Archive for Local Internet Marketing
Local Marketing – Getting Your Offline Customers to Visit Your Website
Posted by: | CommentsWhen it comes to your business’s website, you want to make sure that you are getting the most out of it. Chances are that you paid an expert to develop your website for you. You may even have hired another expert to work on website optimization. Chances are that you have found new customers and that new customers are finding you. If you have a small, locally based business, then you might even be getting customers from other parts of the country or world who want to order from you. The problem you are probably having, however, is getting those customers who never use the Internet to get on your website. In this article, you will learn about getting your offline customers to visit your website.
There are all kinds of reasons why a person might not want to spend a lot of time online. If they just don’t want to learn how to use the Internet, there’s nothing you can do about that. What you can do, however, is make your website worthwhile. In other words, offer sales or discounts on your website that cannot be had by simply going into your store. If you post coupons that must be printed from the website, then your customers will find ways to get to your website. You might even want to offer special products or give-aways. This is a great way to generate buzz about your web page.
Another great way to get offline customers to visit your website is to offer special information there. This means that you can post the history of your business, or a little background information about the products you sell. You might also want to consider features, such as online videos. If you have dedicated offline customers, they might be driven to go to your site if they realize they can learn more about your business there.
When it comes to making your website appealing to your offline customers, the idea is to give them a reason to break their old habits and pick up new habits. These people won’t go to your website on a whim. Make sure they will appreciate the information they find there. Once they’re on your website and enjoying its features and offerings, they might become loyal online customers as well. Then you will know that you have made a successful conversion.
Local Marketing For Small Business – But What If You Want To Sell To The World?
Posted by: | CommentsUK Internet Marketing Service – Local Marketing – Geotargeting
For many small businesses, the dream of selling globally is very tantalising. The internet opens up many opportunities to grow your business. Does it not make sense to first corner the market locally? When buyers are searching for products online, they give priority to the products they can find closest to home for many reasons.
- Less cost. There is generally less cost involved for the buyer the closer to home they can find a product. Shipping fees are more expensive the further afield you shop online. By marketing to your region, you have an advantage over the global retailers. You want to have every advantage you can get online so this is a big one.
- More trust. Buyers typically trust sellers from within their own country more than from another. They are comfortable buying in their own currency and feel safer in the fact that they have a sense of recourse if they are not happy with the outcome of the sale.
- Cross country complications. There are less problems with a purchase when you do not have to deal with customs. There is no import tax or duty to be paid.
- Get the products faster. When a buy purchases a product from within their region, they can usually have it within days as opposed to weeks if purchased abroad.
All of these factors are big influences on who will get a customer’s business. As a small business owner looking to do business online, you should factor all of these points into your marketing strategies. Sew up the local market first and then cast your net to target the global market. This will give you a very big advantage over your competition who may still be marketing to the larger audience.
Local marketing online is very profitable. You reach far more customers online than you do in print. Locally online may mean nationally. That is a pretty big market. If you can grab all of the buyers for your product or services within your own country do you think your business would grow? You bet it would!
When you are planning your marketing strategy, be sure that the local market is a big factor in your plans. Research your country’s buying habits and social habits online and target those specific areas. You will be amazed at how well this works. Trying to be a little fish in the big sea of global marketing can sometimes leave you very lost. Narrowing your market will make you the big fish in the pond and you will soon become the go-to business within your niche market.
The Internet is the New Telephone Directory – Is Your Business Website Listed?
Posted by: | CommentsIn days past, when people needed to find a product or service, they’d turn to the telephone directory. The telephone directory would list all of the businesses that offered the products of services that people were looking for, as well as their contact information. People could then call the business of their choice to get quotes on prices or to set up appointments to visit the store. Nowadays, this process can move much faster. Thanks to the internet, people can run searches for the products and services they want and come up with thousands of results. They can even narrow their searches to include only businesses that offer the specific product they need, down to a brand name and product code. The internet is the new telephone directory – is your business website listed?
Through the internet, people can find the information they want with a simple search. Making sure that your business is part of the results of that search is crucial. You want to make sure that it’s clear what your website is all about so that it comes up in as many relevant searches as possible. You want to get as much exposure as you can. The internet is the new telephone directory – is your business website listed?
