Inspired Business Growth: Do you own a business that depends on local customers? Most brick-and-mortar businesses do very little online advertising or promotion, thinking that investing in internet marketing would be a waste of time for such a small geographic area.

Think again. Local online advertising can mean big business. Unless your business is the first thing that comes to mind for every person in your local community, keep in mind that approximately 60% of customers use the internet to research products or services online before they make a purchase (according to DoubleClick). And if you need a plumber, you would likely search for “plumber Naperville IL” - in fact, an estimated 30% of ALL internet searches have a local intent.

The various local advertising options you have:

Paid Search Engine Marketing - With PPC (Pay Per Click) search engine marketing, you can target your ads to only appear in a certain zip code. This way you can ensure that your ads are only being seen by the right potential customers.

Online Local Directories - Free options mentions in the above referenced article included the extremely popular MerchantCircle.com(USA), TouchLocal (UK) and Local.com as well as Google Local, Local.Yahoo.com, and Craigslist.

Local Online Media Planning and Buying - There are several very large websites that draw visitors that search for local information, and have the capability of geo-tergeting their ads to your region or zip code. National sites include Weather.com, Zillow.com, and CitySearch.com.

How to Market Your Small Local Business Online [Inspired Business Growth]

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