Local Internet Marketing

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How can you use the internet to advertise your business locally? Everyone knows how great online marketing is for reaching those around the globe. However, it’s very possible to use it effectively to target local people as well. Some businesses, after all, are not equipped to go global. Here are three strategies to do it effectively:

1: Local classifieds

This is probably the most obvious method. There are a number of local classified sites you can use. The best thing about this strategy is that it’s cheap, and your ad shows up immediately.

One site you can start with is your local newspaper. Just about every paper has an online version of their classifieds. Craigslist is the biggest online classifieds site. You can reach a lot of people using it, maybe more so than any other single site.

And you might want to try eBay classifieds as well. However, a lot of people have found it ineffective, so make sure to test it before drawing any conclusions.

Finally, there are plenty of smaller local classified sites you can experiment with. Just test out each different site, and see what works and what doesn’t.

2: SEO

Getting ranked for area specific keywords is another smart strategy. For instance, if you are a real estate agent in Los Angeles, an obvious target would be “Los Angeles real estate”. And there could be variations you might go after, such as “homes for sale in Los Angeles.”

This strategy admittedly works better for some businesses than others. If there aren’t a lot of searches for local terms, it might not be worth your effort. Just do keyword research and see if there is enough search volume to make it worthwhile.

However, this is the slowest strategy. You won’t get instant results by using it. Having said that, area specific keywords are often easier to rank for than generic terms, so this strategy is faster than traditional SEO.

3: Pay per click

This could be the best strategy, albeit the most expensive. It’s effective because you can “geo-target” your ads. This means they will only show up when local people search for it.

For instance, you might geo-target the keyword “dog training” to just people in Los Angeles. This means that your ad will only show up when people in Los Angeles type in “dog training”. If somebody from Chicago types in the keyword, you won’t appear.

No matter which strategy you use, don’t forget that it’s important to track your results. This is the only way to figure out what’s effective and what isn’t.

How do you track your campaigns? By sending each source to a different landing page. This way you can tell where they are coming from. This will let you know the quantity and quality of traffic a source is bringing you.

The bottom line is, using the internet to target local people can be extremely effective. Implement these three tips, and you should see results shortly.

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