You don’t just want to be a part of the search results, either. You want to rank as closely to the top of those search results as possible. People generally won’t click on every single one of the millions of results they’ll get for any given search; they’ll probably only sift through the first few pages until they find a site they like. This is why you want to make sure that your site practices good SEO, or search engine optimization. The internet is the new telephone directory – is your business website listed at the top?
Back in the day, businesses also used telephone directories as a place to advertise. If you paid more you could run ads in the directories instead of just having your business name and phone number listed. These ads were much more visible, making it more likely that people would choose businesses that advertised. The internet uses the same principle. You can advertise on search engines by paying a little more to make your business a sponsored link. You’ll be closer to the front page of the search results. The internet is the new telephone directory – is your business listed visibly? If it is, you’ll see an increase to your business.
The rise of internet advertising has been great for many small business owners. Thanks to ads on websites, these small businesses are now able to reach many more people for a lot less money than they were before. But, sometimes, these ads are reaching people who are less likely to purchase the products or services being offered. It’s not because the people aren’t interested. It’s often because the ads are reaching people who are too far away to take advantage of them. If your business is more local, then it doesn’t do you any good to advertise nationwide or even worldwide. But many people overlook the importance of geo-targeting when promoting your business on the internet.
Many people want to advertise as widely as possible in order to catch the eye of as many potential clients as they can. But in doing so, they may miss out on the opportunity to advertise more efficiently to people in the area who are more likely not only to be interested in the product, but also to purchase that product from a local vendor. They don’t understand the importance of geo-targeting when promoting your business on the internet and, as a result, they spend far more advertising dollars than they need to on advertising to people that are out of reach anyway.
If you’re convinced of the importance of geo-targeting when promoting your business on the internet, it’s simple to tweak your advertising campaign to be more locally focused. You can simply go to your advertiser and let them know that you’d only like to advertise to people accessing the internet from a specific geographical location. This way, you know that your ad will only be shown to people who are local. You won’t lead far-away businesses on wild goose chases, and you won’t waste money on advertising to people who are too far away for you to serve.
Stressing the importance of geo-targeting when promoting your business on the internet is a great way to make sure that you are only reaching people that have easy, local access to your business products and services. This is a more efficient way of building your business, and you’ll certainly save time on answering phone calls from halfway around the world, asking if you work remotely or if you ship internationally. If, in the future, you have those capabilities, you can always change your preferences with the advertiser, but, for now, a localized approach is probably best.
Small Business – Do You Know The Lifetime Value Of Your Customers?
Posted by: | CommentsWhen planning any marketing campaign, it is important to know your numbers. Otherwise, you do not know exactly what your profits will be and how much you can afford to spend on bringing in new customers. You not only need to evaluate your cost of acquisition (how much it cost you to gain a new customer), you should also know the lifetime value of a new customer.
What is Lifetime Value?
This is the amount of revenue you gain from a customer over the lifetime of your association. Let’s say, for example, you are a hair dresser. You acquire a new customer who comes in and spends $20 on a haircut. You know that a customer typically gets their hair cut every 6-8 weeks or approximately 7 times per year. At $20 per visit, that amounts to $140 per year. And let’s say that you know that, on average, you retain a customer for 5 years. That would make the average lifetime value of a new customer to be $700.
Once you know those numbers, you can see the big picture and you can offer more incentives to gain new customers knowing that even though you may have only broken even on the first purchase, or even given a product free to acquire a new customer, you will be well ahead of the game in the long run.
So what if you decided to run a promotion where your first haircut was free or half off. Yes, you might think that you are losing $10-$20, but if you look at the lifetime value of your new customer you will know that it was a wise marketing strategy because you are still gaining $680-$690 out of that customer which makes it a good business decision.
The more you know your statistics and averages, the better equipped you are. Learning to market effectively with the big picture in mind will allow you more flexibility and less reluctance to make very attractive offers to new customers. Your good service and quality products will keep that customer coming back for more. Strive to increase your customer lifetime value and your numbers will continue to grow.
One way to improve the longevity of a customer and to increase the amount they spend with you on a repeat basis is to actively engage in email marketing and social marketing so you are always in touch with your buyers.