Introduction – 16 Awesome Ways To Do Digital Marketing For Local Businesses
Many local businesses have started to take digital marketing seriously.
More and more people are starting their own business, which means there is fierce competition in the market.
The best way to stand out from the crowd is by using online tools like social media, email marketing, and SEO strategies.
In this article, we will discuss 16 approaches on how you can do digital marketing for your local business that works!
We want to help the reader learn 16 ways to do digital marketing for local businesses.
We want them to understand the importance of digital marketing and how it can help their business grow.
One of the first things that you need to know about doing digital marketing is what type of services will work best for your needs. For example, if you own an eCommerce store then you should be looking into SEO services like search engine optimization (SEO) or pay-per-click (PPC).
In this blog post, we are going to go over 16 different types of online marketing strategies that will help a local business increase traffic and generate more revenue with very little time investment!
- Introduction – 16 Awesome Ways To Do Digital Marketing For Local Businesses
- Download Our Free eBook
- What Is Digital Marketing?
- Why Is Digital Marketing Important?
- How Can Digital Marketing Grow My Business Online?
- How To Grow My Business Online With Local Digital Marketing
- No. 1 Identify Your Ideal Client
- No. 2 Get A Conversion-Optimized Website & Online Presence
- No. 3 Employ Lead Generation
- No. 4 Email Marketing Is KEY!
- No. 5 How To Get Local Traffic With Google My Business
- No. 6 Local SEO Strategies
- No. 7 Online Directories and Listings
- No. 8 Get Search-Visible With Search Engine Optimization
- No. 9 The Power To Connect With Social Media
- No. 10 How To Grow Your Local Business With Google Ads
- No. 11 Attract Prospects And Build Brand Awareness With Content Marketing
- No. 12 Form Partnerships With Other Businesses
- No. 13 Improve Conversions With Professional Copywriting
- No. 14 Offer Relevant And Helpful Free Content
- No. 15 Get Explosive Growth With Referrals
- No. 16 Get Active In Your Community
- Conclusion – 16 Awesome Ways To Do Digital Marketing For Local Businesses
Download Our Free eBook
What Is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is a type of internet-based advertising that involves the use of digital technologies, such as websites, social media platforms, or applications.
Digital Marketing covers many different fields like SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC Advertising which can help local business owners grow their customer base with very little time investment.
Digital marketing offers massive potential for small businesses and startups to compete fairly with larger and more established businesses to get leads, clients, and profits.
This comes from the fact that a big budget doesn’t guarantee the best results.
You can also get started marketing online for free with services like Mailchimp to get a free email marketing account or as low as $1,200 per month with a Cyber Site Online Presence that gives you a website, online marketing, and a 12-month marketing strategy for your business.
Today we want to help you learn more about digital marketing for local businesses so that you can get more leads, clients, sales, and customers for your local business.
Let’s get started!
Why Is Digital Marketing Important?
Digital marketing is important because it allows a company to reach its target audience effectively, with minimal expenses.
When faced with digital advertising campaigns, local businesses have the opportunity to experiment without the risk that traditional advertising would entail.
Furthermore, it offers an array of targeting methods so companies can use this as a way to increase brand awareness and generate leads from potential customers.
Digital marketing should be considered by any business looking for new ways to market themselves or new opportunities in general.
We have prepared a helpful article to teach you all you need to know about online marketing vs offline marketing.
We also discuss the benefits, risks, and strategies that you can use to grow your business using both online and offline marketing.
We will now discuss 16 ways you can do digital marketing for your local business:
These are some of the strategies that we use to grow our clients’ businesses online.
These 16 tips have also helped countless others understand what they are doing wrong in their business’s local marketing and need to do right to start growing their business online.
How Can Digital Marketing Grow My Business Online?
If you own a business, then you need to know how digital marketing can help grow your business. Digital marketing can grow your business locally and internationally and does so with ease and efficiency.
The internet is more popular than ever and your potential customer pool has grown exponentially.
You’re not the only one trying to take advantage of this growing market–everyone around you is too!
The question isn’t if but when they will surpass you in popularity or halt your progression altogether with better products and services because people wouldn’t have found them otherwise.
Digital marketing can help to grow your business by raising awareness of your brand.
This is done by increasing your online visibility and offering valuable and helpful information that solves your target audience’s problems.
The increase in brand awareness and offering value to your target audience increases trust and the number of leads coming into your business.
An increase in leads for your business as well as trust leads to an increase in sales and new clients. This improves your business’s financial standing and success.
