Bridging the Gap Between Offline and Online Marketing For Local Businesses in Hawai'i
- Pookela Thomas
- Feb 22
- 3 min read
In Hawai'i, we are very relationship based. It's all about helping the people around you, making sure you have the connections, and providing the best service you possibly can.
So how can we bridge the gap between offline and online business?
How I see it online marketing and offline marketing, it's pretty much the same. Just different methods.
Dan Kennedy, a very famous copywriter, broke it down like this.
Market (Who are you trying to serve?)
Message (What are you saying to your customer)
Medium (How are you reaching them?)
The Market and the Message are very much the same. It's reaching out to the people you'd provide the best service to, and the message behind reaching out to them.
Before we had the digital marketing avenue, people relied on newspaper, billboards, tv commercials, direct mail etc.
While those are still viable ways to introduce your business to them, we've been gifted whole new avenues to reach our customers. It evened the playing field, especially when you think of the pricing to put your face on a billboard or on a tv commercial.
It also made advertising much more quick to put out, and easier to get in front of your customer.
So how can you as a business owner, whether you're a brick and mortar business or a service type business, how can you reach out to more people?
Well, it depends.
Where does your customer digest their information?
What is their favorite brands, books, or where do they usually go to for information?
Specifically, where would a customer look to for more information if they need to get your product?
If it's a service type business, where would they go?
If it's a brick and mortar type of business, where would they go?
It mostly depends, but I'd guarantee that at least 70% of customers will look it up on Bing, Google, or Safari.
Bright Local did studies that showed the following; 94% have used online directories to find information about local businesses. 80% of U.S. consumers search online for local businesses weekly, with 32% doin git daily. 61% use business information sites like Google, Yelp, or Trip Advisor to find information about unfamiliar local business.
When I think about it, if I'm looking for something, I'm looking it up on google, checking the reviews to see if it's good, and how their services are.
Even if I was referred a product or service, I would tend to look it up online, see if they're good, and see what people are saying about the service.
So how do you, as a local business owner in Oahu, get in front of them?
A good start is to set up your google business profile.
You'll submit your information, enter your services, business description, and verify your business through 1 of 4 methods
Video Verification
Phone Verification
Email Verification
Live Video Call
These are usually simple create and set up.
You'll want to optimize the Google business profile as well.
This will include adding Q&A, responding to reviews (and asking for the reviews), adding business hours, adding more to your services. There are a few more things, but setting up a baseline should work for now.
Local SEO can feel overwhelming, and that's why I've decided to focus on helping small businesses with setting up your local SEO, so businesses can experience the power of digital marketing.
The goal is to enhance the way your business operates. To add to your level of customer service. To help more people. To help you thrive.
If you have any questions, give me a call and we can talk about your local SEO, and how to bridge that gap between offline and online business.
Comments