Digital Marketing is essential for any business looking to grow in 2024. It’s the key to drawing more customers across your business or for specific segments of your business you want to expand. Why is that? Not only is a digital marketing strategy more affordable, but it also offers more precise metrics for success compared to traditional advertising methods like print, TV, or radio.

The Power of Digital Marketing for Small Businesses

Digital Marketing enables you to target your business’s product or service directly to your ideal customer in your local market at each stage of their “buying journey”. As users have moved away from traditional forms of advertising and are now using digital media more than ever, it’s more important than ever to connect with your customers in the spaces they frequent.

The two types of digital marketing that I’ll focus on in this article are:

• Local Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Geo-targeted Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)

each of these comes with its own pros and cons, but when used effectively, both will help your business bring in more clients.

How to Reach Your Customers on the Internet through Local Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Suppose your website receives tens of thousands of visitors worldwide every month, and the product or service your business is selling is limited geographically to a specific market. In that case, your website traffic will be less effective at reaching your clients.

The Pros and Cons of Investing in a Local SEO Strategy for Your Business

Local SEO is vital for small businesses aiming to establish a solid and lasting presence in their immediate geographic area. When looking to invest in a Local SEO strategy, it is important to consider the following pros and cons:

Local SEO Pros:

• Be Seen as an Expert in Your Industry – A high ranking in local search results builds immediate trust in your business and brand, and businesses at the top of organic search results are seen as authorities in their respective industries.
• Lasting Results – Unlike pay-per-click advertising, once you start ranking well in the search results for your respective industry, your ranking will stay relatively the same, with less investment than it took initially to achieve your desired search engine results.
• Long-Term Low Investment Cost – By building a strong Local SEO profile and by being seen as a leader in your industry, Google will naturally rank your business higher in the search results and maintaining the top spots in these results is a lot easier than a new business trying to get results from a brand new website with no domain authority.

Cons of Local SEO:

• Ranking Takes Time – a search engine optimization strategy should be seen as an investment in your business rather than something you’ll see immediate results with. In my experience helping companies to get noticed in the local search engine results, small ranking changes can take 3-6 months, while getting to the top of the local SEO results can take over a year.
• Steep Initial Investment Cost – Great search engine results for your business require several ranking factors to work together (We will discuss these below), and building these digital assets from the ground up requires a significant initial investment compared to a pay-per-click strategy.
• Organic Results Require Technical Understanding and Expertise – Optimizing your website for the best search engine results involves several factors. For business owners, dedicating time to mastering technical SEO may not be as advantageous as focusing on growing their business.

Strategies to Help Your Business Achieve Better Search Engine Results for Your Customer’s Searches

The following Local SEO strategies help businesses appear in search results when potential customers in your area search for your business’s products or services.

1. Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) has become the new Yellow Pages for people in local communities trying to find businesses that offer the services they are looking for. An optimized Google business profile that is kept up-to-date will enable your business’s listing to be ranked higher in Google Search and Google Maps than your competitors.
2. On-page SEO has been and continues to be one of the most essential factors in where Google ranks your business in general search results, and this ranking factor is just as important in local search results.
3. Inbound links to your website have always been important for search engine ranking. However, recent updates to Google’s local search algorithm have made inbound links from websites with locally relevant and industry-relevant domains as your business even more important.
4. Positive Reviews have always been an important factor for where a business ranks in Google Maps and local search results. Not only is the quantity of the reviews important, but having a sustained influx of reviews over time (as opposed to a bulk of reviews coming in at once due to a mass email) is also very important. In 2024 review acquisition must be an integral part of your business’s digital marketing strategy.

How to Reach Your Customers With an Effective Geo-targeted Pay-Per-Click Campaign

A geo-targeted pay-per-click campaign (also known as Local PPC) is a paid advertising strategy that only targets potential customers in your business’s market. Local PPC can be a fast and cost-effective way to get new clients or customers for your business. Like Local SEO, Local PPC comes with its own pros and cons that business owners must consider.

Pros of Geo-Targeted Pay-Per-Click Campaigns (Local PPC)

• Reach Your Customers Instantly – While it takes time to climb the ranks of the search engine result pages (SERPs), a paid and optimized PPC campaign can put your company’s services and products at the top of your potential customers’ queries.
• Target Your Customers at Specific Times in Their “Buying Journey” – by creating different ad campaigns that target specific stages in your customer’s buying journey (awareness, consideration, purchase, loyalty), you can optimize your sales funnel and also make short term budget adjustments to invest more in the parts of your funnel that need the most immediate help.
• PPC Ads appear above organic rankings – Paid search engine spots appear above organic results, and the top spots in the search results, whether organic or paid, get the highest rates of click-through traffic. That’s just a fact.
• Flexibility and Testing – with PPC, because the results are immediate, you can conduct A/B tests with different ad formats, copy, and promotion to see what is more effective.

Cons of Geo-Targeted Pay-Per-Click Campaigns (Local PPC)

• Long-Term Cost – Understandably, when you stop investing in a PPC campaign, the website traffic you received from that campaign will stop. This is unlike the investment put into SEO, where you can continue to get long-lasting results.
• Not Seen as Authoritative as Organic – For the most part, your customers will know when they are clicking on an ad in the search results and when they’re clicking on a result that has shown up there organically, and your potential customers will generally view unpaid results as having more authority than paid.

SEO or PPC? What is the Best Choice for Your Business?

The short answer? Both.

Organic Local SEO is crucial for your business’s long-term growth. It continually brings new clients who discover your business through search results and enhances your brand’s credibility. A strong online presence, bolstered by positive customer reviews, establishes your business as an authority in the local community. This not only affects current perceptions but has enduring impacts on how your business is seen.

In contrast, a well-crafted and optimized pay-per-click (PPC) campaign can deliver immediate and specific results, aligning perfectly with your customers’ immediate needs. For instance, an accounting firm could launch a PPC campaign targeting income tax return services during tax season, effectively reaching customers exactly when they seek such services.

The digital marketing landscape in 2024 demands a strategic combination of Local SEO and Geo-targeted PPC. While Local SEO lays the groundwork for sustainable growth and brand credibility, yielding long-term benefits, PPC offers the agility to target specific customer needs and moments, providing immediate visibility and results. For a business to thrive in the digital age, it’s not a question of choosing one over the other but understanding how to integrate both strategies effectively. By leveraging the strengths of Local SEO and PPC, businesses can ensure a comprehensive digital presence, meeting their customers wherever they are in their journey and fostering both immediate impact and enduring brand authority.

Are you ready to grow your business with digital marketing in 2024? At Enter Design, we specialize in crafting digital marketing strategies that blend the power of Local SEO and Geo-targeted PPC to deliver unparalleled results. Whether you’re looking to build long-term brand authority or seeking immediate customer engagement, our expert team guides you every step of the way. Don’t let your business get left behind in the digital race. Contact Enter Design today and let us help you harness the full potential of digital marketing to achieve your business goals. Visit our website or call us now to start your journey towards digital excellence with Enter Design, where your business’s growth is our top priority.