How to Create a Marketing Strategy for the Non-tech Savvy

Some local business owners are internet-savvy and can provide details about what they expect from their marketing agency. Others, meanwhile, are not as knowledgeable of the details of digital marketing. For the second type of client, it can be overwhelming for them to learn that so much goes into marketing a brand online. Instead of easing clients' minds, marketers might inadvertently cause panic with the technical terms they use. To help newcomers to digital marketing, agencies can reframe these terms and situate them in concepts that anyone understands. Here is our guide to helping your non-technical clients understand what exactly marketers accomplish!

"We Help You Show Customers That You Care."

Many local business owners have a heart for their customers, and they strive to run customer-centric enterprises. While earning money is just as important, they see it as secondary to providing the best service possible for their community. Local marketing is all about establishing loyalty and proving that your reputation is well-deserved, so business owners would be especially interested in showing that they care about customers' wants and needs.

Some questions that could help surface how a company cares for its customers are the following:

• What customer guarantees do you have that show you have their best interests at heart?
• How do you create a culture of respect and empowerment among employees?
• Is your location accessible, clean, and functional?
• Do you represent your products, services, and location honestly?
• Do you participate in community life or volunteer for local initiatives?
  

A marketing agency should translate the owner's answers to these into content that represents the business. Helping local businesses show they care involves representing the business accurately, avoiding spam or negative reviews, overselling products, or making up programs that purportedly benefit the community.

"We Help You Show Customers That You Listen."

Local businesses thrive on word of mouth, and brand buzz is valuable to small enterprises. Conversely, radio silence is actively hurtful for a brand. When people do not speak up online about a company, it means they're either unaware or dissatisfied with it. Only a fraction of unhappy customers speaks up about an unsatisfactory product or service. Marketers can prevent this from happening by being attuned to customers from the start. Asking these questions would help:

• Do you initiate one-on-one conversations with customers?
• Do you recording and analyze focus group discussions or phone interviews?
• Do you read the reviews and answer questions people leave on Google My Business, Facebook, Yelp, or wherever you have listings?
• Do you acknowledge mentions on platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook?
• Do you read the results of surveys, form submissions, and emails you receive?
  

Marketing agencies should help clients organize and analyze this data to gain insight into how people view their business. That should be a good jump-off point for improvements or new campaigns.

"We Help You Show Customers That You Pay Attention."

Local search is a significant driver of business for small businesses. Local search also has parallels to the real world—the map marketers generate from searches related to their clients' business consist of customers' physical locations. When you're a local business, you cannot afford to assume anything about your competition, who searches for you, or why they do. Asking these questions will clarify what your clients are doing in terms of local SEO:

• Are you aware of which local businesses offer the same goods and services you do?
• How far away are these other local businesses, and how close are they to your customers?
• Do you know how customers search for your business online?
• What keywords do people use to search for your business?
  

Good local search marketing agencies provide the tools businesses need to make sense of local SEO analytics. These findings are crucial to drawing in customers from all geographic points possible and helps them see which competitors are outranking them. Good agencies will also empower their clients to create opportunities based on their local SEO.

"We Help You Tell Your Story."

Business owners are often practical people. Those who have a flair for words won't be masters of all types of digital marketing. A good agency will give them the tools to tell their story. An agency will know how to surface the company's story through interviews with the founders, employees, and customers. More than that, it will know how to maximize all channels for a company's story.

They will use every part of the website, all blog and social media posts, responses to reviews, answers to questions in listings, descriptions on listings, and Google posts to create an impression of the business and reinforce the story it wants to tell.

They will have the strategies to take this further and give clients outlines for live chat, email, press releases, and interviews. They might even know how to produce infographics, images, and videos that resonate with their client's target market. Excellent marketing agencies will know how to combine all of these words, images, and videos into an online experience that people will want to keep coming back to, one that truly represents the client.

Conclusion

Running a business can be daunting, and small business owners often feel intimidated when hiring third-party specialists who use jargon in meetings. Give your non-tech savvy clients peace of mind by using simple, down-to-earth language relatable to everyone. You'll have a much better working relationship when you do!

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