Marketing – ACS Reduc 2022

8 Ways to Optimize Your Local Landing Pages for SEO

January 5, 2022

Is your local business visible when people search online for goods or services “near me?” It should be.

Today’s audiences value shopping in their local neighborhoods and visiting “local” businesses when traveling. If they can’t find you with a quick Google search “near me”, they aren’t going to seek you out.

Creating local SEO-optimized landing pages (A) helps your neighbors and guests find your business, and (B) convinces them to go there.

What are Local Landing Pages?

Local landing pages are based on a business’s physical location. This is usually the city and state, but multi-branch organizations may have a separate page for each street address. A retail chain is one example. Search “Anthropologie Washington DC” and you’ll get a list of its locations within the city. Click on the location of your choice and you’ll be taken to the landing page for that branch.

Local landing pages are a good strategy to start driving organic traffic to your site. Local landing pages rank quickly, depending on how many competing businesses are in your region and how large your geolocation is.

Additionally, a local landing page can receive click-through s from your online ads, marketing emails, social media pages, and any other inbound links on websites, blogs, QR codes, or social media.

Local SEO Optimization of Your Landing Pages

Your landing pages must have the specific elements that Google and other search engines look for. Paying attention to the details will help you avoid being invisible to the web crawlers.

Include your location in SEO-critical places. This includes the landing page title, URL, meta tags, and descriptions. It is especially critical that local landing pages have their own discoverable URL. It the URL is only available through a search or branch find within your site, Google can’t see it and won’t display it.
In the main keyword(s) in the page title and/or meta data. What words will searchers use to find your products or services? Place those words strategically alongside your business name and location.
Check for consistency. Is your address listed EXACTLY the same way everywhere, down to the last dot and space? For example, if you use S. E. 10th St. on your Google Business Profile page but you use South East 10 Street on your Facebook page, and Southeast 10th Street in your HTML coding, you won’t get ranked. Check other elements like phone number, keywords and the Google Business Profiles page categories.
Test all of your inbound links. From Twitter to industry forum citations, a link that claims to take users to your local landing page had better really do that. If, instead, you take them to the main website homepage, Google will take note. And your rankings will take a plunge.
Populate the entire site with location information. Every page on your website should have a link to the location pages. This makes finding you easier for both the search engine and the people who want to do business with you.
Review your entire site for SEO quality. Does the site load quickly? Does it have responsive display for mobile devices? Is it easy to navigate? Is the content relevant and unique? Are the keywords consistent throughout? Do you know of any Google penalties in effect? For example, using black hat links.
Avoid the temptation to over-optimize. You might consider creating a separate landing page for every neighborhood you serve thereby gaining the entire search results page. Google’s Doorway Page algorithm will prevent this by looking for certain behaviors. A large number of domain names, funneling users to only one page, or pages that are “substantially similar” and outside of the “browsable hierarchy” are all red flags.
Provide good landing page content. As with every other page that Google crawls, relevancy and uniqueness are the major determining factors in local SEO ranking. This is where good marketing technique is critical.

What Should Be on Local Landing Pages?

Your landing page tells customers everything they need to know to find and visit your local business. A quality-crafted landing page will be rewarded by the search engines with higher placement in their results Your local landing page should include these five elements:

Provide local information. Your street address, phone number, and hours of operation are the obvious elements that must be there. A street map and “get directions” function are pretty standard now, too. Depending on the nature of your local business, you might include the email address of your sales or customer service team, too.
Highlight the features and benefits of your business. Who are you? What did you do? Why are you better than the competition? Share your brand’s Unique Selling Proposition. Start with a strong, benefit-oriented headline and you’ll be ahead of 90% of the landing pages today.
Feature special offers. Local SEO landing pages are the ideal place to advertise an offer that’s only available at a specific location. For example, a restaurant chain might feature different pricing at each branch. Of course, this is also incentive for people to take the next step.
Display your credentials. Show that you are trustworthy and competent by displaying your official accreditations (i.e. Better Business Bureau), licenses, awards, customer testimonials, and links to online reviews (i.e. Yelp).
Give them a call to action. Help them take the next step. Ask them to click to your website homepage or contact page; call you; email you; or visit you in person. If your landing page is long enough to require scrolling, then make sure there’s at least one call to action visible at all times. Put the biggest one at the very bottom so it’s the last thing they see.

