If your business is in a single place you may want to learn how to promote local business online. There are various ways to use the internet to promote your local business. Firstly you should have a website which targets your main keywords in its title, domain and keywords. For many businesses, ranking on Google is difficult, depending on your particular business, your location and of course the local competition. For some, however, this is easy – particularly if you have a good niche and little competition.
1. Get a website – Ideally you should target your main keywords within your domain name if suitable and possible. Although less weight is being paid to keywords in domain names, it still has an effect. Use Google’s keyword planner to decide on your best keywords and build a small website around those.
2. Create a Facebook Business page – Facebook allows you to create a business page which can generate leads to your business. You can use this page to promote discounts, deals and offers, and to engage with your potential customers.
3. Use Facebook Advertising – Facebook advertising lets you target your particular audience geographically and by interests and other demographics. The specific area of your business can be targeted and this means you don’t waste money advertising to people outside of your catchment area.
4. Use Google Adwords advertising – You might have seen Google Adwords adverts when searching for things on the internet. They usually appear at the top of the listings on Google, also by the side and underneath the normal ‘organic’ listings. They are paid for advertising.
How To Promote Local Business Online
You can create a listing like this for your business which will appear when people search for your particular keywords. Like Facebook advertising you can also target visitors geographically so that your adverts will only appear to people searching in your given area. You can also be very specific about which keywords to target so that you only pay for very specific searches.
For example, if you have a photography business in harrogate, you could choose the keywords “harrogate photographer” or “wedding photographer harrogate” or a combination of several similar keywords. Here’s a quick video showing an advert being created in Adwords:
5. Use Twitter – You can also engage with Twitter users by creating a Twitter profile and connecting with local businesses. Again, this is a great way to find new customers through a different route. When you create your twitter account, try and get your main keyword in your account name, that way when anyone searches Twitter for those keywords your business will come up.
How To Promote Your Local Business Online
6. Build a list of subscribers – You can collect people’s emails through your website and various other online advertising. By sending visitors to either your website or a specific landing page made specifically for collecting their emails, you can engage with your potential customers on a regular basis, build trust and promote your business. See ‘why build an email list‘.
7. Other social media – Use other social media sites to find new local customers for your business. Here is a list of some of the most popular sites:
Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Google+, Tumblr, Instagram, VK, Vine, Meetup, Tagged, Ask.fm, Meet me, ClassMates.
8. Blogging
Promoting local business online can most quickly be done through Facebook and Google Adwords by paying for advertising. However, if you are on a budget, you can blog on your website in order to get found on the organic Google search results. Be sure to share your blogs through your social media platforms.
Offline advertising
Don’t forget local offline advertising methods to promote your local business too. These might include leafleting or using flyers to promote your business locally, word of mouth advertising, posters and banners, car stickers and adverts, newspapers, local magazines, yellow pages and the telephone book! You may also be missing various opportunities to advertise at your own premises! Make sure you take full advantage of any marketing opportunities available around your business since this will be the best area to attract passing trade!
Learn more about building an online business
Just using a few of these skills and by learning one or two more, you can have your own internet business up and running within a matter of days. Learn how by visiting this link.