How To Market A Local Business Online

Hi Mukul,

Those are all great ones. Beyond these, here are a couple more:

organic SEO, Facebook fan pages, local city directories, email marketing.

Brian

All are good - get good at a few, and you can be the go-to guy for that service in your area.

Go get'em!

Website, SEO and SOCM.... I cbf'd listing everything because I have a feeling this is another one of those IM guys playing the marketing consultant.

Just sayin'

Classified Ads
Local news.. would be worth the investment
PPC is great
Article
Facebook Page
Do em all!

With the help of experts SEO in both OFF or NO page and PPC experts.

Thanks Guys and Gals,

Here is a summary so far

- PPC
- Google Business Directory
- Classified Ads
- SEO
- Facebook Fan Pages
- Local Directory
- Email Marketing
- SOCM
- Local News
- Articles

Often over looked are Bing local & Yahoo Local.....

Also Referrals. Referrals being one business type gets referrences from a "like" business...ex: Chiropractors referring lawyers, patio furniture store referred by a pool company....

~Ken

Word of mouth. Still the best marketing under the sun.

Local business reviews, getting people talking about what you're doing on social media, etc...

This means PR is a must.

Give them something free first that creates a real impact and they will love you and use your paid services as long as you deliver real value to them.

I use an article and spin it across the networks, then a week later show them the results in Google. Proof always beats BS!

All good ideas. I would add video marketing, LinkedIn and maybe blogging.

Cristian

There are many ways for marketing the business. But the best way for marketing the business if E-mail marketing. Also there is a best tool for E-mail marketing is E-mail sender pro.

So far I have found Google Places listing creation and optimization to be the most profitable by far. Both for me and the business owners.

You really can't go wrong with your ROI on this. I charge $247 just to make them an optimized listing in Google Places. How much I charge for the optimization depends on the competition in the market and how much money I think they will make from first page rankings.

Don't forget Mobile Marketing works great for certain businesses like Real Estate, and High End Restaurants.
Nice thread, Mukul.
Cheers
Donna

Having a large network of business owners who trust you is the best way to get business I have seen. It takes effort and looking at their needs and not your own to make this work.

You can actually go as far as to create your own referral network... from scratch.

The best place I found is Craigslist under Jobs for 'marketing / pr / ad' and 'web / info design'

They have the problem and you have their solution.

Market TO them? Or market THEM? Big difference.

Get them published. Now they are Authorities in their niche. Do you want "a lawyer" to work on your case? Or one that "wrote the book on <your need>"?

PPC is the way of promotion is right but first you invest in PPC then it start or it's not necessary that your PPC is working good

Wow! what a loaded question...I agree with a lot of posts here and I wish there were a set of industry standards. I break it down to three things:

1) Optimize Google Place page

2) Optimize the client's website

3) Optimize off-page pointing back to the client's website.

Get them found in the local results first.

For me it boils down to just 3 basic stratergies

PPC
SEO
and Social Media

you don't need to break it up any more than that, the key is, if for example you are doing SEO

You Need a Strategy!!!

this might contain for example local listings, Local directory submissions, article marketing content creation link building etc.

Why not try Youtube videos? If it's interesting enough, people will viral them to other people (which are probably other local people).

My strategy is do an awesome job on their website both in design and optimization, along with G-Places, Youtube, and a custom Facebook Fanpage and they are ready for whatever is next.

As per our experience if you have local business in that case you can promote this by following ways more effectively
Google Local Listing
Google Adwords
Facebook ad

I usually don't come out and just share my links but I believe that this post needs it.

The Elite Opportunity is a site where you can learn of a community of entrepreneurs that help each other become successful off of each others secrets and techniques.

Elite Marketing Training is a site where you can register for a free live webinar on marketing. This will show you some of the best techniques in online marketing. I attend every week with my notebook and pen for note taking.

Just awesome and legit as it comes.

After you've got the Google Places listing, a fast way to get search exposure is with short, informative videos, press releases and articles. They're a great combination!

Enter them in as many vertical directories as possible.
Forget about SEO, not worth it. I'd run a referral program instead.
They should give their existing customers a discount or some freebie in exchange of referring at least 2 people -this kind of referrals work like a charm and successful businesses use it.

Set them up with aweber and educate them about it- make them encourage their customers to sign up. If it's a shop, make them put their website and facebook URL (make them a facebook page if they don't have one, with an attractive landing tab) on the cash receipts.

A small, local Chinese restaurant gathered a gazillion facebook fans by putting a signature board at their front register. They tell everyone to fan their page on facebook and they interact with people there. As a result they have more fans than the big shot expensive restaurants in town.

Also get them on yelp and foursquare, and encourage their customers to leave reviews there. Reviews go long ways. Read about the new google hotpot. Learn about the new facebook page changes allowing companies to post under their brand and interact with other businesses.
SEO is the last thing I would worry about when it comes to local businesses

Has anyone done anything of the above and if so what is your experience?. have you made any money or contacts since then?.

Link exchange with local directories, backlinks with the business name as the Anchor, you could even market it offline with flyers and business cards leaving them in shops etc. Another way would be to target a local keyword and rank numero one for it, such as dentists in london.. Or something like that.

I have been experimenting with very localized mobile ppc. If the market is narrowed down enough you can expect 2-5 interested calls direct from your mobile add per day, at a cost of about $1.50. Depending on your business, this can be a gold mine. I have an apartment locator picking up 2 clients a week using this method.

2 clients = $1000-$2000 in income for around $10 bucks a week.

This method is still fairly new and is destined to explode in the near future... might as well get good at it now.