Anyone who owns a company knows that advertising is a must. It is even better if the advertising is targeted and does not have a large scattering loss. Because as Henry Ford said: "I know that half of my advertising is money thrown out. I just don't know which half."
Therefore, advertising should always be present for every entrepreneur. However, many SMEs invest their annual marketing budget in classic advertising formats. They place ads in the Yellow Pages, sponsor the local football club and print and distribute flyers. Regional advertising papers should not be neglected either, after all, advertising is also about keeping the potential customer in mind.
Local online marketing - a new form of advertising
The Internet came into play several years ago as a new medium for advertising your company. And both small and medium-sized companies are noticing that it is becoming more and more important to use this to win new customers - even or especially regionally.
After all, we all go to the Internet to gather information on a specific topic. When we are looking for a new dentist, we either rely on the recommendation of family and friends or search on Google and Co. for a good doctor in our area.
After all, we don't want to drive for hours to find the right doctor or the perfect shoe shop. So we search the Internet.
It would be nice if one's own company could be found here and thus customers would not only be able to website but also establishes contact with the customer. And for this, local online marketing is ideal.
If the website is optimized for its own region, it can work and advertise 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at no additional cost to the company.
Free or low cost marketing
Besides the question of how to get as many visitors as possible from the search engines to your website, there is also the question of whether to use social media like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and Co. should use to reach its target audience. The answer is clearly "yes", because very likely your customers are also on social media. The only question you need to ask yourself is where. Because if you try to open accounts on all platforms and serve them, sooner or later you will get hopelessly bogged down. No entrepreneur can spend that much time every day to really reach all channels.
Therefore, the following applies: You should choose a platform and initially only support this platform. No matter which platform you choose. You will also reach your customers on every platform. And you can always add more platforms.
Winning fans and subscribers
Whichever social media website you go to, you need to try to reach people who might be interested in your products and services. If you ever ask yourself why you're on Facebook, Twitter and the like, it quickly becomes clear that you're looking for entertainment there.
So if you as a company manage to entertain and thus address your users, you will also gain fans and subscribers.
Every company is unique. Therefore, it is important to consider in advance on which platform you feel comfortable and would like to use. There is no point in setting up a YouTube account if you do not have the necessary equipment to publish videos permanently. Then it is better to post pictures or updates of your products on Facebook or Twitter.
It is also important that you distribute news as often as possible - preferably daily. This is the only way you will be remembered by your users, and only then will they eagerly await your next update. Think in advance about what might interest your customers. A photographer can post his photos on Instagram, a lawyer can post about new court decisions on Twitter.
Use Google My Business
Google offers companies the possibility to publish their own company free of charge on Google My Business to present. There you can create a business listing for free and will then be displayed on Google Maps and also in the search results on Google+.
On Google My Business, you can add a high-quality image to your profile. If your company is found in the search engines, the customer can already get an impression there.
Landingpages for your services
On your website you can create a separate landing page for each of your products. When potential customers come to you from the search engines, you can inform them about your product.
Each landing page should be individual and describe only one product. In addition, it should always be tailored to a specific location. After all, potential customers enter "Oil change Cologne" in the search engine, for example. This makes sense, as customers do not want to travel endlessly for these services. But only if you tell Google where to find the car repair shop (in this case Cologne), Google will be able to send the right customers to your website.
Each landing page should contain detailed information and pictures as well as a so-called "Call to Action" so that customers know what to do next if they are interested. This could be to contact them, but it would also be possible to request an offer.
Conclusion
Local online marketing for small and medium-sized businesses is definitely worthwhile. The internet offers the possibility to advertise without big expenses, but with time expenditure. Nevertheless, it has to be said that advertising on the Internet never "fizzles out", ultimately because texts that are written are forever present on the website and links in the social media that you post are usually not deleted again. For this reason one can say that advertising on the Internet is more of an investment than an expense.
If you decide to deal intensively with the topic, you should draw up a plan and think carefully about what advertising you are going to do and where. Only those who proceed in a structured manner will be successful. Unfortunately, indiscriminate here means wasting time and possibly also money and not achieving results. On the other hand, if you follow the tips listed here, you will reach new customers via local online marketing.