A successful local SEO optimized landing page brings together SEO and marketing strategy so that each supports the other for maximum results. Our digital marketing and SEO professionals can help you reap the benefits of a local landing page.

Local PPC Advertising Increases Website Traffic and Sales

December 22, 2021

The COVID pandemic has kept all of us closer to home. Will your audience easily find you there? If you don’t have a strategic marketing plan that includes local PPC advertising, you’re missing a lot of opportunity.

Working from home? A local PPC ad shows you where to find a nearby coffeehouse with free Wi-Fi. Want to go out to eat? A local PPC ad shows you what’s available in your neighborhood, their amenities, menus, and hours of operation. Find a dentist, a plumber, or an account quickly and easily by simply typing “dentist,” “accountant,” or “plumber” with the key words near me and the first thing you’ll be served are local PPC ads. No need to scroll any further.

See what you’re missing out on? That was almost too easy to be true. But it’s completely true.

Local keywords and geotargeting are the key to successful local PPC advertising strategies on search engines or social media. They serve your ads to consumers in a targeted, local geographic area. You’ll only pay for the ads that get clicked.

Local PPC advertising is not just for local businesses. Maybe you’ve got a national business, but want to run promotions in conjunction with a local event. Local PPC allows you to use your ad spend smartly by only targeting customers who are likely to respond to the promotion.

Want to know how it works? It’s as easy at 1 – 2 – 3.

1) Know your geography. A good place to start is where you currently draw most of your customers from. Depending on your business, that’s usually relatively close to your base of operations. However, you don’t need to cast a very wide net. It’s important to exclude those zip codes that aren’t good potential targets for you, even if they’re right next door. Specific geographic targeting ensures your ads get seen by more people who are likely to convert, than just simply blanketing the area with ads.

2) Keywords. Keywords. Keywords. Even if you have only a rudimentary understanding of SEO, you know the importance of keywords. Sometimes finding the right keywords can be a bit daunting. Good AdWords offers a service called Broad Match Modifiers (BMM) that can help ease your keyword anxiety. Essentially BMM ensures a broad audience can find you, but only if they are using a pre-set keyword. It minimizes the amount of irrelevant clicks that you’d still have to pay for.

3) Enable ad extensions. Get your Google My Business page in good order. Keep it current and add call or location extensions. Call extensions often have a clickable button that allows customers to call you directly. The extra details offered through both the call and location extensions target your ads to more qualified customers, thereby gaining you more bang for your advertising buck.

One last word (OK, it’s actually two) on local PPC advertising: Landing Page. You don’t want to develop an amazing local PPC advertising strategy only to lose business because you’re landing page failed you. Offer clear contact information and an easily-actionable call to action. Make it easy for people to do business with you. And don’t forget, local PPC advertising takes place in your community. Your messaging needs to embrace your local community. Help your customers feel good about supporting a local business that supports their community.

Can you think of a better way to manage your marketing budget, grow your business, and support your community? Neither can we. One easy call and our SEO professionals can have a sound, profitable local PPC advertising strategy developed and launched in no time.

Why Strategic Marketing Is As Important As Branding

November 23, 2021

Honestly, have you ever thought about the differences between marketing and branding?

Hint: you can’t effectively do one without the other.

Marketing. Branding. These words are used interchangeably so often, most people think they mean the same thing. There’s a fundamental different that every organization should know:

Branding is who you are.

Marketing is how you sell your brand.

Your brand is how you are perceived by customers, potential customers, the media, business partners, vendors, and even your own employees. Your brand is your reputation and while that truly lies in the hands of these various audiences, there is a lot you can do to guide the narrative.

Your mission, vision, and values. These must be consistently expressed in everything from your logo and color palette, to your website and social channels, to your packaging and customer service. An audience should never have to guess why you exist and what is important to you. Today’s audiences make decisions based on being in sync with and trusting brands.
Your products/services. Is your brand logo prominent or subtle? Which approach is better suited to your goals? How are they delivered to the customer? What are your standards for products and for customer service? These are all reflections of your brand.
Your target customers. Audiences are looking for others like themselves, and will engage with brands where they see people like themselves. Are you attracting the correct audience for your growth goals? Will they attract others like themselves to help your business grow?
Your competitive edge in the marketplace. Does your brand, especially your logo, stand out in a crowded marketplace? It should be reflective of who you are. It should be timeless. It should be quickly-recognizable as a sign of your competitive edge.

