Local Link Building: 25 Strategies Businesses Can Use to Rank Better Locally

Ranking locally can be a huge boon for small businesses that service a specific region. 

Having a local SEO strategy for your business can be a game changer.

Imagine your business showing up when someone searches for your offerings on Google; someone who is clearly in the midst of a buying decision. Being front-and-center when a shopper has high purchase intent can help your local business reach new customers and build loyalty with existing ones.

However, ranking locally involves search engine optimization and that isn’t exactly a piece of cake. There’s a lot that goes into it. You have to optimize your actual website. And then you have to provide all sorts of off-site signals to help Google decide that your business deserves to rank above the competition.

The importance of backlinks

One of the biggest off-site ranking factors is backlinks; or, links that point to your site from other websites.

In the past, it was all about quantity. Webmasters would stuff their websites with low-quality backlinks from all sorts of questionable sources, just to build up their number of backlinks. This backlink strategy would help them rank.

However, Google quickly caught on to this strategy and modified their algorithm (Penguin), so that it can now differentiate a reliable link from a questionable one. The algorithm runs in real-time, so be sure your backlinks should all come from high-quality sources. Moreover, those high-quality sources should be relevant to your website.

Why local link building is important

For a local business, your link building efforts will be around obtaining links from both authoritative websites and local sources.

In this local link building guide, I will cover 25 different methods that you can use to obtain quality backlinks to help your local business website outrank the competition — and drive more business from the internet through your doors.

Added bonus: In the process of building backlinks through many of these methods, the actions you take are generally good business practices. It’s a win-win. And this makes sense, as Google wants to display the businesses that are most worthy of being displayed in the search results.

So let’s dive in…

25 Local Link Building Methods for Small Businesses

Local directories

Business directories are extremely important for ranking factor for local businesses because they provide valuable backlinks and location information reinforcement. However, in order to reap the benefits of local directories, all your business information must be accurate on all of them.

To start, you should set up a Google My Business account. In addition to being a directory itself, Google My Business is also a great way to communicate directly with Google and is also the source that feeds into Google’s map listings. To learn more about setting up an account, download a copy of our free Google My Business ebook.

Download Google My Business ebook

After you set up your Google My Business account, you should inventory your business listing across all online directories. Instead of auditing each site one-by-one, you can use our free diagnostic tool that will show you how your business is listed on major directories. You’ll need to make sure to fix any errors and inconsistencies so that your listing on major directories matches your Google My Business information.

Once your business listing in online directories matches Google My Business, Google can now be certain that the information they are providing the searcher is accurate — and will reward you with a ranking boost.

In addition, business directories are also a good source of backlinks for your website. You can typically put your business URL in your directory profile, providing you a backlink from a powerful, authoritative source.

Start a blog

A blog can be the lifeblood of an effective content marketing strategy. It can help you establish yourself as the authority in your space. And it can also help you establish an immensely valuable resource for link building efforts.

In addition to establishing your business as an authority figure in your industry, it will also give you a resource for link building.

First of all, creating valuable content provides something that other websites will actually want to link to. It provides you with the ability to reach out to other site owners and let them know that you have something valuable their audience might actually want to see. In other words, you can provide value rather than simply saying “my business has a website, link to it.”

Additionally, it gives you the ability to include more internal links – links pointing from pages on your website to other pages on your website. This is another factor in improving your website’s rankings. Plus, you can obtain some unplanned backlinks from less than scrupulous people who may scrape your website content and republish it without your permission (but your links will remain).

Publish content on authority sites

Publishing content on your own site is great for a variety of reasons (and you should definitely do it). But publishing content on other websites is the most direct way of getting a powerful, contextual, relevant backlink.

You can do this by reaching out to other site owners and asking if they accept guest authors. Find a way to mention your own business in the content you submit. This is another reason that having your own blog is beneficial: linking to other valuable content is a lot more acceptable (and welcome) than linking to your business homepage.

Another way to get some powerful backlinks by leveraging content is a newspaper column. Reach out to your local newspapers and see if they are willing to take you on a contributor. Perhaps you can get your own column as an expert in your space. This can get you a backlink that’s powerful and highly-localized.

If you use the Vivial Marketing Platform, you receive exclusive access to the NearSay publishing network — a great way to get backlinks from an authoritative website.

Be a source for reporters

While not everyone is cut out to have their own newspaper column, almost anyone can be a source for reporters in their area of expertise. When a reporter quotes you in a story, they will link to your website.

To start being a source for reporters, sign up for HARO (Help a Reporter Out). It is a daily email newsletter that lists topics for which reporters are seeking expert sources. You can contribute as an expert, and if you’re used as a source you’ll get a backlink.

It’s important to note, however, that these requests will probably be coming from writers for pieces to be published on national-level websites. If you want to go the extra step, and really focus on local link building, you can actually network with local reporters.

Browse through local newspapers and blogs and introduce yourself to writers who have published stories on topics related to your business. When you reach out to them, let them know that you are available if they need a quote or a source for another story.

Social media and web 2.0s

Regularly publishing content gives you plenty of information to share on social networks. Once published, share your content across your social media accounts.

You can also submit the content to sharing networks such as StumbleUpon and Scoop.it. Check to see if there are any industry-specific sharing sites that you can leverage as well.

Being active and engaged on social media networks is a good general business practice, not just something you should do for backlinks. In fact, research shows that customers actually expect small businesses to have a presence on social media networks (like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+).

When you are filling out your profile on social media pages, always include your website and business location — more backlinks that send local signals to search engines.

Media and document submission

The web is full of websites that allow you to share non-text based content. This includes networks like SlideShare for presentations, Scribd for documents, and a variety of different infographic sharing sites.

If you already have an inventory of content, is there a way to repurpose it into a different format? Google can detect links within content that isn’t HTML-based (like PDFs), so you can leverage this. Or, at the very least, you can include a link to yourself as the source of the content in the description when you share the media.

For example, if you created a PowerPoint presentation for a recent conference you attended, upload that to SlideShare and link the presentation back to your website.

Sponsor a local event

Many events have different tiers of sponsorship opportunities, so contact the event organizer and ask.

Events usually need sponsors. And they typically give those sponsors a shout-out at the event and on all materials — including the website. This can get you both a quality, local backlink, as well as generate brand awareness among event attendees.

Of course, depending on the event, sponsorship can get a bit pricey and you may not have that type of marketing budget. However, don’t write off event sponsorships simply because of the price tag.