This is just one simple way how digital marketing can grow your business online.
Different online marketing strategies will use different benefits of digital marketing to help you get more clients and sales for your business.
How To Grow My Business Online With Local Digital Marketing
The importance and benefits of digital marketing for local businesses are not to be forgotten. Good digital marketing is a huge factor in how your business will grow online.
Simply put, there’s no way around it: if you don’t have an internet presence then you’re going to struggle when trying to grow your business in today’s society.
With the use of good keywords and plenty of long-form content that solves their problems or offers them value, we can help push potential clients towards our website where they want more info on what they need (our service).
An increase in leads for your business as well as trust leads to an increase in sales and new clients which improves your financial standing with success coming soon after this process!
This process is similar to the one mentioned above for digital marketing in general and is replicable for local businesses.
We did this to highlight the fact that digital marketing for local businesses is similar to digital marketing for global businesses.
The only difference is that with local marketing you must focus your options on caring for a local audience.
We are going to go through 16 tips and strategies that you can use to grow your business online locally next!
No. 1 Identify Your Ideal Client
The first step in marketing your local business is to find out who is your ideal client or customer’s identification.
This sets the tone for everything that will be done next and is the most crucial step of our local digital marketing campaign.
When we’ve identified who our ideal client is we will know where to find them, how to communicate with them, what products or services they really need, their fear and dreams, and how best to help them.
Without knowing this information it is impossible to successfully market your business and so we would like you to spend some time to figure out who is the customer you’re trying to serve.
These could be potential clients that you will aim at, and determining what they need from a product or service can help you create content that fits their needs better.
We have prepared a 16-point checklist for you to go through that will help you to understand how to identify your ideal client.
You can read that article here: Powerful Marketing Tips For Small Businesses In 2021: How To Get Explosive Growth
No. 2 Get A Conversion-Optimized Website & Online Presence
A conversion-optimized website should be the first thing on your to-do list of online marketing for local clients.
Today we will go to Google to find the answer to questions that we have instead of asking the person sitting next to us. This is evident from Google’s approximately over 5.6 billion daily searches.
This includes shopping for plumbers, electricians, and mechanics to fix that check engine light (or engine) that is illuminated in our car.
Any business that is serious about competing online will have a website.
The advantages of having a website for your business is simply too great to ignore.
Deciding on what type of website to get can be a tricky decision.
It’s important to consider the needs and wants that your business has, as well as the way you want potential clients (and current customers) to experience it.
For some local businesses with brick-and-mortar locations, having a mobile site or an app is very useful for engaging with their customer base in person too!
To help you decide if a website is right for your business and how it can help you grow we have prepared this article for you: Does my business need a website?
Additionally, your online presence isn’t complete without using social media to complement your website.
The combination of social media accounts and marketing, and a website can give your business an online presence with massive online visibility. We will discuss social media and social media marketing towards the end of this article.
In marketing and growing your business visibility is crucial because no matter how great your product or service is it isn’t helpful unless the right people can find it.
We will not go into social media and social media marketing as that is discussed in detail below but we will offer you the chance to get an online presence for your business at a 20% discount from our usual starting monthly price of $1,200.
You get a website, online marketing, a 12-month marketing strategy, and a fully managed, hosted, and marketed online presence from our team with a Cyber Site Online Presence.
To claim your offer just signup here and tell your agent that you signed up through this article and share the link
No. 3 Employ Lead Generation
Lead generation is a crucial part of every business’s success.
In digital marketing lead generation can be defined as “the process of finding and capturing information about a potential buyer.” There are many different ways to generate leads, but one of the most effective is email marketing.
An effective digital marketing strategy will also include lead generation through social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter.
While you may not be able to monetize your followers on these platforms, they can still serve as valuable assets for generating new business contacts who become interested in what you have to offer them.
A simple digital marketing strategy involves using online content strategically (social media posts or blog posts for example) to drive traffic back to the site which then captures contact information such as email addresses and names.
The next phase is simply to communicate with your prospects and build a deeper and better relationship with them.
You can do this with retargeting ads; creating an autoresponder email drip sequence that automatically emails blog subscribers when it’s been a while since their last visit, employing nurture campaigns, and using other email conversion strategies to build a relationship with them and convert them to clients.
You’ll want to communicate with potential clients for your services or products, but you can’t do that if they don’t know who you are.
Build consistent relationships through social media and email outreach campaigns where you offer a free consultation or other gated content in exchange for contact information. Make sure these emails come from the person who will be conducting the consultations as well!
