How are you doing with your digital marketing program? Unless you’re planning on going out of business any time soon, you’d better have a digital reach that extends beyond your website and Facebook page.
These digital-boosting tools can help you get your business in front of a very big audience.
LinkedIn Company Page
LinkedIn is the place to make business contacts using both your personal LinkedIn page and a LinkedIn company page. A company page puts your corporate logo on your resume. Link these to your company website and your other social networking accounts, and you’ve created big-time search visibility.
Google+ Business Page
Google + has a reputation for being more of a business-focused environment than Facebook and Twitter. A Google + business page is free and easy to manage. Google owns this social network so your Google + pages are pulled into Google searches just like your blog and website.
Google + Local Listing
Google designed its social media site with search capability. With Google + Local, they turned it into a free marketing tool for local businesses. It’s up to you to activate your listing. Go to Google +, get a Gmail account (if you don’t have one), and claim your Google + Local listing. Verify the information that Google put there for you, and add your own details.
Local Citation Sites
Local citation sites contain business listings with contact information, website links, maps and customer reviews. These listings will come up in search listings. They are also important to Google’s local search rankings and benefit your Google + Local listing. Claim your citations at Yelp, Google Places, Yahoo Local and other local citation sites.
Email Manager
Emails are back in popularity as a marketing tool. Google’s new algorithms love them. Most of us have cleaned the junk out of our mailboxes, so they’re getting attention again. If you’ve got a distribution list and want to use emails to keep in touch with your customers, check out MailChimp, Constant Contact and Salesforce. These are three of the biggest contact management services. Each offers their own mix of contact management tools, professional email designs, spam management and success tracking tools.
Working on a new website? Be sure to download these 6 simple tips to help you save time and money during the process.
Customer Listening Tool
If you want to know what your customers think of your business (and you should), use a customer feedback tool like SurveyMonkey. Build your own questionnaires and distribute them through your website, Facebook account or emails. Start the critical feedback loop that so many businesses think is important but never quite get around to taking care of.
You’ve got a lead on some of the most effective, cheapest and easiest digital media tools to boost your local internet search visibility. What are you waiting for?
The digital media world is evolving so quickly, it’s hard for even those of us in the business of bending it to our will to keep up with the changes. Need help with something on your digital readiness to-do list? Please let us know. Your frustration is our challenge.