Many event organizers are also open to “bartering.” For example, if you have a decent social media following, some events will be happy to leverage that in exchange for mentioning you as a sponsor on their website. Or, perhaps you can negotiate a smaller sponsorship amount in exchange for the mention.

After all, you don’t need the large banner at the event for SEO purposes, you just need a quick mention and link on their website (which costs them nothing and is extremely quick to do).

Donate to local charities or scholarship funds

Similar to an event sponsorship, many local charities have a sponsors web page to recognize people and businesses who have given to the cause. Find a charity you believe in and recognizes donors for a win-win.

You can also contribute to a scholarship that helps students preparing for the future. Your donation doesn’t have to break the bank and any amount is always appreciated.

Donating to scholarships can get your business listed on some student resource and scholarship list websites. If the local school or library offers an online list, even better. Not only will you get a valuable backlink, but you’ll also be doing good for your local community.

Local associations

Is your business a part of any local trade associations? Or can it be? Joining local associations is a surefire way to gain a powerful local backlink — especially if they have a front-facing page with the roster of members.

If you aren’t part of an association, becoming active with your local chamber of commerce is another option to consider. Just like associations, chambers have websites and actively promote their members (providing them a backlink while doing so).

Speak at local events

Speaking of your local chambers of commerce, very often I’m sure they have events that feature different speakers. If you can share something with other local businesses in the area — and be a speaker at one of these events — you may get your bio on the website.

Alternatively, you can also try to get speaking engagements at other events (there are likely some industry-specific events you can tap into).

Offering to speak at events is a great word-of-mouth marketing strategy for your business and will also help you build authority online via backlinks.

If you make the list, you’ll be included on the publication’s website (backlink) and also benefit from all the word-of-mouth marketing that surrounds these “best of” lists.

Nominate your business

Many business publications (especially ones specific to a trade, industry or city) and media outlets have annual awards that they give to businesses.

For example, Crain’s New York Business has an annual Best Places to Work in NYC feature, which are published in print, online and celebrated at an in-person event. In addition to bragging rights, winners receive a profile on an authoritative website that has a valuable backlink.

Pay attention to when they are calling for entries and nominate your business!

Not only will nominating your business put you in the running to be on the list, but it will introduce you to the publication staff members that vet the entrants (the same ones that you’re probably responding to on Help a Reporter Out).

Participate in local events

I have already discussed speaking at and sponsoring events. But these aren’t the only ways to leverage local events to get your name on the board (and the website). Simply participating in local events can lead to a valuable backlink.

Perhaps there is a charity walk that you fundraise for every year to support a friend/family member. Or, there might be a holiday food drive that you can help promote by leveraging your business’s assets (such as posting flyers in your store, being a designated drop-off location, offering to use your truck to transport donations, etc.) — you’ll have to be creative, but you’ll most likely get a backlink from your efforts.

Look around at local events and see if there’s a way for you to get a backlink for your business while also participating.

Leverage local daily deal sites

Dailly deal sites, like Groupon and Living Social, have revolutionized how people shop for products and services. While these daily deal sites don’t work for every type of business, they do provide decent backlinks (and usually generate brand awareness and sales).

Before you dive into daily deal sites, be sure to read their fine print; you want to make sure you can deliver on your deal, while also turning a profit. Daily sites work well for large businesses that want to reach a large volume of potential new customers and spread awareness. Very often these large businesses are willing to write off the money lost on the low price of a product/service on the daily deal site simply to get a new customer in the door. However, for smaller businesses that can’t support the volume generated from daily deal sites, a low price point can be devastating.

If daily deal sites aren’t something you want to explore, you can always post your deal on a local site. Many local newspapers and bloggers share daily deals from local businesses with readers. One of those can be you.

Find local link partners

There’s a good chance that you already interact with other businesses in your local area. It’s very common for businesses in similar, but not competing industries, to refer clients to each other. For example, an accountant may refer a client to a lawyer or a financial advisor.

These referrals are obviously great in the real world. But you can leverage these relationships for some SEO power by obtaining local links from other businesses. Ask your network if they would be willing to link to you on their website.

Broken link building

Broken link building is all about identifying sites that have links pointing to locations that don’t exist anymore, and offering them a better alternative. That alternative is, of course, a location on your site. Again, this is where having a blog and an extensive library of content comes in handy, as this gives you something for people to link to.

There are many ways to go about this. One great way for local businesses to identify potential targets for broken link building is to find sites linking to businesses that are no longer open.

You can find closed businesses on Yelp by doing a Google search with the following string:

site:www.yelp.com intitle:closed intitle:city industry

This will look for closed businesses on Yelp in the city and industry of your choosing (replace “city” and “industry” above).

Then, run the website of the closed business through a link checking tool like Majestic or Ahrefs. Contact the sites linking to said business and offer them your website as an alternative.

Press releases

Press releases are a great way to get your business name out there. In addition to spreading awareness, press releases also provide decent links pointing back to your website — especially if the news gets picked up by authoritative news outlets.

However, don’t publish press releases simply for the backlink. In addition to being pricey to send across the wire, your clients and customers should actually find value in the press release.

Links to your competition

One of the best ways to find a site that is willing to link out to your business is to find sites that link to your competitors.

Run your competitors’ websites through a tool like Majestic SEO or Ahrefs to see what sites link out to them, and then reach out and ask for yours to be included, too.

During your research, you will probably find a lot of other pages that you can obtain a link for as well (local resources pages, for example).

Profile links

Is there a prominent online community in your industry that you can participate in? Make sure to claim your profile and include a link to your website.

It’s also important that you stay active (both from a general business and backlinking perspective). If the community is a forum, include a signature with a link to your website that is included below every message you post. If it’s a discussion board such as inbound.org (an online community for inbound marketers), all you have to do is create a profile and link to your business’s website.

Provide testimonials

While your top priority should be generating (positive) online reviews for your own business, providing feedback to others will also help when it comes to backlinks. Submitting reviews and testimonials for products and services you use for your business

Submitting reviews and testimonials for products and services you use for your business is especially helpful if the provider is local. Local product and service providers will give you a link that is localized, a characteristic that will help you rank locally. Offer a testimonial to the business, they should be happy to have a glowing review. And ask for a link back to your site along with the quote.

Reach out to other businesses and ask if they would like a testimonial. Most will jump at the opportunity for a glowing review that they can feature on their website. And ask for a link back to your site along with the quote.

