6 Online Marketing Strategies for Local Miami Businesses

Local businesses can benefit greatly from online marketing strategies that help to drive traffic through their doors. However, it has to be done with that aim in mind from the start. Many of the technologies necessary to bring foot traffic from an online presence have to be targeted for a local audience, from the search engine keywords to potential mobile customers. Here are a six ways to fine tune your online marketing strategy for local Miami businesses:

1. Target Local Keywords – Every online business must do a bit of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to stand out in their particular niche, but those that want local traffic must also include local SEO terms and keywords in their content. It’s not just enough just to combine a keyword with the name of a city, you also have to get into the mind of local customers who may be adding neighborhoods, beaches, or attractions to their query when they look for the best pizza place near Midtown or a tourist spot.

2. Make Sure You Use Responsive Web Design – Miami website design agencies know that the future is in mobile advertising, particularly for local traffic. Someone searching for an establishment while they’re out and about are usually doing it via a smartphone. If your web design is not responsive, it can be make it more difficult for users of these mobile devices. Plus, the Google is now downgrading sites that are not mobile-friendly as they also understand the ramifications of mobile technology.

3. Get the Word Out with Social Networking – If you don’t understand how people in a local area get information via popular social networking sites to make buying decisions, then hire a Miami digital marketing agency to manage your social networking profiles for you. They can reach a wider audience of people within your local area and provide the type of exposure and referrals to your site that can increase your conversions using this strategy. In a way, social networks is an online way for people to find out about local places that please people and many even provide a way to rate local establishments.

4. Facilitate Transactions with Local Strategies – Whether you’re a realtor looking to provide downloadable information for an open house with a QR code or a restaurant making it easy to get repeat customers with an online loyalty program, enabled via smartphones at the time of the purchase, you will have a way to give people reasons to remember you and hopefully visit and purchase again.

5. Publish Content with Local Interest – To make your site more popular with the local crowd, include topics in your blog of items of local interest. This will help to drive people to your site when they are looking up what to do around the area. If you can be a sponsor at some of these local events or spots, you can also tie in your online marketing to it by advertising your URL or including QR codes in your advertising offline.

6. Use Paid Advertising Campaigns to Target Local Areas – You can limit your Google Adwords campaigns to local areas instead of the entire state. You can also create a local business profile for Google Plus for businesses. Or, pay to add your business to Google Maps.

Don’t forget to include your own location information for those looking for nearby businesses. This is normally referred to as your NAP (name, address, phone number). Make it visible on all pages of your site via a footer or header and you will be well on your way to getting local attention.

Victor Gonzalez6 Online Marketing Strategies for Local Miami Businesses
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7 Reasons Your Website Redesign Should be Responsive

The rise of powerful mobile devices and smartphones has increased the need for responsive design. This allows a website to adapt to nearly any device so that it can be clearly seen and used. Unfortunately, not all sites are embracing responsive design. There are seven reasons your website redesign should be responsive.

Mobile Commerce Is Growing Fast

The first and most important reason is that mobile commerce is growing fast. Consumers today are now using mobile devices to buy items and services quickly. If your website is not accessible through a mobile device, then you will lose out completely on that market segment of consumers. You need a new website with a responsive design so that consumers anywhere using any type of device will be able to buy products from you.

Improved User Experience

The reality is that a website with a static design or one that uses absolute positioning is not going to be very user-friendly. Anyone without a very specific resolution might have to scroll around just to see an entire page. A user with a high-resolution screen might have images and text so small that it is uncomfortable to look at. A bad user experience means that people are likely to leave your site and go elsewhere fast. Responsive design allows you to improve the user experience. The design makes it possible for all the necessary components and images to be seen at once regardless of the screen size.

Making Changes Is Easier

Trying to create a complex layout without using responsive design practices can be a real mess. You might be left with a website filled with overly complicated formatting and pages of indecipherable scripting. This means changing even the smallest things on the website will become a monumental task. Allowing a Miami digital marketing agency to redesign your website so that it is responsive will make changing things much easier. You can insert new text or change pictures simply without breaking the entire layout. The fluid layout will just adapt to the changes in most cases.

Professional Appearance

You want your business website to be taken seriously by consumers, vendors and partners. If you are not using responsive design by this point, then it could hurt your image and brand. Your site might be seen as behind the times or ineffective. If you have a responsive website, then you are taking advantage of the latest technology to create an attractive and functional online presence. This can greatly improve the professionalism and brand of your business.

Search Engines Want It

How search engines see your website can directly contribute to the popularity or anonymity of your business. A low search engine ranking means that your site will be invisible to anyone casually searching for what you are selling. An important factor about responsive design is that search engines want it. A skilled Miami web design firm can create an optimized and responsive site that could easily outperform and outrank lesser sites. This can help to drive more traffic to your website.

Increased Conversions

Something interesting is that the ability to access a website through a mobile device appears to increase conversions. Mobile devices are becoming an integral part of the purchasing process. They help people to make decisions about what to buy. Moving to a responsive design means that you could start to see a larger number of conversion at a faster rate. This can potentially improve your revenue each year.

Be Prepared For the Future

A final reason your website redesign should be responsive is so that you are prepared for the future. New devices and technologies are appearing every year. If you have a professionally designed responsive website, then there is every chance that you will be able to take advantage of those new devices with few to no changes. This will keep your company competitive even as things change.

Victor Gonzalez7 Reasons Your Website Redesign Should be Responsive
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Inbound Marketing Success for Bookkeepers: Three Tips To Grow Your Bookkeeping Business

Among the various business service providers who use the Internet as a platform for marketing and advertising, bookkeepers stand to benefit the most. Unfortunately, few bookkeepers actually take advantage of the full potential that the Internet offers in terms of getting new prospects and keeping their existing clients engaged.

The following three tips can greatly help small business bookkeepers boost their online presence for the purpose of attracting more prospects and staying in touch with their clientele:

Put Real Effort Into Your Website

Unfortunately, many bookkeepers think that a simple template with their contact information and some placeholder text is all it takes to establish their presence on the Web. If anything, prospects who see a very generic website are not going to be very interested in that bookkeeper, and existing clients will not have a reason to return to that site other than perhaps looking up a telephone number.

An ideal website for a bookkeeper should include attractive design, a summary of professional affiliations and major achievements, an engaging blog, and testimonials if they are available.

Use Social Media Accordingly

Some small business owners who are attuned to the world of online social networking skip the website portion of their online presence and choose to run their business from a Facebook or Twitter profile. This is not recommended for bookkeepers; however, being active on social media can go a long way to boost your online reputation.

A good social media practice consists of building a Twitter audience by searching for open questions about bookkeeping topics. For example, searching for the term “single entry” followed by a “?” question mark will return conversations about that topic. If the original question has not been answered, that’s an opportunity to introduce yourself, be of service, link to your website, and gain a new Twitter follower. The best social network for bookkeepers, however, is LinkedIn.

Don’t Forget About Email Marketing

For all the talk about how social media is becoming the Internet as we know it, millions of people still use email daily, particularly for business purposes. Building an email list can be as easy as offering a monthly newsletter that features content that your prospects and clients will not find in your blog or elsewhere.

The key to produce a successful email marketing newsletter is to pick one or two great topics that you know your audience can use and enjoy. For example, one article can be about bank reconciliation, which is not the most entertaining topic to read; however, this is an article that can be made friendlier if it mentions how a celebrity actor or athlete went broke because of poor accounting practices.

Victor GonzalezInbound Marketing Success for Bookkeepers: Three Tips To Grow Your Bookkeeping Business
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