The Beginner s Guide to Local Internet Marketing Presented By: Ponte Marketing
Local Marketing in 2013 Not too long ago it used to be really simple to market your business.but pretty expensive. You had to spend a good chunk of money on a big, attractive ad in the Yellow Pages or part with thousands of dollars every month on print advertising. Getting the word out about your business was simple but pricey. Since then things have changed a lot, if not to say completely. The Internet has revolutionized marketing for local businesses, making it more effective in so many ways: it s cheaper, more powerful, offers much faster results and is easier to track. Being infinite, the Internet provides so many ways to market your business. The only problem is that it might become confusing for so many local business owners that they give up on Internet marketing all together before they ve really give it a chance. In fact, these days you merely can t afford not to market your business on the Internet. Your customers are using the Internet to find your services or products. So you just must put yourself in the places where your customers are looking. Only 2% of US consumers use the Yellow Pages to find local services and products(source: Pepperdine University School of Business Study June 2012). 90% of online commercial searches result in offline brick and mortar purchases (Source: ComScore) 66% of Americans use online local search, like Google local search, to locate local businesses (Source: TMP / ComScore) We ve created this guide to help you get started with your local online marketing, so you can start using the Internet to bring more customers through your doors and grow your sales.
The Keys to Success Creating a successful online marketing campaign is not that complicated as you might think. It s about defining your goals, figuring out which marketing sources fit your needs, and implementing a project plan to reach your stated goals. There are a lot of details to consider. So here is a quick overview of local online marketing. You are about to find out the keys to a successful online marketing campaign. #1. Make Your Website more Effective Your website is your 24-hour salesman. It drives traffic, informs customers, and builds credibility. But how do you know whether your website is working for you or not? Here are the features of an effective website: It is optimized for local search so you rank high on Google It has well designed landing pages so you convert traffic into leads and sales, particularly from paid ads It features a live chat tool so that you can always engage new customers as soon as they land on your page #2. Grow Your Reach On the Web Now that your website is optimized, you need to start marketing it offsite, which means driving traffic from the sites that matter most. Here are some of the top ways to increase your site visibility and drive traffic: Get found on Google, Google Maps and the top local directories. Use Adwords for targeted ad campaigns
Use Social Media and location-services sites such as Facebook,, Twitter, Yelp, Google+ and Foursquare. #3. Bring Customers to Your Door So now, are you driving a loto web traffic and inbound calls to your business? Great! But it doesn t always result in increased sales and profitability. That is why you need to do a lot more to keep potential customers interested, as well as bring old customers back to your business. The good news is that now it s fairly cheap and easy to engage customers once they have already found you and got familiar with your brand - getting found is most of the battle and requires most work. Here are a few tips on how to do this: Use email marketing to promote discounts, specials and events that might give customers a reason to choose your business and spend money. Use coupons and daily deals sites like Groupon, Living Social and Google Offers to reach customers that might not find you otherwise #4. Track Everything You re Doing Internet marketing offers great opportunities to track your campaign at every step so you always know what is working, what actually brings new business for you, and what is a waste of time and money in your particular case. Every online campaign should feature tracking and reporting. It s cheap, easy and very useful. Here are the best ways to track your campaign: Call tracking allows you to connect your online marketing with offline sales so you can see what results in inbound calls and delivers leads (such as your placement on Google Maps, your paid ads, or social media campaign) Website tracking such as Google Analytics allows you to measure your site performance and see how many visitors are coming to your site, where they are coming from, and what they are doing once they get on your website.
