5 Digital Marketing Tips for Your Local Business in 2019
Running a business is a time-consuming and difficult ordeal. You’re constantly working on something, whether it be work on the floor or committing time to networking. Let’s not forget the stress that running a business can weigh upon you, especially when it comes to navigating the digital side of things.
If you play your cards right, you can grow your business exponentially with digital marketing solutions. Not only can you advertise your goods and services on your website or social media, you can also target search keywords with Pay-Per-Click ads and manipulate search engines results to give priority to your site via organic SEO (search engine optimization). From email marketing to creating your own app, there are countless digital touchpoints throughout a customer’s lifecycle you can assert your brand upon. While those with sufficient budget have opt for professional SEO services, this may be a bit expensive for most local businesses.
With this in mind, below are 5 simple tips you can follow yourself.
Tailor your content appropriately
No matter how big your business is, your local community will always be your backbone. Without them, you would have no business, so keep their needs in your view. Because of this, it’s important to be present within the local community and foster a positive impression.
A commonly adopted strategy is to relate to the community with your digital presence. Does your company frequently donate to schools in the area? If so, you’d want to mention that. Has your company had any sort of professional relations to the local sports league? Let the community in on it. The community needs to feel like you are more than a business. That you are part of the community, and that you understand their needs.
To be seen as a trustworthy and empathetic brand, it’s important to give it a genuine voice and personality. If you say your business donated to a school, be prepared to show evidence. Lying to the community is the quickest way to ruin your business.
Content tailoring also relies on providing content in a suitable language. For example, if you are interested in targetting Brazilian techies, create tech content in Portuguese. That should obvious to most marketers. However, this content tailoring should take regional variations into account. Don’t use Canadian writers for Australian content. Use the language of your audience by hiring one of their own.
Analyze your competition with the right tools
Understanding your competition will help you strategize. Who might be your competitors? Do a Google search for the keywords that are relevant to your business. Pay attention to your IP address to make sure that it reflects your true location when looking for competitions in the area.
If the identity of your brand is not set in stone, try looking for a unique niche on the market that is untapped. It can be something to do with pricing, product assortment, or brand image. Patching market gaps with innovation will give you a significant advantage over historical winners.
After a thorough analysis, don’t forget to list your business with Google if you haven’t already. Listing your business on Google will help your business get listed higher on the results pages.
Network Through the Local Internet
Everything comes back around to networking. And while listing your business to Google is a form of networking, it’s not good enough. After all, most other businesses do it.
The best form of networking will always remain in the local personalities. Bloggers, critics, organizations; these are the entities you should be targeting.
Build relationships with these people. Get them to review your products or services and ask them to link your site on their pages. Prepare a tailored media kit in advance so you can make the most out of these contacts. From statistics and metrics to graphics and bio, a media kit gives you the perfect opportunity to make a good first impression.
It is these impressions that make it easy to discuss mutual collaboration and not just paid projects. Not only will a brand mention (and a handy hyperlink) foster trust within the community, Google will also bump you higher when someone searches for relevant terms because this signals Google that your brand matters. The more unique domains linking to your page, the higher your search rankings. While there are other factors that drive the ranking algorithm, a strong backlink profile has always been one of the key considerations.
Maintain a Constant Internet Presence
Some say ours is an ADD generation. People are always seeking newness. The average attention span (on social media feeds) is 8 seconds. How do you cultivate loyalty? If you want to hold customers’ attention time and again, you have to make your presence known regularly.
Whether you do this through blogging, or social media is entirely up to you. Either way, give content that the local community will enjoy. Remind them why they need to spend on your business.
The Tried-And-True 80-20 Rule
The final and most important tip to any business is the 80-20 rule.
Simply put, the 80-20 rule says that 80% of your success will come from 20% of your efforts. In other words, 80% of your content online should have some sort of value to the readers or viewers. The content should help solve problems, educate or entertain.
Once your customers are sold from your quality content, you’ve earned your shot to market your brand to them with the rest of the 20%. As long as your 80% is fantastic, the readers will take the 20% of marketing material seriously. Share promotions or deals, tell the readers about how good your product is, and just go wild with it! This is tried and true since the beginning of businesses and applies to every realm of digital marketing.
