Equalizing by Localizing

There’s an old proverb that goes: “At the end of the game, the king and the pawn go in the same box”. While that’s certainly true for people, it’s not exactly true for businesses nowadays. Because of online marketing, it’s possible for businesses to compete on a level playing field. In other words, even before the game ends, the pawn and the king are on equal footing.

The Local Edge

There’s certainly merit in having national (or maybe even international) reach. Being able to shift from one market to another, depending on which is favorable and which is failing, is certainly a plus. Having a wider area over which you can offer your goods and services is also a benefit.

However, when customers look for a restaurant, or a law firm, or a floral shop, or a bakery, they don’t think about visiting a shop that’s miles out of the way. They think of and look for options that are closer to their home turf. So local businesses with a strong local presence will outdo even a large multinational that has little recall and commands even less loyalty.

Exploiting the Local Scene

So what can local business owners do to compete with larger companies? The old tack of using posters and signboards is not as effective as it was before. People aren’t strolling around neighborhoods looking at signs as much as before. Instead, they look at their mobile devices and search for establishments that are close to their area.

To keep themselves in their prospective customers’ line of sight, local businesses should therefore make sure that they have a mobile-responsive website that can be viewed neatly on different mobile screens. At the same time, those sites should be optimized for local viewing by being registered on relevant local business listings online, along with being optimized using normal SEO parameters.

To do this effectively, of course, proprietors should keep abreast of digital marketing trends. To do this, the best thing is to subscribe to an online marketing news website that’s updated with hot and fresh content from leading industry experts.