Being thoughtful when developing a brand strategy will be an investment that pays great dividends. Your strategy should include the visual elements of logos, colors, word marks, websites and style guides. But most importantly your brand should live throughout the organization in packaging, customer service, hiring and management practices, and community relations.

Marketing is executing on that brand strategy. Marketing provides the tactics to make your brand elements really work for you.

If your brand strategy is to establish, or maintain, your position as a high-end, luxury goods retailer, then your marketing tactics need to execute on that. For example,

Yes: Host a private VIP trunk show and invitation-only shopping experience. Send printed invitations, rather than an email blast.

No: Email and text message “50% discount for the first 50 customers on Black Friday!” While you may gain a little traffic, these are not your people. They will only follow price-points, not brands. You’ve weakened your brand and probably lost some income potential from your loyal customers and potential VIP customers who shop with you because of quality, not price.

Branding is the horse. Marketing is the cart.

Your brand is what pulls you through. It is consistent and something your audiences can rely on. It has meaning and value. Your marketing carries the load, but only if it fits well with the brand.

Marketing wins the day. Branding wins the lifetime.

Developing an effective brand strategy pays for itself through the long-term reputation you build. Work with a creative firm that not only develops beautiful, meaningful logos, but also offers you the brand strategy and marketing know-how to make it work for you.

Take Control With A Content Management System

November 16, 2021

The World Wide Web can sometimes feel like the Wild Wild West when trying to keep your website up-to-date. Much like the cowboys of the early American West, updating your website can feel like a complicated landscape with rivers to ford and cattle rustlers to avoid.

Luckily, today’s content management systems (CMS) make it easy to update your website with nary a dust storm or snakebite in sight.

What is a content management system?

Content management systems are applications that allow users to manage their website without needing to write code. They allow users to add and manage content, promotions, calendars, contact information, and all the other simple infrastructure pieces of your website.

So…. Why would I need a website designer?

We’re glad you asked. The internet still is a bit of a Wild West environment and an experienced website designer can help you safely and successfully navigate it. There are three important reasons why a website designer should be part of your team:

You want your business to grow. A website designer will offer a scalable solution that grows with your business. You’ll still have access to easily update the site yourself on the fly, but major renovations are built in when you work with an experienced website professional.
Your website has to be mobile-friendly. It’s the twenty-first century and no one is without a mobile device. If your website doesn’t fully deliver in a mobile environment, you might as well hang out the “closed” sign. Professional website designers and developers ensure your visitors always have the best experience, regardless of how they access your site.
Your website is a direct reflection of your brand. You want visitors to move through your website with ease while subtly leading them to a conversion. Professional website designers conduct usability testing, and have experience developing the tools and features that visitors didn’t know they wanted, but can’t live without.

Hiring a website designer is a business investment. You’re paying for someone’s experience and expertise in areas like: user-interface, accessibility, e-commerce, digital marketing, SEO, and design.

Will I Get Roped-In To a Long-Term Service Contract?

No. Website designers will create a site using a CMS, then show you how to manage the day-to-day upkeep on it so you have control over the content that’s delivered. When you’re ready for major upgrades or custom features, you can reach out to your website designer for a new project quote.

Facebook Advertising for Fun and Profit

November 2, 2021

No advertising venue in history has affected the advertising industry as much as Facebook. As it has evolved, so has our understanding of how to maximize ad spending and reach highly-targeted audiences on this platform.

Not only does Facebook give you a lot of creative fun with multi-media components, it allows you to develop deeper relationships with your customers, create communities, and the Facebook Business Manager tool gives you deep insight into your customers, your creative, and your ad spending.

A solid Facebook advertising strategy is a marketing investment that pays great dividends.

Super-Specific Targeting

Facebook knows a lot about its users. The platform stores basic details like age and location, but it also catalogs hobbies and interests. As an advertiser, you can get as granular as you want. You could reach accountants who live within 50 miles of your business and drive sports cars while listening to 80s music, if you wanted to.

Maybe you don’t need to be that specific. Maybe you already have a dedicated group of Facebook “friends.” In that case, you might find success expanding your market by using Lookalike Audiences.

A “Lookalike Audience” connects you with people similar to your existing Facebook friends. These audiences are more likely to want your product or service because they share similar interests, age, occupations, etc. as your current Facebook audience.

