Many small business owners find the internet a bit of a daunting prospect. They see large corporations using it to gain a greater market share and steal business away from them. Even if they were successful in a local online marketing campaign, there are many hurdles to overcome and hoops to jump through.
For instance, how do you ensure you don’t receive leads from the other side of the country that you can’t cope with? How does one advertise their business locally? A lot of this chalks up to a good grasp of search engine optimisation (SEO), a decent website, a solid online presence and positive reviews.
This said, local digital marketing won’t change a business’ fortune overnight. It’s not a magic solution. But, a well-implemented online marketing plan fine-tuned to the intent, wants and needs of your local audience will help your business find new clients, allowing you to scale sustainably over time.
This is where the busy bees at beefound.agency come in. In this practical guide, we’re going to walk you through the process of creating a cohesive local digital marketing plan across a variety of different channels. Based on our experience helping brands ‘bee’ found online from Yorkshire and beyond, we’ve used these strategies to give our clients a leg-up in Google’s rankings.
It’s time you give them a go too!
Summary:
- An introduction to local online marketing
- Why is it important to market locally?
- 7 steps towards a successful local digital marketing strategy
- 1) Set up an inviting and user-friendly website
- 2) Learn how to optimise for local search
- 3) Try your hand at Pay-Per-Click Advertising
- 4) Incorporate social media
- 5) Spotlight customer reviews and referrals
- 6) Obtain location-specific links
- 7) Finally, Get your face out there!
- Conclusion
An introduction to local online marketing
It seems like a silly question, but it’s important to ask. What exactly is local online marketing?
Well, local online marketing is a technique that leverages the internet to target individuals within a particular geographical area. By doing so, businesses can connect with potential customers and encourage them to visit their physical shops. This can be achieved through SEO, social media, and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, among many other methods.
While you can end up paying a lot for local digital marketing through paid adverts as a novice, many online marketing techniques for local business will only cost you time. Alternatively, contact a pro to do it for you. This way, you’ll know that you’re going to get the best return on investment.
Why is marketing important on the local level?
Local marketing is so important; consider it the small business owner’s bread and butter. It’s an effective tool in assisting businesses in becoming a prominent player in the local market, and can increase visibility, brand recognition as well as customer base expansion.
Don’t just take our word for it though – allow us to persuade you by way of research, with these key stats:
- 46% of all Google searches are for a local product or service, so optimising for them is a no-brainer.
- A staggering 98% of individuals read online reviews for local businesses!
- If you want to dip your toes into local SEO with your brand, you’re in luck because 28% of local searches result in a purchase within 24 hours.
- Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing whilst generating x3 as many leads.
What does this all mean? It means that digital marketing is cost-effective and it allows you to target your audience precisely, meeting them where they are and serving up the content that they perceive as valuable. If you’ve been listening very closely, you might recognise this as inbound marketing.
7 steps towards a successful local digital marketing strategy
With that preamble behind us, let’s get down to business. Here’s how to get started with your very own local digital marketing strategy.
1. Set up an inviting and user-friendly website
It’s always a good idea to have a dedicated business website. It acts as the virtual storefront for your business and helps establish a strong online presence. Imagine your website as the foundation of your local online marketing efforts, with all other digital channels pointing towards it, like signposts guiding potential customers to your door.
Like any good sign or traditional advertisement, your website should be easy to navigate, readable and follow the core principles of graphic design, such as balance, hierarchy and accessibility. By having a well-designed, informative and sustainable website, you can effectively showcase your business and create a positive first impression to potential customers.
Social media profiles vs websites
If you’re currently using a social media page instead of a business website, you might want to stop here and read our post “Facebook Page Vs. Business Website” – whether you operate primarily from FB, Instagram, TikTok or another social platform, the same principles will apply.
TLDR? We got you. The long and short of it is that websites are more helpful for discoverability, driving organic leads that you can integrate into your sales funnel and establishing your brand’s credibility. Social media is more about connecting with your audience and encouraging interaction. But before you think about ditching the social media – know that an optimised website combined with a targeted social strategy is one powerful cocktail.
What makes a good website?
