Marketing an offline business online

How would you go about marketing an offline business online to try to get local clients?

 

What type of business do you have? You should think about getting a website first. Through a website, you will be able to target local audience and international audience as well.

 

Local, education related. Got a site, social accounts etc.

 

Hi, my normal answer is that you need to find where the buyers hang out then get in front of the buyers at that location. So, where do your local buyers find local resources? For instance are there local interest groups on Facebook, and do you know what they are? If they are using Google, do you know what search terms they use for local results? Is your site optimized to be listed locally on Google? Just a few of the questions that come to mind.

With a local business you have a huge advantage over the rest of us and I recommend that you use it. Go to some of the potential buyers in your local area and talk to them. It doesn't need to be a sales pitch, do something along the line of "I am looking to create an educational "insert your product here" for the local market and I plan on showcasing it on the internet. Do you search the internet for products like "-----"? I have found that people love to talk and aside from their family and pets they like to talk about their business. With a few of these discussions you will have invaluable market research on how to get your product in front of your local buyers on the internet. And don't leave out the possibility that the best approach may be with direct sales calls and using your web site as a demonstration resource. Not all businesses will find the internet the best marketing medium.

 

If it is educational related perhaps you can offer some of your educational materials available online through a newsletter or other opt-in mail system. Have a blog on the website with relevant and valuable information. Additionally, you can have a free info packet to offer that will bring people to a squeeze page to get their info to opt-in for the above.

 

That's why God gave us craigslist.

 

Haha love your reply.

I won't suggest you waste your time on all the social media sites, but choose 2-3 you know your students will hang out. Get your site and resources up first.

Happy to help. Just drop me a PM

 

I so agree, It will be seen as SPAM UNLESS - You are Taco Bell, Maceys etc

 

You can also carry out an analysis to discover and compile a list of locally optimized keywords for that geographical location. Then build your site utilizing those keywords to enable you rank organically for the those keywords so that you can establish an online reputation and branding.

Search on google for those sites that are ranking for those locally optimized keywords and request for guest blogging opportunity so that part of their traffic is redirected to your site.

When you exploit these options, you will discover that you will start ranking organically and at the same time gaining targeted traffic to your site.

Hope this helps

 

Initially I will submit the business to local business citation sites, there are a lot out there that are free for the business to gain online visibility.

 

Best is to start building list! if you want I can guide you, PM me!

 

In order to get local clients try to target your customers according to their place and you must dominate the search engine rankings results first to get organic traffic. Try also social media sites for your fast paced medium to reach your targeted audience.

 

i would choose a few social online places to start with. Also have something available so if anyone looks your store up on google it will pop up. If your business appears on yelp or any other related places, have good comments appear there

 

Yelp and google can do wonders for offline businesses online. People go to the web for information and those are usually the first sources they check.