Local marketing is a crucial aspect of a successful, comprehensive Internet marketing strategy. For the business with multiple locations or the corporation seeking more local customers, a traditional approach to SEO won’t be enough; in fact, marketing to a targeted local audience requires its own unique set of strategies. When done correctly, local online marketing allows businesses to improve their branding, positively engage with their community, increase customer loyalty and secure higher conversion rates. It also helps customers find your business (and yes, they’re looking), helps you to more effectively spend marketing money, and mitigates the loss of valuable market shares to your competition. And did you know that research indicates that nearly 60% of consumers use Google every month to locate a local business? Local marketing matters!
What does a local marketing plan look like? Effective local marketing involves numerous components that require seamless, simultaneous implementation. The following chart is a summary of each local marketing technique and we dive into each category in detail below.
Local Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Implementing a local SEO campaign is one of the first steps we take when launching a client’s online marketing strategy. We first ensure that a client’s website is properly and fully indexed by the major search engines that determine rankings, which involves submitting an XML sitemap to platforms like Google Webmaster. Our local SEO services then identify the keywords and phrases that a client’s local target audience searches for, and incorporates these keywords effectively throughout a website in meta descriptions, H1s, image alt tags, title tags, and content. We also display a client’s city and state prominently in these areas of a website, as well. Quality content will also be regularly published to a client’s website and social media platforms, and will focus on topics and keywords specific to the interests and behaviors of the business’s local audience. This helps search engines to more effectively rank a client’s website for local search results, while providing potential customers with truly relevant content that engages and encourages multiple visits and conversions.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing serves as another highly effective means by which to establish a loyal local customer base and increase conversion rates. In addition to creating social media profiles for each of a client’s physical locations, we can also create locally-advertised coupons and advertisements on Facebook to engage a new audience. These Facebook ads and coupons are highly customizable, allowing us to incorporate specific expiration dates, terms, and conditions, advanced options and reminder e-mails based on the preferences of our clients.
We can also enable Foursquare check-ins so that Facebook users can find a local business and “check-in,” via the application, which identifies the user’s location. With our social media local marketing strategy, we’ll help clients to list themselves more accurately and effectively so that all necessary information is included so that customers can easily find it.
Google AdWords
Also Medullar Concept Digital & IT Services can further help clients reach a local consumer base through the use of Google AdWords. Google AdWords is a strategic online advertising service that allows businesses to market to a specific (in this case, local) audience based on keyword research. A client’s AdWords advertisement will appear on a Google search results page in the top or side bars when users from a specific region search for a targeted keyword. This system ensures that businesses only target viewers who are actually interested in a particular service or product within the client’s region, and advantageously operates on a “pay per click” basis. This means that a business will only pay for advertising space when a viewer actually clicks on a Google AdWords advertisement.
Google AdWords is a scalable method of attracting local views that has a strong track record of high ROIs. Google AdWords continues to deliver consistent Returns on Investment to clients that take advantage of this opportunity and WebiMax’s expertise in ad content and placement. Clients will also benefit from the immediacy and measurability of a Google AdWords marketing campaign, as analytics regarding clicks and conversions is almost instantaneous. All in all, Google AdWords successfully complements the other components at play in our local marketing campaign and delivers effective results.
Local Page Creation
When embarking on a local marketing campaign, it’s also smart to create separate, individual pages for each of a business’s locations. Why? Unique local web pages (not to be confused with directory profiles), can help improve organic search results for local businesses and provide an overall enhanced user experience. A unique local page allows visitors from specific locations to easily find exactly what they’re looking for when visiting a business’s main page. We also create distinct pages for each of a business’s locations – without duplicate content that could be penalized by Google – and instead provide valuable content that is tailored to the audience of a specific location. For example, a unique local page may have links to a client’s local blogs or outbound links to relevant local websites, along with case studies and photos of service conducted within the city, testimonials from area customers, or a Google map of the specific location. A unique local page created by us lets customers know that a client is truly cognizant of the individual needs and specific interests of its consumers in a particular region.
Mobile Marketing
We can also implement a mobile marketing plan as part of a comprehensive local campaign. Without proper mobile marketing, modern businesses have little to no chance of observing significant local growth. Why? The reality is that mobile device usage for Internet searches is skyrocketing, with 95% of mobile device owners stating that they rely on their devices for local searches. Given that Google has also recently announced that websites will be identified as “mobile-friendly” on search engine results for meeting specific compatibility criteria, the stakes have never been higher for businesses to jump on the mobile bandwagon to sustain and grow their local customer base. Our effective mobile marketing involves creating a responsive website design that allows a site to easily adapt to any mobile device to ensure consistent usability and navigation for mobile users, as well as elicit higher conversion rates. We can also implement an advertising campaign specific to mobile devices and personalize it based on collected demographic information, so that ads are targeted (and retargeted) at a local mobile audience. These ads will appear on mobile search engine results pages as well as on mobile apps, and are properly configured for these devices in terms of format and presentation.
Complied by:
Kasali Hammed Adesina
Digital Marketer and IT Manager
Medullar Concept 