In the marketing world, we measure the impact of website performance via metrics like bounce rate (when visitors immediately leave the page), dwell time (how long they stay on a page) and conversion rate (the percentage that completes a desirable action, e.g., clicking a link). To keep these metrics in the green you’ll want to take the following tips to heart.
Website design
First and foremost, a good web design should be simple and give the user what they came for. This may be to read about your products and services, find contact details to get in touch, or to answer a burning question. It’s also useful to include customer reviews and referralsto signal to potential new clients that you’re a reputable business that does a good job.
Mobile friendliness
If your goal is to get customers in the door quickly as possible, local search is paramount. Remarkably, half of all mobile users who conduct local searches visit a business they discovered within just one day! Thus, it goes without saying that your site should be easily found, navigated and used by mobile users. Mobile-friendliness isn’t a nice to have, it’s a must-have!
Incorporating a blog
Most small businesses have very knowledgeable owners and employees. Don’t keep your knowledge a secret, share it! You don’t need to give away trade secrets, but by creating interesting and relevant content you can increase awareness and the sales of your business.
Starting a blog is a great way to do this. Create it, share it on social mediaand even be found organically by potential clients on search engines. Thinking about what your target audience will find interesting and engaging can be difficult though. Try to consider which questions clients ask you on a daily basis and answer them. Or even ask your clients what they would like to know more about.
2. Learn how to optimise for local search
This can be a tough one as SEO (search engine optimisation) is a tricky beast to tame and typically has an effect on a larger scale. But, in most cases, you won’t have the budget of a big company, so your efforts are more likely to be recognised in local searches.
A good place to start is to create or claim your Google My Business listing and complete/verify the information in the listing. This will allow your business to appear in the map local searches and give you some prominence locally. Having consistent and correct citations in lots of directories is great for local SEO. We’ve put together some advice and a list of over 60 of the best UK business directories for SEO here.
If you haven’t the time to complete tons of directory listings, we suggest you start with Google My Business as the data shows that those who complete their listing are 70% more likely to have customers visit and 50% more likely to have them considering a purchase.
Getting to grips with keywords
You should also target keywords. You’ll need a keyword research tool for this. The best keyword research tools according to Zapier are: Moz Keyword Explorer (Web), Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs Free SEO tools and SEMrush. We can confirm that these are pretty great.
Of course, you can only do so much with the freemium versions of these tools – usually they limit you to a certain number of searches – so if you want to limit the cost of your SEO exploits, why not invest in an SEO partner who will roll any subscriptions into their overall fees.
What about conducting keyword research itself? If you’re completely new to the concept, don’t just opt for the term with the most search volume! Make sure the term is relevant to your page and not too difficult to compete for. Easier keywords to compete for are generally long-tail keywords, in other words, a phrase of 3 or more words.
There’s also nuance as to how many keywords to use and where. You can choose one primary keyword and a couple of secondary keywords. Keywords need to be included in the following places:
- URL
- Metadata
- Main header
- The first paragraph of your content
It is also important to have good keyword density; 1-3 % of your body text should be keywords. Don’t include any more as it could look “spammy” to users and search engines, creating a negative effect. Remember, you’re not writing for algorithms, you’re writing for potential clients so keep it natural!
TIP: If you want to compete locally, it’s a good idea to only perform your keyword research in your local area. Users in your area may use different words or phrases to find what they want. We prefer KWFinder as you can research by nation, region or city.
Technical stuff for your website
Kinda obvious but easy to overlook – make sure your website works.
It’s reasonably quick how your website is performing (check out Google Insights & GTmetrix for speed scores) and whether it ticks the basic SEO boxes. As a basic SEO check, we use the free Chrome Plugin, SEO Quake, which returns a pass/fail on some basic tests. It’s really easy to use;
- Install the SEO Quake plugin in Google Chrome
- Visit your website in Google Chrome
- Click the Orange & Green “SQ” Icon at the top right
- Click “Diagnosis”
To speed up the process you could follow our SEO audit checklist – it covers absolutely everything you might need to keep your site well-oiled. We offer services to help rectify page speed and SEO issues so please contact us for help if you need it.
3. Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)
You can spend a lot of money very quickly with PPC, but it can be very useful to get to the top of search engine results pages. By setting your adverts to display locally you can focus on the clients you want to see your adverts.
