Regional Marketing Techniques

Internet based businesses have long snubbed their noses at their own local markets. Not so much because they didn't want local clientele, as because nationwide and worldwide markets were so accessible. With pay per click and pay per inclusion search engines vying for more and more of your advertising dollar, it is time to look again at regional marketing tactics.

Focusing a portion of your search engine marketing efforts on smaller, regional search engines and directories not only makes good business sense, but also helps you tap back in to your local market. Additionally, obtaining listings in search engines and directories under a regional category (especially with sites like DMOZ.com and Yahoo.com) will actually bring your site up under more relevant searches than being listed high under a single search term or category.
When "regional" means within a certain country, remember that it is important to obtain a domain based in that specific company. co.uk for the United Kingdom or eu.com for multiple European countries. domainname.ca for Canada.

If you want to target multiple regional markets and search engines you could target your domains in this manner. us.yourdomainname.com uk.yourdomainname.com Make sure that these regional sub-pages further target your regional market by using the correct currencies and spellings. The big regional directories to target first would be Yahoo! and LookSmart.

And you must not overlook smaller regional search engines and directories.

A new one currently offering free listings is http://www.uscounties.com. Pare down through your state to your county and submit your free listing in the appropriate category. There are tons of small regional search engines that will serve your target area. Often times, these smaller sites supply content to larger search engines like Yahoo!, Espotting, and others. One good way to find regional search engines is through Search Engine Watch. http://searchenginewatch.com/links/regional_search_engines/ . Phil Bradley also has a good simple site for checking out search engines and directories worldwide. http://www.philb.com/countryse.htm

If you are looking for country specific sites broken down by local areas and towns, search the UK's Search Engine Spy. http://www.searchenginespy.co.uk

A good way to find local search engines in the US is by starting on local government pages or local chamber of commerce pages. They often include links to everything under the sun within your community.

A final way to locate local search engines and directories is through a good standard search engine such as Google.com. By working this regional marketing tactic to its fullest potential you will become all the more accessible to your local market. Additionally, every time you get your site listed somewhere, you are boosting your link popularity which is becoming increasingly important in your overall search engine marketing strategy.

Should there actually not be any good local or regional sites and directories for your area, consider starting one. You can either offer free listings to businesses or charge for listings. This is especially good for boosting your business if you are in the web design or web hosting business. Perhaps your clients would get a free or discounted listing on the local directory site.

Ultimately, this regional marketing tactic approach will give your web site good coverage on relevant search engines and directories in a manner which is also highly accessible to one of your target markets. You can target your site very high with a regional approach. And by doing so begin to build a local clientele.

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Shannan Hearne-Fortner is the President and Wizard of http://www.SuccessPromotions.com
Marketing Your e-Business Better through creative marketing and knowledge. Guerrilla Marketing. One-to-One Marketing. Relationship Marketing. Your Marketing.