Local Business Marketing Tips

Hey guys, in this article today we will cover local businesses all over the country to get new customers and grow their business. I’m going to teach you the three best ways to market your business and drive new customers to your door, so stay tuned. I love helping local businesses properly position themselves to get more clients for less money. Let’s just say you are a dentist. Unless you live in a small town, the chances are you are not the only dentist in the city, which means everybody in your town gets to choose which dentist they go to. So how do you stand out from your competition and become the first choice for potential customers to use you for the product or service that you offer? There are a few things that you could do.

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You could buy a local TV or radio ad, go door to door passing out flyers, mail out a mailer advertising your business, or even put a coupon in the local coupon book. Well, I can say from personal experience that all of those things, while they can be a little bit useful are a waste of time and money for one reason: they are just broadcasting your business to people that may or may not be interested. Let’s say you are a dentist again and somebody is driving down the road, and they hear your radio ad on the way to work. Do you think they are going to be calling you right there in their car to schedule an appointment? If you are a dentist or a plumber or a landscaper or a real estate agent, you want to target your advertising to reach the people that are already interested in your services.

So how do you do that? It’s a little thing I like to call Local Google Search Domination. You see, if someone in Bend Oregon is looking for a Dentist, they are going to go to Google and search: ‘Dentist in Bend Oregon.’ And if you are dominating the first page of local Google search, you’re going to get more clicks. The business with the most clicks gets the most phone calls and has the most opportunities to turn potential customers into lifelong clients.

So how do you do this? It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3.

Number 1

If you are a local business, you need a website that’s optimized to appear on the first page of Google in local search. You might be thinking to yourself, duh, everybody knows this. And you probably already have a website. But I see it over and over again, local businesses that have a nice looking website, but it’s not optimized, and nobody is ever going to find them because it is not coming up in Google search. So if you have a website for your business, and it’s optimized appearing on the first page of Google for local search terms, then you can check that one off; good job.

Number 2

The next vital thing that you need to do to dominate local Google search is something that I see local businesses overlooking all the time, and that is setting up your business directory profiles. A business directory is a high ranking website like Google+, or Yelp, or Yellowpages.com, that allows you to put your business information on it, often for free.

So why is it so important to be on these business directories? It’s pretty simple; people use them. People use them when they are looking for reviews on companies. They go to Google+, they go to Yelp, they go to Yellow Pages, and they search for businesses like yours and what other previous customers have said about your business. So the reviews section of these business profiles is critical.

Business directories are crucial and influential in helping your website rank higher, and also ranking your Google+ page in the Maps section of local search. So the name of the game of business directories is quantity, quality, and consistency. Quantity; you want to be on as many as possible. There’s hundreds of them out there, and you can sign your business up for as many as you want. Quality; you want to be on the top ranking ones, like Google+, and Yelp and Yellow Pages; they’re a must.

And Consistency. You want to make sure that every profile shows the same business name, address, phone number, and website. If there are any inconsistencies because you’ve moved locations, or changed your phone number, it’s going to hurt your rankings because Google is confused thinking that you might be two different businesses, or it’s just inconsistent information, so consistency is crucial. There are a few approaches at how to set up these directory profiles for your business.

The first thing you can do is just do it yourself. The only thing wrong with this is it takes a lot of time, but if you have time, search out the most important business directory profiles that are going to fit your niche and sign up for as many as possible. If you can get anywhere between 20 and 30, it will help out your business dominate that first page of Google. The next option is to hire a company like Yext or Moz, and they will charge you a monthly payment, and they will put you on as many directories as possible, and they will make sure that all of your information is current and up to date for a fee.

The only thing wrong with that is if you decide to cancel your monthly fee, they’ll cancel all of your directory profiles putting your kind of back where you were at square one. The third option is just to hire somebody like myself that will charge you a one-time fee, and will set up all of your profiles, will give you the username and password so that you can upload more pictures, or change those, or if you move locations, or change your phone number, you can also edit those as well. So those are the ways to go about it, and those are some options that are available to you.

Number 3

I’ve saved my favorite for the last. If you’re looking to dominate local Google search, then you need a professional video that’s ranked on the first page of Google. This is where I’m focusing most of my attention on my clients because it’s just so effective at getting them, new customers.

When it comes to business, trust is a huge factor. And what better way to build trust with your potential clients than to show them who you are and what you do? There are a few things that I love about the video. First of all, they’re interactive. A potential client can sit there and watch your video, listen to your voice, see your face, and see shots of the place that you work, which builds credibility, and it builds trust. The next thing that I love is when you optimize video correctly in Google search; there’s a little thumbnail that appears there. That thumbnail has a 41% higher click through rate than any other static website that is displayed on the first page, which means it’s more likely to be clicked, which means you’re more liable to be called. As you can see, if your website, your Google+ listing, and your YouTube video are all appearing on the first page of local Google search, you’re absolutely dominating the search results and I guarantee your business is going to grow, and you are going to get more phone calls from new prospective clients. The cool thing about all of this is it is incredibly easy to do, and it is extremely cheap.

Are you ready to dominate Google Search in your hometown?