If you’re looking for another way to develop your business and make it more competitive, you should improve your local marketing strategy. Keep reading to learn why every business should have a strong local marketing plan.
Up to 50 percent of consumers who conduct a local search on their mobile device visit a nearby store within a day and 18 percent of the searches lead to a sale for that business within one day.
Pretty impressive right? This is especially the case when you consider it can take several weeks or more to nurture an online lead into making a purchase.
Are you wondering what all this means?
It means that your business needs to invest time into creating a local marketing strategy.
Still not convinced?
If that’s the case, then keep reading. Here you can learn specific reasons you need to invest in local marketing for your business today!
Consumers are Always Using Mobile Devices
This is common knowledge, right? Well, even if you already know this, are you using it to the advantage of your business?
If you don’t have a local marketing strategy in place, then the answer is a resounding “no.”
When someone’s in a store, at the dinner table or even in their car using the internet, searching for something (anything, really) having a local search marketing strategy in place can be invaluable.
Search engines use IP addresses, satellites and GPS to track a searcher to their precise location, and then provide results based on what’s nearby.
If you haven’t created a local marketing plan yet (and put it into action), then the searcher may not even be aware that your product or service is nearby.
Your Search Engine Rankings Will Improve
One of the best things about local marketing efforts that many people don’t realize is that there’s much less competition.
When you focus locally, you are only going to be competing with other local businesses offering the same services or products that you do.
This means you are much more likely to rank near the top of SERPs (search engine page results) because your competition isn’t so high, like if you were trying to compete on a national or even global level.
You will find it is easier to rank faster and in a shorter amount of time, all while spending less money.
Acquire Better Customer Leads
In most cases, businesses rely on local customers for their annual profits and revenue. While there are certain niches where you can serve people in another state or even another country, this isn’t always possible.
If you have a local small business, then you need to think “locally” with your marketing strategy.
If you are like most businesses, you probably have stiff competition nearby. As a result, you have to ensure your site is optimized to capture any local consumer who is searching for what you offer.
Believe it or not, people will actually travel up to 17 minutes to visit stores and businesses they want to make a purchase from. This means you should focus your local marketing efforts within a 15 to 25-mile radius – even if this includes a neighboring town.
Consumers Expect and Demand a Great Mobile Experience
Today, about 95 percent of all consumers in the United States have a smartphone. In fact, Google announced in 2015 that more Google searchers occurred on mobile devices than computers in 10 countries (which is something that has increased since then).
This means that if you have a website that isn’t optimized for mobile search, you are not only missing out but also losing business to your competition.
A mobile-friendly website not only reaches people locally but also provides a quality, visual experience. If you are looking for website design ideas that feature coordinating mobile friendly designs there are more than a few options out there, which makes this switch simple.
If you have a site that loads slowly, or that has to be zoomed in and out, consumers aren’t going to spend much time there.
Even if your effective local marketing campaign has helped you earn these visitors, they aren’t going to stick around if your mobile site is subpar.
Be sure to keep this in mind when creating a local marketing strategy.
You Have Started to Lose Business to the Competition
As mentioned before, when people are out and about, and looking for something, they are going to use their mobile device to find what they want.
If you haven’t optimized your site for local search, then you’re going to be passed over for your competition.
Even if you don’t know this is happening, if you don’t have a local search marketing strategy in place – you are losing customers – RIGHT NOW!
Remember, Excuses Won’t Pay Your Bills
Now that you know some of the reasons to have a local marketing plan in place, it’s clear that this isn’t something you should put off.
We get it – implementing a new marketing effort can be challenging and, in some cases, costly. But, if you make some of the most common excuses, you’ll quickly discover you are losing customers left and right.
The good news is, if the concept of creating a local marketing strategy seems a bit overwhelming, you don’t have to tackle it on your own. You can view here for more information on the help and services available.
Create Your Local Marketing Strategy Today
Are you finally convinced that having a local marketing plan for your business is important? If so, then don’t wait to act.
Believe it or not, it will be easier than you think to create a strategy that helps you achieve the results that you want and need.
If you need to find a company to help you create a local marketing strategy, or just want some inspiration, be sure to check out our featured websites.