Ultimate Local SEO Marketing Domination Guide by Antonio Coleman

Ultimate Local Marketing Domination Guide by Antonio Coleman

Crushing the Local Competition

Welcome to the #1 local marketing guide that will walk you through the top ways of dominating your local market today. So the question is, who is this guide meant for such as who will benefit the most from it? The simple answer is any and everyone who wants to be found online for a business, website, or personal exposure.

If you want to build an online presence like no other in the world, then you’re in the right place because I’m about to change your life forever. If you’re a small business, and you’re not online, then I must say you’re in big, big, and I mean BiGGG trouble. The reason for this is because the worlds we live in function, and revolves around the World Wide Web. If people are searching for something, then they will pull out that mobile phone or laptop and start that search.

Now, if you’re smart like I know you are, then you did the work beforehand to gain that online presence. But if you didn’t, then the other companies in your city or town just stole a potential customer or client only by having an online presence. Just as simple as having a website can mean the difference in been found versus no one knowing you even have a business. Continue reading

How to Search for Local Keywords and Dominate the Market

Welcome to part one of the Ultimate Local Marketing Guide which will show you how to dominate your local market without spending more money on advertising.

This guide is about showing you the top ways of growing an online business presence to surpass the local competition. Understand if you implement these actions you will start to get tons of foot traffic, and leads coming into your place of business.

But the only way this is going to happen is for people to search for particular keywords about your business to find your products and services. So this leads me to this chapter which covers seeking out the most targeted keywords in your industry so hundreds if not thousands of customers can find you.

This is the power of having an online presence from doing video marketing, building profiles and implementing Facebook marketing. If you can create an online presence surrounding keywords, then you stand to show up first in the search engines before the other businesses in your niche.

It’s all about finding what your potential customer/clients are typing into the search engines to find what you have to offer.

Example: If someone is in Shreveport La, and looking for a daycare for their little one, then they will go to the top search engines and type in “Shreveport daycares” or “daycares in Shreveport la.”

So basically if I’m a daycare owner, I will be doing a Google search for these keywords and see who is my competition.

shreveport daycare google search

So as you can see in the screenshot above is that you should see the listing. Now see that the top 3 websites are from local profile websites. This shows me that no one in the city of Shreveport has taken the approach to dominate this market online and get those parents who are searching for a daycare in Shreveport.

We will get into the local online profiles later in this guide but as of now know that this market is wide open, and begging for someone to dominate it. So if a daycare in Shreveport and contacted me today and seeking for help to get their presence in the top spots above the listing, then I will say let’s do it.

I understand it will only take a short time for your daycare to be listed above all those another listing, and you will start sucking up all new business. The power of local marketing is what allows you to stand front in the center before your customer.

So doing good local keyword research is the starting point of growing your business. The small businesses and companies who do this are the ones who reap the benefits of unlimited targeted customers begging for your services and products.

The Power of Doing Keyword Research?

Can’t even explain to you how powerful it is to be ranked online for 10, 20 30 or even hundreds of keywords in your targeted market. You have to be open-minded to how many people could be finding you with just a few clicks of the mouse.

Being online marketing for over 13years now has given me lots of knowledge of finding these targeted keywords. From years of me using Google Adwords to market my site, and my client’s websites helped me understand keyword research so much.

Just using keywords in the right form in your title is the difference between getting 1,000 visitors per day to getting absolutely none. The only way you can grow online naturally is by putting your business in front of the search audience.

This audience uses keywords to find what they want, so this becomes the #1 way for the unknown searchers to find your business. So if you can rank for 1,000 keywords created from different durations in your title, then you steam to conquer and dominate your local market in no time.

Let’s Do the Numbers

First, don’t get scared off when I say you can rank for 1,000 keywords online. I know you might be saying this will be the hardest work ever. But to give you a simple lesson on keyword rankings I will try to explain how you will be ranking for 1,000 keywords without doing much work.

First – The search engines will rank you accordingly to the keyword you’re targeting such as the example I used in the introduction chapter of this guide which the keyword “Shreveport real estate.”

When you start to rank for “Shreveport real estate” the search engines will also rank you for other given “same” keywords in that niche such as.

