Location-based marketing means that the marketing is focused on the location of the business. Typically, a business that is engaging in location-based marketing uses some tools of the trade such as a mobile friendly website, and focuses on where potential clients are located to draw them to the business. With the advent of smartphones, location-based marketing has taken off as one of the main methods used by local businesses to attract customers.
If you want to use location-based marketing, some tips and tools of the trade are:
WordPress (wordpress.org) – This is free software that people use to build outstanding websites and blogs. The code is clean, and you don’t need to know any coding to have a search engine friendly website or blog in literally minutes.
Hyper Local Content – Everyone knows that a blog and website need content, but if you want to focus on local clients you need hyper local content to attract your audience. You’ll want to create content with local keywords and geo modifiers. If you have a business in Lexington Kentucky, you want to use the words Lexington Kentucky in combination with the keywords associated with your niche.
Locally Focused SEO – Consider your entire website, the URLs, the information on each page and all the aspects of your site to be places where locally focused keywords can be used. If you have a law firm in Atlanta, Georgia, your URL should reflect that for best results in terms of the main site as well as the content you put on the website.
Coupons – Offer coupons through different mediums like social media sites and location-based listing sites like Foursquare.com. There are many different marketing software applications and companies like localvox.com that you can use to help you navigate providing coupons to potential customers.
Mobile Marketing – You can use location-based coupons and other information via mobile marketing by incorporating various technologies that allow your advertisement to be sent to those who are nearby your location or who search for your information. GetYowza.com is one location-based coupon place to look into.
Local Directories – Aside from nationally recognized directories like Yahoo! Local, Yelp and others, you can also get listed in local directories such as with your Chamber of Commerce or other local directories that allow you to list your business based on what you offer. Ensure that the directory is legitimate and not a link bait pay for links scam.
Get Reviews – Most of the local directories offer the ability for your customers to post reviews. It’s important to ask your customers to give you reviews on these sites. The more reviews you have, especially positive reviews, the higher your business will be on the search results when people are looking for your products or services.
Social Media – In the age of social media, engagement with your audience is a must. You can use so many different ways to engage such as check-ins, coupons, QR codes, freebies and more to encourage engagement on social media.
PPC – Pay per click is another method to get the word out locally about your business. You can place ads on local websites as well as national websites targeted toward local viewers. Before you engage in PPC, try the other methods.
Finally, it’s imperative that you study the numbers for everything you do to market your business. The metrics will let you know what is working and what is not working when it comes to location-based marketing.
