how to improve your b2b local search marketing

Business-to-business can be a great thing to get into, but it may also be intimidating at first. It’s one thing to deal with ordinary customers, but it’s totally different to deal with customers who are buying from you to run their own business.

You can improve your chances of success by utilizing local search marketing to your advantage. It’s actually quite good for B2B, and here’s how you can maximize it for your business.

B2B Opportunity

Finding opportunity in B2B is all about understanding if there’s a component of your business that either already serves or can be made to serve other businesses.

You can look at Google for ideas on what categories you can fill. With over 2,000 Google My Business categories listed, over half of that is applicable to B2B companies. These include exclusively B2B companies and businesses with B2B offerings alongside B2C. Both of those categories are ripe for local marketing.

Some examples of B2C businesses with B2B opportunities include food establishments, major attractions, home services, professional services, entertainers, retailers, transportation and travel services, and so on.

Then there are the classic B2B business models, like manufacturers, suppliers, and wholesalers. If you’re able to get a handle of which is which, you can better understand how to find B2B opportunities among them.

Google and Local Business Directories

Local business directories and search sites are resources that customers can use to find businesses close to home. Submitting and updating your business profile to these sites does help greatly in being visible online, and a lot of them feature review systems as well so you get feedback and build your business reputation on the Internet.

That also includes Google, which is perhaps the most important of them all. Having your business included in Google My Business and Google Maps can help tremendously. Make sure to enter your information and specific category so people can find your business and get what they’re looking for.

There are also Yahoo! Local and Microsoft Live Search, which you should submit your business profile too as well. Every bit helps, and covering these bases will help in getting more customers to come your way.

Here’s a great infographic by PickeaWeb on how to do local search seo including business directories:

Local PPC Advertising

A well-executed search advertising campaign can be incredible for your business. Even the biggest companies experience great results when they utilize local ad targeting for increased differentiation, better relevance, and higher response rates.

If it works for them, it should work for smaller businesses too. You should consider ads on local mapping sites and local search sites for a more cost-effective way to get greater reach for your business.

Optimizing for Mobile

Mobile search evolves along with mobile technology as a whole, and apps like Google Mobile, Yahoo! Mobile, Microsoft Live Search, and so on are used by searchers to find businesses around them to get what they’re looking for.

They can do things like give your customers directions to your business’ physical location, hours of operation, your contact information, and so on. That’s why mobile should be a part of your marketing program.

Content Marketing and SEO

SEO and content make up the meat of your online marketing strategy as it’s your primary method of providing value to prospective customers in order to convince them to give your business a shot.

You can give a behind-the-scenes tour of your business in a blog post or video, talk about legal stuff that may directly affect your business and how customers may be able to do business with you, and so on. You can also post guides, reviews, and opinion pieces that can help customers relate with you.

You can also put up blog posts of accomplishments and commendations your business has received to impress local audiences. Whatever your audience may be interested in, you should make content for it.

You can also create content or product pages that detail how your products and services are used in your local area. Not only can this be impressive for customers, but also for other businesses in your area who are looking to improve themselves as well.

Conclusion

Local search marketing tends to reach prospects at the closest point of conversion, which is to be expected. Marketing your B2B company is all about covering all your bases to make sure that local audiences end up finding you.

Over time, you can get data on how many people are being pulled in by your efforts and you’ll see just how effective utilizing local search marketing for B2B can really be.