As a local business owner, your company lives and dies by the number of local business leads you can attract. While having loyal regulars is great, you also need a steady stream of local business leads. The most challenging part is getting potential customers to find out about you and then turning them into paying customers.
With so many local businesses out there, you need to do something special to stand out from the crowd. That’s where local lead generation tactics and online marketing comes in. It can address every aspect of the sales funnel, from increasing your visibility to producing more leads and then converting these leads into customers.
If you’re feeling lost about where to start, here are some tips for planning your local business marketing strategy.
Set Up a Google My Business Profile
When people perform a local search for a specific product or service, their first stop is the internet. Almost all customers will search for local businesses using Google and having a Google My Business profile can do a lot to increase your visibility and generate local business leads.
Setting up a Google My Business account is free and relatively easy. All you need to do is provide Google with relevant information, like your address, phone number, operating hours, and company name. Google will do the rest and generate a comprehensive profile.
Your Google My Business profile helps to generate online local leads who are highly targeted. An online lead coming from Google My Business is primed to buy and sending them to pages on your site that are designed to convert will help you stand apart from other local companies.
Search Engine Optimization
Local SEO (or search engine optimization), is the gold standard for lead generation and driving visitors to your site. Essentially, what local SEO service does is increase your ranking on Google searches. So, if you’re a florist and someone searches for keywords like “local flower delivery,” your website will be near the top. You’ll be able to capture site visitors ahead of other local companies.
In most instances, focusing on lead gen strategy is the best way to go. As a local area business, you don’t need to inform people a thousand miles away of your skills – you need to focus on local area lead generation to generate new sales.
There are plenty of ways to improve your visibility, including starting a blog, displaying your contact information, and even including some reviews from former customers to show off your well-deserved reputation. This will help draw in visitors and supports your lead generation campaign.
The conversion rates from local area marketing efforts are typically high. This is a result of people using search engines like Google to search for your products and services (aka motivated leads). Instead of someone accidentally stumbling on your site, SEO traffic already wants your services – all you need to do is convince the audience that you’re the best option. It truly is a great way to generate leads at a low cost.
Pay-Per-Click Advertising
PPC advertising is similar to SEO in that it puts your landing page at the top of a search in the ads area. The two main PPC avenues for lead generation are Google ads and Facebook ads.
Both provide potential leads with targeted ads for your service. When a person performs a local search and clicks on the ad, it will lead them to your site, and you’ll pay Google or Facebook a small fee, depending on the keywords you’ve chosen.
The main advantage of PPC is that it produces almost immediate results. While you will need to pay for every lead, the increased visibility for your local business is worth it. You’ve likely clicked on Google ads or Facebook ads in the past – they are great for capturing quality leads when someone is looking for your products or services.
A solid local lead generation strategy is to combine pay-per-click and SEO for maximum visibility. Paid ads offer immediate results and can improve your reputation, which also makes local search engine optimization easier. Then, once you have reliable organic traffic to your site, you can dial back on the PPC and enjoy the benefits of high-quality, organic leads.
Both approaches require extensive research into keywords and a smart lead generation strategy for best results, but even short campaigns can prove effective at driving visitors to your site.
Leverage Social Media
Social media is an excellent way to engage with existing customers and to generate local business leads. You can create a dedicated account for your business with video, blogs, and a space where your audience can chat and interact with you. You can even start a YouTube channel discussing what makes you stand out from other local businesses, how you contribute to the local community, or what makes your products or services unique.
Many people look to social media like Facebook and Instagram for reliable referrals and trust the information they get from former customers on social media. However, if you decide to use social media in your advertising strategies, remember that it is time-intensive and requires constant interaction to be a success.
Building a social media following and converting them to leads takes a robust strategy. Also, having a profile that has few replies will make your local business look disreputable or indifferent and may even affect your current local lead generation efforts.
Don’t Neglect Digital Marketing Staples
Most of the local lead generation strategies discussed rely on inbound marketing – where the local leads come to you via ads, organic search, or social media.
However, email is still an incredibly effective tool to target specific demographics and generate local leads. You can start this local lead generation with an email capture form on your site that allows users to give you their email. After that, you can send out email ads that feature your business, promotions, and calls to contact your local office by phone or an online form. Your form fields should be kept simple: first name and email typically suffice.
You need to manage an email ad campaign gently because while people like getting informative content, they don’t like getting spammed with ads. For this local lead generation strategy to be effective at generating leads, you need to identify your target market and create content that’s interesting, informative, and useful.
A Solid Landing Page for Lead Generation
All your paid ads and organic traffic will eventually visit your website, so you need to ensure that you have a way to convert these leads into paying customers. Lead conversion is the next part of the sales funnel and needs as much attention as local lead generation.
Landing pages are specific parts of your site where you direct potential local business leads. These pages must entice the lead to visit or contact your business. As such, it needs a call to action (CTA) and should mention how your business can address the customer’s pain points.
If you’re relying on SEO traffic, the rest of your website also needs to be on-point. This means having a site that loads quickly, is mobile-friendly, looks good, and provides authoritative, useful content.
You should also create landing pages that support your marketing efforts. A landing page helps bolster conversion rates since it is tied to a specific promotion. For example, if a med spa is advertising 50% off Botox via Facebook ads or Google ads, they could send those leads to a page with the same message.
Managing local lead generation strategies can feel overwhelming. Most businesses want to focus on serving their customers – not spend time on their blog trying to create new, innovative content for their keywords or creating a custom landing page.
Working with a dedicated digital marketing agency can streamline the process and produce visible results. If you want the benefits of local lead generation and proven marketing strategies, why not let Triad Web Design Service take care of it for you? Get in touch and see how they can help your company today!
