Local Business Digital Marketing Tips
If you are a local business having a locally targeted online Digital Marketing strategy is one of the best ways to get in front of your target audience.
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tatistics show that over 80% of consumers use a search engine to find information about local businesses. And over 85 % of brand engagement happens through local listings, web pages, or other local search results.
You can check three things today to see how your online marketing strategy measures up in today’s local search landscape.
1. MAP LISTINGS:
In the past, businesses used to have listings in phone books or yellow pages to make themselves visible when a consumer needed to look them up.
But now, online marketing or searching on Google has become our go-to source for almost all our modern needs, from food and travel to health, fitness, etc.
You can now list your business online on Google My Business.
Google My Business listing includes a business name, address, phone number, and website name.
Google uses this business listing information for its various products — including Google Maps.
When you list your business with Google My Business, it offers everything about your business for a potential customer to find and use your services, buy your products or visit your business.
Once you’ve registered or claimed your local business listing via the Google My Business dashboard, you can respond to customer reviews and add images to help your business stand out.
Check if you have claimed & verified your map listings in Google.
2. ACCURATE BUSINESS INFORMATION:
The whole point of an online marketing presence is to entice customers into your store, office, or showroom so you can convert them to paying customers rather than just visitors online.
And nothing is more frustrating as a customer than finding out that you have been given the wrong information about where a business is located.
As a customer, how likely are you to give this company your business?
73% of consumers said they lose trust in a brand when the online listing shows inaccurate information.
Also, it needs to be utterly consistent across all websites and platforms.
Check if your listings are correct, consistent & completely filled out.
3.MOBILE FRIENDLY-NESS:
Google says 61% of users are unlikely to return to a mobile site they had trouble accessing and 40% visit a competitor’s site instead.
Mobile is critical to local service-based industries as someone needing an urgent product/ service will mostly search for a local business using their mobile device.
As per the statistics I have observed for various businesses, mobile traffic is currently almost 50% or more than desktop traffic on the internet.
(To get an exact picture, you can review your Google Analytics data to see which devices your visitors use).
Of all the factors looked at by Google when deciding how to rank your website on search engines, mobile usability is ranked as the third most important by Google.
Is your website mobile-friendly?
Do these three simple checks and ensure you edge out your competition and acquire new customers effortlessly.