Hold a contest

People love prizes and playing games, hence why contests are such a popular marketing tactic. A contest can spur a lot of business for you and also attract local backlinks.

While not every business can run a contest like Chef Zack Bruell (with the ability to cross-promote several different locations and brands), almost any business can run some sort of contest.

For example, in Cleveland, Chef Zack Bruell holds an annual tour contest. People who dine at all of his restaurants during a certain time period are eligible to win a home cooked meal prepared by the chef himself. Not only is this a great way to cross-promote all of his different restaurants, but it is also a great way to generate buzz with local news outlets and bloggers.

Including social media components in your contest will help spread awareness via word-of-mouth and increase the likelihood that your promotion will go viral. Campaigns that go viral on social media usually revolve around requiring an entrant to share the fact that they entered into a contest with their friends on a particular network.

You don’t have to be in the restaurant industry to run some sort of contest. Dentists can offer a free teeth whitening session. Chiropractors can offer a free consultation. Accountants can offer free tax returns.

Get creative. Brainstorm and research different kinds of contests you can run, and you’ll generate both business and backlinks.

Alumni profiles and directories

Does your high school or university have an alumni spotlight page? You might be surprised to learn that they actually run their own blog or news section on the website that highlights alumni. After all, it’s in their best interest to show potential students how successful their alumni have become.

Reach out to the alumni relations office and ask to be listed/featured. If your school is nearby, this is all the better for local backlinks (plus you can get a highly sought-after .edu link).

Fix 404 errors

Over time, pages on your website may move or change URLs. Perhaps someone has linked to your from their website, but put in the address wrong — and it’s too difficult to get them to change it. No matter how it happens, there’s a good chance that you’re going to encounter links pointing to pages on your site that don’t exist, and you’re faced with 404 errors.

You can reclaim some of that link power by redirecting those pages that no longer (or never did) exist to either the homepage of your website or to other appropriate pages.

Sign up for a Google Webmasters account and track these crawl errors. Redirect the pages these external links point to, to pages that actually exist.

Link reclamation

During your regular course of business, you may be mentioned in a local news article simply because you are awesome. While everyone likes it when they receive an unsolicited endorsement of their greatness, these mentions don’t necessarily link to your website (but they should!).

Since you aren’t a mind-reader and don’t know when a blogger or news outlet is going to mention your business, you should set up a Google Alert for your name and your business name. When you are mentioned, Google Alert will ping you and you can reach out to whoever authored the piece and ask if they can insert a link pointing to your website.

Offer internships

Need some extra help? Offer internships and help some youngsters get some work experience in the process.

Post the internship opportunity on local job boards and directories. You can also send the internship description to local universities and see if they will share with their students. If the school has a public-facing job/internship board, you can get a valuable .edu link out of it in the process.

Local resource directories

Beyond local business directories, there are specialized local resource directories that you might be able to tap into.

For example, if you are a coffee shop owner and offer patrons free Wi-Fi, you can get yourself listed on a free Wi-Fi directories like this one: http://www.wififreespot.com/.

If your business does something that can be considered a public service (a nice clean public bathroom is in high demand here in NYC!), see if there’s a directory for it. You’ll be surprised at what people compile.

Links = Rankings = Sales

Better search rankings get you right in front of the hottest prospects in the midst of their decision-making process.

Once you’ve optimized your website for search, it’s time to start building up your external signals. The first step is to ensure all of your local listings are up to date and accurate. Use our free tool to run your diagnostic. Then, move onto a link building campaign.

There is plenty here to get you started on an effective local link building campaign. But be creative. How else can you get online recognition for your business (and attract some local backlinks in the process)?

The post Local Link Building: 25 Strategies Businesses Can Use to Rank Better Locally appeared first on LocalVox.

Build Your Online Reputation with Small Business Review Websites

Online review sites can make or break your small business’s online reputation.

Creating a positive online reputation for your small business is within your control all you need are a few simple guidelines and formulas.

The quickest way to incite a heated debate among business owners is to bring up the topic of online reviews. While opinions and feelings greatly vary, business owners are able to agree on one thing: customer business reviews are an influential factor in a customer’s journey.

Research shows that 88% of people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, making it absolutely essential that you have a strong presence across multiple business review sites.

Whether you are too busy, or not interested in doing the heavy lifting, your business’s online reputation is too important not to monitor. Vivial helps thousands of businesses manage their online reputation, whether that is repairing damage, collecting reviews for a newly incorporated business or getting happy customers to provide you with more positive feedback.

This article will provide you with all the information you need, including the best review sites, to ensure your reputation on business review websites is one that opens doors for your business (and doesn’t close them).

The importance of online review sites

There are many different types of business review websites and many have a particular industry that they resonate with: Yelp is popular with restaurants; Angie’s List, which provides information on service providers; TripAdvisor will give you insights for your next vacation.

However, any website where your business has a presence and encourages customers to provide ratings and reviews can be used in your online review marketing strategy — whether you are a quick-service restaurant that is part of a national franchise, a single location fashion boutique or a sole-proprietor who provides services to clients.

Kurt Abrahamson, CEO of ShareThis, told The Atlantic, “Recommendations have more of an impact than brand or price…[our research] found that highly positive online shares can generate an almost 10% increase in purchase intent, and negative reviews can also have a correspondingly negative impact, [reducing purchase intent by] 11%.”¹

Digital word-of-mouth marketing

Online ratings and reviews are the digital equivalent of word-of-mouth marketing, everyone’s favorite type of viral marketing (that is, if it’s a positive recommendation).

Word-of-mouth marketing is when someone (who isn’t prompted) talks about a business (either in a positive or negative manner) to family, friends, coworkers, acquaintances, etc. Both online ratings and reviews and word-of-mouth marketing are free, which is a contributing factor to its popularity as a promotion vehicle.

While the low price point is most certainly a pro, the primary reason that local business review sites are popular is because of the authority they yield.

As mentioned earlier, research shows that people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations and that it directly influences their purchase decisions. In fact, shoppers read an average of 10 reviews before making a purchase, proving how powerful reviews on websites can be for businesses.²

Receive customer feedback (for free!)

Large enterprise companies pay top dollar to conduct focus groups to get customer feedback; business review sites give you that feedback for free.

One of the best things you can do with the feedback you get from review sites for businesses is to take it to heart and try to incorporate it into your strategy. While not all customer feedback is valid (there will be complainers and people who don’t understand your products/services), being open to constructive criticism will ensure your products and services evolve and continue to be popular with customers.

