Search marketing refers to the tactics or activities you do to gain site traffic and visibility from Google and other search engines either via paid or unpaid efforts. It encompasses search engine optimization or SEO to earn traffic from free or unpaid listings and search engine marketing or SEM through paid search listings.
SEM describes paid search activities. But what are the best search marketing tips for local businesses? Find out more by reading below.
Know and Understand Your Target Audience
It’s crucial to know your target audience more than funding a paid ad or other marketing strategies. Your brand or company should connect with and become close to your customers. Be familiar with customer behaviors using Google Analytics and additional metric monitoring online tools.
Here are some tips to better understand your customers:
- Answer the questions customers commonly or potentially ask in your site content library to earn rankings in Google. In that way, you’ll be perceived as an authority site of search engines because of the wealth of knowledge you’re providing on your site.
- Format your content in such a way that it’s user-friendly, using easy-to-understand words and less on jargon. Keep paragraphs short (2 to 3 sentences minimum) to encourage reading and avoid perceiving it as a tedious chore.
- Provide actionable steps and facts backed up with evidence rather than too subjective opinions or personal ideas. Work with a professional SEO company to help you create strategies to optimize your content.
Create Content Focusing on Your Top ROI Products
Your site content should always connect with your brand. As much as possible, always try to angle your content with a personal story. Customers love stories, especially those coming from local businesses or smaller companies, which resonate more compared to those from larger companies.
Here are some tips and tricks when creating content focusing on top return on investment products:
- Avoid spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.
- Develop realistic and achievable content marketing goals to create relevant content.
- Use and promote your content to drive quality leads to the sales funnel.
- Write longer content because it performs better as compared to shorter ones. For instance, write blogs about how to create an online digital course or other tutorials.
- Offer free and great value through your blog articles geared towards helping customers while promoting your products and services.
Use Appropriate Keywords
Use long-tail keyword mapping through free online tools, such as Google Keyword Planner. Research the search volume monthly for the top keywords in your field or industry. After which, rank your keywords in order of volume then cost per click. You can uncover your SEO-based content marketing or search engine marketing opportunities by balancing low and high search volume keywords.
Understand buyer persona and your target audience by posting content relevant to emerging consumer needs. Use appropriate keywords that reflect and communicate with clients’ personas. You need to map out the goals, behaviors, and needs of your ideal customers.
Here are some questions you need to ask yourself when using appropriate keywords:
- Who are my customers?
- What do my customers need to hear?
- What keywords would my target customers search?
Optimize the Sales Funnel
Large companies have the financial resources and domain authority to capture customers who are on top of the sales funnel using general keywords. For a local business, you have the flexibility to target customers by focusing on long-tail keyword searches on the bottom of sales and use them to your advantage.
Here are some ways to optimize your sales funnel:
- Generate traffic by focusing on the top of the sales funnel by creating good quality content that resonates best with your target audience. You can measure engagement through shares, time on site, comments, and several web pages visited.
- The real work starts in the middle of the funnel for a higher conversion rate. At this stage, you have to make the content engaging. Offer time-bound discounts or limited inventory or number of seats to prompt leads to act and convert, and eventually purchase your product or avail your services.
- Aim to keep your customers at the end of the funnel by delivering relevant suggestions, news, and case studies that reinforce the buying decision your customers made.
To know more about how you can generate traffic to your website, watch this video:
Conclusion
When it comes to search marketing, you have to make sure that those who are interested in your products and services will move forward to the actual conversion process. Using relevant keywords, content topic, and measuring your metrics are crucial so you can keep or make changes on your search marketing strategies to achieve local business growth and success.