  1. Shreveport real estate
  2. Shreveport la real estate
  3. Shreveport real estate homes for sale
  4. real estate Shreveport
  5. real estate Shreveport la
  6. ect…..

You see what happens is that they search engines will show some love by ranking you for your given keyword, and the next of kins. So with one keyword, you can be ranking for 10, 20 or even 100 related keywords.

So it’s really easy to have targeted the top 50 keywords in your local market and build an online presence around them. Now if you even multiply those keywords by only 20 related keywords for each of those, then you get yourself ranking for 1,000 keywords.

Now, this number could be even higher, or there is a possibility to be lower. But my experience shows me for doing this for so many years is that if you can rank locally for at least 50 keywords, then you will become the so-called “Man” in your local industry.

So How Much Traffic?

declaimed: These are only estimates so there is no guarantee you will get these same numbers. But they are possible with consistent local marketing and the right keyword research”

Now we got that out the way lets see how much traffic could all your online platforms could be getting monthly.

The math is just an estimate, but it gives you an overview of what you can be looking forward to. So let’s say you get one visitors per day from all those 1,000 keywords you’re ranked for.

It will look something like this…

1,000×1 = 1,000 visitors per day visiting your online platforms.

Now after people visit your profiles, it’s your responsibility to have the right content in place to convert them over to buyers or clients.

Benefits from Local Searches

So how can ranking for all these targeted keywords help grow your business and bottom line? Just put you will have tons of resources online that will educate people about your products or services.

Now you have more people calling your business, and gaining more foot traffic throughout your place business which leads to more profits. Plus now you can let them know about your presence on social networks like your facebook fan page.

Now this gives you a platform to communicate with your potential customer more comfortable and for free. This something I will get more info on the Facebook Marketing Domination chapter which will blow your mind when it comes to using it to dominate your local market.

What I just explained is that you can get your business in front of 1,000 potential customers each day without spending a dime on advertising. Now tell me one other form of advertising that beat this?

So enough of all the numbers talk, let’s get down to finding these keywords and how to analyze them.

The Secret to Finding Those Golden Nuggets

I will be going through the exact motions of finding those targeted keywords in your local market that will drive the most traffic to your properties and websites.

You will be able to follow along and look over my shoulder to see exactly the steps I will take if I was doing keyword research for my business or a client. What I will be attempting is to find the best local keywords in a particular industry that will bring in positive results.

By the end of this post, you will know how to…

  1. Find targeted local keywords
  2. Analyze the best ones to rank for
  3. Finding the top long-tail-keywords
  4. Understanding the most targeted keyword

Join 2,387 other People:Businesses and Download Antonio’s 31 Tips to Dominating Your Local Market Guide - ALL FOR FREE

Let’s Get Started…

Now let’s say I have a real estate business in Shreveport La, and I want to build an online presence in that industry. My goal is to take my business which is located offline and turn it into a magnet for potential buyers, sellers, realtors or anyone who wants to work with me when it comes to real estate.

So the first thing I will do is to take my targeted keyword and see how many people are searching for it on Google. Now there are many other search engines such as Yahoo, Bing, and MSN, but Google is used for search about 70% to 80% of the times so the numbers we get from there will be more accurate.

The best way to do local keyword research in Google is by using the Google Keyword Planner. This tool has been around for years now even though it has a new name, but everything else about it is still somewhat the same.

how to do keyword research with keyword planer

From here you will be able to type a keyword or keyword phrase into the box and click search. The software will go out and find out how many times that keyword is searched every month. Not only that it gives you a list of related keywords that will fit right into your industry. So not only will you get results on your primary keyword but you will also inherit tons of other terms that get searched.

Here’s Is My Way of Doing It.

Now the keyword I will be going after is “Shreveport real estate.”

Once I type the keyword in the box and click “Get Ideas” the software will bring up the results. Now there will be tons of keywords to come back included my main keyword.

Hint: Most of the time you will get about 800 or so keywords to come back and these will include related terms that are too broad for your niche. But I have a solution to narrow down to just your city, town or state.

To get better search results, you must head over to the left-hand column, and click on Include/Exclude. From here you can type in your central city, town or state you want to rank in. After doing this, the system will only include keywords that targeted to your local market.