While not every online rating or review will be game-changing, it is important that you take the time to respond to the reviewer and thank him/her for sharing feedback.

Reach shoppers with a high purchase intent

Online reviews are a great way to reach customers when they are researching for products and services — and getting ready to make a purchase.

Even before they make contact with you, potential customers know a thing or two about your business because they searched for your business online.

Remember, shoppers read an average of 10 reviews before making a decision, so you should try to have 10-15 current reviews up on the three major review sites (Facebook, Google and Yelp) at all times.

Online reviews are only increasing in popularity, thanks to widespread adoption of sites like Google and Facebook. While it’s important to place your business in front of those with a high purchase intent, it’s also crucial for those in the discovery phase. If you aren’t monitoring online review websites, you can’t be 100% sure what is being said about your business online.

Increase your search engine page rank

Online reviews can also help you boost your small business’s SEO.

To see a bump in your page rank, you should strategically integrate keywords related to your small business into your business listing information on review sites. The addition of keywords will increase your business listing in the search results both internally (on the review site itself) and externally (search engines, like Google, Yahoo and Bing).

A lot of businesses avoid managing their online reputation because they worry that Internet trolls will visit their page and bad-mouth their business, which is simply not true! 75% of reviews are positive. And even if you do get a few bad eggs, if you actively respond to the review, you have a 33% chance that the negative review will turn positive.

If the reviewer doesn’t want to revise their post, don’t stress — you responded and that shows potential customers that you value your customers.

The post Build Your Online Reputation with Small Business Review Websites appeared first on LocalVox.

Digital Marketing Trends in 2017

With only a few months left in 2016, the Vivial digital marketing team has been looking ahead to 2017. Keep reading for our top marketing trend predictions that will shape 2017.

Is your marketing strategy ready for 2017 (the year of the rooster)? Keep reading and we’ll point you in the right direction.

It should come as no surprise that keeping up with the latest digital marketing trends is a great way to keep — and grow — your customer base and business as a whole. While you don’t have to be the next Seth Godin, staying in-the-know about the trends of marketing will help your business compete and make smart decisions about where to spend your marketing budget.

If thinking about 2017 digital marketing trends is a bit too overwhelming (after all, we still have a few months left in the year), check out our digital marketing trends of 2016 article.

You will notice that many of the marketing predictions we made in 2016 are actually the foundation for 2017’s online marketing trends. (Spoiler alert: it’s not a coincidence.)

Which 2017 digital marketing trend do you think will have the biggest impact on your business?

• Cross-device marketing optimization
• Darwinian advertising
• Facebook Live video
• Mobile messaging apps get more popular
• Conversion rate optimization (CRO)

 

Which 2017 digital marketing trend do you think will be the biggest?

Digital Marketing Trends in 2017

Cross-device marketing optimization

Regular readers of this blog know the importance of having a mobile marketing strategy for their business. With more than half of local searches occurring on a mobile device (i.e.: “locksmith near me”), businesses that have a mobile-friendly website and a strategy to rank in local searches are discovered by more customers.

While having a responsively designed website that is mobile-friendly is important, a significant portion of people still use a laptop/desktop/tablet computer at some point in their customer journey. Thus, your business should focus on creating a marketing strategy in 2017 that accounts for all devices a customer uses.

When taking a multichannel marketing approach to online marketing, you should take a close look at the behavior and demographics of your target customer.

Check out the stats below for a breakdown of device usage by age range: ¹

18 – 34 years: Practically all Millennials are mobile users (97%), with 20% not using a desktop/laptop computer at all.

35 – 54 years: It’s no surprise that Generation X has the highest percentage of multi-platform users (82%).

55+ years: Members of the Baby Boomer segment still have a sizable (but shrinking) portion of people who use only desktop/laptop devices (down to 26% in 2015 from 40% in 2013).

How can you apply this research to your 2017 marketing strategy?

Focus on optimizing each channel based on where it fits in the customer journey. Let’s look at an example.

Example: Joseph the Locksmith

Joseph is a locksmith that provides services to apartment dwellers and local businesses in the Prospect Heights and Park Slope sections of Brooklyn, NY. He has a diverse customer base: young college students and first time apartment renters who accidentally lock themselves out of their apartments (Millennials), business owners who rely on him for his lock and security expertise (Generation X) and homeowners that have him provide routine maintenance on the locks and window guards in their apartments (Baby Boomers).

Joseph recently invested in a responsively-designed website and has also begun an online advertising campaign. Like any savvy business owner, Joseph wants to get the most bang for his buck with his internet ads, so he decides to focus on optimizing his ads across multiple devices.

Based on client feedback and demographic research into platforms (which he did in Google Analytics — a free tool that he plugged into his website), Joseph was able to apply the following learnings to his advertising campaign:

Mobile devices: If a college student contacts a locksmith to break into their apartment for them, it’s safe to say that they are using a mobile device to contact Joseph (after all, 97% of them have mobile devices).

To be discovered by this audience, Joseph has optimized his website for mobile with a click-to-call button and started running Google AdWords with the call extension feature. The flustered student only has to click a button on their mobile device to get in touch with Joseph.

Laptop/desktop/tablet: Local business owners research different options before choosing a locksmith; they want someone who is trustworthy, professional and has a fair price.

Since this segment is conducting research on multiple service providers, they do so on a laptop/desktop/tablet computer. Not only is it difficult to do more complex internet research on mobile devices, this group of local business owners fall into the Generation X segment that has the largest portion of multi-channel usage.

Joseph knows that once they have made a decision they will contact him on their mobile phone to schedule an appointment. However, he knows it is important to get in front of this audience early on when they are doing research on their laptop/desktop/tablet computers. The fact that they call on a mobile device is less important in this scenario.

The online ads that Joseph runs targeting business owners are primarily served on laptop/desktop/tablet computers. His messaging incorporates the positive Google testimonials he has received from happy clients. To stay top-of-mind, Joseph also runs remarketing (or retargeting) ads that follow the researcher around the internet for 30 days.

Joseph uses a similar marketing strategy when trying to reach homeowners that are part of the Baby Boomer generation. He chooses different keywords that are centered around home lock and security maintenance to ensure his ads are seen by local apartment owners.

Cross-device attribution to a single ID is the one area that programmatic advertising has yet to overcome. Due to a recent wave of tech acquisitions by marketing technology behmouths, expect a solution in 2017.

