Firstly let's say that there are different types of online marketing that you can do. The first one is done for branding and the other is targeting people who want to buy. For branding purposes you might be competing against big blue chip companies that have much bigger budgets that you. So for this reason it is best to try and target the buyers. The best way to do this is by target those people local to you as they are much easier to get in front of you and convert your sales. The question is how do you target your potential local customers? Well below are our top tips:

1. Local Listings in Search Engines

You can get listings for Google Maps, Yahoo Local and other similar programmes for all search engines. This means that when people search for a business in a certain area you will appear in the local results. This can be very useful as people looking for a local company will be interested in you and the competition will be less.

2. Local Directories

Online resources like Yell, Touch Local and the Thompson directory can be very useful for generating leads. Many people prefer to use these rather than the search engines to look for a local business as it is very easy to find companies by postcode or area. Again you are generating leads that are ready to buy rather than just browsing.

3. Localised PPC

When you set up your PPC campaign you can use keyword phrases that include your local area. There are a couple of advantages to this. Firstly the fact that you will be getting clicks from people looking to buy and secondly the cost that you will pay for each click will likely be lower. The reason for this is that there is probably less competition than there is for the more general words and less companies using the words just for branding purpose. The result is that the price you need to pay is lower.

4. Localised SEO

If you are involved in an SEO campaign for your website then you should target it for your local area. You will probably find that the competition in the search engine for local keywords is very low and much easier to get to the top for. You will then be generating a lot of potential customers that as mentioned before are ready to buy.

Whatever form of advertising you select you need to monitor it and make sure it is generating profit for you. The best way to do this is to monitor your ROI and you will then be able to determine the best forms of advertising. In addition if you find any form is giving you a low ROI you will need to adapt it or suspend it in order to generate the biggest profits.

Remember that in difficult times you cannot just simple carry on as usual, you need to adapt and develop your efforts to ensure you are not losing money unnecessarily.