So as you can see below instead of having those 800 keywords that come up at first now I’m filtered down to 134 local keyword phrases. Next, I will sort them by clicking on the “Avg…monthly searches” Now my keyword are listed from the most searched down to the lowest term.

With this information, I’m able to tackle an online marketing campaign and dominate this market just by going after these keywords. First by targeting my main keyword, and then focusing on the other ones, but I will get more into those later in this chapters.

What you need to do now is to save these keywords by downloading them to your computer for later use. “You will see the download link on the right.”

Let’s Analyze Main Keyword

Obviously, my main keyword is “Shreveport real estate” so let’s go to google and search that term and see whom am I competing with.

How to Search for Local Keywords and Dominate the Market 1

Now if you’re looking at the screenshot, then you will see a couple of results. There three google places listing here at the bottom. These are mainly created automatically by the search engines which go out and find local businesses and create free profiles for them.

No matter what type of local business or industry you search for there will be google places listing most of the time in the top results. Under those listings will be the organic results which include websites, local directories, and videos. This is the spot we want to be in which can outrank those Google places which are listed first. Like I said before we will cover that in more details in the coming chapters.

But for now, we are just analyzing the keyword to see who we have to compete with. Now I’m about to take a look at what’s on the page such as does a YouTube video takes up one of the top spots? “No, It Doesn’t

So are there any local business directories on the page that list directly to a certain business? “No, It Doesn’t You may be saying there are some directories on the page, and I will say you are right because nearly all of them are directories.

This Means What?

It means that this keyword is a winner in the form of it passing the “eye testsaying there were no SEO techniques used to analyze these properties for competition strengthen.

Hint: If SEO is something you want to learn more about for FREE versusspending thousands of dollars on training which is what I charge my clients. Is to check out the SEO in Practice ebook that covers SEO from A to Z.

But what this shows is that I have 134 keywords, and doing the right marketing online will put my brand in-front of thousands of people every month. Just with my main keyword “Shreveport real estate” gets over 1,900 searches per month. Just that keyword alone will be enough to get quality people interested in my real estate business.

How to Search for Local Keywords and Dominate the Market 2

Unfortunately, I’m in the business of dominating local markets, so I what to not only tackle that keyword but also go after the other 133 keywords over time. So when it’s all said and done, I could have my properties in front of over 5k to 10k people every month searching for my services.

How powerful is that?

Bonus Tools:

UberSuggest.org – This tool is 100% free and easy to use if you want to find different variations of your keyword. It’s so powerful I can’t even believe its free to use, but it so takes advantage of it to find even more long tail keywords.

Local Marketing Source Keyword Tool – I haven’t used this tool at all just to clarify that, but I felt it was still wise to list it if you want to dig deeper into finding those golden nuggets of keywords.

 My Recommendation

My only goal is to explain local keyword research most simply so all people will understand it. I could have gone more into details which will have to confuse many people so I kept this at a level so any, and everyone who comes across this could take action on.

So the goal you have today is to search for your primary term you think your potential customer will type into the search engine to find your products or services. Now you have those keyword people are typing in so now its time to start building on the online presence.

Now, most people who are experienced in online marketers will tell you that doing intense research on the top websites is vital to rank easier and faster. The answer is that their correct that doing more in-depth research helps you understand your competitors even better.

What I will say if you’re targeting a local market in a town, city or even sometimes a state. You don’t have to do that much research because of the properties you will be using to outrank the local competition. But if you were trying to rank for the keyword “real estate” then we’re talking about a whole new ball game and that SEO in Practice ebook will most surely come in handy.

So here you have the blueprint into finding targeting keywords that you can use to become a dormancy force in your local market. In the next coming chapter, we focus on putting all this together by using directory profiles, video marketing, Facebook marketing and a particular bonus chapter I put together.

My goal is to see you succeed so if you need to ask a question then just leave a comment on my Ask Antonio page. Plus I like to know who’s reading CMG so if you have a moment then run over to my introduce yourself page and say Hi.

Let’s Dominate This Local Market…

ultimate local marketing guide by Antonio Coleman

 

The Guide of How To Market Your Local Business

The Guide of How To Market Your Local Business 3

#31 Tips On How To Market Your Business

Marketing a small business can get a little confusing at times when trying to find the best way to build a brand. You ask yourself if it is best to do offline marketing, or will online marketing be more productive and fast? The questions just keep coming, and those who understand the avenue of how to market and dominate the local competitors are the ones who succeed.