Flexible Spending & Detailed Reporting

If you’re hesitant to leap into Facebook ads, you’re not alone. It’s a powerful tool that reaches millions every day. The good news is you don’t need much time or money to dip your toes into the Facebook pool.

Unlike other ad buys, there’s a low barrier to entry. You can spend as little as $1 on a Facebook ad, just to see how it works. You’re not locked into any set dollar amount or timeline. There’s a lot of flexibility to adjust your spending any time.

You shouldn’t start seriously spending on Facebook without first having a solid strategy. Have a plan in place to follow up with new leads through every stage of the marketing funnel.

For example, it’s not necessary to collect someone’s email address via a Facebook ad, if you don’t intend to contact them later. As a best practice, be respectful of the data collection about your customers. Treat Facebook ads as a valuable part of your marketing and sales cycle, nurturing your leads along the way.

Facebook gives you in-depth analytics to help you strengthen your strategies. They are easy to test and track. You can run A/B tests to see which ad creative or audiences work best. You can see detailed reporting on how Facebook ads are helping you engage customers.

You can also stay in front of your website visitors, thanks to the Facebook Pixel. This code allows you to show ads to Facebook users only after they’ve visited your website. Now you can stay top-of-mind as they make their purchase decision.

It’s a Pay-to-Play Platform

Beyond Facebook’s targeting and testing capabilities, one major reason to pay for ads is that it truly is the only way to reach potential audiences on this platform. Organic content on Facebook doesn’t get you very far.

Every time you post, only a small percent of your followers see your content. Some suggest Facebook’s organic reach is as lows as 2 percent. They know the value of their News Feed and if you want to be there, you’re going to have to buy some space.

Facebook has numerous built-in features to enhance your marketing effort beyond organic reach. For example, Facebook Messenger Marketing has a fantastic open rate, click-through rate, and conversion rate. No only does it enhance your Facebook ad spend, but augments what you’re doing with your email marketing campaigns. Strategically using these tools can enhance your marketing efforts and maximize your marketing budget.

Capitalizing on any digital advertising, including Facebook, starts with a strong strategic plan. As digital marketing experts, we’re always happy to help you plan, design, and execute on any strategy. You don’t have to do it all on your own.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in DATE and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

The Solution is Email

December 7, 2020

Email marketing is one of the most effective tools for connecting with your target audience. You can use an email campaign to engage with your audience, sell products, share news or tell a story. You can target emails to current or future employees. Whatever your business goal, it’s a proven solution. Let’s take a look at the many ways it can help your company.

Grow Your Audience

Email marketing is a cost-effective way to engage with and grow your audience. It provides businesses large and small with an opportunity for open and interactive communications. It gets your brand image — including your logo, tagline, color palette and brand graphics — and name in front of your audience more frequently and will build brand awareness and recognition with your audience.

Studies show that customers prefer to receive marketing materials through email, making it an important strategy — it has a large reach but delivers your message as you intended, and with a high ROI.

Personalize Your Message

An email marketing campaign will allow you to personalize and target communications in ways that other marketing campaigns can’t. You’re able to segment your lists, ensuring you send specific content to specific people. Did you know that emails with personalization result in revenue and transaction rates that are six times higher than non-personalized emails?

Recruit New Employees

How else can you use email marketing to your advantage? As a recruitment tool. Just as consumers prefer email, so do potential employees. Clearly showing your brand image and sending the targeted communications can highlight the benefits of working for your company and help facilitate interest in new positions.

Communicate Internally

Communicating regularly with your staff to build and cultivate company culture can be done seamlessly through email. Regardless of your company size, email can deliver your company news in a single action. Maybe it’s a regularly scheduled e-newsletter or an exciting new announcement. Whatever the cause, email allows companies to communicate their values and culture not just through content but through consistent brand imaging, messaging, and tone.

If you have a question about how to advance your business, the answer usually comes back to a well-thought-out and designed email campaign targeted for maximum return.

Finding the Best Platform to Sell Online

October 6, 2020

If we’re learning anything during this pandemic, it’s that almost every small business can profit by selling something online. Without it, many brick and mortar storefronts and restaurants would be left without a means of income. Yet, you don’t have to be a traditional “shop” to use a platform to sell online.

Think about businesses like restaurants, dry cleaners, consignment stores or ice cream parlors. They can tailor what “goods” they can monetize and place on a platform to sell online. It could be gift cards, merchandise, books, memberships, virtual event registrations or meal kits. When your doors are closed (whether it be for 8 hours or 8 weeks), your business can still be generating income.

Here are some ideas for opening an online store that, even when we get back to more normal operations, you may find can contribute a valuable revenue stream.

With so many available, how do you choose one platform to sell online? The first thing to know is that with most of them, what you see is what you get. Be sure you understand what the specific platform can provide — because all the offerings differ. Customizing is either cost-prohibitive or not even available. Some have limited payment gateways or can’t accept pre-orders. So be sure you know what you need and if that platform will perform the way you imagined. Lastly, is the platform easy to use? We’ve seen that some can have set up that is intimidating to beginners, which can lead to frustration when the design doesn’t match their vision.

That’s where we step in. Just because you’re choosing an out-of-the-box platform, doesn’t mean it can’t be brought to life. ACS Creative can walk you through the finer points of these platforms. We can adjust themes that don’t speak to you. You’ll find that it’s not as easy as clicking a few buttons. You’ll still need a designer’s eye and technical know-how to create a successful site.

Let’s take a look at some of these online selling platforms.

We find that customers have the most success with WooCommerce. It’s an extension of WordPress, which is used for a vast majority of websites. It gives you a lot of control and creativity. WooCommerce works really well when you have an existing WordPress site and want to add functionality, whether you have physical or digital products, like a digital download or virtual product. The upsides are that it’s one of the most customizable platforms, it’s affordable and it becomes part of your site, unlike most other online selling platforms.

Shopify is another good option that is ideal for selling physical products for the side hustlers, solopreneurs and crafters. If selling a product, like quilts or t-shirts, is your core business and you don’t need a full website, it’s a solid choice — Shopify is optimized to sell products. For beginners, the set up is easy. You can get started in the morning and be fully operational that night. There are free themes and templates to get started. Just remember that you do give up customization: Tons of other stores could potentially use the same design. Platforms like this may have deals with shipping providers and provide discounts.

Although this sounds relatively simple, remember that Shopify is still complex, as it is an e-commerce platform hosted by the provider. Areas to watch out for are figuring out the shipping, taxes and payment tiers.

Both WooCommerce and Shopify have marketplaces to buy extensions and plug-ins to amplify the functionality. This is another area where you may need help. Even though the core can’t be adjusted, there are always ways of improving it if you have the design sense and are tech-savvy.

There are many other platforms out there, but most are not as user friendly or functionality friendly as WooCommerce and Shopify. Just remember the cheapest route most likely will not have everything you need. So, compare your options before investing your time, energy and money.

The investment of including a platform to sell online will help you diversify your sales channels offline and online, now and when we get back to our more normal operations.

Local Marketing 2020 Series: Print Advertising

March 3, 2020

Old habits die hard. Many established small businesses have placed advertisements in hometown newspapers, swap sheets or penny savers for decades. They often continue to do so simply because they always have. However, in the current landscape of local marketing, may not be the best use of your limited budget.

Measuring Print Advertising

First of all, it is extremely difficult to know how many people saw your ad, became more interested in your business or purchased from you because of that ad. Secondly, why pay for people to see your ad if they don’t care about it? With online advertising, you essentially only pay for potential customers who are interested in what you offer.

Do yourself a favor and conduct an audit of where you’ve spent your marketing dollars in the past and ways you might better use those funds in 2020. That could include SEO, email campaigns or pay per click online ads. Of course, print advertising shouldn’t be ruled out altogether — print isn’t entirely dead after all. If you’re going to advertise on tv, radio or in the paper, at least measure the results so you can track your return on investment.

Does Print still Drive Conversions?

We have seen print advertising work very well if you have a very viable list to send to. Users take action from a specific landing page, and asked to convert. If your audience knows of your business and has a need for your service, that partnership is simple!

As a small business, budget matters and time are your greatest commodities. You don’t have enough of either to spare, so why take chances? Use the proven tips included in each of our Local Marketing Series blogs to devise a sensible, yet effective, local marketing strategy for the rest of this year. Be sure to measure your results along the way as you watch your business grow in 2020!

Local Marketing 2020 Series: Email Marketing

February 25, 2020

In our humble opinion, email marketing is absolutely one of the most effective means of increasing revenue and facilitating growth for virtually all companies of any size in any industry. Yet, small businesses tend to not take advantage of this marketing method. I’m sure you’ve seen the television commercials of the landscaper or interior designer sending their promotional email and bracing for a flood of customer activity. They are panicking that one of two things will happen. First, they will receive no clicks at all and feel defeated that their efforts were for nothing. Second, and this is where the good type of stress comes in, their inbox is flooded with orders! The latter can (and should) be you.

