Great Ways to Promote Your Site in a Local Market
For those clients that need to promote their businesses locally, here are some helpful links and networking ideas to help grow your business and increase sales. The majority of these items are of no cost.
- Join your local Chamber of Commerce – generally they have online links back to your site, have networking mixers and are a great source of referrals
- Craigslist – have an “image ad” not just text and be sure to include your website link back to your site ALWAYS. Don’t forget one of the most popular sites online, Craigslist allows you to post free classified ads, on location(s) chosen by you.
- Yellow pages - just like the Yellow Pages only online so you can increase hits back to your site
- Yahoo Local despite Google being the reigning search engine, Yahoo! remains a popular option for its loyal users. Sign up on Yahoo! Local and grab all the free exposure your website can get!
- Google Local Maps create an account with Google and use Google Maps or Google Local to ensure that your business shows up in the search results on Google. When Google infuses these results on its page, it increases the value of its local search and maps application.
- Merchant Circle, Manta and Alignable are great ways to network locally
- Local.com Add your listing to a well traveled site that displays local favorites, reviews, maps, movie listings, and more.
- Kijiji free local listings on a site much like Craigslist
- White Pages are the same idea as the Yellow Pages but for businesses
- Connect with your local Economic Development Corporation. Generally they will be able to help promote your business and even offer a link back to your site as well.
- Send enewsletters – Email marketing is a great way to grow your client base by encouraging people to forward the email to a friend. Include a coupon in the email to entice new clients even more.
- Have postcards designed and printed and use them like flyers! Lay them at coffee shops, post them on cork boards at diners, automotive places, etc. People are more likely to notice them rather than a business card because of their size and are more likely to not discard it due to the nice printing and paper stock.
- Start a Blog and post on other blogs related to your industry or locale
- Start a Facebook ad and target your specific city, demographics, etc
- Post on forums specific to your city
- Yellow Pages ensure that you are listed on the online version of the popular phone directory. A basic listing comes free of cost.
- Yelp is another local venue for people to locate and review your business
- Get vinyl lettering for your back window. Keep the message simple with your business name, a couple of your services, phone number and website address.
- Leave business cards or tri-fold brochures at other local businesses
- Get social on websites like Facebook groups for your local areas or interact with local people in Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter.