There are some very specific strategies that local businesses need to do in order to stand out of the crowd in their online marketing. If your business is looking to establish a strong online presence, these tips may just help you out.

1. Optimize Your Website for Local Searches
When people search for something locally, they always put the city and state name. This is the reason why your business website should be optimized to give a local feel – by including your address, providing contact numbers and having features that are related to the local community.
This could also work in your favor as you could increase the number of hits on your website and eventually get more people interested with what you have to offer.

2. Use Social Media Engagement
It is not enough to post your updates and re-tweet others’ stuff in social media. You need to be active on these sites, by actually interacting with the people that are on your page. It will not make sense to keep publishing updates if there are no social media tools to do it effectively.
A good way for you to get started in social media is usually by joining FaceBook groups that your target market belong to. This will give you a good idea of what’s being discussed and there you may also find some groups that need your attention.

3. Utilize Online Local Networking Tools
At least half of the people who are visiting your website are potential clients. An online local network is essential for maintaining contact with these potential customers to get them to interact with you. You will also need to engage them in a professional manner so that they feel comfortable contacting you first before making any decision about purchasing from your business.

4. Invest in Local Ranking
You need to invest in local ranking to get some extra traffic from your targeted market. This strategy is very important if you want to boost your online marketing campaign as people tend to feel more comfortable when they see results that are close to them in the internet results.
There are many tools available these days that can help you get better ranks for your local keywords which include Google Places, Yahoo! Local and Bing Local.