To run a successful email marketing program, you must look at it in two parts: Email Collection and Email Execution. A beautifully crafted HTML message that is only seen by you and your closest friends might as well be a tree falling in the forest. Building your database of subscribers needs to be an ongoing priority. The larger the list, the bigger the result.

Always encourage customers to sign up in-store and visitors to your website to join online. Offer incentives for subscribing, such as exclusive offers, special event invites, discounts, etc.

Don’t send emails too often or your open rate and unsubscribe rate will suffer. Try to keep your lists segmented by what product or service the individual purchased to ensure future emails are relevant to them. Utilize an email marketing platform, such as MailChimp, Constant Contact or MadMimi, for storing your database, sending campaigns and monitoring results. Be sure to watch your analytics to gain perspective on which emails performed best and what your customers are most interested in.

Along with the collection of your email list with valuable contacts, if you have access to physical addresses, we’ve seen direct mail pieces go out and turn into five times the return on investment. A small sample size sent out to businesses or consumers in the area can go a long way. Increasing your visibility, creating opportunities and potentially gaining new clients, you’d be surprised!

Bottomline is to gather those emails! Because email marketing can provide higher conversion rates than most other marketing tactics, you never know how valuable they can be until you use them.

Look for our final Local Marketing Series blog, where we’ll explore the tried-and-true tactic, print advertising.

Local Marketing 2020 Series: Social Media, Reviews and SEM

February 17, 2020

You may not think a carpet cleaning service needs a Facebook page. Who would follow it and why? Now is the time to cast aside your notions of social media and embrace its local power.

First, search engines tend to (unofficially) appreciate businesses that are active on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Instagram. It never hurts to appease the Google Gods.

Secondly, potential customers who are researching your products or services online are likely to stumble upon your social accounts. When they do, are they going to see one lonely post from two years ago? Or would you rather a vibrant, active feed of fresh content, testimonials, photos, videos and more?

Once you do start to collect some local followers, social media is a good way to promote offers, specials, announcements and events. These networks are also great customer service platforms, offering several alternative forms of interaction between you and the local community. Sites like Facebook will continue to change and evolve its algorithm, but one truth will always remain: your social media efforts will not go to waste.

Remember that consumer decisions are being made online. A satisfied customer who walks out your door is an excellent opportunity for a good review. Encourage patrons to leave a review for your business on Google, Facebook or Yelp. Don’t be pushy — but don’t be shy either. Instead, subtly suggest the notion while conveying your appreciation. This request can be delivered via point-of-sale signage, receipt verbiage, post-sale email or by asking the good old-fashioned way. Of course, not every person will follow through, but you will surely see an uptick in social proof over time. Companies that take pride in their customer experience, and have the ratings to back it up, are rewarded with more clicks, more calls, more business (and more praise).

Another avenue is online paid local marketing. It almost seems like cheating to advise you to spend money on pay-per-click advertising, or search engine marketing, in a local marketing blog post. The concept may not seem very creative or too cost-prohibitive — but if done correctly, it works.

Most of the major PPC platforms, such as Google AdWords, Facebook Ads and Bing Ads, allow you to concentrate your campaign on hyper-local regions. This means your marketing dollars won’t go to waste on curious clicks from other states (or countries). Additionally, the ability to display ads to individuals with highly specific interests and demographics further increases your chances of making every click count.

Here’s an advanced tip. Take advantage of geo customizers to customize your ad copy to dynamically insert a local town name, suburb or zip code specific to a user’s IP address. Upload a CSV file to the business data section of AdWords that tells the platform, “IF a user is in Chicago, IL…serve them Headline 1 saying ‘Attention Chicago Businesses.’ ” This will increase your CTR and personalize all messaging.

Since most search and social ad platforms price clicks and impressions on a bidding system, you will be less likely to compete with big businesses’ national campaigns, thus saving even more money. The best part? No budget is too small. Spend a few bucks a day to put yourself where your customers are looking.

There’s no denying it. With more than 3 billion active users, social media is no longer a matter of choice if you want your business to succeed.

Look for our next Local Marketing Series blog, where you’ll learn more about email marketing and how it can help increase revenue and facilitate growth.