Marketing your Business Online is not one thing or another. It is a balanced approach of all things digital. Like Local Offline advertising, it is a sum of all your efforts. And One effort should create a domino effect designed to improve your business to public interaction and ultimately your profit margin.
Here is a great article from James Hickey – an internet marketing expert. With a list of Ten Strategies that are worth establishing as a routine practice to market your business.
Top 10 Strategies For Local Business Marketing. Many Business Owners and Entrepreneurs struggle with SEO and Search Marketing.
Here are Tried, Tested and True Strategies For Local Business Marketing
1. Develop an Search and SEO marketing plan first. Performing keyword research, reverse engineering competitor’s SEO, and determining the right link building and SEO tactics are important to do upfront. Make sure your website’s design and content are structured to perform well in search engines.
2. Install and use website analytics programs to drive website marketing decisions. Analytics programs tell you how people found your site, if they are staying on your website, where they are coming from, what content they are viewing, if they are taking desired actions etc. If your website is under performing, the information available in your analytics can help explain why.
3. Content quality and context are key areas to focus. Website content should be unique and it should be high-quality. Content should not be scraped or derivative (source: Matt Cutts, Google). Search will increasingly look at semantics and the intent of the searcher. Keyword integration alone will not be as effective. “Content consumed on a mobile device should be optimized for that channel. Understand how your audience is going to use and view that content and then build the right experience around that concept.”
4. Geo-targeting and local search will remain essential for local businesses. All local businesses that are targeting a geographic area should make sure they pursue local SEO tactics, such as optimizing map listings, adding Citations (local listings and directories), and ensuring their website is optimized for local search to name a few.
Make sure your website is “right” first
5. Make sure your marketing message is clear to your customers. Equally important are your Call-To-Actions (CTAs), where you ask a visitor to take a specific action that moves them down your conversion funnel. Strong content directly impacts the effectiveness of your SEO campaign. Make sure your website is “right” first.
Optimizing for Mobile IS Important
6. Mobile can be an important part of getting the edge over your competition. Whether it is your website, your Google PPC ads or your social content, chances are you could improve performance if you were mobile-friendly. Optimizing content for mobile devices is highly recommended.
Searchers Review Your Online Footprint And Go Elsewhere
7. Own your online reputation. Be proactive and make sure it is positive, professional, and accurate. If it is not, you may be missing out on potential web traffic from your SEO campaign as searchers review your online footprint and go elsewhere. Getting customers to post reviews, issuing news releases and making sure you dominate search engines like Google for searches on your company name are important.
8. Pursue link-building with caution. Especially since Google’s link penalty filter via the Penguin update, links should be from authoritative, credible websites. Spam links or purchased links are not advised, as they can lead to ranking penalties.
Craft A Social Media Content Plan
9. Choose your social media “outposts” carefully. According to a Content Marketing Institute study, the most successful business-to-business marketers were active on at least seven social media marketing or content channel networks. Seven social networks are often too many to manage for a small business. It’s important to carefully select the right ones where you will get the most return on your time invested. Craft a social media content plan that addresses how each social “outpost” will be used by your company.”
Make Sure Your Offline Customer Contact System Is READY To Handle Incoming Leads
10. Make sure your customer contact strategy is fine tuned. If SEO brings a horse to water, it’s up to your office to be able to close a deal, convert a phone call to an appointment or sale, and manage your internal sales process.
Originally Published here: SD Entrepreneur
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