Digital Marketing Checklist for Local Businesses

Take the red pill, and you can keep reading this post.

Or take the blue pill, leave this site, and stay in wonderland forever.

Well…that's a little dramatic, I guess.

But one of my top 5 movies, and I'm a big dork. Plus it's my site.  

But seriously, digital marketing is an important tool to use no matter what kind of business you have.

However, digital marketing is something overlooked by many local businesses.

Founder of RetailMinded, Nicole Leinbach-Reyhle wrote in an article for Forbes:

Many businesses, particularly those that don’t actually sell anything online, often complain that there’s not enough time in the day to “do it all” and as a result, online marketing gets shoved to the side. Unfortunately, this isn’t how customers make decisions. The reality is consumers – likely even you – turn to the internet to discover what to do, where to go, who to buy things from and more.  (@RetailMinded)

Now that you understand why digital marketing is so important to your local business, read below to learn ways to easily incorporate it into your marketing strategy:

1.) Create a Professional Site

You would think it would go without saying that your site should be professional and helpful.

However, there are so many sites out there that don’t have basic things, such as the business’s hours or location. This is just silly.

You want customers to find you, and your website is one of your biggest tools to make this happen.

We are loving Thrive Themes.   Super easy to use, and very professional right out of box.

If you like this site, you can grab the template we used here.

2.) Keep Information on Your Site Up-To-Date

Make sure you provide an easy-to-navigate site that prominently features your business hours, locations and what you sell.

Also, make sure you keep those numbers and addresses up-to-date. There is nothing more aggravating than someone driving across town to find your business has moved.

Your site should also provide multiple ways to contact you.

A phone number, your social media account and an email address are just a few examples.

Finally, don’t forget the all important call-to-action.

Customers visiting your site should leave knowing why they would want to do business with you. They should also know how to take the steps necessary to get in touch with you or to come by your business.

3.) Mobile Friendly Website

If your website isn't responsive or mobile-friendly yet you are probably losing opportunities to your competitors.

As of July 2015, over 51% of Internet traffic in the United States now comes via mobile devices (mostly smart phones). That means many customers and prospects are likely having a poor experience with your brand, as non-mobile friendly websites are very difficult to browse from a phone.

Melanie Franke, in an article for GoDigital explains:

Small business owners may not be feeling an immediate sting from this, but the potential losses will only grow as more and more consumers demand effortless and easy-to-use experiences, no matter what devices they’re using and what channels they’re shopping in.

To top it off, nearly half of consumers say they won’t return to a mobile site if it doesn't load properly on their device. That gives your mobile-savvy competitors the chance to scoop up your potential customers. (@Melanie_Lewis)

Making matters even worse, Google started penalizing non-mobile friendly websites back in April of last year, so if your not mobile-friendly yet, your website's ranking on search results pages has probably dropped –  meaning your businesses visibility and lead generation has also dropped.

If your organization doesn't already have a mobile responsive web design, you better get one quickly.

4.) Don’t Forget the Landing Page

Another thing to remember is the importance of landing pages. This is the first impression your visitors will have when clicking on your site.

You want to make sure that it is the best page of all with regard to local needs or wants.

Again…Thrive is awesome.  This video shows their landing page builder that makes cranking out landing pages easy and fast.

We did this landing page with it.  And this one. And this one. And this one too.

I cranked each of those out in about 10-15 minutes.

With an easy builder like this, you remove the fear of landing pages taking a lot of your time, or having to work with an outsourcer.

Since it's easy, you just create one for almost everything.  And get many more email addresses on your list

5.) Utilize Social Media/ Post Regularly

Social media is a huge tool you should use as a local business owner.

Keep in mind; however, it does no good to have a Facebook account if you don’t actually post on it regularly. Not every ten minutes, though. You don’t want to annoy your followers.

Make sure you regularly post helpful content or links to your site where you have interesting content ready for your customers, or audience, to enjoy.

According to a great article in Social Media Examiner by Kristi Hines:

The most important way to use your Facebook page for business is to engage with your audience. Your audience is composed of a variety of people–fans of your content, fans of your business, potential customers, current customers and former customers. With this in mind, create posts and content that engage these groups of people.

The traditional rule for audience engagement is 80/20. Eighty percent of your content should be for your audience, and 20% should be for your business (sales, marketing, self-promotion, etc.).

This means that the majority of your posts should be aimed at getting your audience to engage with your page. You can do this by encouraging audience participation and sharing content relevant to your niche or industry.

You want it to be helpful to them. For example, if you are a real estate agent, posts with tips on how to easily increase the value of their homes.

Social Media Post Ideas

It's tough to come up with relevant idea to post about that also position you as someone your prospects want to do business with.

We put together the best social media post ideas to make you facinating to your prospects in a free download here. 

6.) Provide Solutions, Use Multimedia

Provide ways your business can help with your audiences’ problems.

Also, don’t avoid multimedia posts.

Videos can be a great way to communicate your message, and showcase clear solutions to a common problem.

While video may seem like an expensive trend that is out of the grasp of many small businesses, it can be an inexpensive and effective marketing tool for even the smallest business.

Today, if you have a smartphone, you can make a great marketing video. A one-minute video highlighting the things that make your company unique could become your best customer acquisition tool.

We also recommend repurposing your content. Or

You can download our Content Repurposing Mindmap here, then listen to this episode of the podcast that walks you through the entire process step-by-step.

7.) Maximize Marketing Budget

If you are on Facebook or just trying to get your site viewed through the use of paid tools, you want to make sure you are focusing on the right people.

You don’t just want reads and visits, you want conversions.

One of the best ways to get high conversion from Facebook paid ads is to target the right crowd.

Justin Brooke, is one the smartest dudes on this topic, and shares some great insights in this article. Including this:

One of the major benefits of using custom audiences is another feature called ‘Lookalike Audiences.’

And here’s how you can use it to your advantage.

When you upload names into Facebook it looks at who those users are, and uses an algorithm to look at what their Facebook profiles look like.

Their algorithm takes into consideration all the things those people are interested in and then Facebook says, “Oh, here’s all the other people that look like your audience.”

So you can basically take your ‘Buyers’ list and then tell Facebook, “Go find me all the other people that are like these people.”

And then you can advertise to a gro