As a small business owner myself, I know that there are tons of information online and if you’re not seasoned on how things work, then it can become overwhelming. The pressure of getting people into your place of business and building footprints to your brand can be a daunting task. Knowing this, I decided to put together a one place stop manual guide of the things you can do free and paid to sky-rocket your brand.

These 31 ways to market your business will come down to you taking action. There is no way to gain any success in life without putting something in motion, and that first step starts by reading strategy #1.

Ultimate Local Marketing Domination Guide by Antonio Coleman

After reading the top 31 ways to market your business locally, I will suggest you start first with my incredible “Ultimate Local Marketing Domination Guide” that will walk you through how to gain thousands of new customers and clients without a dime an on advertising.

This is five chapters of jammed packed material to help grow your business locally in the community. All this is 100% FREE

Click Here For Instant Access to the Guide 

[Tweet “WOW..#31 Tips On How To Market Your Business to Dominate the Local Competition”]

How To Market Your Business Through Online Marketing

1. Getting Your Business #1 in Google for FREE – If you want to grow your business to the masses locally and worldwide, then the likes of using SEO is the best route to go. I can write about this topic all day long because I know from my years of being an SEO consultant that if you can dominate your local market with the right keywords, people will type these words into the search engine, find your services then you can grow massively.

This is the #1 way I will build a business brand online by creating content people want to read and search for.  If you own a real estate company in Shreveport, and you have the ability to do SEO on your website then you have a chance at getting everyone who searches for “Shreveport real estate” This means wonders for your business because those searchers will find your website first and this, in terms will allow you to dominate that current market.

Being #1 for the top local keyword in your industry is the key for success because you have to understand that as a customer we will first search for what we are looking for online and if we come across your website first then guess who gets the business?

2. Press Releases to Thousands – If you can write very well then I will suggest doing a press release which can be sent to your local newspapers such as the Shreveport Times, Bossier Tribune or the Minden Press-Herald if you live here in my current market area. If not, then just go to this website that lists all the newspaper websites.  If you want to get your article posted to thousands at a quicker rate, then try prlog which is a very easy website to use, and I recommend it if you need an easier way to get your press releases out there.

3. Implementing Email Marketing – There is no reason why you should not have some sort of way for visitors to not be able to signup for a newsletter to your business. The #1 way to stay in touch with your customers is through email marketing. There are many email marketing software out there, so do your research on finding the one that suits you. Just to get you started, here is one from Getresponse for free which is one of the top email marketing software companies online today.

Try It For FREE

4. Website Conversion – One way to build a successful small business website is to have a way to convert online visitors into clients. One way of doing that is through a call of action on your website from a bold phone number to call, or by giving them something for free, that will force them to join your mailing list which I listed above.

5. Creating YouTube Videos – YouTube is a great way to get free advertising out to the world if you follow these steps. Create a video of your place of business, upload it to YouTube and post that video on your The Guide of How To Market Your Local Business 4website. This should be like an intro video explaining all elements of your services, and make sure you use the right keywords in the title so that your video will be found through the search engines. I say create informational videos and tutorials of your industry and post them on your YouTube channel which you can customize to your brand.

 

Local Ways To Market Your Business

6. Making a Speech – Speaking is not the strongest part of anyone’s talents, but its something you have to do if you want to grow. Any chance you have to speak in front of an audience then do so but make it 5 minutes or less so you can keep their attention. Doing this allows you to give out your small business website to many people who may or may not be interested in your services.

7. Hit The Radio – If you live in my surrounding cites such as Shreveport, Bossier City, and Minden, then you will know that we have some radio stations. Now obviously there are many kinds of stations from rock, country, r&b, soul, gospel and many more you can choose from. To find these radio stations in your local market, you will have first to Google your city name + radio stations.

Example: Shreveport radio stations

Next, find the radio station you think that will suit your business and contact the appropriate person to set up an interview. Most local talk radio host go out their way to help the local businesses around the city and try to keep their listeners up to date on new businesses in the area. If you’re lucky enough to get some live airtime, make sure you have something that’s 100 times better than a phone number..which is a website of your small business. I say if you don’t have a website, then don’t bother contacting any radio stations because most of them will ask if you have one. If not, then you run the risk of people not remembering the phone number and address you will be giving out.

