Do you get the feeling your website might be a little boring, do you need a Local Business Marketing Strategy? If people aren’t staying on the site and doing whatever it is you want them to do, this is probably the case. Let’s face it, these days we all have the attention span of a hamster. It’s not a good thing, but it’s the reality of the high-paced digital age we live in.
What it means for your business is that your website has to shout at visitors, grab them by the lapels, shake them like crazy, and not let go until their world has been thoroughly and utterly rocked.
Okay, it doesn’t have to be that intense. All it has to do is grab attention and keep it, and here’s how you do that.
Use This Local Business Marketing Strategy to Make It Clear
What is your website about and what does it offer? If this isn’t clear and obvious within about 5 seconds, you need to make it clearer (remember what I said about the hamster attention span).
The header and graphics should state clearly what this site is about. Use graphics that are related to your niche (look around at other sites to get ideas if you need to) and use the keywords you’re targeting in your page headers. There’s a good chance these are the terms they used to find the site, so let them know they’re on the right page.
Short and Sweet
Keep headlines and titles short and to the point. Make them attention-grabbing so that they’re virtually shouting at the visitor. A great way to do this is to make your header a question
‘Do you hate cleaning? Leave it to us at Such-and-Such Cleaners of Possum Holler, Missouri.’ When it asks a question like this, the visitor naturally feels like answering, ‘yes!’
Headers that make them curious are also great. ‘I was wasting hours cleaning my bathtub until I found this simple solution!’ Make them ask, ‘Wow, what could it be?’
Break up the Text
Use short paragraphs, short sentences and bullet points as a local business marketing strategy. Whatever you do, don’t make it one massive block of text or an endless sentence. It shouldn’t look like a page out of Dostoyevsky. Bullet points are great for outlining benefits or features in a way that’s easy to skim.
Easy on the Eyes
Keep graphics simple, and especially backgrounds. It’s okay to use a little bit of color or a simple pattern, but don’t make it busy or distracting. You want them to focus on the text and not get a headache trying to read it.
Spice It up with Video
It’s always good to put a simple video on your site. It can be a video offering helpful advice or introducing your physical business. People love to have something to watch, so give them the option of digesting your message that way as well as with text.
The most local business marketing strategy when designing a website is to ask yourself, ‘What do I want people to do here?’ Do you want them to call your 800 number? Or sign up for your email newsletter? Whatever it is, the whole site should lead them straight to that. It should be like a slide at the playground, and it ends right there at your phone number.
David Carleton is a San Diego Local Business Marketing Consultant who specializes in showing small business owners how to spend less and get more from their marketing and advertising using low cost strategies in local business marketing, lead generation and conversion, Internet marketing and social media. To download a copy of the free report, “7 Steps to Website Success”, go to http://LocalBusinessMarketingSuccess.com
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Topic: Local Business Marketing Strategy
