In today’s world, consumers have the expectation that you’ll personalize the messages you’re sending to them in ways that relate to their needs and pain points. If you’re not doing this, you’re probably losing out on business you didn’t even know existed. When it comes to marketing locally, things can be a little more difficult than they would for national brands. For starters, small business owners are already wearing a thousand hats, and finding time to deal with marketing usually lands itself at the bottom of daily to-do lists. Beyond that, local marketing requires a certain finesse and strategy.
This is why companies like Surefire Local have hit the scene in a big way. They can help you leverage the things your communities love in ways that resonate with your audience. By tapping into this power, local online marketing solutions can put you in front of the people who are most likely to pay attention to the products and services you offer.
Growing Your Business
Things haven’t always been digital. For many business owners, the old way of doing things was easier. That’s because traditional marketing only involved some great signage and maybe a few mailers that were sent out via the U.S. Postal Office. It wasn’t too long ago that a simple postcard in the mail could attract dozens of new customers.
Things have now gone digital.
But here’s the thing: you don’t have to forego traditional marketing efforts so you can pursue campaigns that are solely digital. As a local business, there’s a great middle point, and you can strike success somewhere in between if you learn more about your customers and what kind of journeys they take when they find your business.
It’s important to find a way to balance high-tech systems (such as automated processes) with high-touch elements (like personalization). When you strike a balance between these, you’ll likely enjoy a greater ROI and more brand awareness in your community.
Why You Should Utilize Local Internet Marketing Software
Local marketing software gives marketers the power to design campaigns without in-depth skills or knowledge. It bolsters their ability to create content, concoct email campaigns, save and organize their design collateral, and delve into the social media sphere so they can drive local traffic to their websites or brick-and-mortar locations.
Benefits of Local Online Marketing Solutions
If you’re a local business owner, you already know the challenges that come from competing with big-box brands. One of your biggest obstacles is steering people away from those gigantic stores so they’ll turn to your business and keep their money local. Here are a few ways local internet marketing software can help with this endeavor:
Digitizing Internal Processes
If you’re still using sticky notes and spreadsheets, you’re probably a lot more inefficient than you realize. When you put everything into a database that can hold all of that information (and a lot more), you can easily run queries and filters to find the information that may have otherwise gotten lost when someone decided they didn’t like the pink Post-Its anymore.
Digitizing internal processes allowed you to become more productive and efficient.
Gaining Insights to Better Allocate Your Marketing Spend
Here’s a trick about marketing: you don’t know how you’re doing until you’ve already done it. At least, not at first. Once you have processes in place and baseline metrics set, you can more readily see how your campaigns are doing and how much you should spend on them. When you’re first starting out, this can be a bit of a crapshoot, particularly if you don’t work with an agency that’s skilled in honing local marketing efforts.
Your goal should be to reduce the cost per lead (CPL) while improving total contract value (TCV).
Capitalizing on Trends and Tactics to Quickly Boost ROI
There are quite a few ways you can capitalize on trends and boost your ROI when you’re marketing locally.
- Optimize for SEO. Search engine optimization (SEO) is your site’s way of making friends with the search engines. When your site is optimized, you’re providing the search engines with the keywords it needs to understand what you do and why they should send visitors to your site. SEO also requires you to ensure your site’s speed is as fast as possible and that your pages reflect content that’s relevant and valuable to visitors.
- Embark on Pay-Per-Click Advertising. This is a great way to put yourself in front of customers and gain quick traction when you’re trying to drive traffic to your website or business. Because you control the budget, you don’t have to worry about spending outrageous amounts of cash that you didn’t plan on. It’s all based on the maximum amount of money you’re willing to pay in a day, week, or month.
- Get Down with Content Marketing. Content marketing can help you generate new leads, but if you’re like many business leaders, you might need help in this area. Great content marketing involves the use of infographics, blog posts, ebooks, guides, and other forms of online content. Each piece of content can help you position yourself as an authority figure within your industry. And, when you utilize local online marketing solutions, you’ll be able to see where your customers are finding you and which pieces of content are working best for your particular goals.
Engaging with Prospective Customers Online
Today’s technological tools make it easier than ever to engage with people where they are. With a platform like Surefire Local, you can build a trusted brand online and engage with your audiences. You’ll be present and meet them where they expect to be seen. This can make all the difference in the world, especially if you’re targeting younger consumers.
Surefire Local gives you the ability to manage all of your digital components across your entire online presence. You’ll be able to find, share, and store digital elements in one place. We’ll help you optimize your listings with high-quality photos, and you can manage your online reputation from a single platform, without feeling the need to check in on all the sites that could possibly have your name tied to them.
Enhancing Your Sales Team
Nobody ever said it was easy to get the sales and marketing folks on the same team. However, when you utilize local online marketing solutions to leverage automation so you can convert and close deals, you’ll be amazed at how synchronistic your team becomes. Local online marketing solutions will give you the ability to make things happen at the click of a finger so you no longer have to spend hours at the computer, trying to figure out how to make your customers come to you.
Automation gives you the ability to bid on ads, include keywords, and put out awesome content without a lot of extra effort. In doing so, you’ll help your sales team begin to fill their sales funnels. As you nurture great leads, you’ll begin to be recognized as a company that takes its employees’ thoughts into account while you create your marketing campaigns.
When you bring everybody together, everything gets better.
Building a Positive Online Reputation Through Reviews
Keeping tabs on your online reputation isn’t easy, but it is essential. Even if you’re able to just set aside 30 minutes a day to deal with your reputation management system, you could save yourself some fallout (and win a few customers). Local online marketing solutions are designed to help you bridge this gap of receiving and giving feedback so you can make sure your brand is showcasing its best self.
A huge number of consumers, 91% in fact, rely on online reviews and personal recommendations. This means it’s not only important for you to build out your brand’s reputation, but it’s essential to continue seeking recommendations and word-of-mouth stories that will send people your way.
Rest assured, we know this isn’t easy. That’s why we’ve created systems that make it as simple as possible to put your brand out into the universe. Using Surefire Local’s platform, you’ll be able to wade through reviews and get more notoriety in no time.
Grow Your Business with Surefire local
When it comes to attracting people to local brands, we’re proud to say that our team at Surefire Local knows how to do business. See why we’re the company local businesses choose over our competitors and reach out to see a live, personalized demo when you’re ready to learn more!