Web Marketing:does It Make Sense If You Do Business Locally Only?
Why bother with web marketing if you’re only interested in clients in your community? There are quite a few good reasons and we will answer them here.
This is the question many business owners and independent professionals have because they see the internet as only being important if you are interested in national or international business. Nothing could be further from the truth. Targeted and effective marketing on the net is very possible in several different venues. Below, I will discuss these.
1. Your website-this is probably not a concept that is debated much but is worth discussing. The website is it an attraction tool that you can drive potential clients to within your local market. The site can be customized to your local market with information that pertains to the local market and has resources that are available in the area.
2. A Blog-this can also be geared toward your local market as it is a forum for you to discuss just about anything that either touches on your business or helps potential prospects get to know you as a person. You can utilize all types of local references including comments about issues in your town or providing information about resources that are available. You can use keywords and optimization to drive local businesses to you when they are seeking information that is oriented to your area of expertise.
3. Social networking-many social networking sites allow you to add a local flavor or to connect with people within your city your community. You can even develop a form on many sites that would be mainly for other businesses and prospects in your area. Many sites even have the opportunity to create a forum which again could be oriented to a specific area.
4. Articles and Press Releases-while these can be more difficult to target there are opportunities to mention that you have events or services within a specific city or town or state. If you mention this within your articles and press releases they can be viewed by local vistiors who are searching within your specialty.
Finally, if you can bring traffic from other areas outside of your core, you can develop alliances and affiliates who will be glad to handle that business and pay you a percentage of the revenue. My philosophy is that if you can become a “rainmaker” no matter where that might be you can find competent business owners or professionals who can handle that service and pay you passive income.
I encourage you not to ignore internet marketing because of worries over creating business outside of your local market. Targeted properly, you can clearly communicate in a way that will drive the type of traffic you are looking for.