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Reaching a Local Customer Base with Online Marketing

By: David B. Ascot

Do consumers use the web to find products and services locally? Absolutely. Most of my clients use local internet marketing to great effect. A lot of local businesses, however, have yet to really take advantage of the powerful marketing tool the internet offers to them. If you ask me, every business should use local internet marketing, it's cost effective and it works, plain and simple. Here's why:
1. You're able to target your potential customers at the time of purchase: People look online when they're ready to purchase a product or service, as much as they would turn to the phone book. These consumers are usually ready to buy; exactly the market you want to have access to. This is targeted marketing which is much more effective in driving sales than print ads.
2. Weak competition: Many local businesses use standard offline advertising strategies such as the Yellow Pages, but they don't have an effective online presence. Whereas in the Yellow Pages, you're surrounded by your competition, you have far fewer competitors online. Fewer competitors means higher conversion rates and lower marketing costs. In other words, online marketing represents a good arbitrage opportunity for local businesses.
Local internet marketing is not really all that complicated. Just as with any sort of online business, your website should be focused on making sales and follow sound marketing principles. However, the most important thing is to generate the targeted traffic which will get your business increased sales. The best target market for a local business is of course, the people in your immediate vicinity.
Here are five of what I see as the best ways to drive local traffic to your site. Some may work better for you than others; I'd recommend trying all of them and finding out which works best for your business.
Strategy #1: Google Adwords
Google Adwords is a must; it's incredibly easy to implement, is inexpensive and is very highly targeted. Here are a few guidelines for building effective local campaigns with AdWords.
1. Build highly targeted keyword lists that include your geographical area.
2. Write ads that feature your geographical location prominently
3. Track conversions
4. Test different ads against each other
5. Test differing search phrases also
Strategy #2: Search Engine Optimization for Targeted Local Search Phrases
1. Target your search phrase carefully
Remember that the object of SEO is not to be all things to all people. You need to focus on a single keyword or phrase to increase your odds of getting a high page ranking for it. Focus, focus, focus.
A good way to choose which phrase to go for is to look at the conversion stats from your Google Adwords. Find a phrase that gives you a reasonable volume of searches and conversions, then target that phrase for natural (unpaid) search engine results. Or you can use this default formula, which we have found to be successful in most situations:
[your location] + [your industry name]
2. Put your key search phrase in your homepage title tags.
Title tags include the text which shows up in that blue bar at the very top of your browser windows. Search engines use these tags as part of their formula for determining page rankings. Keep your title tags concise.
3. Build some backlinks.
These are links from other sites to your own. Having a large number of backlinks tells search engines that your site is popular, which is a factor in determining page rankings.
Here are some simple guidelines for building backlinks to your website:
You should list your site in as many directories as you can. You can also do link exchanges with other websites. Some of the best backlink building strategies are to write articles about your field and submit them to directories and e-publishers, linking all of these articles back to your website. A blog can be another good way to build backlinks, as can online forums (you can make a link to your site part of your signature). You can even purchase backlinks through services like www.text-link-ads.com.
IMPORTANT: If possible, you want the text of incoming links to contain the keywords for which you want to rank well.
4. Use your keywords in your website content
This can be a complex task, but you can get very good results by simply including your keywords in your site's content. Make sure to keep it natural, so your content does not become difficult to read.Try to use your keywords in the headline and the first paragraph, then occasionally throughout the rest of the content where it makes sense to do so.
Strategy #3: Other Pay-Per-Click Search Engines
If your campaigns are working well in Google Adwords, try other PPC [Pay Per Click] search engines such as Overture and Sensis [Australia]. In my tests to date, these services haven't produced the ROI that Adwords does, but they can nevertheless add value.
Strategy #4: Yellow Pages Online
This is mainly addressed at an Australian audience - the same may apply in other markets but you'd have to test for yourself. Our tests have revealed that the Online Yellow Pages produces a better ROI than the print version - in some cases up to 10 times better. But it's not for every type of business. If the value of one new client to your business is relatively high ($500+), then the YP online is worth testing. It may not produce tonnes of leads, but it should be ROI-positive.
Strategy #5: Integrate your offline marketing promotions
Obviously, you should always include the website address of your business in your print ads and marketing materials. This by itself will not generally net you a lot of leads, but making your website the focus of some of your offline marketing efforts can. Try offering a freebie like a whitepaper or report to visitors in your print ads or direct mail campaigns.

Article Source: http://www.article-voip.com

About the author: Mr David B. Ascot reveals his sales lead generation secrets so you'll have expert opinions about online lead generation.

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