Local Internet Marketing Is A Powerful Marketing Solution But Still Somewhat Unrecognized or Simply Ignored!
If you have a built in advantage... USE IT!
One observation I continue to make about local (geographically targeted) Internet marketing strategies, is the significant gap between the possibilities (advantages) and the recognition of those possibilities by local business. I believe it is mostly an education issue and the sooner a given business realizes the opportunity, the sooner that business will also realize a real boost in visibility.
If you own or operate a local (geographically targeted) business and have considered marketing your product or service online, you may have come to conclusion that it doesn't fit into your marketing budget. This is a common conclusion that in my professional opinion, should no longer be as easily accepted as a final conclusion.
Marketing is as important as it ever was and because of the Internet, it is more available that it ever was. There has been (and will continue to be) a major shift in Internet usage with more and more consumers and businesses turning to the search engines (and social media) to find products and services. This simple fact requires local or small business to adjust their marketing budget accordingly. Ignoring this shift, or not including your business in this shift can become a death sentence.
As an Internet marketing (Inbound Marketing) professional (includes local Internet marketing), I would like to offer the following information and encourage that you as a small business owner to reconsider the powerful local Internet marketing tools available.
- Businesses that have a specific geographic target market do have an advantage.
- Local Internet marketing eliminates a certain element of national competition.
- Local Internet marketing eliminates a certain element of regional competition.
- Using a local Internet marketing focus provides faster traction and visibility.
- Many business prospects prefer to do business with local companies.
- Local Internet marketing is designed to take advantage of the "lower hanging fruit" that exsists in virtually all markets.
- Local Internet marketing doesn't require the same marketing budget as a national marketing campaign. It's even more affordable.
- Even national or regionally based products and services can benefit greatly from a geographically targeted messages or local Internet marketing activities.
The significant advantages available to business through local Internet marketing will not last forever. Not only will your local competitors enter the world of Inbound (Internet) marketing, but as you might already recognize, bigger business is also starting to focus efforts on local markets.
Another advantage local small business needs to recognize is that many competitors are still behind the technology curve. Those that become the first local Internet marketing players will get a significant head start. Those that don't will be passed by their direct local competitors.
Although Internet marketing budgets are much more manageable than traditional marketing budgets, local Internet marketing budgets offer even more benefit and message delivery power.
As a small business owner myself, I encourage all other small business to change they way they think about marketing in general and learn as much as possible about using local Internet marketing to:
- Get Found
- Convert Visitors To Leads
- Convert Leads To Customers