We have prepared an extremely detailed and helpful article on using lead generation in your business. It even includes 5 lead generation strategies that you can use in your business today to start generating leads, sales, and growth.
You can find that article here: Lead Generation Complete Guide: From Basic To 5 Powerful Strategies
No. 4 Email Marketing Is KEY!
Email marketing is one of the most powerful local marketing tools you can use to market and grow your business.
Email marketing is the process of using email as a means to market your business locally.
Email marketing can be done in various ways, such as:
- Email blasts
- Personalized emails (using technology like Constant Contact or Mailchimp)
- Autoresponders that send automated responses and tips when someone subscribes to the list with an initial contact form submission.
The major benefit of using email marketing for your local business is that it allows you a potentially free and low-cost way of communicating with prospects, building a relationship with them, and converting them to customers and clients.
It also has the highest Return On Investment among all online marketing media with an average expected return of $44 for every $1 invested.
Email marketing can form the solid spine of any successful marketing strategy for startups as well as massive businesses like Amazon and Microsoft.
There are many different email marketing strategies that we have prepared for you that you can even start using in your business today.
Learn more about using email marketing in your business today by visiting the following articles:
- 1 Powerful Digital Marketing Strategy for Small Businesses and Startups
- Is Email Marketing Dead In 2021?
- 11 Email Marketing Best Practices 2021: How To Write Engaging Emails For Your Business
- 16 Powerful Email Marketing Lead Generation Strategies
- 22 Powerful Email Marketing Benefits To Grow Your Business
No. 5 How To Get Local Traffic With Google My Business
A lot of small businesses don’t know what Google My Business is. It’s a free, powerful tool that allows you to manage your online presence on the world’s largest search engine — and it could help get local traffic for your business!
Google My Business offers massive potential for local client generation, brand growth, and even in-store visits but is still greatly underused and underappreciated today by many businesses.
This makes it easier for you to get online and start dominating the Google My Business listings in your local area.
It also integrates easily with Google Maps to help to find your location easier for clients and customers.
If someone types “Coffee shops near me” into Google the top 3 results will be the Google My Business listing for that person’s area. That gives you a way to claim a top spot in the Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) without spending a dollar on ads or SEO.
To help you get the best out of your Google My Business listing to generate leads and clients for your business we have listed a helpful video below:
No. 6 Local SEO Strategies
Local SEO can be defined as the process of optimizing a website to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPS) for local queries. This includes both traditional SEO and content marketing tactics.
There are many local SEO strategies that you can use to grow your business online but the ones that best fit you, your business, and your clients will depend a lot on your ideal client and your business model.
There are many tips that you can follow such as:
- Getting and optimizing your Google My Business account
- Using your Google My Business listing address in your website footer
- Adding geographical information to your business listing
- Optimizing tags on blog posts with locality keywords
- Including location data or addresses on social media posts about events near you
- Optimize your website and blog content for local keywords.
- Create a Google My Business listing to claim the top spot in local SERPs.
- Add a map widget on all pages of your site (or just one page) so potential clients can find you easier with directions from their location.
- Update your social media profile URLs to include “city” or another relevant keyword after the domain name, like Facebook.com/yoursiteproviderherecharlotte for example.”
- Take advantage of review sites that are specific to businesses located within certain areas, such as Yelp or Insider Pages.
No. 7 Online Directories and Listings
Online directories and listings can help grow your business online by providing links to your website, social media profiles, and blog.
In order for this strategy to work properly, you’ll need a comprehensive list of all the directories that place listings on their site so it’s helpful when people search for local businesses or services in your area.”
The most popular free online directory sites are Google Places (formerly known as Google+ Local), Yahoo! Small Businesses Directory, Bing Place For Businesses & Maps, Yelp!, Insider Page, etc.
Create an account with these various directories and fill out any information they require such as contact details, description of business/service offerings, and location address before submitting them.
It is also helpful to sign up for online review and recommendation websites such as Yelp!, Insider Page, TripAdvisor, and so on.
The idea of this strategy is that it will provide you with instant and free access to the traffic of these reputable websites. You can then generate leads and website traffic from these websites of users who are looking for your business.
No. 8 Get Search-Visible With Search Engine Optimization
This is a strategy that focuses on increasing the chances of ranking high in search engine results.
This means optimizing your website and web content to ensure they are optimized for keywords you want to rank highly for, along with other outside factors such as social media presence which also play an important role in SEO rankings.
There are many different ways local businesses can implement this digital marketing strategy, but one way is by using keyword research tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs will help identify keywords that receive substantial traffic each month so you know what key terms people use when searching online.
