As a small business marketer, I'm tired of seeing small businesses getting ripped off in their marketing efforts. It's the whole reason I run mccardellwrite the way I do -- using effective marketing techniques specific to a business, and keeping rates highly competitive.

So with that in mind, I'm putting together information on things you can do online to help improve your local marketing efforts. These are FREE, and require no one outside your business to get done. Of course you can hire us to implement any of this at reasonable rates if you find these complex or you simply don't have the time.

1. Local Directories
Make sure your business is listed in the most important local directories. Go to the following URLs and put in all the information about your business. This helps to make sure you're found in local searches. For instance, getting into Google Places can help put your business on the map that shows up when someone searches for your business type and zip code (or city/state).

Please note that the first three are the major search engines. Yelp is a high-traffic site where people discuss local businesses, so make sure yours will generate great word of mouth due to quality products and services. Local.com is still a fairly popular local search site, and we like Merchant Circle for the blog feature, which you can use to create links to your website if you have one. If you don't ... all the more reason to have a blog somewhere. Merchant Circle also lets you feature individual products and services, further helping with search engine efforts.

Google Places  |  Yahoo Local  |  Bing Local  |  Yelp.com  |  Local.com  |  Merchant Circle

2. Social Media Marketing
Social media allows you to connect with other people, and that's really what business is about -- making connections and fulfilling needs with those connections. There are many social media outlets, and you have to be careful not to blow all your time trying to keep up with them. I recommend the following:

For business to business, make sure you're listed on LinkedIn as a business, and contribute to the community with Answers to people's questions when they relate to your business. Make connections with complementary or otherwise friendly businesses. Post updates about what's happening at your business ... and how that helps your community.

For business to consumer, make sure you're on Facebook as long as you have a large enough local community that you'll generate followers, or if you sell online (and have plenty of people who could follow). Notice that I've linked to the area for creating a business page, which is different than creating a personal profile. As people "Like" your business, they will start getting Facebook messages every time you post an update.

3. Locally Optimize Your Website
Make sure your website mentions the areas you serve. Some businesses will do this in the footer of their website, so the areas appear on every page of the site. This helps the search engines connect your area to your products and services, so if someone types "Your City, Your State, Your Product / Service" into Google ("Rochester Michigan barber," for instance), you're more likely to show up.

If you don't have a website or know that yours needs to be improved, make sure to check out our "Total Web Solution" packages. These provide you with design, professional writing, hosting, maintenance, and other options ... starting at just $79/month. Yes, ridiculously affordable.

4. OTHER
Just a temporary heading, as I want to expand this article over time. But for now, it's important to show you how to take action on the points above. Again, we can help you with local and social media marketing if you prefer, and I think for what we offer, you'll find that we offer tremendous value between pricing and quality.