As smartphone adoption proliferates and new types of devices enter the market (i.e.: the Apple Watch, Amazon Echo Dot), marketing technology companies must be able to attribute data and behaviors from all the different devices a person uses to a single ID. Cross-device attribution to a single ID is the one area that programmatic advertising has yet to overcome.

However, the most recent wave of acquisitions of cross-device startups by large martech giants is a good indication that digital marketing in 2017 will continue to focus on understanding the end user’s identity across channels and devices, giving advertisers like Joseph the Locksmith the capability to use digital advertising in completely new and innovative ways.²

Darwinian advertising

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms in digital advertising is nothing new. Case and point: Google AdWords uses a mathematical algorithm that associates a user’s search query with advertiser keywords and assigns a “quality score” to the ad. Since Google is a pay-per-click platform (which is why it’s so popular with small businesses — there isn’t a minimum spend and you can turn it off anytime you like), the algorithm uses information it gathers from many different sources to serve the ad to the user most likely to click on it.

Parts of the creative that don’t engage a user are automatically removed from circulation, while those that receive a reaction (be it happy, sad, angry, etc.) are reworked into further executions of the ad.

The 2017 digital advertising trend that we’ll witness when it comes to AI algorithms involves optimizing all creative components (such as colors, fonts, copy).  In this survival of the fittest digital advertising concept, the parts of creative that remain are used in further iterations of the “better” ad.

If you are more of a visual learner, visit Electric Sheep and download the software. Electric Sheep is run by thousands of people — and their computers — across the globe. When the computers go to “sleep,” the Electic Sheep comes to life and the computers communicate with each other via the internet, sharing the work of creating morphing abstract animations known as “sheep.”

If Electric Sheep is a little too Burning Man for your taste, you can also check out this Fast Company article about one of the first billboards to use AI.

Facebook Live video

In 2015, Periscope, the live streaming video platform, catapulted to the front page of news sites when Twitter quickly scooped it up and integrated it into their technology. Fast forward one year and Facebook has launched Live, a way for people, public figures and Pages (that’s you, local business owner!) to share live video with their followers and friends on Facebook.

Facebook Live is the result of two trends we cited in our 2016 digital marketing trends article:

1. Widespread adoption of smartphones
2. Increasing amounts of web traffic from video

One signal that Facebook Live is going to be big? Notice the prime placement of the button in the top left-hand corner of the app.

With Facebook owning four of the top six most downloaded apps (Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp), it’s no surprise that the social media giant would want to leverage this competitive advantage and create a product line just for this growing audience.¹ Welcome, Facebook Live!

Facebook Live is very easy-to-use and businesses of all types can use live streaming to increase engagement with their Facebook followers. To get started on Facebook Live, simply click on the Live button in your News Feed, write a short description of what your audience is going to see and start filming.

If you aren’t convinced that Facebook Live is going to have an impact on digital marketing in 2017, the fact that this new product exists underscores just how important video has become to the social media behemoth. Facebook knows that its customers watch 100 million hours of video — every single day.³

Facebook Live is planning that the next 100 million hours will come from videos that their customers create themselves (filming and streaming on Facebook, of course).

Many businesses are unsure how they can use live streaming as a way to promote themselves because the video format insinuates hours of editing, hiring a videographer, etc. We wrote an article that includes ideas and tips that you can use to incorporate live streaming into your local business’s marketing plan quickly and easily.

Mobile messaging apps get more popular

As smartphone adoption becomes more widespread, the use of mobile messaging apps will continue to grow — and you can expect some big changes in 2017.

Mobile messaging apps (such as Facebook’s Mobile Messenger, WhatsApp, Snapchat and WeChat) allow users to communicate with contacts in a space outside of public social media networks.

As Facebook grew in membership throughout the 2000’s (and continues to grow), there was never a shortage of rumors that the social media network would begin charging a subscription fee to users in order to stay profitable. Those rumors never amounted to anything because Facebook knew it would be far more lucrative to collect members’ information and use it to sell advertising to businesses.

Fast forward to today and, just like early Facebook rumors, mobile messenger app owners know that users do not want to pay a subscription to use them (app owners have committed to being free in the past). At the same time, users also do not want to see paid advertising inside these apps because it feels like a violation of privacy. While paid media options on mobile messaging apps will be limited, this is one of the last areas that can be monetized from a social media perspective.

If you can’t serve ads to mobile messaging app users, what other solutions can you create to give paying businesses access to your members?

Expect mobile messaging app owners to provide new options for reaching consumers via their platforms to businesses in 2017 as usage continues to grow.

Conversion rate optimization (CRO)

The principles behind CRO are actually very similar to those of direct response marketing, focusing on tracking, testing and on-going improvement.

Conversion rate optimization is an internet marketing strategy where the goal is to increase the percentage of visitors to a website that convert into customers (or take your desired action).

When marketers start tossing acronyms and industry-specific jargon into the mix, many local businesses zone out because they don’t believe the tactic can help them reach their specific goals.

However, I would be willing to buy a coffee for any business owner that hasn’t used some form of CRO:

A/B split testing: have you broken down your audience into different segments and tried out different messaging with each? If yes, you’ve used CRO!

Response tracking: do you run coupons and deals that you track back to sales? If yes, you’ve used CRO!

Advertising test by audience: do you have multiple different ads that you use in different newspapers (because the audience has different behaviors and purchasing patterns)? If yes, you’ve used CRO!

One of the biggest benefits of conversion rate optimization is generating more leads or sales without investing unnecessary money on “fluff,” such as website traffic that originates in Siberia (если вы не продаете зимние куртки россиянам). Conversion rate optimization has been evolving for a few years and we predict that it will find its stride in 2017.

It’s worth noting that CRO is often tied into the user experience of a website, something Google takes keen interest in since they don’t want to send a searcher to a website with a poor design. In fact, Google recently began penalizing websites that serve pop-ups and interstitials on mobile devices.

Honorable mentions:

The internet of things (IoT)

The IoT is the concept that any device with an on/off switch can be connected to the internet (and, therefore, to each other). Examples include coffee makers (my personal favorite), lights in a room of your house, wearable devices like the Apple Watch and even cars. When all these devices are connected to the internet, they gather huge amounts of data about a person’s behavior, choices and habits.

Currently, the IoT is in a growth and data collection phase. As more and more people connect to the IoT and provide it with data, it becomes a more robust marketing and sales tool that businesses of all types can capitalize on.

