How do I target a specific geographic location through online marketing?
I know you can easily target specific geographies with online advertising, but how do you do that through other online marketing efforts, such as SEO, content marketing and social media? I am looking to target SMBs in New Zealand.
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May 12, 2015
If you are only targeting one geographical area with your website, you can look into Google Webmaster tools and "Search Traffic" and "international targeting" where you can be very specific of what area you are targeting with your website. Google prioritizes local websites in a search if they know exactly where you are and who you are targeting. Also, adding your business to Google maps if you are situated in the same area as you have your target audience. Your footer should have address and phone number and then you score even more points. There is a lot you can do, but these might be first basic steps.
May 12, 2015
You can do this with companies like Visitor Zoom
They target by location's.
Good Luck
God Bless!
May 12, 2015
This is a loaded question. When you say "target" you need to specify what you mean. For paid advertising, as you said, you can geotarget your audience on just about any platform worth its salt - some better than other.
From an organic standpoint, you need to take more into consideration. Yes, create local content that resonates with your local market using the vernacular they are familiar with. Yes, talk about subjects, topics and events that are happening in the area you are targetting.
Localization is a tricky beast. If you have a local business that has offices then you want to localize those locations AND create content to go with them. This can become arduous, but it's really important because it will help people find you on desktop AND mobile.
Social also plays to the above point in that you need to make sure you are not just posting to those social properties content that is relevant (i.e., you have an office in Brooklyn that should be posting about local Brooklyn events and news) but you also must have social properties in all of those areas. Four offices in four states mean four facebook/google/yelp/etc etc etc pages.
You have to approach this marketing of specific geographies from a holistic standpoint or you are going to be missing out on opportunities and analytics to qualify those opportunities.
May 12, 2015
Hi Patrick, Very vlualble ideas. You have taken lot of interest and I really appreciate that. I am making a plan of action, considering all the suggestions and prioritise according to the importance.Cheers! Nalin
May 13, 2015
Please let me know how it all works out. The more I learn, the more helpful I am.
May 12, 2015
You can do it through SEO. When we do SEO that is part of our package is targeting specific territories. Let me know if you would like to speak.
May 12, 2015
Best way to target the local people...create local community and create awareness.. Giveways and local Google places optimization is are the best way to reach local clients.. News paper ads, and local Magazine ads are the best option too...convert Print Media into Digital Media..
May 12, 2015
Avik,, Thanks so much for you very valuable insights! They seem very practical. I am making a plan of action, considering all the suggestions and prioritise according to the importance.
May 12, 2015
Google Analytics is key as Neil mentioned. Also using all of the mapping programs available in the target area to make sure you are listed there PROPERLY is key to geo-centric branding (naming the division with the product or what it does is also very important). Also giving a division or product a physical address in your targeted area is a good shortcut, but is sometimes not possible.
Adwords and similar PPC products. offer very targeted advertising without the wait of indexing and gives you the ability to push into a market quickly, do A/B testing on the pitch of the product and measure demand. I have found that to be a worth the investment when testing a new product, niche or market segment.
May 12, 2015
Nalin: I can't answer with regard to SEO (SEM, yes - but I think you know about that already); For both content marketing and social media, you can easily leverage LinkedIn and Facebook to target prospects in New Zealand. For LinkedIn you would join relevant groups that you want to target such as large technology groups. You would need to wait 7 days from the time you join to be able to post content and message them at scale. You would do a search on members within the group by title and location, this would segment the group to your target market. You would then be able to individually message these individuals with your content (and I do mean message and not SPAM) and request them to connect with you. Messaging through LinkedIn groups is free but you are limited to 100 messages per day. As you build connections, you can use the LinkedIn tagging feature to further segment your contacts into content marketing buckets. You can then message the tagged groups with content relevant to them to move them from awareness down the funnel to a sale (i.e. offer them whitepapers, ebooks, etc.). On Facebook there are 754 groups targeting New Zealand. The largest of which is "cheap phones and electronics (new zealand)" with 39,691 members as of this morning - not your target market. But there are groups such as "ADVERTISE YOUR BUSINESS FREE ALL OVER NEW ZEALAND" with 8,921 members that might have the audience you are looking to attract. With Facebook you would create a persona profile of your target market (buyer), add information, photos, and the like to make it credible and then you would use this profile to join appropriate groups. You could then provide appropriate content messaging to drive users to your site to consume videos, register for webinars, download ebooks, whitepapers, etc. This is more effective for B2C opportunities but does work with B2B.
Both of the strategies outlined above work and can have a positive, material impact on your business. They require effort (you are trading time and man hours for advertising dollars - but your time is money so you need to consider the time cost - you can also outsource this or use interns) but so long as you treat the groups and the members of the groups with respect and provide value to them and don't try and SPAM them, you can easily build a targeted network in your target market.
I hope this helps.
May 12, 2015
Scott, Thanks so much for you very valuable insights! I am making a plan of action, considering all the suggestions and prioritise according to the importance.
May 12, 2015
If your website has an analytics package implemented then what you can do is look at the traffic coming to the website based of Geo tracking. Google Analytics does a good job with that.
Hi Jaroslava, That is really great idea. I did not know about it. Will try to figure out with my Web developer, how to get that done. Thanks a million!!