Business profile will have all of the relevant information you need. This would include name, address, and phone number, also known as NAP.
You also want to add content to your GMB profile such as imagery and general posts to show that you are an active business. A user will get a lot of information through this GMB profile so you need to ensure you utilise it. Once you have got all of that completed, your business is more likely to appear on the Google search results page.
Website Design
Another important factor is your website. Everybody gets their information from the online world now which is why it is important that your website is not only functional but it also looks good. Your website is your shop front so make sure that you are attracting them through the visual appearance of your website as well as the content you have on there.
Once you have got your website looking great, you need to check to see if it communicates what you offer. Get an outsider to look at your website and ask them what it shows. If you are a painter and decorator, you want to make sure that your website is that for new users. If your website is consistent all the way through, the users will begin to become familiar with the business, encouraging them to buy from you.
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Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Pay-Per-Click, also known as PPC, is another digital marketing method that every local business should do if they have the finances. It is a great way to reach your short term goals.
Again, when setting up your PPC advertisements, you want to make sure that they are optimized correctly. It includes the same methods of SEO however you might want to change it slightly, depending on the competition of keywords.
Once you have chosen your keywords, you are going to need to bid for them. The highest bidder would be first, the second-highest bidder would be second and so on.
When you have created your PPC campaign, you are directing users to a specific product, straight away. This means that it increases the chances of them buying the product straight away.
There are many benefits when it comes to PPC but it will cost you a lot of money. The biggest benefit of a digital marketing campaign is that you are going to be reaching out to your target audience.
Social Media
An active social media account seems to be more important than ever. Keeping your social media active attracts more people to your website or gives them more of a reason to enquire about something. Not to mention that your previous customers can leave reviews on your page as well.
Social media is a great platform for customer service plus, it is free to use. People can contact you privately or reply to one of your posts when they have an issue, if they reply publicly then do not see this as a negative. Show how good your customer support is and then you will naturally attract more customers like that as well. There are many ways to utilise social media so explore the different methods, to make sure you use it in the most beneficial way possible.
To Conclude
There are a lot of digital marketing methods out there that you need to explore. Additionally, some are going to be more beneficial than others. If you put a little bit of your budget on those different methods to see what works best. Make sure that you talk to experts to gather their advice on what is best for you and where you should spend the most money.
One final thing to mention, a lot of your users will look at your website on their mobile. Make sure that when your website is designed, it is functioning well on mobile. A lot of people will browse the internet more on a mobile phone compared to a desktop although this depends on the product and service.
