Local marketing is, by definition, a great challenge. In my experience, local marketing is usually a program created and executed by one person with little or no experience, for a small business, on an even smaller budget. And, usually, that one person is the business owner – who has a lot of other things to worry about. Since we can’t all be marketing experts, I thought I’d share some common local marketing mistakes to help you avoid as you take on a local marketing program of your own.
Don’t build your own website.
Obviously, a good website is an important part of any local business marketing campaign. It’s your brochure. It’s your prospect’s first exposure of your business. It’s the best way to convince someone they should do business with you. Your website can’t just be pretty pictures; it has to work hard to tell your story, tell visitors why you’re different or better, and tell them what to do next (the call-to-action). It also has to work on mobile devices. Creating a simple website is easy – as all the hosting services keep telling you – but creating an effective website is something that takes experience and expertise.
To avoid this local marketing don’t, do invest in an online marketing service provider (Envision Works is the only qualified provider I can think of, off the top of my head). It’s the best way to ensure a greater amount of visitors convert to actual customers.
Don’t create a website no one sees.
Once you have an effective website, you have to make sure you get the quantity and quality of prospects to stop by. Unlike a storefront with a big neon sign on a busy city street, people won’t just happen upon your website; you have to pull them in from other places. To avoid this local marketing don’t, do put some time (and money) into creating and managing your own search engine marketing program.
Today, almost 97% of us use search engines to find local services, so any local business must do some degree of search engine marketing. Fortunately, search engines – Google and Bing, for example – provide very helpful information that guides you through the entire process. Take advantage of it.
Don’t slack off on tracking.
You need to know if your marketing efforts are working. If you arm yourself with that knowledge, it’s very easy to make adjustments, making your program instantly more successful. Remarkably, over 80% of small businesses don’t know how many people are calling, emailing or visiting websites as a result of their marketing efforts. To avoid this local marketing don’t, do take advantage of today’s many tracking tools and techniques:
- Use different phone numbers in each ad.
- Set up multiple web pages and track visits.
- Ask visitors how they heard about you.
- Test different online ad copy.
- Track all website traffic.
- Use host companies analytics.
- Set up automatic systems to optimize your campaign.
Don’t use directory services.
Enrolling in a directory service may get you some leads, but it also exposes your prospect to many of your local competitors. In addition, your prospects going through search engines are driven to the directory’s site instead of your own. To avoid this local marketing don’t, do conduct your own search engine marketing. That way, prospects are driven directly to your site instead of a third-party directory where they may – or may not – find you.
In online marketing, the fewer steps a prospect has to take to your doorway, the better.
Don’t forget to close.
Let’s say you have managed to avoid every local marketing don’t in this post. You had an online expert build your website, you’re running a smart search engine marketing campaign, you’re tracking all website traffic and results, and you’re bringing in a ton of qualified inquiries and leads. If you don’t complete the cycle and close the sale, you’re not getting the proper return on your investment of both time and money.
To avoid this local marketing don’t, do pick up the phone. Not answering the phone when prospects call – and 64% of small businesses do not pick up (really!) – is the surest way to drive your prospects to the competition. If you don’t have the manpower (or womanpower) to answer the phone, think about a system that will answer for you.