This exhaustive list of resources and expert advice (actually well over 101 of them!) was made for busy local business owners who are great at what you do, but not so great at marketing your business on the web.
Most of the local marketing tips you see online might as well be in another language, right? And if you understand the language, a lot of the strategies you read about take an incredible amount of time, which you don’t have. So this list of 101 ways to get in front of more local customers takes your internet marketing experience (not much) and time (even less!) into account.
Follow some or all of these tips to get more local customers with internet marketing. More importantly, to make your business shine in the right places where your customers hang out!
Tip: You will want to bookmark this page and refer to it often!
Read First: Why The Internet Matters So Much To Your Local Business
Setting Up The Right Accounts and Profiles
Below are the accounts and profiles Brick Road always sets up for local business clients from the start. The bulk of a successful online marketing campaign for local businesses can be accomplished with social and search. The following accounts will lay the foundation for the rest of your campaign and put you ahead of most of your competition from the start.
Signup to everything below with your exact business name and always use the same NAP (name address phone number) for every profile or account you create.
- Create A Facebook Page
- Sign up for Gmail – This will enable you to set up accounts on YouTube and Google+ below (all with the same login)
- Set up a Google+ account and business page. (Login with your new Google account when you signed up for Gmail.)
- Set up a YouTube channel and profile. (Login with your new Google account when you signed up for Gmail.)
- Set up your LinkedIn account and business page.
- Set up your Pinterest account.
15 Social Media Mistakes You Should Avoid – Once you learn what to avoid in social media marketing for small business, use the resources below to find out how to market properly with social media.
Facebook Marketing Tips
- Link your Twitter and Facebook page so your Facebook page posts also post to your Twitter account automagically. (instructions)
- Mari Smith’s guide to Facebook and Twitter marketing. (optin required)
- 9 Facebook Marketing Tips to Improve Engagement
- 5 Facebook Marketing Tips To Grow Your Business Fan Page
Twitter Marketing Tips
- See #2 in above list!
- Who Uses Twitter? 9 Million Small Businesses!
- Great Twitter Tools and Resources
Google+ Marketing Tips
- Using Google+ to Boost Your Marketing (awesome beginner’s guide!)
- 6 Content Marketing Tips for Google+ – SmallBizTrends.com
- Set up your Google+ Local page – Google Places is now Google + Local. Here you will find out how to further infiltrate the world of Google with your business links and information to improve your search rankings and link popularity.
Pinterest Marketing Tips
- VIDEO: Pinterest Marketing For Local Businesses
- VIDEO: Pinterest for Small Business
- How 4 Small Businesses Are Winning On Pinterest
LinkedIn Marketing Tips
- Top 10 LinkedIn Marketing Tips – Lewis Howes
- 7 Pro Tips for Expert LinkedIn Marketing – HubSpot
- 6 more ways to kill it on LinkedIn – Social Media Examiner
Video Marketing Tips
- Use Animoto to create awesome videos to syndicate on YouTube, your site, and other video sharing sites. No experience necessary!
- List of Video Search Engines – GoWayneCounty.com
- Video marketing for small business: tips – OpenForum
Blogging Tips
The Ultimate Business Blogging How-To Guide – excellent, in-depth resources for business blogging.
- 6 Powerful Ways Your Company Blog Can Drive New Business
- 6 Little-Known Reasons Guest Blogging Is Essential To Your Blogging Development
- With Blogging, Consistency is King (Blog Success)
- Content Curation: Definition and 6 Tool Options
- Use Tynt.com to build valuable links to your site every time someone copies your URL or content quotes! (VIDEO)
Local Search
This is the most important thing you can nail down for your local business website from the very beginning. It’s also the hardest. You can do-it-yourself with the tips and tools below, or better yet, hire Brick Road to get it done professionally and accurately.
- See how well you are already listed with GetListed.org‘s free listing search tool.
- The importance of “citations” for local businesses.
- Where to get citations for local business listings.
- The most important citation sites for local SEO – Yext
- Keep your business name, address, and phone number consistent across all listings. This is super important to get the most out of local search.
- Make sure to use all the features of local listings services. Keywords, photos, videos, and your description are very important factors.
- Make a review page on your site and encourage visitors and customers to give you reviews on your profiles at Google+ Local, Yelp, and Bing, at minimum.