Just because you have a brick-and-mortar store, it doesn’t mean that you should be concerning yourself with the digital world. As much as we’d like to slow down time and technological progress, we simply can’t. Because the truth is that, today, 85% of consumers use the Internet to find local businesses. So if you want to attract traffic to your business, you need to have a presence online. In this article, we’ll give you a few digital marketing tips give your business a larger digital profile.
9 Digital Marketing Tips for Local Businesses:
1. Create An Effective SEO Campaign
Every day, millions of people are using Google to navigate the web, sending thousands of queries to Google’s servers every second.
In order to take advantage of this almost incalculable web traffic, you need to have a search-optimized website. This will make it so that your website shows up on the first page of Google’s search results for various searches relating to your service or product.
To optimize your website, you have to do many things from designing your website effectively, using keywords, and having a good online reputation. Google has a beginner’s guide to SEO you can look through, but you may need professional SEO services to really develop your SEO campaign.
2. Develop an Eye for Web Design
One of the things Google looks for when ranking search results is a well-designed website. Google is more concerned with the layout and functionality of the website, and your customers will be more concerned with the aesthetics.
So when designing your website from scratch or updating your old platform, you should keep both Google and your customers in mind. You want a clean, easy-to-navigate site that loads quickly and feels responsive and interesting.
3. Blog, Blog, Blog
If you want to become an authority in your field, whether your business deals with sneakers or speakers, you have to speak, well…authoritatively.
The best way to do this is by creating a blog on your website and posting on it regularly. It should be about your niche and be as entertaining and informational as possible.
For example, if you own an auto repair shop, you should write blog posts about DIY auto repair tips or new car reviews. This will boost the number of keywords relating to your niche that sit on your site as well, boosting your SEO score for Google.
4. Create a Social Media Presence
Social media works as a form of marketing for every business, but to varying degrees, depending on your niche.
Because social media users skew younger, businesses that interest young people tend to do better on social platforms. But because a wide variety of people use social media, it is still a worthwhile endeavor to create pages on the big platforms – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram – at the very least.
Regardless of your audience here, it’s important to make your voice unique and personal. People don’t like being marketed to on social media if it isn’t novel or fun.
5. Buy Local Banner Ads
If you’ve set aside money to put a billboard up for your business on your local highway, you may want to save your money for the Internet highway. The internet provides you with a higher source of traffic to market yourself to.
Sites like Facebook and Google allow you to buy up ad space reserved just for your local area, even though the ads get put online. This allows you to target your ads more specifically and for much cheaper than your usual billboard ad.
6. Participate in Local Discussions Online
This is where your social media presence can really shine. On top of just posting updates onto your own page, you should be actively engaging in discussions going on in your locality.
For example, you can try finding Facebook groups or message boards on other sites to engage with through your brand’s profile. You can also search through hashtags relating to your town and comment on posts and follow locals’ profiles.
This will raise the general awareness of your business in your area, which will inevitably drive in traffic.
7. Create a Google Business Page
Another must for getting your business noticed online is creating a Google Business page. If you, like millions of other Americans, have begun searching for restaurants, shops, and other business in your are through Google Maps, you may already be familiar with Google Business.
Google Business is a service that allows you to create a “card” for your business that shows up on Google Maps and their other services. These cards should have a description of your business, high-quality pictures, as well as hours of operation, phone number, and your website URL.
8. Gather Customer Testimonials
Another way to boost your reputation online, thus improving your SEO and boosting your overall perception is through customer reviews. A competing business with more reviews on its own website and on their Google Business page will always win out over a business with none.
So you need to get as many reviews as you can, preferably good ones. You can do this by emailing customers, asking them to review your business in exchange for discounts on their next purchase or a similar incentive.
9. Be Different!
The most important thing when all is said and done is to just be…different. There are 644 million websites on the Internet. Doing all of the SEO and digital marketing tricks in the book still won’t make you stand out if you aren’t unique. Sure, the fitness center in Orlando you hypothetically run may be run-of-the-mill, but your digital voice doesn’t have to be. Infuse yourself, your personal charm into everything you do online. The netizens of the world will appreciate you for it.
Now That You’ve Seen These Digital Marketing Tips…
You should be well on your way towards increasing your profile online. Of course, doing it yourself can be laborious and you may not have enough time to tackle the more technical aspects of your digital marketing campaign alone. Web design, in particular, is not very novice-friendly, so if you need assistance building a beautiful, functional website, check out the services we can provide. With our assistance and these digital marketing tips, your business will be booming in no time.