Google Maps and Local Search Google Maps has really revolutionized local businesses. There are 5 Billion monthly local searches on Google, and 61% result in a direct purchase. The Yellow Pages have been replaced by Google Maps. That s why it is crucial for your business to be found at the top of Google Maps and local search results. Getting found can transform your business click by click. 80-85% of all Google traffic goes to the organic search results. Meanwhile over 90% of all organic traffic goes to the top three results. That s why it is very important to rank at the top of Google Maps and local search. There are two major factors that drive Google Maps and local search results: your onsite optimization and local citations featuring your business data. Here are some good ways to gain top local search rankings: Optimize your website for local search by putting your name, address and phone number across your site, as well as geo-formatting your site by submitting a Geo sitemap to Google and Bing Submit your business data to the top national data providers such as InfoGroup, Localeze, Compass and Axciom Paid Search Pay Per Click or PPC paid search advertising can be the fastest way for your business to boost visibility and gain leads for your business. On average, PPC campaigns bring a 7-to-1 return on
investment. So the opportunity is certainly there. But every local business needs to be careful on how it spends on Adwords or any other ad network. That s because if you didn t have much experience creating PPC campaigns, you can easily spend the money pretty quick without much to show for it. As good as Google Adwords is, it s still a business to make you pay for a bunch of clicks, which not always makes your money. Although paid search is a great option, before you start your experience with ad campaign, here are some tips to help you create a profitable PPC campaign: Do keyword search first to narrow your focusto specific long-tail keywords that are cheaper and more likely to convert. Perform competitive ad copy search to create ads that are going to drive conversions. Generate baseline reports so that you know what to measure against Create landing pages for each ad campaign in order to optimize for conversions. Setup call tracking in order to easily track your leads sources Mobile Marketing In 2012 the number of mobile searches exceeded traditional search for the first time. This means that today more people are looking for local products and services on their smartphones and tablets. Which makes sense, because mobile devices provide location-based results, as people are usually looking for what s nearby when they are on the go. Mobile marketing is a great tool that helps you to reach those customers who are looking to buy right away. In fact, 90% of mobile local customers take an action (purchase, call a business, sign up for trial, etc.) almost right away. Mobile leads are incredibly valuable. But how do you gain mobile customers? Here are some top tips on how to get a great mobile customer experience and hit the mobile market.
Mobile Optimized Website: Over 100 million Americans own a smartphone, and the number of people browsing the web on their mobile device is growing. If you want to attract mobile customers, you must have a website or at least a landing page optimized for mobile devices. Mobile integrations such as click-tocall and click-to-map make it simple for customers to find you and take an action. Mobile Advertising: Using mobile landing pages, you can target your paid ads by device to create a geo-targeted mobile paid search campaign. This is a great option for any local business, especially when the budget is limited. Mobile ads are more cost-effective: the clicks are cheaper and the conversions are normally much higher.
Social Media Social media tends to be the most controversial online marketing channel. Some say social medial is revolutionizing the way your business is getting found by new customers, while others say it s a waste of time and money. So where is the truth? The best way is to supplemental online marketing, value content to reward loyal interacting with The top social marketing are Google+, perceive social media as channel for the rest of your as it helps you to deliver your customers and customers who are you on regular basis. media channels for local Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Yelp. For Google Maps and local search results, you must claim your profile and optimize your business page on all these channels. Then you need to offer deals, helpful articles and videos on these sites in order to be socially engaged with customers. But don t count only on social media to be the silver bullet. If it can generate some leads for you, then take it as a bonus. Email Marketing Email marketing can bring big return on a small investment. With the right messages targeted to the right customers, email marketing is a great way to attract customers and increase sales. Every local business should use targeted email marketing. It takes so much work to acquire each lead, so you should everything you can to convert more leads into sales and maximize the lifetime value of each customer.
70% of small businesses spend less than 3 hours per week on email marketing, yet 77% are claiming that emails brought a positive return on investment. On average, $1 spent on email marketing results $40 in sales. So, obviously the numbers indicate that email is a profitable marketing channel. Emails give you a great opportunity to engage with your customers. You can send them monthly newsletters about your industry, specific news or customer support. And of course, you can send out discount coupons and timely promotions. Here are top tips on how to better utilize email marketing for your local business: Select in your existing email list those contacts (existing customers or old leads) that should be targeted. Create a contact form on your website to capture the leads when people sign up with their e-mail for some valuable free offers (free consultation, free trial, discounts, etc.) Remove any contacts who have specifically requested not to be emailed; spamming is bad for your image and doesn t drive sales, anyway. Coupons and Daily Deals Coupons are one of oldest ways of marketing, yet we are in the century of a coupon revolution as online websites such as Groupon and Living Social have given local businesses a great opportunity to reach millions of local customers. Now such Internet giants like Google and Amazon are using the same model to help local merchants promote special products and services in exchange for a percentage of the sales made. In most cases, coupons and daily deals represent a terrific way to increase visibility and reach the new customers who might have never found you otherwise.
