Embracing Your Local Market

Small and large business owners are faced with a multitude of responsibilities, from hiring employees to providing exceptional customer service. As challenging as it can be to keep up with daily duties, the biggest hurdle you will need to overcome relates to marketing. Even the most successful businesses had to start off somewhere and unless you put the correct marketing strategies into place at the beginning, you may struggle to meet targets and expose your business to a large audience.

Whether you are aiming to achieve global or local success for your business, it is imperative that you focus on local customers as a way of maximizing your overall marketing approach. When you reach out to people living within a short distance of your company, you can captivate the interest of a new following. With over 80 percent of customers seeking out assistance from local companies, you should implement the following tips if you are to overshadow your competitors.

• Creating a mobile-friendly webpage is essential for capturing the attention of a local market because, after all, there are over six billion cell phone subscriptions in the world. With so many people relying on cell phones to seek out local businesses, it is vital that you design your website properly to entice customers on the move.
• Using social networking sites to create new events is an effective way of boosting company recognition and influencing word-of-mouth advertising. By holding a local event you can easily establish connections with nearby customers and as a result, they are more likely to share your business page to other social networking users.
• Did you know that geo-targeted online displays boost your chances of being discovered by a local customer by more than 50 percent? Prospective customers will become aware of your services when they see local online advertisements.
• Don’t underestimate the power of keywords, because when people search for a product or a service within their local area, they will include the keyword and the town/city/state. By including that extra piece of location information in your promotional articles, website descriptions and Meta tags, you can guide web users in your direction.
• Local customers are normally the most loyal customers and to show your appreciation, you should introduce deals and benefits for people living nearby. For example, offer customers a discount if they recommend or share your webpage with other social networking users. This will increase advertising potential and help customers to trust you.
• When local businesses join together in a partnership, customers can take advantage of increased value. Libraries would be a good addition to your marketing campaign or if your company focuses on food, consider joining forces with a restaurant that can feature one of your dishes on their menu.

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