8. Handing Out Business Cards People Will Keep – Whether you know it or not, many business cards are done in a way that just makes a person want to throw them in the trash the second you turn your back. Poor business The Guide of How To Market Your Local Business 5cards are deal breakers no matter how you look at. Just think about a card you got that was done on plain matted paper that consisted of no gloss. The truth is that first impressions do matter, and if you want people to keep that business card in their purse, wallet, desk or on the kitchen refrigerator, then you best think of putting more work in the look and design…if not then your card will become part of a land field.

9. Printing Flyers – More than likely if you have a present business, then you have a printer on hand to print flyers. Now, if you’re not seasoned on doing things like this then don’t panic because many companies allow you to create a customizable flyer. Once you have your flyers,  you can just pass them out on the weekend at an event in your city. If there is a convention going on and thousands of people are there, then ask for permission to hand out flyers as people are leaving.

10. Blogging 2-3 Times a Week – Studies shows that small businesses who blog at least 2-3 times a week increase their clients by 100% over those who don’t. You must have a website and be able to write quality posts in your industry. Make sure that you create good content people will love to read that will turn those visitors into paying customers.

11. Building Online Profiles – The #1 way to protect your reputation online and also build offsite content (which is content not included on your website) that will allow you a place for more branding. There are many websites sites out there where you can list your business locally, and these listing will show up in the search engines.

The profile sites give you a chance to talk about your small business and also gives you an opportunity to include your logo. This is powerful, and if you can get your profile on as many websites as you can, then you increase your chance locally of gaining lots of new clients to your website. This in terms should result in more profits. Here is a list of profiles sites I recommend you signup for.

  1. https://www.worldcat.org/
  2. http://digg.com/
  3. http://www.stumbleupon.com/
  4. http://www.myspace.com/colemanmarketinggroupllc
  5. http://www.flickr.com/people/colemanmarketinggroup/
  6. http://www.naymz.com/antoniocoleman-6mi3l
  7. https://sites.google.com/site/colemanmarketinggroupllc/
  8. https://plus.google.com/104827301273573471070/posts
  9. http://www.corank.com/user/colemanmg
  10. http://www.blogcatalog.com/user/colemanmg
  11. http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/1e3pn6/coleman_marketing_group_grows_your_marketing/
  12. http://www.meetup.com/
  13. http://twitterfeed.com/dashboard
  14. http://www.broowaha.com/author/coleman-marketing-gr
  15. http://intensedebate.com/people/colemanmg318
  16. http://disqus.com/colemanmg/
  17. http://bloggersunite.org/user/colemanmg
  18. https://vimeo.com/colemanmarketinggroup
  19. http://colemanmarketinggroup.smugmug.com/
  20. http://colemanmarketing.yelp.com/
  21. http://www.crunchbase.com/user/colemanmg
  22. http://www.zimbio.com/member/colemanmg
  23. http://colemanmg.hubpages.com/
  24. http://pinterest.com/colemanmg/
  25. http://www.peekyou.com/work/seo_consultant_at_coleman_marketing_group_llc
  26. https://app.blinklist.com/users/colemanmg
  27. http://www.blogflux.com/
  28. https://www.diigo.com/profile/colemanmg
  29. http://colemanmg.livejournal.com/profile
  30. http://chime.in/user/Colemanmg318
  31. http://www.metacafe.com/f/channels/colemanmg/
  32. http://quizilla.teennick.com/my/profile
  33. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/colemanmg
  34. http://www.crunchbase.com/person/antonio-coleman
  35. https://www.yelp.com/
  36. http://www.myspace.com/colemanmarketinggroupllc
  37. http://www.corank.com/
  38. http://technorati.com/blogs/colemanmg.com
  39. http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/colemanmg.com
  40. http://community.spiceworks.com/profile/show/myprofile
  41. SuperPages
  42. YellowPages.com
  43. Yahoo! Local
  44. Angie’s List
  45. MerchantCircle

 

12. Post On Schedule – Now I’m going to make this as simple as possible because it is self-explanatory. If you open the doors of your business at a certain time each day, then this is called doing something on schedule. To even be productive with your online marketing you must schedule your posts to go out on time each day you have them the schedule for. This way people can always expect to see new content from you on the date and time that you set.