According to Merchant Circle, 58% of businesses have experienced that offering daily deals significantly helps in acquiring more customers. Meanwhile, 68% of daily deals consumers returned to the establishment even without discount, and 53% of customers became regular customers. So, it is clear that there is the value here. It is a great low risk marketing tool with immediate rewards. Moreover, all the daily deal distributors have a customer support team that helps you choose the right promotion, create the ad and design a deal that will sell. All you have to do is sign up. Online Customer Reviews The Internet has revolutionized marketing because now, for the first time, your customers have a voice. If they received a great customer experience with your product or service, they can spread a word by leaving a review on the web. The same is when they are unhappy they can easily hurt your business reputation by posting negative reviews, warning future customers about your business. The following data show that your online reviews or ratings have a huge impact on your local business: 86% of consumers use online ratings and read reviews when looking to buy a product or service (source: Pepperdine University School of Business Study June 2012) 72% of customers trust online reviews just as much as personal recommendations source: Search Engine Land s Local Consumer Review Survey March 2012)
84% The likelihood that a customer would initiate business with a vendor (source: Pepperdine University School of Business Study June 2012) Only 3% of potential new customers are more likely to try a business with 0, 1, or 2 stars (source: Pepperdine University School of Business Study June 2012) Your online ratings definitely have a big impact on your bottom line. That s why such review websites as Yelp, Goole+, Avvo and Trip Advisor have become a very powerful of online marketing. Here are some good tips on how to improve your online reviews and win over the potential customers: Find the review sites that matter to your business. It s important to know which website your customers are using to find reviews about your business Check out your competition reviews to be aware of what you re up against List your business on Yelp and other top reviews websites Create and engaging profile with photos and information about your business Utilize promotions, emails and contests to reach your loyal customers and motivate them to share a positive review on the website that have an important impact on your business. Convert Visitors Into Customers You put all this work and time into driving calls and customers to your door, so why would you lose a single lead? It s not enough just to boost your web traffic; you need to convert visitors into customers.
Good news is that there are a few great tools and tactics you can use to improve customer engagement. Here are a few top tips on how to increase sales and customer retention cheaply and easily. Landing Pages: An optimized landing page is a great source to guide your customer through the sales process, which will increase your conversion rate. When customers come to your website they are looking for specific things like signing up for a free consultation, coupons and special offers, getting a discount, etc. Well-designed landing page enables your customers to easily find what they were looking for from the moment they land, keeps them interested ensuring that you won t lose an opportunity to gain new customer. Here are some top conversion elements to include in your landing pages: headlines, images, colors, calls to action, design layout, page copy, unique selling proposition, navigation, confidence icons, conversion incentives and value exchanges. Live Chat: Live chat is a great online tool that helps you to communicate with your customers in real-time. Live chats give your business a personal touch through direct contact with your customers and improves customer service. Visitor Retargeting: Only 2% of most first sites visits convert, that is why it is so important to find the way to bring visitors back to your website. Retargeting can be very useful in this area. Retargeting uses sophisticated cookies to track website visitors and display targeted ads when they leave your site. Retargeting allows you to place your local ads where past site visitors can see them as they continue searching the web.
