The recession is no excuse for local and small business owners to experience a marketing slump. In fact, it is a good time to take advantage of your network of contacts and your geographic location. Small business owners can take advantage of the economic downturn and learn new marketing strategies to sustain the future of their organization. Here are some simple web marketing tips for local and small business owners to try so they can increase their website’s search visibility and build buzz for web marketing. The key is to stop selling and start serving your consumer. Customer service through well-run websites, educational content, helpful tips, easy-to-find contact, FAQ pages, blogs, email newsletters, etc. that have VALUABLE content will allow you to do what marketing is really about: build relationships.
Tip #1: Define Your Optimized Keyphrases
Focus on key phrases before running any search optimization. Define keywords that describe your business, product(s) or service(s). Next, combine those descriptive keywords with city or county locations. Remember this equation: Company or service + Location or region = Optimized Keyphrase.
For example:
Company or Service: Wardrobe Consultant + Location or Region: Santa Barbara = Optimized Keyphrase: Wardrobe Consultant Santa Barbara
The power of targeting phrases pays off when you start optimizing page titles, meta tags, site content, internal links, and external links with the precise and descriptive key phrases you’ve developed. This will help drive targeted search results and drive the right customers to your site.
Tip #2 — Be an educator. Teach to build trust and credibility
Business owners are often experts in their field and have a great passion for what they do. A business owner can offer value with educational materials, content, and advice. Being an educator through online content can help you transition from expert to AUTHORITY and that’s where credibility and enthusiasm come into play. Use social media, blogs, and microblogging as a platform to reach consumers and educate them with your expertise.
Tip #3: Create valuable content that also communicates location
The motto “content is king” still holds true. Define your key phrases and integrate them into all your content.
(1) fuel search indexing,
(2) create indexed pages for a website,
(3) serves customers, and
(4) Increases visibility.
Local businesses can maximize their search visibility by creating content written with geo-specific key phrases. Once you’ve done that, try adding it to press releases and blogs online, and sharing the content on social media communities. Here are examples of headlines with geo-targeted keyphrases that could be used in press releases or blog posts:
Local Ventura dog trainer offers volunteer study for Humane Society Rescue Day
Beverly Hills Wardrobe Consultants Event on March 31
Tip #4: Link to External Websites
Increasing links to your website increases visibility in search engines. Local businesses can maximize links from other sites by leveraging their enormous assets: contacts and community. Use your connections to start:
Links in a local directory
— A link in the local Chamber of Commerce directory
— Links to your site in the blog roll of local bloggers
— Partner with non-competing local websites to exchange links
Whenever possible, request that the “link back” have one of the key phrases you are targeting.
Tip #5: Take advantage of low-cost or no-cost local search opportunities
Businesses that operate or have a mailbox in a geographic location can add their listing (usually free of charge) to Google Maps, Yahoo Local, MSN Live, SuperPages, Yellow Pages, and other local sites. Some local search engines require a call or postcard to verify the address, but with most, all you need to do is add your business online.
Since Google, Yahoo, and MSN often list local businesses above other listings in their search results, local businesses can often leverage their geographic advantage to get the best listings.
Online phone book sites offer paid options that are also worth exploring. Another approach is to ask your customers to post reviews about your business on local internet listings to increase credibility and awareness.
Tip #6: Put Contact Information and Place Names on Every Page of Your Site
Simply adding contact information to each page of your site can increase search visibility. If you serve multiple cities, please provide your address, then a description such as: “Serving all three counties, Small Business Bank for Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo County.”
Tip #7: Repurpose your marketing assets and collateral online.
Videos can be edited and hosted on video sharing sites, photos can be posted on your blog, and great content can be repurposed on your website and shared on ezine sites, newsletters, blogs, sites like eHow.com, and plus. If you’re in the news, fill your press page with news and write your own press releases that share company news, awards, events, new services and send them to the free PR leads. You can use what you already have to build buzz and increase credibility and content = search results. No need to reinvent the wheel, get creative and recycle your marketing material!
Tip #8: Web marketing is NOT about the tools, it’s about HOW you use the tools
Web marketing is NOT about the tools (blogging, banner ads, paid search, social media) Web marketing is about HOW you use the tools. The key to successful marketing is to maximize relationships to increase revenue and profit. Strategy is how small businesses build awareness and drive business.
Think of marketing not as an “expense” but as an “investment” and make your investments count. Invest dollars in “marketing capital” that will sustain and perform for a long time. Web marketing collateral is a brilliant place to invest (it’s low to no cost) and lives forever (unlike print ads, online ads, direct mail, or TV/radio that die when they stop working). make them).
Websites that communicate who you are, what you do, and why you are worth working with are great supporting capital for a small business. This is a stressful environment, so consumers are more aware: they need to 1. know 2. like and 3. trust before they buy… does your web marketing evoke trust? Invest in marketing that supports these points and it will be an investment that will carry you for years.