13. Twitter Search – Twitter is becoming the fastest growing information highway out there. It’s amazing how fast someone can tweet something out, and in less than 2 seconds it’s at your fingertips of your laptop and mobile phone. Here is a little tip that you may not have thought about when it comes to Twitter.

You can use the Twitter Search to find people who tweet out about certain topics. Let’s say you have a law firm in Minden, La and you want to follow people who tweet about any sort of law actions. Such as, I was in an accident, going through a divorce and things of that nature. From here now you can follow with these people and network with them and offer them free advice to what steps they should take.

14. Marketing To Paying Customers – If you want to stop marketing to the people who just want to low ball your business prices then go after the big guys. If you’re running a lawn service and someone comes out and say I can only pay $50 for your services no matter what, then go ahead and move on because they’re not going to be long-time customers.

People have shown that if they’re looking to low ball you off the jump, then doing business with them will turn up devastating. Only work and market to those who are willing to pay a fair price for your services without the hassle.

15. Thank You Cards – I saw this fantastic marketing idea when I was visiting a restaurant in Atlanta, GA on vacation last year. Once me and my wife got up and finished paying for our food, the cashier gave us a simple “thank you card” that just had thanked you on the front, and included come back and see us on the back. I said to my wife, what a remarkable way to appreciate the customers coming through your doors and encouraging them to come back. What made it so amazing is that it only had those words on the it..no address, no website and not even a place for a review. 

16. Fast Pitch – Our attention spans are short as adults, and I will say its even shorter than kids because we have so much more going on. You only have about 5 to 10 seconds to throw a pitch at customers really, and if you don’t get them interested in that length of time, then they’re on to something else. Make that first impression the most stand out impression of your life.

17. Take Pictures – They say a picture speaks a thousand words. If you can, take pictures of your business. The way you do it is to take pictures of the staff and customers as they’re doing  business with you. Take pictures of any events and functions you have going on and post them on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter and your business website. Doing this allows people to share your photos with the share and like buttons…this is called viral marketing.

18. Simply Saying “Hi” – Just getting to know your customers is one way to get repeat business and word of mouth marketing. Asking them questions about how their day is going can go a long way in getting another person to spread your brand.

 

Check Out Some Low Budget Small Business Marketing Tips

19. College Marketing Student – There are many college students these days that are looking to show the world their talents in marketing. If you’re tight on a marketing budget, then think about contacting a college marketing student and ask them for an internship. Now if they can implement some new marketing strategies for you then maybe as your business grows you can hire them full-time.

20. Piggy Back Your Small Business – This is one of my favorite ways to gain free marketing when it comes to growing your business in a metro area. Why not go out and network with other businesses around town who are surrounding your niche. Meaning if you’re in the beauty salon business then you might want to network with other stores such as nail salons, women clothing stores, tanning venues, women book clubs, etc.

From here you can contact all the local businesses in your area such as here in Shreveport, Bossier City, and Minden. I’m using these as an example because this is my local market, but this can still work in your state, city or town just the same. Contact them and set up a place for you guys to meet like the local library and explain to them that you have an excellent way for all you guys to gain more clients by piggybacking off each other.

It comes, down to giving your business card out to all the other local businesses that attend this meeting and have them refer business to you. Plus you will do the same, and before you know it you will start to gain more clients and the best part about it is that it’s all FREE Marketing.

21. Publish Articles – Creating articles around your small business is pretty easy to do if you know you’re marketing inside out. Not to get so much into SEO and the teaching of how to get your website to rank #1 for aThe Guide of How To Market Your Local Business 6 given keyword, but it will be wise to find a keyword that’s center around your local market. By doing this, once the search engines index your article it can have the possibility of being found.