Track Your Results It s almost impossible to succeed without setting goals and measuring your results to see if you re meeting your benchmarks. Your online marketing is no exception. In fact, online marketing makes it easy to track your customers activities so you see which of your marketing initiatives is working and which ones needs improvement. But what should you be tracking? These are three things you must be tracking to ensure your campaign is delivering positive return on investment. Call tracking: Too many local companies have no idea what s driving inbound customer calls. There s a gap in their online marketing and offline sales. Call tracking fills this gap immediately. For a brick and mortar business, inbound calls are the best leads and what you re ultimately shooting for. Call tracking tools such as Mongoose Metrics help you setup a new number and track which of your online channels are driving inbound calls. Now you ll know if it s Google Maps, paid ads or coupons that are driving sales. Website tracking: In order to make the most of your website visitors, you must know who s coming to your site, how they got there, what they did when they landed on your and why they did or didn t become a customer. If you can track your web visitors, you ll be better positioned to improve your conversion rate and make more sales. Google Analytics is a free analytics platform that can help you track everything you need to know. Conversion tracking: Converting leads into customers is the ultimate goal. Tracking what s turning your local leads into loyal customers will help you optimize this process and take your campaign to the next level. You can track conversions within call tracking and Google Analytics. The key conversion
metrics to be tracking include web form sign ups, click-to-calls, click-to-maps, inbound calls and online purchases. Track Your Results It makes it hard to succeed without setting goals and measuring your results to see if your standards are met. Your online marketing is no exception. In fact, online marketing makes it easy to track your customers activities so you can see what marketing tools are working and which ones need improvement. But what exactly should you be tracking? There are 3 things you should be tracking to make sure that your marketing campaign brings a positive return on investment. Call Tracking: So many companies have no idea where their inbound customer calls come from. There is definitely a gap between their online marketing and offline sales. Call tracking fills in this gap immediately. For a solid business, inbound calls tracking are the best leads. Call tracking tools such as Mongoose Metrics help you setup a new number and track which of your online channels are driving inbound calls. It will let you know where it is Google Maps, paid ads or coupons that are driving sales. Website tracking: In order to make the most use of your website, it s important to know who is coming to your site, how they got there, what and why they did, and why they didn t become a customer. Tracking your website visitors you enable you to improve your conversion rate and boost sales. Google Analytics is a free analytics platform that can help you track everything you need to know. Conversation tracking: Converting leads into customers is the ultimate goal. Tracking what is turning your local leads into loyal customers will help you optimize this process and bring your marketing campaign to the next level. Utilizing Google Analytics and call tracking can help you track conversions. The major conversion metrics to be tracking include web form sign ups, click-to-calls, click-to-maps, inbound calls and online purchases.
Your Action Plan Local online marketing is growing fast, providing you with so many ways to boost your business by using the web. It might seem a bit overwhelming to get started. So here is an action plan to help you improve your online presence and drive new customers to your business. 1. Keyword search: Use Google Adwords Keyword Tool to see which search terms on Google Maps or local search results are the most popular and what terms your customers use the most when they are looking for our products or services. 2. Optimize your website for Google Maps and local search: This is more like an on-going project rather than one-time step. Start with adding your business name, address and phone number at the top and/or bottom of every webpage and embed Google Maps on your Contact Us page. 3. List your business and submit your data on top local directories: Just submit your data, verify your business and create a profile on Google+ Local, Bing Local, Yahoo Local, City Search, Merchant Circle, Super Pages, Yellow Pages and Mojo Pages. 4. Create business profiles on social media and review sites: Create and optimize your business profile on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Yelp, Foursquare and YouTube. Remember to include your business name, address and phone number on every profile! 5. Create your first email marketing campaign: Start by collecting email addresses of your existing customers as well as leads. The sign up for a free trial with AWeber or Constant Contact and create an email to promote a new product or sale.
6. Setup an in-store process for submitting reviews and check-ins for special discounts: Capture in-store reviews on Yelp and check-ins on Facebook and Foursquare to turn happy customers into free advertising. All it takes is displaying your advertisement by you check-out counter! About Ponte Marketing Local Positions is an industry leading online marketing company that specializes in helping local businesses use the Internet to boost visibility, traffic and sales. We ve created millions of leads for thousands of businesses across the country. Our parent company, National Positions, is one of the biggest Internet marketing agencies in the country. For the past four years, we ve been named one of the fastest growing private companies by Inc. Magazine. Local Positions has taken the methodology and customer service that s made National Positions an industry leader and brought it to local businesses everywhere. We ve taken our proven Internet marketing solutions to fit the needs of your local business so that you can create online visibility and drive customers to your door. We're experts in your market We cover all your online marketing needs We won t lock you into a long term contract What we build for you belongs to you Our costs are completely flexible We care about your business
Get a Free Consultation With A Local Expert! Have you figured out how to effectively use the Internet to drive new customers to your business? Our marketing team is here to help! Give us a call and one of our consultants will give a complimentary marketing audit. In about 30 minutes we ll be able to review the following: Your current online footprint and how customers are finding you What your competitors are doing to beat you to new customers looking for your products and services Which marketing channels are right for your business given your goals, your budget, and your industry
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