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Locally Focused Web Site Tips for Connecting With Your Customers: Part One
By Nick Berliner | April 9, 2008
Locally focused online marketing and advertising is critical for businesses and web sites competing in the local marketplace. In the highly competitive local space, connecting with your customers will be the key for repeat business, word of mouth buzz, and increased sales. In this two part article, I’ve identified ten tips for making your web site more local-friendly and fostering connections with visitors to your site. Here are the first five:
1) Put your phone number and address on every page. Yes, this seems like a pretty simple and common sense suggestion, but it’s an old goody that many web site owners ignore. Placing your local phone number and street address on the top right corner of every page, in HTML text – not as an image or part of a banner - not only tells users that you are local and how they can reach you, but it will also help the search engines connect you to local searches.
2) Highlight positive reviews prominently on your home page. Quoting and linking to a local review source (Local newspaper or Citysearch – now partnering with OpenList.com) gives your site credibility and also lets visitors connect with a familiar, local source.
3) Put a blog on your site. This is the chic thing to do at the moment, but if it’s used correctly, and earnestly, it can build a following and be an avenue to talk directly to your customers about what’s new and special about your business. One major issue most small business web sites face is the lack of fresh content gives visitors, and search engine spiders, no reason to return. Starting a blog requires making a commitment to post something once or twice a week, but blog posts don’t need to be overly long or super in depth. Just provide some fresh content that tells users what’s up and starts a dialogue (For a local hardware store: “I used the new DeWitt border spade to fix up my lawn this weekend…”, or for the local restaurant: “Truffle season is back and our fall menu is going to clog your arteries!”).
4) Offer a discount or coupon to the locals in your area. Offering a coupon or discount to people in the same zip code or neighborhood (verifiable by their driver’s license address) is another way to promote local patronage and connect with your customers. Don’t make them print anything out or enforce an expiration date, rather remove all obstacles to create a simple, easy way for customers to get a great deal and feel good about the money they’re spending.
5) Create a testimonials page. Another 101 recommendation, but if the testimonials have local mention (“My favorite Seattle bakery…”), it will not only fortify your community credentials, but help you get found in the search engine results pages too. Make sure you have a feedback form on your site (linked from the home page) so your customers can tell you what they like and don’t like. This is how you will get those great testimonials. It’s also how you fix what’s wrong and improve your service or product offerings.
Connecting with your web site visitors is the best way to turn them into loyal customers. Take their coat and make them feel at home. And then sell them that border spade thingy…
Topics: Web site, Neighborhood, Newspapers, Blogging, Local SEO, Local Search, Community, Local Advertisers, Advertising |