subject: Local Business Marketing And Traffic Generation [print this page] While it seems most people focus on the global benefits of having an online presence, that doesn't mean that you can't benefit from local internet marketing. The internet offers a fantastic resource that allows you a huge amount of customization. You can target your offers to your local community or target them to anyone on the planet, the choice is yours.
IF you have an offline business it just doesn't make sense to advertise to people half way across the country, that would be a waste of time and money. But that doesn't mean you have to miss out on all the great opportunities for marketing your business online for free or very low cost. You can pinpoint the exact geographic location you want to focus on when you set up your online marketing efforts. Not only can you pinpoint a location in your marketing, you can pinpoint various demographic features as well depending on the needs of your business.
You can link your website with all the online social sites as well, and you can target it locally as well. Sites like Facebook, LinkdIn, Twitter, etc. You can create links for each of these social networking sites back to your company website to attract more visitors to your website, and hopefully, your offline store. More visitors can result in more sales.
When targeting for the local audience you can take the keywords you've chosen for your site and add your location. So for example, if you're advertising as a dog trainer, you could put Detroit Area Dog Trainer. Something that will focus the searchers on to your location.
Whether you're trying to target only local customers or you are targeting the whole planet, the basic techniques you use will be the same. You can rely on many methods of getting traffic to your website: article marketing, SEO, PPC, etc. Once they're at your site you should use an auto-responder to get them to sign up to your mailing list so you can have more than one opportunity to connect with them.
I know it sounds like Mumbo Jumbo but learning what each method is all about is vital to the success of your online marketing tactics. Here is a brief overview:
1. Pay Per Click (PPC) is simply a way of placing an ad on a search engine such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, Bing, etc. When someone clicks on your ad you will pay. The amount you pay will vary greatly depending on the popularity of the keywords you've chosen as well as how well your ad does. If it seems complicated, don't worry, it is. You may want to find someone who is knowledgeable and can help you navigate through this process.
2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) this involves placing certain keywords in some of the code of your website. This may seem complicated too, but it's not really that hard. Have someone explain it to you in more detail and even if you're not very techie you can do it yourself.
3. Auto-responder. This is an automated method for gathering the email addresses of your website visitors. You will need to sign up for an auto-responder service so the whole process is automated but the bottom line is that when someone visits your site they can agree to receive emails from you (when they do this it's called 'opting in' ) that way you can email them and not worry about spamming. This is a great way to keep contact with them and it's totally automatic, you just set up the auto-responder (which is easy to do) and let it go.
Even if you are just looking for more customers for your brick and mortar business, don't think that you have to miss out on the amazing opportunities offered by the internet. You can use local internet marketing to get more customers in the door and more money in your pocket.
by: Richard Legg
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