Now let’s say your small business is a car dealership and is located in Bossier City. What you will want to do so you have a better chance of getting local traffic from the search engines is to use a local keyword such as…”Bossier City Car Dealership”..all you have to do is write a 500 word or more article of your industry. Next, you will need to submit it to the #1 article directory which is EzineArticles, and once it gets accepted you can submit the same one to the following…

ArticleBase

GoArticles

Amazines.com

22. Give Back To Customers – People always love to get something for free, so one of the ways you can implement this to your advantage is by creating these reward type cards. Meaning, like a snow cone, stand here located in Minden where they have reward cards that they give you which has six open spots on it. Every time you purchase a snow cone from them, they will punch out a hole. After your sixth purchase, you will be able to get a large size snow cone for free…how awesome is that.

23. Friends – They say you can never have enough friends in your life, so if you’re like me then put them to use. All of our friends have jobs, so you can use them to offer your business cards to the other employees.  If you have ten close friends and you give them all twenty business cards each, and they give them all away then you have just been able to get in front of 200 people without that much effort.

Remember: As I said before, make sure that your business card is eye appealing and attractive enough for people to hold on to.

24. Networking Events – Get out and attend these local networking events in your city. Meaning, if you’re a real estate investor, then think about joining a home builders group, appraisal group or realtor group. These people are in your niche, so if you want to come and speak or mingle, then you’re in the right place to grow your small business.

25. Help a Reporter – Can’t tell you how many reporters are out there, but if I had to guess it has to be in the thousands. Many of them are looking for stories from new businesses being opened to even educational advice for the local community. If you have something to say and want to help a reporter out by giving your expertise, then this can be the free publicity you need.

26. Social Media Advertisings – I’m not a big fan of advertising locally on Facebook and Twitter but if you have a little money to spend then do it. They have great ways for you to target those in your local market to people who will most likely buy from you or use the services you offer. I call it the quick way to market because all you’re doing is spending money so people can see you faster rather than later.

27. Using Google Adwords – I was one of the first people to start using Google Adwords back in the early 2000’s. I made my first sale from an ad that I was running on Google back in those days and continued to use it for years after that. I don’t use Google Adwords anymore because I know how to get free traffic now from Google by doing seo.

I do understand for those of you who don’t want SEO implemented on your website at this time to push it up to #1 for your local market keyword, then using Google Adwords will be the best start for you. To explain it in simple terms you will have to pay every time someone clicks on your ad located to the right of all the organic searches in Google. This cost can range anywhere from 5 cents to $10 per click so if you have the money and you need customer eyeballs on your website now then this is your best offer.

28. Sponsor a Little League Team – Personally, if you want to get that ball rolling and get eyeballs on your brand, then I will say let’s get your logo and business name on as many shirts or jerseys as possible. By sponsoring a team, your brand will be blasted in front of thousands of people because kids are wearing your brand at the park, stores, school and just out and about.

29. Merchandise Giveaway – If you have it to spend then go out and put your brand on any sort of item you can. From T-shirts, coffee mugs, pens, calendars and more. This is something I do all the time in my local market to reach down in my budget and create free items I want to giveaway. Doing this continually is powerful, because people start to recognize your brand and is encouraged to learn more about your business.

30. Have a BBQ – I don’t care where in the world you live no one can tell you that they don’t like BBQ. People are suckers for great food if it’s done right and to the liking of the masses.  You can get someone to cater your BBQ and have a booth set up for you to pretty much gives away free BBQ plates. You may be asking why in the world would I want to do something of this nature because there is no way that I can pay it.

Think about this? This is about all the free publicity you will get from your local newspapers such as the Shreveport Times, Bossier Tribune and Minden Press Herald if you live in my local market. Not only that, here comes the local radio station talking about it. This sort of buzz will blast your business all over the city, state, and even the country if you’re lucky. To pull this off, all you have to do find local businesses who will love to sponsor this event in the form of them having billboards placed up all over the free BBQ event.

Plus the sponsors will get t-shirts made with the logos of all the sponsors including the saying of ( Free BBQ Giveaway Day Sponsored by……) by doing this now you have hundreds or thousands of people promoting your brand which in terms will be seen on the local news broadcast and local papers. Also, imagine this story getting picked up by the national news media?

31. Contest – Holding a contest in your place of business is pretty easy to do if you make it something related to your business. I say think of something that will make your customers participate and worth their while. If you do this then they will go out and tell more friends about it which will bring more potential clients through your doors.