Having a solid SEO strategy is powerful in building an authoritative brand and voice that is trusted in your industry by providing helpful, relevant, and sought-after content that potential customers can use to find you.
You can then use this to generate leads and improve your client or customer base.
Search Engine Optimization is a broad topic but we have a video listed below by Ahrefs that helps you understand how SEO can help your business to get more traffic.
No. 9 The Power To Connect With Social Media
Social media offers a huge opportunity to connect with your prospects, build a relationship, and increase your client and customer base for your business.
Social media can grow your local business in many ways.
Some of the advantages of using social media in your local digital marketing strategy is:
- Build an online audience and following of committed users who trust you and want to use your business
- Connect you with potential clients and customers who are looking for your product and service
- Provide an alternate point of easy contact for your business
- Increase brand awareness and online visibility
- Increase sales and profits
- Increase website traffic and email subscriptions for lead generation and email marketing by sending traffic from your social media to your website
- Generating Leads and Improving Your Client or Customer Base
- Building a Relationship With Prospects
- Enhancing the Experience of Your Customers: Providing them with more information about your company through social media.
- Building awareness by providing helpful content which generates traffic (more people will visit your website) enhancing the experience of customers by giving them all available information on their products or services
The use of social media platforms to engage with your desired audience is an essential part of digital marketing.
It can also be used in other aspects such as customer service and content creation.
Social Media Marketing includes different types of activities, like creating a company Facebook page or Twitter account and interacting with followers on Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, etc.
In these cases, you are not really running ads but instead connecting one-on-one with people who might want what you have to offer–by “talking” directly to them online in their preferred way through the platform they prefer.
No. 10 How To Grow Your Local Business With Google Ads
Google Ads (formerly known as Google AdWords) is a cost-per-click program that can bring traffic to your business.
One of the advantages, in my opinion, is that you aren’t competing with all local businesses for space on Google search listings.
You are only vying with other advertisers who have selected similar keywords–so it’s less competitive than SEO would be.
Another big advantage of using Google Ads in digital marketing for local businesses is that when you start an Ad campaign the result is almost immediate. This means you can start generating leads and sales almost overnight.
Other strategies like SEO, local SEO, and content marketing can take months to start generating consistent traffic and leads.
The problem however is that if you run out of money for ads, selected a poor ad setup, and lost all your money, or disable your ads for one reason or the other your leads and sales will dry up just as fast as they came – overnight!
For these reasons we recommend you think a lot before spending money on ads if you’re on a budget but we don’t rule it out strictly.
Hiring a professional can also help you to improve your Google Ads results.
No. 11 Attract Prospects And Build Brand Awareness With Content Marketing
Content marketing is the best way to generate leads and sales for your business.
The content doesn’t need to be expensive or high quality either which makes it perfect for small businesses on a budget. It’s also one of the fastest ways to start generating revenue because you can create blog posts, YouTube videos, infographics, etc., that will allow potential clients to find out about your services quickly without having to speak with them first.
What Does Content Marketing Mean?
Content marketing is when you produce valuable information in order to attract an audience who wants or needs what you have whether they know it yet or not.
You do this by producing great content such as blog articles like these!
Hopefully, they’ll enjoy reading our article so much that they sign up and become an email lead that you can nurture to become a customer or client for your business in the future.
Content marketing may not be able to target a local area as easily as other means but you can add your location in the title instead of remaining general to improve your targeting.
An example is for landscapers looking for clients in their local area could use a heading for a blog post like ‘How to care for Kentucky Bluegrass lawns in West Palm Beach’ instead of just using the general ‘How to care for Kentucky Bluegrass lawns.’
No. 12 Form Partnerships With Other Businesses
Another way to get local clients is by forming partnerships with other local businesses with complementary services and whose clients could benefit from your business’s products or services.
Below are a few ways to form partnerships with other businesses.
Ask if they need help servicing their clients or vice versa.
Offer deals on your products and services when the business agrees to purchase from you, but only for customers who have one of their complimentary service items in order to serve as a “hook” so that both parties benefit.
Partner up with businesses and offer free gifts like brochures, pens, stickers, etc
You can also offer:
- Bundled promotions
- Collaborative social media platforms
- Coupons
- Fliers
- Reciprocal website links
An example of a feasible partnership could be a relationship between a mechanic and a car insurance company. When the insurance company has clients that need their cars fixed after an accident they could recommend the mechanic. In the same breath, the mechanic will recommend his clients to the insurance company.
