If you are looking into the different pieces of marketing, there are so many things you can do to really put you ahead of others in your industry. But there are quite a few things you can do today to help get you started marketing your product in your local area.
Photos
If you are a local business, chances are you have dozens, or hundreds, or thousands, of beautiful photos of your work, your staff, and what you do (if you don’t, that should be your first step).
There are so many ways you can utilize these photos, but the easiest place to start is by SEO-ing up your photos. To do this, you will want to tell Google exactly what is in those photos.
The two most important pieces of this are your file name and Alt text. Before you upload photos, make sure you call it something that tells Google what is in the photo. For instance:
- Boise-Idaho-sunrise.jpg
- Best-Boise-Idaho-Restaurants.jpg
And always, always remember to put a hyphen in those file names — otherwise the final URL on your website could look like a mess.
The second tip is to include content in the Alt Text box on your website. The Alt Text content should include anything related to the photo that you think could help Google. An Alt Text could look something like this:
Riverside Hotel in Boise, Idaho — one of our top 10 favorite hotels in Boise.
When you are editing your photo, you can find your Alt Text and Photo Title here (if you use WordPress):
This Alt Text will tell Google what the photo contains, and why people should care.
Blogging About Your Brand
Blogging is also important for SEO value. Although it is also important as additional content to give your readers more information, we always suggest brand blogging because it can help Google figure out exactly what you are about.
As a local brand, marketing the different things that you do will help users find you and learn about all the special things you have to offer.
If you are writing specific blogs about the many things you do or tips you can offer, then you are more likely to come up with a number of different searches that any potential guest could be searching for.
There are a number of keyword tools that can help you learn more about what people are searching for, and you will want to use those keywords to formulate an article. Although you will want to write generic articles (as an example: Top 10 things to do in Casper), you will also want to narrow it down (Top 10 pizza places in Casper) to account for the different searches people might make.
Email Marketing
Social media is a vast black hole where even the largest brand can get lost. Although it is an incredibly crucial part of marketing, email marketing is a better place to focus your attention when you are just starting your marketing efforts.
The reason for this is because people who have signed up for your email newsletter have shown a semi-significant interest in your brand. Continually sending out updates, your blog posts, and of course your beautiful photos are easy ways to remind your users on a regular basis that you are still here, and worth reaching out to.
Talk about events you have coming up, projects you have completed, and how you can improve their lives.
Make sure your website is optimized for encouraging email sign-ups and then make email marketing a focus.
Local Marketing
There are so many things you can do to market your product and brand, which can be overwhelming. But if you start with some of the easiest tourism marketing tips, you should begin to gain traction right away so you can focus on what you do best — running your business.