A recent study by Gartner reported that by 2020 there will be over 26 billion connected devices.² While nobody will argue that the IoT will only continue to grow in size as technology becomes more affordable and widespread, how can you — a local business owner — use it for your digital marketing strategy?

As more and more people connect to the IoT and provide it with data, it becomes a more robust marketing and sales tool that businesses of all types can capitalize on.

For example, my IoT refrigerator tells you, a local grocery store, that I purchase milk every 7 days. You can now show your business’s digital ads to me right when I’m making a decision about which grocery store to visit for my weekly milk purchase. The ability to provide highly-targeted ads, based on data the IoT provides, isn’t a scene from The Jetsons…it’s the future of marketing using the IoT.

Virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR, respectively)

I would be remiss if I didn’t include virtual and augmented reality in this list of 2017 digital marketing trends. After all, I have friends (and family members) over the age of 30 that spent a good portion of the summer trying to catch Pikachu. While the Pokemon Go craze has certainly proved to be a traffic boon for local businesses that can attract players (free wifi, anyone?), the challenge remains that many of these players don’t actually make a purchase (refer back to the CRO section for the rationale for focusing on sales).

In the same vein, virtual reality (think: Google Cardboard) is another developing trend that is difficult for the average local business to incorporate into a marketing strategy. In fact, research firm Gartner have estimated that AR and VR won’t actually be productive technology for businesses for the next 5-10 years.⁴

Therefore, for this article, I focused on practical digital marketing trends that businesses of all types and sizes can use as a part of their 2017 marketing strategy.

Conclusion

Our chairman and CEO, Jim Continenza, recently penned a piece for Business Insider that provides the perfect recap of all these 2017 digital marketing trends and where the industry is heading.

For the past several years, the advertising technology industry has been emerging, growing, and shifting in response to new customer behaviors. Content marketing, social media, texting, search engine optimization, location-based services, and data analysis are all ways today’s businesses find, reach, and engage with customers. And largely, the ad tech industry has been fragmented — looking for its identity. The industry is loosely defined and operating in silos.

While technology and customer behaviors continue to evolve, the one thing that will not change is the need for small and medium businesses, franchises, and Fortune 500 companies to make direct connections with customers and to interact with customers in real time.

If you have your own digital marketing prediction for 2017, we want to hear it! Drop us a line in the comments section at the bottom of the page and we’ll add it to this article.

The post Digital Marketing Trends in 2017 appeared first on LocalVox.

Create a Social Media Editorial Calendar

By: Nick Rojas, Guest Blogger

An editorial calendar is a blueprint of your social media marketing strategy, and setting one up is quick and easy. In fact, to create a social media editorial calendar for your business, you only need six steps (and, of course, great content).

Creating a social media editorial calendar for your business gives you both a high-level overview (so you can align with goals) and a day-to-day tactical guideline document.

Some of the most celebrated tweets in marketing history, like Oreo’s now-legendary Super Bowl blackout tweet, were spontaneous and off the cuff.

Every social marketing strategy should be flexible and leave room for spontaneity. However, to be successful in the long-term, disciplined scheduling, predictable posting and overall consistency will yield results that have bragging rights.

This is only possible with a social media editorial calendar.

Create a Social Media Editorial Calendar in 6 Steps

Step 1: Determine your posting strategy and delegate tasks

The first step is to when creating a social media editorial calendar is to determine your target audience and content strategy for each individual network (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest etc.).

For example, if you are part of a restaurant franchise and trying to reach a younger audience, using edgy and funny content on Twitter will resonate with millennials on the social network. When marketing your restaurant to families with young children, adding a kids meal discount offer to your Facebook marketing calendar will bring parents into your establishing. Pictures of food, shared on social media networks that focus on visual posts (think: Pinterest and Instagram) will give potential diners a preview of what it’s like to dine at your restaurant.

Dividing up social media responsibilities among your team creates a sense of accountability and ownership.

By using many different social media networks — each of which reaches a specific target audience — you are able to create messaging that speaks to each, increasing the effectiveness of your social marketing strategy.

If more than one person is responsible for managing social media for your small business, consider assigning specific tasks to each team member by social network. By focusing on a single network, that person will develop a deep understanding of the platform, the lingo and jargon used (example: #deleteyouraccount on Twitter), what type of content members enjoy and what type of material should never be posted on each social media network.

Step 2: Create a social media schedule

Now that you have the workflow mapped out for each social media network, you need to decide when to post to each platform. Each social media schedule will be different, influenced by campaign details, how your followers engage with your posts and the best time of day to post.

Over time you’ll learn what works best for your social media pages. In the meantime, you can use these general rules as a social media calendar template:

• Facebook: 3 – 10x / week
• Twitter: 5x / week (minimum)
• LinkedIn: 5x / week (maximum)
• Google+: 3 – 10x / week
• Instagram: 1x / day
• Pinterest: 10x / day (maximum)

Step 3: Develop a time frame

It will take you (and/or your team) to get a feel for how long it takes to go from social media concept to execution. A time frame is critical to the success of your social media marketing plan because it will help you to predict how much planning and collaboration time is needed before things like a big event, which we’ll cover in the next step.

Plan to add in some extra time for learning and handling the unexpected, too.

Step 4: Plan and organize key dates, launches and events

The entire purpose of creating a social media calendar for your business is to be as consistent and predictable as possible—but not so rigid that it doesn’t allow for adjustments.

Work important dates, such as product releases and big holidays, into your social media content calendar as they come up. If necessary, you can also ditch the workflow on occasion if you have an instance that warrants it (for example, if you are tweeting at an event — you won’t be able to schedule your posts in advance).

Another example: if your restaurant relies on big sales you bring in on Cinco de Mayo, you might want to dedicate the entire last week of April and the first four days in May to dedicated Cinco de Mayo posts. By posting Cinco de Mayo-related content in the weeks and days leading up to the holiday, your followers will associate that holiday with your restaurant (and plan on visiting you for margaritas on May 5).

Step 5: Move between on-site and off-site content

Develop a consistent blend of internal and external content when creating your social media calendar. Your posts should point to both content hosted on your site and external content off your site.

For example, if your restaurant focuses on sustainable seafood, you should link to both your own content and compelling articles from other sources (such as an article in National Geographic about depleted fish stocks or an infographic about fish farms).

Always use @mentions to credit your external sources to generate actions like shares and retweets.

One scheduling writer called physical editorial calendars “something familiar to help us comprehend something hard.”