It’s a simple example of a partnership and will still help to get in a few extra clients each year and that is all that is needed. By forming enough of these relationships you will have a solid network of complementary businesses that can be used to provide better service to your clients which is invaluable and also to supply a steady flow of customers to your business.
No. 13 Improve Conversions With Professional Copywriting
The benefits of a professional copywriter in crafting all your sales and marketing materials to generate leads and sales cannot be overstated.
A professional copywriter can help your business grow by providing a powerful voice that defines your brand in all your business’s marketing and sales materials.
The ability to communicate in sales and marketing is critical.
After all, if you can’t explain how your product or service can be helpful to a prospect then you will have trouble converting prospects to customers and clients.
A professional copywriter has the ability to properly communicate with your prospect and connect with them. They help to build a relationship with them a lot faster and better than we ever could and also position you as the ideal and only solution to the problem you have.
To use a copywriter in your business is to use one of the secret weapons of marketing that can exponentially increase the returns on your marketing campaigns.
No. 14 Offer Relevant And Helpful Free Content
Offering relevant and free content is the key to getting clients to give your business a chance when they are uncertain of doing business with you.
Many companies use this model with free trials for software or even for a free consultation to showcase their ability to help your business.
There is the added advantage for local businesses to allow prospects to come to their physical location and speak one on one with a company representative.
Having a human element in your local business helps to build a level of trust and comfort with prospects that cannot be replicated as easily through online meetings.
The item your offer must provide genuine help to your prospects in solving their problems.
Additionally, it must be something that is worth paying for.
For example, popular mattress company Casper offered 30 nights free to use one of their mattress where at the end you have the option to return it if you didn’t like it or to keep it if you did. Their sales exploded as a result.
Other popular food companies may offer free samples of their newest products to gauge customers’ reception of their product before making a full release to the general public.
You can do something similar to grow your local business online.
Even with an in-store offer, you can use the online marketing strategies for local businesses discussed in this article to raise awareness and get more users or prospects to give your free trial a shot.
No. 15 Get Explosive Growth With Referrals
Referrals offer the potential to explode your business’s sales and growth.
When a happy client refers your business to a potential client that potential client is a lot easier to convert into a client than a prospect who is learning about you for the first time.
This happens because of the trust factor. If a trusted person tells you to use or buy something, then it’s easier for them to convince you of their claims because they have your best interests at heart.
It can be difficult in today’s world with so many distractions and constant interruptions, but one way that we suggest local businesses grow is by getting as many referrals as they can.
When a happy client refers to your business you will then get more clients from referring friends who will then refer more friends.
When someone trusts us enough to refer our service or product this gives the potential customer confidence in purchasing goods from you.
Start using referrals to grow your local business today as a quick, easy, and cheap way of getting new clients and customers.
No. 16 Get Active In Your Community
There are many ways to get clients for your business using local digital marketing. One such way is by getting active in your community.
One example of how you could do this is by creating a website for your community center or neighborhood watch if you’re a website developer.
Sponsor local events such as charity walks or festivals where there is an audience looking for information about what’s going on locally.
Your sponsorship will also be seen by all attendees through signage along the way at this event which could lead potential new clientele to come back again next year!
Another way is that you can start an online charity or social movement to help improve living conditions or support people or groups in need in your local community.
- Start a blog to promote your business and share stories with the community.
- Build relationships and do what you can in order to help people within the local area.
- Offer discounts or deals where consumers have to show their proximity card for an even better deal.
- Create events that are open for everyone instead of just those who follow social media accounts – this is especially helpful if you’re looking to build awareness about your brand because it will help get more exposure than using social media alone since not all potential customers may be on Facebook.
The idea is that your business offers your services and support in some capacity in a way that helps the community.
It may not be helpful in generating immediate sales and it shouldn’t. The aim of this is strategy is to build your brand as a relevant and helpful brand in your local community.
By offering your service to your community you will build a lasting impression with clients and prospects alike.
Conclusion – 16 Awesome Ways To Do Digital Marketing For Local Businesses
Digital Marketing for local businesses doesn’t have to hard, time-constraining, or expensive.
By employing the tips and strategies mentioned in this article and a bit of ingenuity to apply them to your business we’re sure that your business can get a steady income of leads and new customers.
It might require a bit of time to start getting results with some strategies but your marketing should always be focused on long-term gains.
If you are unsure of your ability to employ these strategies then we recommend you set up a free consultation with our team to get some help.
Leave any questions you have below in the comment section and we will offer as much help as possible.