When you're an Independent Professional you always seem to have a lot on your plate. From the moment you got inspired to start your own business, I'd be willing to bet that it's been a non-stop case of paddling around in the deep end of the pool!
Starting a business is absolutely a great idea, but the nuts and bolts of actually running a business is a battle between competing tasks and responsibilities. One of the tasks you can not neglect is marketing.
Your business can't succeed without customers, and you can’t reach those customers without an online presence and a solid marketing plan.
If you've got “figuring out local online marketing” on your list of things to get around to, you may want to rethink things a little and move it to the “figure it out quick” list. Otherwise you may find that you’ll have a hard time reaching enough of your target audience to keep the light on.
When you're ready to take your local online marketing game up a notch, this guide will get you started on the road to building a local marketing strategy that will help you to reach as many people as possible.
What Is Local Marketing?
If your primary business happens face to face, local marketing is simply the strategy you'll use to reach people within a certain area around your business. That area is usually defined by the maximum distance your customers are willing to travel to get to you or, if you provide onsite services, how far you're willing to travel to get to them.
An example of this would be with hairdressing. It would be pointless to advertise your hair salon to someone who lives two states over. They're simply not coming.
But that leads us to the next question. Of the folks who do live close enough to become customers, which of these area wastes of time and which ones should you go after?
Who Are You Trying to Reach
You can't hit a target if you don't aim. That holds true for marketing your business. You probably have a an idea of who you want for a customer, but if you want them to find you online, you need more than a general idea.
r target audience is. After all, they're the ones you were thinking of when you came up with your particular product or service in the first place. But just knowing who your target audience is only one piece of the puzzle. You have to figure out how to help them find you and then convince them to buy from you. The first part involves keyword research.
Find out what your users type in when they search for products/services that you are offering. For conversions, you have to create marketing avatars or brand personas within your target audience and chop your audience up into a few broad segments (with little to no overlap), then strategize how you can target each segment.
Outreach: Your Local Online Marketing Plan
Local online marketing, or any online marketing for that matter, is not a “quit hit” kind of engagement; it's a serious long-term play. And before you stick your toes into these waters, you really ought to have a plan. Life is no fairy tale where everything will start going your way when you meet the right person (or thing, i.e., local online marketing). A good plan should entail everything from local SEO and the channels you want to target the tools you'd use to create your marketing content.
Optimize for Local Online Search
Once you know both your target audience and local keywords that you’ve to target, you can get started on your website. That’s where you are likely to get most of your conversions (especially if other marketing channels also divert traffic to it).
You’ll have to create your website’s content around similar keywords, so Google knows who to show your website to. But that’s not the only ranking factor that will get your content highlighted, especially when you are competing with older, more established websites. The advantage that you have over others is that you can really go granular with your local online marketing. Meaning, don't slap articles on your website about what you do, pop a few in there about where you are.
Remember, Google's algorithm is smart, but it's not too bright, so give it every hint you can about where you are and who you're trying to reach. Oh and here's another tip, go after those unique keyword variations which are less competitive. A wins a win, so stack up as many as you can.
Use Social Media
So one of the marketing mantras I live by is that you can't make people look at you, but you can stand where they are looking. That means that even if you hate Facebook with a white hot passion, you should still pay attention to it and a few other social media outlets as well as your website.
I'm personally not a fan f Facebook, but I cannot deny the fact that a lot of the eyeballs I want to look my way, are trained on Facebook everyday, several times a day. I'm certain, the same holds for you.
Of course Facebook isn't the only social media hotspot online, I just hate that one in particular. But that's just me and it doesn't help this article along much so let's just move along. When it comes to your local online marketing campaign, there's some goodness over there in social media land.
Do you need to hire a social media manager to be ultra-vigilant on all of your social media platforms? Hardly, you just need to be present and consistent. There are tricks on how to do that, but they're beyond the scope of this particular article. Just know that you don't need to run yourself crazy to have a viable social media game so you don't have a viable excuse.
Your first step is to get in the game. Fire up a Facebook page, an Instagram and a Twitter account. If you're not sure how to do that shoot me a line and I'll walk you through it.
The Power of Reviews
WIFM – Nothing Happens Until Someone Clicks Something
This should be at heart (or somewhere near it) of your content creation strategy associated with local online marketing. Incorporating local themes and a feel of the local community in your website design as well as your content can help you attract more consumers because they might find you more relatable.
Okay, let me try that last paragraph again. Create content like you're writing for a friend. If you put stale and lifeless into your local online marketing, you're going to get stale and lifeless back.
Local Online Marketing Conclusion
Local online marketing isn't hard. Tedious? A little, but it's not hard. The challenge is usually in knowing where to start and what to do next. Oh, and having a shortcut or two couldn't hurt.
Schedule a quick consultation so we can identify the handful of things you'll still need to get your local online marketing game in gear.
https://chriscarter.net/appointments
Your future customers are out there online looking around. You need to go stand where they're looking.
