I always say it's great to expand your business presence in as many areas as possible. While this may be the case, it is important to not lose focus on what is likely your most important market: local shoppers. If you think you don't need to spend any time and effort in online mediums to attract local prospects in your area, think again.
As reported by the “User View Wave VII” from BIA/Kelsey and ConStat, 90% of people go online to search for local products and services.
There are a variety of reasons why local shoppers start their shopping online.
- They might want to find all the local business in their area that sell a specific product or service.
- They may be interested in doing some comparison shopping with all the local businesses.
- They might be looking if any local business is having any sales or coupons available.
- They might want to learn more about a local business before buying anything from them.
Whatever the reason, it's important to focus on the figure. With nine out of ten people using the web to start their local search, there is potentially a lot of business you can acquire using resources that are extremely cost-effective. So, what can you do to acquire all these potential leads in your local market?
For starters, if you do not have a website, you might want to think about getting one. There are numerous services and templates available to help you create a professional-looking website/blog, and domain names and hosting plans are very inexpensive. If you already have your website up and running, then consider these additional options to target your local market:
- Register Your Business With Google's Local Business Center: Google's Local Business Center provides you with a wealth of options to help you get your business in front of your local market. It's free to use and can really help local consumers learn about your business.
- Use Paid Advertising Mediums: While there are numerous paid advertising options available, a great way to start targeting local markets is with Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising. Briefly, PPC advertising only shows your ads when people search for your keywords, and you are only charged when people actually click your ad. You can even make your ads extremely targeted by targeting only people in a specific city or zip code. All of the big search engines (as well as social networks) offer PPC advertising, but before you venture into this, make sure to learn how these advertising solutions work in their entirety. PPC can be an amazing, cost-effective resource for you to generate business, but you can end up losing a lot of money with zero return if you don't understand how these systems work. If you don't have the time to learn about it, then I recommend you consult a PPC Professional, as there is a lot that goes into creating an effective PPC ad.
- Target local keywords with Search Engine Optimization (SEO): SEO is extremely popular because of the results it can offer. By targeting your SEO efforts on location-based long-tail keywords, you can get free business by moving your website to the top of search engines with keywords used by your local market. SEO is an extremely in-depth practice, so if you are interested in this, consult an SEO professional.
Now that you have a good idea on the potential of acquiring local leads through online mediums, start leveraging your resources to make your presence known. If you don't, chances are your competition will.
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