Marketing in Your Local Community

For most small businesses, all marketing is local marketing — as it should be. But even if your company is regional or national in scope, it’s a good idea to “go local” to select, targeted communities. The keys to effective community marketing can be summed up with three guidelines:

1. Get local: target your marketing efforts down to the neighborhood level
2. Get involved: participate in the community to generate visibility and good will
3. Get personal: as much as possible, market on a one-to-one, face-to-face basis

• Use local city-specific Web sites and local portals

City and town Web sites, as well as local versions of major portals, are growing in number and popularity.

• Use local search engines and directories

Make sure you’re listed with local search engines and city-specific directories.

• Set your Google ad to appear locally

If you operate a local business and advertise on Google, you can target local customers only.