Marketing has drastically changed over the last 20 years. Direct mail, door-to-door, and live presentations used to be the popular drivers of marketing and sales, but now, it’s almost a detrimental decision for businesses to avoid understanding internet marketing for local business.
Instead of libraries, the internet has become the major driver of information discovery, and has created an open market in the business sector. Where the TV and radios had become monopolized, the internet left holes of opportunity for small businesses, and the trailblazers are reaping from that.
There are several rags to riches stories connected to trailblazing the path of the growing internet. Stories like Mark Cuban’s journey to becoming a billionaire or Jeff Bezos’ story to becoming the richest man in the world, are all stained with evidence of the opportunity the internet presents the small business who learns internet marketing.
History Repeats Itself
As you know, history repeats itself. This drastic excitement and move into new inventions happened when the sailors were exploring the new lands.
There was Christopher Columbus who was honestly exploring and bringing investors returns from their investments. Then, there were other sailors who were scammers. They were getting people excited about the potential of the world exploration, the ROIs that could be made from discoveries in other parts of the world, they were taking people’s money, and returning nothing to them.
Scams happen today as well. There’s lots of people online selling a pipe dream saying, “Make money on autopilot”. In reality, these people are scammers who are omitting facts and exaggerating what’s really necessary to build a thriving traffic source that drives leads to your business. Unfortunately, people are losing money from following these scammers into disappointing tactics.
Watch out for things like that!
What’s Really Possible Online
Instead, adding internet marketing for local business may take some getting used to, but it can still be well worth the shift. It’s not merely about slapping up a website, but instead, about opening another door for you to express your expertise.
When used well, it’s really possible to tap into a user base of 4 billion+ people and create a loyal online community of people who are eager supporters of your products and services. Many small business owners have been able to leverage the large user base from the internet, create a digital storefront online, and attract people from all over the world.
In fact, 322.17 billion dollars was spent on e-commerce in 2016, and the numbers are projected to scale up from there. I don’t personally know of a local economy that’s generating the economic opportunity the internet is. It’s really cool how the internet can increase the growth of your local business by exposing your products and services to the massive online audience, but there’s a process for the internet to work in your favor.
The Process for Favorable Internet Marketing for Local Business
Not all businesses get online and find favorable results. In fact, in my post on the Dot Com Crash, you’ll find many businesses tanked online. Entrepreneurs mistakenly thought the internet would be a place where normal business principles wouldn’t apply. Many were throwing up websites with no monetization strategy, spending much more than they were bringing in, and shutting down.
For favorable results online, you have to look at the internet from a business lense. There are customer acquisition costs online just like offline and your website should be looked at as a component of your lead generation system.
title=”internet marketing for local business” src=”https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.wealthyaffiliate.com/uploads/1305587/sitecontent/a3694e04e1a2b3329eba5309ed20079f1530114228_cropped.jpg?1530114250″ alt=”internet marketing for local business” />The nice thing about internet marketing for local business is many entrepreneurs find the customer acquisition costs are lower than traditional marketing methods for various reasons. Lower CAC costs can mean higher profit margins, which could be very nice for your business!
Lower costs doesn’t mean free though, so don’t listen to those people who exaggerate too much. While it can have passive components after setup, you have to invest time and money to make your online lead generation system work.
Important Strategies in Internet Marketing for Local Business
Here are some strategies that help with Internet Marketing for local business. Adding these things onto your Marketing Strategy will assuredly get leads coming to your local business from online:
1. Building Your Own Website
There are many ways to do business online without having a website. Platforms like Etsy, Amazon, or Ebay enable you to create listings and begin selling from their websites, however, it’s very difficult to build a relationship with your customers without having your own piece of digital real estate.
Added onto the difficulty of building an independent relationship with your customers, some sellers mistakenly get banned from other retail sites for reasons they can’t control, which could instantly cause a collapse in revenue. Building your own small business website is the best option for establishing your brand, building your email list, and creating a personal relationship with your customers.
2. Maintaining NAP Listings and Citations
Added onto building your website, there are several websites that customers use to acquire information about local businesses. Websites like:
- Yelp
- Yellow Pages
- Bing Local
- Google My Business
- Angie’s List
- Foursquare
- and others…
Directories like these help customers by maintaining name, addresses, and phone numbers of local businesses and their services. These websites have high domain authority, so when you’re website is listed there and someone searches industry keywords, it increases their chances of finding your business.
These NAP listings can work for you or against you though. If you change phone numbers and addresses often, these NAP listings would need to be updated often, so customers could contact the right business. Accordingly, you’ll want to monitor (or have someone else monitor) your listings regularly for accuracy.
3. Delivering Fresh Content that Builds Trust and Credibility
Creating content is a main way for businesses to drive traffic online. By providing valuable information to the online audience, businesses are able to have unique visitors to their website, and create new relationships with potential customers.
Content creation includes:
- Blogging
- Creating whitepapers
- Publishing ebooks
- Podcasting
- Video creation
- or any use of digital media to deliver value
Creating digital content can take a customer completely through the customer purchasing life cycle–from the discovery phase to purchase–if content is laid out correctly.
4. Optimizing Content for Search Engines
Stats show that 93% of internet use begins on a search engine which amounts to over 1 trillion searches per year! As a result of this, optimizing content for search engines shouldn’t be overlooked.
You want to create content that:
- Search engines read easily
- That search users are looking for
- That compells people to click from the search results
- That has a good user experience so readers stay on your page
If you’re new to creating content for SEO, you should check out my article “What is Content for SEO?”.
5. Paying to Play as Needed
For very competitive keywords and industries, it could take years to acquire organic traffic which is why many marketers recommend the digital marketing trifecta…
If you want to expedite the process of acquiring highly targeted leads, you may have to pay to play.  Pay-per-click marketing thru search engines or social media could be a major traffic driver for you.
6. Managing Your Reputation
In a recent study, Bright Local found 85% of consumers trusted online reviews as much as personal recommendations. This means when a local patron goes to an online review listing and gives their feedback of your business, it could drastically influence whether others buy from you.
Reputation management has become a very important activity. Not only do you want to provide quality products and services, but you want to record the satisfaction of your customers as proof you provide quality products and services.
You want to respond to positive and negative reviews to validate you heard your customers and to inform them you are using their feedback tooptimize the way your company runs.
7. Authentically Delivering Value
Above all, internet marketing for local businesses should be all about authentically delivering value. The problem with many of the scammers is they appeal to those who simply want instant selfish gain.
Longstanding entrepreneurs are focused on offering solutions and providing value.  You could deliver value thru consistent blogging, creating videos, or simply proving great products and services.
Final Words on Internet Marketing for Local Businesses
The goal of this article was to show strategies for how to do internet marketing for local businesses. If you have questions or concerns about this, don’t hesitate to leave them in the comments section. I’d love to help you out!
If you liked what you saw here and you’d like a DIY option to start internet marketing for your local business CLICK HERE AND CREATE YOUR FREE ACCOUNT! Get two free websites, ten free training lessons, and access to a community of 1 million+ entrepreneurs (many who are making major things happen online!).  CREATE YOUR FREE ACCOUNT NOW!
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Now, it’s Your Turn…
Have you added internet marketing to your local business marketing strategy? Why or why not? Leave your comments, questions, and feedback below.
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