How can you compete with the big budgets of the big box stores? They are literally spending billions of dollars on marketing budgets, putting them at the top of the list of search results when your potential customers search for products online that your have sitting on your shelves.

Having your store brand online is SMART. If you have gotten that far you are in good shape. Please talk to me if you don’t have at least a website, Facebook page, Instagram business account, and a spend of 50% of your marketing budget online through targeted ads or placements.

SEO in your competitive product market is SMARTer. Let’s make sure when someone is looking for pet supplies (or whatever it is you sell) they find you right up there with PetCo, PetSmart, and Walmart through targeting ads, using high value keywords, to people with the right interests within an area that makes it convenient to come to your store. Do you read any of the paper flyers, coupons, etc that come in your mailbox, or does it go straight into the recycling bin? Do you watch all of your TV on delay, skipping all the advertising, or better yet you are a cord cutter, or are you somehow mesmerized by those multi-million dollar video ads? Targeted advertising is the holy grail, lowering your CPCs (cost per click) and hitting the right potential customer at just the right time to convert them to a real live customer. Product placements with key social media influencers can be a huge value with your marketing dollar as well. Find the undervalued influencer who has a big sphere of influence in your community and those surrounding you. Influencers aren’t just for powering an online marketplace, but can spread the word about your brick and mortar brand virally too.

What if you could compete in SEO on an individual product or brand level quickly and efficiently too? No need to run an ecommerce site. No need to manually key an entire product catalog into an ecommerce engine. Get people to your storefront who are looking for the products you sell, and are within your target area and demographic. We are always looking for ways to help you do business a little SMARTer, and showing up in search results for “kong toys near me” at the same level or even higher up in the results as the national chains is the SMARTest. Lots of buyers want to support local business over big business, it’s your job to make sure they know you are there, have what they need, and are ready to give them a helping hand… not just run their credit card.

Good luck landing those locals, let me know if you found value by liking the blog, liking us on Facebook, or following us on Instagram.