Most Effective Ways To Reach Local Business?

[RepX]

I've run into a problem that seems to plague many small businesses - finding the most effective ways to reach local business (new customers). When there is a limited budget for marketing, it's hard to know where to spend it when trying to grow a business. Any suggestions? Experiences? Things to avoid?

Thanks for your help!!

[twhansbury]

What is your business tell us more about what and where you do.
What ever you do test everything to make sure its working and your not wasting time and money

[fobusiness]

Originally Posted by RepX

I've run into a problem that seems to plague many small businesses - finding the most effective ways to reach local business (new customers). When there is a limited budget for marketing, it's hard to know where to spend it when trying to grow a business. Any suggestions? Experiences? Things to avoid?

Thanks for your help!!

The fastest results come from Youtube in my experience. A lot of the time local search terms are not covered in Youtube.

Plus Youtube videos will rank in the search engines in a matter of days which is a big bonus.

Make a simple video showing your local business to give potential customers an idea of what they will find.

[2guyscreative]

Ultimately it depends on the business that you are talking to, what industry they are in, how much their service/product costs and where they see value in driving leads.

From our experience with Local, the best bang for your buck in terms of customer acquisition is SEO, and for local businesses its local SEO.

Optimizing your website and Google places page for local search will help you gain an advantage in search and landing in front of the right customer. Of course there are a number of other factors to think of too (is my website set upso that once I get customers I can get them to convert? does my website show up well on mobile devices).

Google Adwords Express is also a great ramp up tool to help gain some traction while your SEO results are ramping up.

[alexloxton]

I think you can do local directory and classified directory. This can increase traffic to the site and can also help to get better ranking.

[panthervision23]

Have you tried submitting your website in Google Places complete with necessary citations?

[alexloxton]

When people start a new business,they must have some amount of their budget dedicated to internet marketing. This can help a lot to new businesses to increase traffic to their websites and also create awareness about their website amongst local people. Some SEO activity like google place listing,local directory submission and regional classified submission can really help the business to create a local online presence and thereby increase business & traffic to the site.

[SmallBizU]

I know that the world is trying to go "paperless" but I still find great value in sending direct mail to a defined audience that buys what I sell. The key for me is to NEVER STOP and I've found the most success sending the same piece (usually a postcard) without change.

I find that if I change the message each time it doesn't have the same results. I go with the McDonald's approach of exposing them to the same message over and over again. Heck, if it works for McDonald's then why reinvent the wheel?

Josh

[FireUps]

Set a budget and an expectation of the result you need for a return.

look at your competition in google yahoo and bing and write down the calls to action and then get an idea of what they are doing online. This is called a competitive analysis.

Then figure out where you fit in this.

Think about perceived value and how you can create more value than them.

Then put your budget to work whether that is posting to local online and print classifieds, Local PPC, or direct mail you should be able to drive customers.

And answer the phone when it rings - So many small businesses are to busy providing a service and forget that people want to talk to people not IVR's and answering machines

[karenfisher252]

Use emails! There is no better of marketing than sending personalized emails. They are efficient, free and fast.