Step 6: Create a visual calendar

Finally, create a physical, visually appealing social media calendar — you’re more likely to use it!

All of your tweets, posts and updates will be posted online, of course, but having a physical snapshot of the upcoming days, weeks and months will make the work feel more manageable and help you see the larger picture.

Put it all together

Now that we’ve discussed the steps, let’s create a sample social media editorial calendar.

If you have a business selling T-shirts, and you wish to structure your social media campaign to increase your effectiveness, what steps should you follow?

1. Determine your available resources: Do you have an in-house team who creates content? Or, perhaps you work with professional writers that write articles optimized for search engines? How many people will be involved? How much time do they have available?

For our T-shirt example, we’ll say we have one person available two hours a day.

2. Choose your posting frequency: Based on available resources, you can determine how often you’ll be posting. In this example, we can post 3x day on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ and share 5x on Pinterest.

3. Determine your themes: Create a spreadsheet where you determine your daily theme for each of the posts. Check out a sample theme schedule for our t-shirt example below.

Monday:

• Post 1: “Moody Monday”
• Post 2: Sale of the Day
• Post 3: Inspirational meme

Throwback Thursday

• Post 1: Image of retro t-shirts
• Post 2: Cool Pinterest pin
• Post 3: Funny animated GIF

You can lay out your themes on a spreadsheet, like this one from our local online marketing resource center.

4. Track the effectiveness of your posts: If you use a tool like the Vivial Marketing Platform to measure the amplification, conversation and engagement rate of your posts, you will be able to track your success over time. Based on your metrics, you’ll know what type of content resonates most with your audience. You can then adjust your strategy accordingly.

A social media campaign has to be well-organized, well-planned and well-executed to get the most ROI, generate the most action and have the biggest impact on branding. Creating a social media editorial calendar for your business is the blueprint and foundation of your strategy. It doesn’t have to be complicated—in fact, it shouldn’t be—but it does have to be consistent and reliable (yet flexible enough to roll with the punches).

The post Create a Social Media Editorial Calendar appeared first on LocalVox.

Holiday Marketing Ideas for Small Businesses

You probably haven’t thought about the 2016 holiday season yet, simply because the thermometer still reads 103 degrees and not 33. However, before you can Google “holiday marketing ideas,” Thanksgiving will be over and it will be Black Friday: the official start of the holiday shopping season.

At the end of August, savvy small business owners know it’s time to dust the sand and salt from summer vacations off their marketing campaign calendar and start planning their holiday marketing strategy. By starting early, you are able to craft holiday marketing strategies that convert potential customers to paying — and encourage loyal ones to spend more at your business.

The result? You’ll finish the year off strong.

Do you have a small business holiday marketing plan?

While no local business wants to wait until the very end of the year to meet their sales goals, the fact remains that 20-40% of yearly retailer sales take place during the last two months of the year. http://www.nrf.com/modules.php

However, increasing holiday sales with a well-planned holiday marketing campaigns is entirely within your control: the average shopper spends $800+ during the holiday season. https://nrf.com/media/press-releases/gift-givers-plan-splurge-friends-family-this-holiday-season

To get started planning, download a copy of our 2016 holiday marketing calendar. You’ll find holiday advertising ideas, sales promotions and marketing tips that will help plan for every stage of the holiday shopping season. We even integrated the USPS holiday calendar, so you can be sure your shipments make it to your customers on time.

Create a marketing plan for holiday sales

The type of shopping done during the holiday season is entirely different from everyday shopping (even smaller holiday shopping, such as Labor Day and Memorial Day). The sheer volume of consumers that are shopping, combined with the wide variety of products and services they are seeking out (many of which are gifts), makes the Q4 shopping season a prime time to meet sales goals — if you can drive traffic to your store.

The key to driving traffic and increasing sales during the holiday shopping season is knowing exactly who your target audience is and marketing to them well in advance of the holiday season (and, no, bringing out the Thanksgiving and Christmas decor in August doesn’t count).

Businesses that communicate with their target audience year-round have more successful holiday marketing campaigns (and, thus, sales) because they have built up strong relationships with shoppers.

Taking the time to identify your target market will not only help you with think of holiday promotion ideas that are effective and drive sales, but you’ll also stay in lockstep with your customers’ preferences and purchasing habits throughout the year.

Read target audience blog article

Build holiday promotion ideas into a year-round marketing strategy

Once you have defined your target market, you should set up a long-term marketing strategy that includes how you will reach customers before, during and after the holiday season.

By continually messaging your audience, your business will be top-of-mind throughout the entire customer journey, whether they are creating wish lists for Santa in December or buying birthday gifts in June.

Your holiday marketing strategy shouldn’t drastically change the online marketing efforts you already have in place; rather, it should focus your tactics.

Keep reading for the top 2016 holiday marketing ideas that your local business can use to compete with big name stores (that have the ability to offer equally as big discounts) and keep your business top-of-mind with local shoppers.

Holiday marketing ideas for small businesses

Provide a storewide discount

During the holiday season, shoppers visit stores for both gifts and inspiration. When you run simultaneously run sales and discounts that apply to certain products/services only, customers often feel restricted — the exact opposite of what you want a holiday shopper to feel when considering what purchase to make.

To eliminate feelings of restriction, offer holiday shoppers a storewide discount. Not only does research show that 41% of consumers prefer storewide discounts vs. other types of holiday promotions, but it’s also easier for you from a logistics perspective.¹

Many small businesses shy away from providing storewide discounts because they’re afraid of cutting into profit margins. If you feel you’re giving too much away and not getting anything in return, you can always place restrictions on the storewide discount. For example, shoppers are only eligible for your storewide discount if they provide you with their email address and opt-in to receive your monthly newsletter. Suddenly your holiday promotional discount has evolved into an email list acquisition strategy.

Special hours on Black Friday

If having a storewide discount doesn’t make sense for your small business, consider having special hours on Black Friday to ensure you capture as many holiday shoppers as possible.

As much as people criticize Black Friday, 22% of consumers still brave the crowds and go shopping on this infamous day. Black Friday shoppers expect that businesses will have special hours and give them some sort of deal, whether it’s a free product/service when they spend a certain amount or a discount code that they can use at a future date.²

While you open at 5 pm on Thanksgiving, your holiday marketing strategy should plan for extended hours — and special sales — on Black Friday in order to capture shoppers who are ready, willing and eager to spend.

