Online Advertising

The Importance of Online Advertising for Local Businesses

If you run a small, local service or retail business in East Parsonfield ME, most of your customers probably live within ten miles of your location. When your market is so close, it's easy to overlook the importance of online advertising. That would be a big mistake, especially since your East Parsonfield ME competitors are probably advertising their businesses online. Why should you be reaching out to an online audience for your business when theyíre probably all living within the [statetitle] area? Here are some key facts to help you understand the importance of online advertising for local businesses like yours.

Most People Start Their Search for Products and Services Online

Today, the Internet serves the same purpose that the Yellow Pages used to serve in past years. Whether theyíre looking for a local pizza joint or a new dentist, most people now head for a search engine and enter a search phrase into the search box. If you don't have an online presence, you wonít even show up on their list of possibilities.

Your Advertising Dollars Buy More Online

While itís expensive to place ads on the biggest and most popular websites, other types of online advertising are surprisingly affordable. You can often get a display ad on a local or industry-specific blog for far less than youíd pay for a newspaper display ad. And if you expand the definition of online advertising to include email advertising, you can get your message out to hundreds of targeted prospects for far less than it costs to send out targeted direct mail.

You Can Geo-Target Your Market

By optimizing your website for local searches, you can ensure that your ads are displayed only or at least mostly to people in your target market area. Online advertising makes it far easier to market only to the market segments you are most interested in wooing.
Online advertising isn't only for businesses that want to reach a wider market. These days, even if the scope of your business is only one small town, the Internet is the place to put your ads.