For a business like McDonald’s, it makes sense to blast ads anywhere and everywhere. They’re looking to influence attitudes, because chances are you’re going to stumble across a McDonald’s at several points in your life, and they want you to be primed to buy when you see them.
Most businesses don’t have that luxury.
For most of us, it’s important to build from the ground up – to start by serving the people who are physically near you, and then, by building your reputation to expand your reach.
You have a business in East York. You want to get more clients in the area to come to your business. How do you do it?
Your best bet probably isn’t traditional media – TV and radio broadcasts are seen and heard over a wide area. A more targeted solution is probably going to be both more cost effective and give you better results:
Online marketing provides these more targeted solutions.
The Internet is, in many ways, driven by user data. The reason that search engines can provide you with such great results is that they can predict what you want. Online ads work the same way – they predict your needs, then cater to them. You need these predictions working for you when someone wants to find a business like yours in East York.
Here’s an example. You have your location set to “On” so you can navigate around East York. That means Google (or Bing, I guess, if you’re using Bing Maps for some reason) knows what postal code you’re in. You love donuts (and search engines know it). You’re between the ages of 28-35 (and search engines know it). There’s a donut shop nearby. What kind of ad do you think Google might want to show you if you look up “food near me”?
That’s how using PPC ads on search engines can help you target East York. Another invaluable online marketing strategy is search engine optimization (SEO).
There are so many reasons people want to shop at businesses near them. People want to try clothes on or test out sporting equipment before they buy. People want to eat at local restaurants instead of at multinational chains. People want to support their communities.
Search engines know this, so they tend (nothing with search engines is certain) to try to offer nearby local businesses when people make queries. Imagine you sell sporting goods in East York. A search for “Sporting goods East York”, “Sports goods nearby”, or even “sports equipment” would probably yield results for local sporting goods stores. The goal of SEO is to ensure that people making those searches see your store first.
There are basically three ways SEO works: on-page (optimizing content on the front page of your website), off-page (activities on other websites that boost your search engine ranking), and technical (optimizing back-end code and other technical elements). While there are several ways to boost your SEO, here are a few that you can implement in your East York business’s website right now:
- On-page: Mention East York on your homepage. Talk about landmarks (“we’re right across from The Danforth!”), intersections (“at the corner of Mortimer and Woodmount”), neighbourhoods (“check out our locations in Parkview Hills and Broadview North!”) geographical features (“a short walk from Taylor Creek Trail”).
- Off-page: Make great content. Make content about East York, and tell other businesses in East York about it. In short, make stuff that’s sharable, interesting, and relevant to people living in East York.
- Technical: Make sure you have location schema highlighting your East York location.
You’ll absolutely need to set up a Google My Business (and to a lesser extent things like Bing Places) in order to reap the most benefits from SEO. Even if you do nothing else with the advice we’re given you here, please set up a Google My Business account. It’s really easy to do, it’s free, and it’s essential to your online presence.
There are a lot of other ways you can market your business online in order to influence the behaviour of people living in East York. You can, for example, create or join East York-related groups on social media. A strong social media presence is a great thing in and of itself for your local marketing efforts. When people see your staff photo in front of The Danforth, they’ll have a good idea both what your company’s culture is and where you do business.
People who stop by your business are likely East Yorkers, and they probably have friends that live in the area too. Engage them on social media to spread the word more quickly.
There’s a lot more we can discuss about localized online marketing, but it’s worth mentioning that you shouldn’t forget the fundamentals. Have signage that’s visible from the road. Spend time volunteering as a team. Make a corporate donation to a local charity. Be kind. Word of mouth is still one of the best ways of improving your local presence.
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