Most local businesses like yours start with a definite target market of people within the area. As business gets better and positive word of mouth reaches farther, people from different cities and states start to make their way to your neck of the woods, just so they can try your product or service.
Now that business has started to pick up, you begin to think of actual plans for advertising and marketing. Traditional advertising—TV, radio, and print—is always an option. However, the cost to hire an agency and to produce such ads can go very high. Plus, there is no guarantee that your desired market gets to see your ad. You could end up spending too much without measurable returns.
On the other hand, Internet marketing offers to keep your marketing budget in check with solutions that make your campaigns as targeted as possible. This minimizes advertising wastage and you’re sure that you only talk to the people who matter to your bottom line: prospects and already-existing clients.
As you shop around for an online solution, here are points that you should aim for with your Internet marketing campaign.
1. Own keywords relevant to your locale
Having your business in the same area you live in makes it convenient to know your patrons. As you chat at the counter or have parties together, you’ll know how they talk and what particular words they associate with different things.
This knowledge is important as you build your keyword list. Keywords are what people use to make searches online. You want your keywords to be exactly what your clients use, so that you have the best chance of coming up on top of similar search results.
2. Create helpful content for both locals and tourists
Now that your business is known by people beyond your area, it is important that your website content doesn’t alienate people.
You have had loyal, local website visitors, so keep up the good job. It means that the content you publish has always been relevant to them. However, you should also start coming up with content for people who live away.
An organized way to carry both types of content is to have a separate page for locals and another page for “visiting friends.” You need to invest some time to get to know your foreign/visiting market as much as you know your local market, to provide the same level of optimization for both contents.
Remember to keep your content optimized, and don’t mix up local keywords with the “away” keywords.
3. Be generous with information
Aside from informative and entertaining articles that you’ve optimized for, it is also important to provide additional information like downloadable and printable maps, directions, and contact information on your website.
If you have a number of products or services, you can also provide a printer-friendly menu of sorts, so that people can immediately see what you have to offer.
Offering this information in appropriate website pages not only helps clients and prospects. You also make it easier for your site to be searched as there is more text content for search engine spiders to crawl over.