Local Marketing Musts for Your Business

If much of your business comes from local customers, then local marketing should be a priority.  Even on a limited budget, targeted, local marketing initiatives can be some of the best ways to maximize your marketing dollars.  Here are some marketing ideas to increase your local marketing presence:

1. Online Business Listings

Make it easy for people to find you by listing your business with Google My Business. In addition to Google, be sure you're listed in all of the other significant online directories including Yahoo, Bing, Yelp and YellowPages (to name a few). Make sure your business listings are complete, correct and consistent on all these major sites.

2. Ask for Reviews

Let your fans sing your praises- they're your best local advertisement. According to BrightLocal, 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Encourage happy customers to review you on sites like Yelp, Yahoo Local or Angie's List. 

3.  Connect with Local Journalists

If you regularly read the local newspapers, you're probably familiar with the reporters that cover your city or industry.  Make an effort to form professional relationships with these journalists and they may end up reporting positive things about your business.

4. Facebook Local Advertising

Local ads can help you reach your nearby target audiences. Facebook’s Local Awareness advertising is an easy and affordable way to get in front of people in your neighborhood, city or county. 

5.  Local Email Marketing

Target your emails and include messaging and an offer that local customers can take advantage of. Use a local subject line. Integrate social media to make your local email marketing even more successful.

6. Participate in Community Events

Be sure that your target audience will be in attendance at any local events you commit to. Plan your marketing strategy ahead of time.

For more marketing tips, visit www.marketing-er.com.

5 Tips for Managing Social Media When You Have Limited Time

With the massive number of people actively participating in online social media platforms, it's become a necessity for your business to get organized with your social media marketing.  As social media continues to change the way people communicate, it is an increasingly important tool for small businesses.

But where does a small business owner or manager find the time to create and post content and keep multiple social media profiles active?

Keeping up with social media for your businesses doesn’t have to mean a heavy time commitment.  Here are some tips to help:

1. What’s the Plan?

Every action you take on your social media platforms should be part of a larger strategy and plan. Define what you want to achieve on social media (ex: build your brand, increase sales through offers, drive traffic to a landing page, promote a new product line, etc.) and develop a strategy to get there.  If you map out a plan, the more effective you’ll be in its implementation.

2.  Create Content in Bulk

Set aside time once or twice a month to create your content. Follow industry keywords, relevant people in your industry or trending hashtags to keep up on the latest news.  Create your social posts from all the info you collect.  In addition to info and news about your products and services, offer valuable industry info to keep readers coming back.

3. Advanced Scheduling

Use automation to make your life easier. Who has time to post on multiple social sites daily? Schedule the bulk of your social posts in advance.  Facebook has a built-in scheduler. Just click the drop down button next to the Publish button to select the exact date and time when you want your post to publish.

Tools like Hootsuite and Buffer can connect to all your social media accounts so you can create and schedule posts for future dates. 

4. Share and Repost

Sharing, retweeting and reposting content from others will save time while providing strong content. But be sure that the content is related to your brand, products or services in some way and be sure that it offers value to your target audience/followers.

And save time by reposting some of your old content. Not all posts get read the first time around republish your evergreen content.

5. Hire an Expert

If you find that you just can’t keep up with social media, it might be time to hire a professional. Depending on your budget and goals, a freelancer or a marketing agency may help you better leverage social media to grow your business.