Small businesses can spend exorbitant amounts on promoting their organization, but if they don’t focus on local marketing, they’re doing themselves a disservice. This type of marketing ensures the right people are getting the message about a local business. Here are a few local marketing trends that every business owner should note.

Greater Focus on Technology
Being technologically savvy no longer means simply running a Facebook page and utilizing the latest point-of-sale system. Business owners are now focusing more on content marketing, retargeting ads and in-app advertising to reach out to local consumers. Any local business that hopes to keep up with their offline competition should do the same.

Move To Utilize Google Business Page
There aren’t many local business owners that don’t know the importance of search engine optimization, but that’s not all they need to focus on when it comes to Google. A recent poll showed that a full 60 percent of business owners had claimed their Google My Business listing. Another 40 percent plan on optimizing this page.
This means business owners are catching on to the benefits of having an updated Google business listing. When consumers search for information, they want it easily available. And even if this means they only look at the Google listing, it still improves a company’s chances of increased revenue.

Mobile Wallets Improve Local Marketing
Mobile wallet technology allows individuals to make easy payments via their smartphone. While this obviously helps local consumers make quick payments, it also does much more. Over 90 percent of mobile wallet users, for instance, would save personalized mobile coupons and wallet offers.
This means businesses that offer mobile wallet payments have an entirely new frontier of local marketing ahead of them. Instead of simply advertising on social media or with content marketing, it’s now possible to send deals directly to local consumer’s “wallets.”
Marketing technology and social integration has reached an all-time high, and each will play a huge factor in local marketing for 2016. While these marketing strategies shouldn’t be all that a local business focuses on, failure to recognize these growing trends and respond accordingly can be detrimental to an organization.

Small businesses don’t often have unlimited budgets, and this means it’s essential that any expense is a smart one. This is especially important when it comes to marketing. Certain marketing mistakes can waste money along with ensuring no one sees your local business’s message. Fortunately, these money pits are easily avoidable.

Our new website is finally up. We’ve worked hard to get a beautiful new site ready and we’re proud to show it off. Thanks for reading our blog. We have lots of great blog posts in the works. Please check back or contact us now to find out how we can help you.

One of the biggest hurdles businesses find with executing a content marketing plan is, well, the lack of a content marketing calendar. All too often this is undertaken in a haphazard fashion, leading to an inconsistent publishing schedule which keeps your audience guessing and management fretting.
Traditional publishers have always embraced the idea of having an editorial calendar, where the forthcoming content was planned and scheduled. It is necessary, with so much riding on the outcome. Perhaps since it’s become so easy to publish online, we’ve forgotten this. Since this is clearly content marketing’s moment in the sun, it’s time to get down to business and get it on paper. (well, at least virtual paper)
Let’s examine 5 steps toward creating a content marketing calendar that will help you grow your business.