Understanding the functionality
Options for your PPC campaigns are extensive. And you may need to change the settings of your campaign to get the most out of it. Using settings such as location, device & demographic you can tailor ads for your target audience.
Let’s say you operate a car recovery business. You could create an advert just for mobiles that search for “car recovery near me” within a 50-mile radius. You’re most likely only targeting the people that want your service there and then so there’s a high chance they click on your ad and get in touch!
Writing compelling ads
Finally, there’s the copywriting aspect of PPC. You’ll have to write content for the final URL, headlines, display URL and descriptions, all of which are limited to tight word counts. In order to catch your prospective clients’ eye you need to “frontload” your ads with the best copy, include relevant local keywords and tap into your audience’s emotional core. Do all this and you will have an effective ad that garners lots of clicks.
Utilizing local landing pages
One of the many advantages of PPC is that you can create local landing pages for each location you operate in; each region-specific ad will lead the user to a page designed specifically for them
4. Incorporate social media into your campaign
Social media is great for small and especially B2C businesses. Platforms like X, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest each allow you to promote your business to your network in a different way. If you’re selling ice creams, taking a photo of a cone in your new flavour on a warm day is likely to get a lot of hits and grow your network.
Many B2Bs, on the other hand, often struggle with social media and their network rarely grows further than employees or friends and family. It’s important in these cases to keep special offers or sales to a minimum. Share your interesting blog articles, pictures of what you are up to or use competitions to encourage likes and shares. Those likes could one day turn into sales!
Another thing to note is that social media platforms don’t exist in a vacuum; posts and pages can appear in Google search results. Meaning? You can absolutely optimise them! From finessing your Instagram captions and LinkedIn company page to using SEO tactics to boost your YouTube video’s discoverability in Google and YT search, there’s a plethora of ways you can combine the powers of social and SEO.
5. Spotlight customer reviews & referrals
When you do a good job ensure everyone else knows about it. Encourage or incentivise your clients to tell their friends and the world just how good you are. A good referral is worth its weight in gold so you may want to offer your customer a small discount for introducing a friend.
You could also ask or incentivise your client to write a review online. This will build trust with clients you haven’t even met yet. It’s a good idea to manage your reviews. Try and direct customers to sites you wish to build a collection of reviews on, sites such as Google My Business, Trustpilot or Facebook.
IMPORTANT: If you get a genuine bad review, answer it in a thoughtful and helpful way. Most reasonable people understand mistakes happen. But it’s how you deal with those mistakes, that makes you trustworthy. Treat bad reviews as an opportunity to show just how much you care!
6. Obtain location-specific links
Another crucial part of local online marketing is link building, and good news, you can do this for free! By link building we mean the process of obtaining links from other websites that point towards your pages.
In the eyes of Google, these function as votes of confidence that allow your site to rank more highly in search engines. Plus, they funnel traffic towards you, which is a great opportunity to send them down your sales funnel.
The best part is that small, local businesses have a unique opportunity to acquire backlinks that are tied to a specific area – allowing you to dominate local search queries and get an edge over the competition.
7. Finally, get your face out there!
Although the internet has changed the world we live in, it isn’t the be-all and end-all. Being a familiar face in your local community is sure to help your business blossom. After all, people like to deal with ‘real’ people.
By joining local business groups and regular networking meetings, or even chinwagging over a coffee in a shared coworking space, you’ll get to talk to other people similar to you. It’s a brilliant opportunity to make friends, share ideas and get people talking about you and what you do. It’s also great for a business to give back to the community through sponsorships or volunteering. You’ll do wonders for yours and your business’ local image and prominence.
Entrust your local online marketing plan to the experts
Local online marketing isn’t for the weak. It can take time to see your social media take off and your SEO results to reveal themselves. And unfortunately, not all business owners can afford to pour in the love needed to make a campaign stick.
Not sure you have the hours, expertise or tools to boost your online presence locally? Not to worry! In these instances, the wise choice is to team up with a seasoned digital marketing partner who can ease you into the process with a steady hand. There are loads of people out there who want to find you, and by polishing your SEO, you can make it easy for them. It’s time to get started – talk to beefound.agency today.