If you use an online marketing platform, like LocalVox, be sure that you update your Black Friday hours in your dashboard. After all, when shoppers search for you, it’s important that they see you are open for business. It would be terrible to invest time and resources into a holiday marketing strategy if your store hours are listed as “closed” in online directories.

Run a business listing report

To ensure that holiday shoppers discover your business when they look on search engines and online directories, run an online directory report to make sure your business information is correct.

You can run a free business listing report that shows you how your business shows up on top directories like Bing, Foursquare and Yelp. The report will show you places where your business name is wrong, incorrect phone numbers and address problems. Once you identify the online directories with errors, you can contact the website and fix.

Run your business listing report

If you use the LocalVox platform, your online directories are automatically claimed and optimized. You can skip this step.

Use local holiday advertising

A consumer is willing to travel up to 17 minutes to shop at a local business.²

Being a local business gives you a competitive edge, but only if consumers in your area are aware you exist!

One way to increase awareness of your business with a new audience is through online advertising.

PPC (or pay-per-click) online advertising can help you reach shoppers in a targeted region and let them know about special holiday deals and promotions you have planned or that are in progress. PPC campaigns increase awareness of a business by 63%, making it an ideal holiday advertising vehicle for any type of local business.³

PPC ads can be used on pretty much any digital property. However, local businesses get the best results from Google search ads and Facebook’s social media ads. In fact, 29% of shoppers have gone on to purchase from a local business after seeing an ad on Facebook.⁴

Unlike other types of advertising (such as TV, billboards, newspapers), online advertising is extremely cost-effective because shows your message only to qualified customers — not everyone — so you know your ads are being seen by those most likely to buy from you.

If you’ve never used PPC or social media advertising — or just don’t have the time to manage another marketing channel — there are a lot of different options available to you. I recommend our sister company, The Berry Company, because every customer receives a dedicated account coordinator (that you are on a first name basis with!). Your account coordinator will work behind the scene to optimize keywords for your advertising campaign 24/7 and report back to you with results and recommendations about how to make your campaign more effective.

Mobile matters (and not just the iPhone7 you’re asking Santa for)

From planning a store visit to comparison shopping in-store for products, mobile devices are playing a larger role in the customer journey and decision-making process than ever before. 82% of shoppers report that they use mobile devices while they shop — and one of the main things they are searching for is store information.⁵

Not having a year-round strategy to capture the attention mobile shoppers will limit your holiday sales potential before the season even begins (yikes!). A mobile-friendly website (or a responsively-designed one) will allow shoppers to easily find the information they are looking for on your website (such as a phone number or map with driving directions). With XX% of mobile searchers taking action within X hours, a mobile-friendly website allows for a seamless customer journey from discovery to purchase.⁶

If your site isn’t mobile-friendly, consider investing in a responsively-designed website and it will render correctly on any type of device (mobile phones, tablets, desktop computers, etc.).

To incorporate mobile into your 2016 holiday marketing plans, consider running an online mobile-exclusive coupon or discount that requires a customer to redeem in-store. When a shopper receives your mobile coupon and adds it to their phone’s Passbook, you have effectively added your business as a destination for them to shop at during the holiday season.⁷

Ramp up your social media marketing

In addition to being accessible to shoppers on all their devices, your local business should have an active presence across the Internet — including social media networks.

Businesses that manage their social media channels effectively have a direct impact on purchase behavior and can positively influence sales. With 75% of shoppers having reported that they purchased something because they saw it on social media, be sure that shoppers are searching for the perfect gift they find your business.⁸

If you’re unsure how to build social media into your small business’s holiday marketing calendar, download a copy of our Social Media Content Calendar and plan your posts in advance.

Below are a few ideas for great social media posts during the holiday season:

• Gift guides
• Wish lists
• Products and services with great reviews
• New and creative ways to use your products/services
• Seasons greetings from your staff
• Popular products that are trending

Managing your social media posts should be the easiest part of your holiday marketing, especially if you use a tool such as LocalVox. LocalVox customers are able to manage all their social media profiles (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+) from one central dashboard, making prioritization and scheduling your social media activities a breeze.

Create gift guides

Holiday shoppers don’t always know what they are planning to purchase and often seek out guidance and direction regarding certain products and services that they might give as a gift.

How many times have you gone into the holiday season and not know what to get for your dad, employees or friends?

Help shoppers make gift-giving decisions by giving them some ideas in a gift guide — and they’ll be more likely to visit your business to make that purchase.

If you aren’t a brick-and-mortar retail store, don’t cross gift guides off your holiday marketing ideas list! Gift guides work well for all types of business, from retail stores restaurants to service providers and seasonal businesses. Service providers and seasonal businesses can use gift guides to pre-sell and package services for future use, giving you guaranteed business in the year ahead. For example, a home decorator that falls into the service provider category could offer a free 1-hour consultation with every design package purchased from October – December. If you’re a seasonal business, such as a water park, you can sell passes for the upcoming season at a discounted rate.

The sky is the limit, so get creative with your holiday marketing gift guide ideas.

Partner with other nearby small businesses

Partner with other local businesses in your area and promote one another’s products/services during the holiday season. Partnerships with other local businesses will spread awareness about your business to a new audience of highly qualified buyers.

For example, if you are a hair salon, you could partner with the nail salon down the street and agree to put business cards, brochures and flyers in the customer waiting area. Or, you could go as far as putting together special holiday packages that combine products/services from each of your businesses where you share the revenue.

I’ve seen also seen a lot of local restaurants and movie theaters offer “dinner and a movie” packages to their customers during the holiday season. Get creative with your partnerships, but make sure that you go in with clear objectives that you want to accomplish in mind.

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You holiday marketing plan shouldn’t be a last-minute scramble in October, rather it should be a part of your year-round strategy. 47% of consumers start thinking about holiday shopping in October (or earlier) and 74% start shopping in November. http://www.godigitalmarketing.com/resources/8-habits-local-business-holiday-shopper/

It’s important that your business is top-of-mind when consumers start thinking about holiday shopping so that you make the list of places they need to visit. From mobile coupons to new partnerships, your small business holiday marketing efforts matter and will directly influence your year-end sales.

Lots of local businesses have successfully managed their holiday marketing strategy (and grown sales) by using the LocalVox platform. LocalVox gives you the ability distribute all of your great holiday marketing ideas across the Internet — search, maps, email, social, coupons and deals, reviews — with the touch of one button. Get started today.

The post Holiday Marketing Ideas for Small Businesses appeared first on LocalVox.