The five critical elements for local marketing success

The five critical elements for local marketing success

Local SEO marketing increases geographically-relevant traffic to your website so that prospects in your area can easily find your business. It is particularly important that your business appears in local searches on mobile devices – where users are looking for a solution on-the-go. Google notes that 46% of searches have a “local intent”. Here are five critical elements to get more outstanding visibility than your local traffic competitors.

1. Listing management 

This is the bedrock of a successful local marketing strategy. It is not as creative and colorful, as methodical and systematic.

Claim your listing on search engines and online directories like Google, Facebook, Apple Maps, Bing, Yelp, and industry-specific directories.

Clean up your data by making sure that every citation of your business on the web is accurate and in alignment, especially your NAP – business name, address, phone number – must be exactly the same throughout.

Elevate search engine rankings with correct, current, and consistent local data including:

•         Maps
•         Product categories and descriptions and/or services provided
•         Business hours
•         Payment options and coupons or vouchers
•         Photos – In the last couple of years Google has increased the number of mobile SERPs that contain an image thumbnail by a whopping 200%.

2. Local SEO 

The algorithms used by search engines return more pertinent results according to user location, so it makes sense to use local SEO strategies to build a strong customer base. If you are a national brand with multiple branches, your local pages need to be discoverable individually and via your brand website. Localize your site by:

•         Incorporating city and state names in title tags.
•         Including product categories in your meta descriptions.
•         Helping search engines to understand your page better with schema markup for local business names, addresses, and phone numbers.
•         Including local street names and product categories to URL structures.
•         Sharing operating hours, directions, and local descriptions via on-page business content.
•         Track and update citations. 

3. Local landing pages   

Create a mobile-friendly landing page for each of your locations. Not only does this capture local consumer demand, but it also collates valuable metrics for your ongoing local marketing efforts. Ditto utilizing trackable local phone numbers – mobile phone users want to contact local businesses and campaign performance can be measured.

Link to review sites such as Google My Business, Facebook, Yelp, and other industry-specific sites to boost your reputation management and review marketing.

4. Reputation management 

Because 82% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses, social proof your offerings by encouraging online reviews and other forms of user-generated content (testimonials, social posts, and comments). The best way to increase the volume of positive reviews is to ask your customers to write them. Encourage review-writing by making it easy.

Use marketing automation tools to keep track of what is being said about your brand, and swiftly address inevitable negative feedback.

5. Paid search and social media 

Geographically target your marketing message on social platforms according to location to engage mobile consumers and increase offline conversions.

Use paid search and social advertising to boost markets that are underperforming. 

The local SEO agency with global expertise 

For more information on local marketing, as well as effective social media marketing, pay per click advertising, and mobile content marketing, contact WSI New Media Marketing in Greensboro today!