6 Tips to Prepare for Local Online Marketing in 2020

If you've been in business long enough, then you witnessed how marketing changed over the years. At one point, it was all about being in the yellow pages and on TV commercials.

Then it shifted to having an online domain. Your website became your new business card, and the way people found you was no longer through a book the size of an encyclopedia.

This brought forth the world of SEO and ranking in search engines like Google and Yahoo. But now there's another major shift -- and this time, it's going towards local online marketing.

If you're using a digital marketing strategy for your small business that doesn't focus on local marketing, then you're going to get left in the virtual dust by competitors.

Let's take a look at how you can prep your local online marketing strategy in time for 2020.

How Local Online Marketing Can Benefit Your Small Business

Using generic keywords to rank in Google works if you're a global business. As a local business owner, your audience is much smaller. Now, this isn't a bad thing if you know how to use the internet to your advantage.

Local SEO is the name of the game, and it's helping small businesses like yours get more foot traffic. More people are using smartphones and tablets to shop and conduct research online.

And because of this, Google uses the device's location to help them find nearby businesses that offer what they're searching for. If your business isn't showing up in business directories or page results, then you'll miss out on garnering larger crowds.

So let's review how you can use local online marketing to grow your business.

How to Make Local Online Marketing Work for Your Brand

There are several ways you can make local online marketing work for your small business. Let's take a look at the top ideas for 2020.

Learn All You Can About Your Audience

It's not enough to have a general idea of your target customer. While having a master (or golden) profile for each of your customer personas is ideal, it won't be enough going forward.

With all the data available today, you can learn more about each individual customer, so you can personalize their experience (in real-time). Why's this important? Because 86% of customers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience.

But the only way you can achieve this is if you're using the data and analytics available to you to learn about them. For instance, with GoSite's contact hub, you can track your interactions with customers. This can give you insights into how to personalize offers just for them.

Engage with Your Audience

When you're a small business that deals locally, it's easy to forget about the online channels you can use to engage with customers. Having a presence on social media is vital because this is where most people (especially the younger generations) spend hours of their day.

You can grow your audience by interacting with your customers and prospects in posts made by you and others. The more visible you are, the more likes and follows you're bound to receive.

Use Free Local Online Marketing Methods (Business Directories)

As we enter into 2020, we can expect more people to use mobile devices to conduct local searches. And what they'll find at the top of the search results are the top three business listings in their area.

This is exactly where you want your business listing to show up. But first, you have to claim and create your citation. You may not show up in the top three right away, but over time, you can work your way up.

So the first step is to claim your listings on Google My Business, Yahoo Local, and others. You can do this quickly with increase your web presence. This will allow you to create and edit your listings on over 70 business directories.

Fill them out completely, so your listings perform better in search. SEO is still a factor here, so include this in your local online marketing strategy.

Get More Reviews to Boost Your Local Online Marketing Results

Then to further help your business listings perform, you can ask your customers for online reviews. We find that customers will spend 31% more on a business with excellent reviews.

So not only does a high rating and positive reviews help your ranking in the directories -- it'll also help convert more prospects into customers.

How do you get more reviews?

Well, most consumers will leave a review if asked. Unfortunately, many local businesses don't ask, so they receive no feedback. You can ask your customers via email, text message, and other forms of communication you have with them.

You can use get reviews to send out requests and manage/reply to reviews.

With a review strategy in your local online marketing plan, you can earn trust and visibility faster.

Start Developing Your Local Online Marketing Plan

You don't have much time -- 2020 is around the corner, and your competitors are finding ways to outpace you. Your best bet is to begin trying these local online marketing tips now to start your year off right.

Need help with implementing some of them? Then we recommend using GoSite's placement tool. You can use this to manage your listings and reviews -- all in one platform.

Download our free eGuide on getting started with local search today!