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Most of your customers may be right in your backyard; but that
doesn’t mean they can always hear you calling. Smart local
marketers are using a powerful multi-channel approach to
strengthen their connection to these savvy spenders where, when
and how they want to be reached.
You can add muscle to your local marketing plan by incorporating
the following six strategies. Each on its own can energize sales;
combine them for peak results.
1. Optimize for Mobile
At least half of all North American
consumers now own a smartphone or
tablet, up an astonishing 99% from
just two years ago.
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Three-quarters of
your potential customers are using their
smartphones to visit local websites.
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By
having a good mobile presence, you can capture their attention
when they are ready to buy and wherever they are.
Once they get to your site, 61% say that if they don’t find what
they‘re looking for quickly, they’ll move on to another site.
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Your
job is to make sure your website gives them what they need,
when they need it, with a site that is optimized for the mobile user.
A good mobile site takes key information from your standard site
and makes it easy to read and navigate on the small screen. Key
information like location, direction and hours of operation should
be front and center, with easy navigation to the full site for more
in-depth viewing.
2. Claim Local Listings
How important is search engine activity to
local businesses? Research shows 82%
of local consumers use search engines to
find local businesses,
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and 90% of Internet
users have gone online to research
a purchase and then visited a nearby
business in person to make their purchase.
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All of which makes
good search visibility a cornerstone of effective local marketing.
Be sure to claim your local business listings at the free online
listing sites. In the U.S., start with Google+ Local, Yahoo! Local,
Bing Local, BotW, HotFrog, Foursquare, Local.com, Yelp, Super
Pages, YP, City Search, InfoGroup, and PrimePlace. In Canada,
you’ll want to be on Google+ Local, Bing Local, Foursquare, Yelp,
InfoGroup and Prime Place, plus YellowPages.ca, Brownbook.net,
411.ca, WebLocal.ca and CanPages.ca.
A recent
Forbes
magazine article
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says vertical search engines,
aimed at specific industries or niches, are becoming increasingly
important. For example, if you are a chiropractor looking for more
local business, find and claim your listings on nationwide medical
provider sites.
3. Use Direct Mail
The digital revolution has permanently
changed how small and mid-sized
business owners and marketers interact
with customers and prospects. Yet the
initial claims that digital media would
kill direct marketing have not borne out.
Some facts:
• 85% of consumers sort through and read their mail every
day.
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• 40% of consumers say they have tried a new business after
receiving direct mail.
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• 73% say they prefer printed mailings over emails to learn
about new products and services or offers from companies
they know.
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Most telling of all, while email response rates have declined
sharply in the past six years, direct mail response rates are
holding strong.
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New digital printing technologies make direct mail a precise
and economical marketing tactic. Targeted direct mail makes a
powerful impact – and because it is sent to a defined audience, it
yields less waste and greater results than many other channels.
Other options like Every Door Direct Mail
®
in the U.S. and
Unaddressed Admail® in Canada let you blanket a geographic
area inexpensively without the need to rent a mailing list.
4. Integrate Channels
With the ever-increasing print and
digital channels available, cross-
channel marketing is a must. Consumer
preference studies show cross-channel
