When running a local business, one of the most important ways to get exposure is through local internet marketing. But how exactly do you do this? What if you don’t want to only pay for ads, how do you optimize your site to show up locally when the right people search for your business? Check out an excerpt from the article below:

So you are the CEO of an inbound marketing agency. Congratulations and welcome to the cool kids club. We know what great work you can do with inbound and we also know how much energy and effort goes into every task that we complete. To help make your life easier, here are 5 different tools that you need.

Meet Linda, A Small Business Owner…

Linda owns a small business. She outsources a lot of the marketing to companies that do things she can’t, and she trusts that they are doing their jobs correctly. The problem is that she only has so much money in her budget for marketing, and is almost maxed out. She’s paying someone when she needs improvements to her website, an agency to manage social media marketing, a content writer to write for her site and blog - and she knows that she could get a lot of free traffic and more leads if she could only rank higher on Google. Linda has been looking into cost effective SEO services and wonders that even if she can afford them in her budget, will they be worth it? Should she add SEO (search engine optimization) services to her current marketing mix? Will they really be cost effective?

I was recently in a meeting where our client brought up the idea of adding a short video to her blog posts. With a slight – possibly reluctant – smirk on her face she asked us what we thought of this idea. Like each of our clients, she wants her business to get found online by potential customers. We’ve been helping with this process by creating a holistic inbound marketing strategy, part of which includes blogging, organic SEO services, downloadable eBooks, and email campaigns. I smiled at our client and said I thought it was a great idea, something worth trying at least, for many good reasons that I just happen to come across in the recent article below.

We love inbound marketing! Woo! Wait, we love outbound marketing! Oh no, can we love both, inbound and outbound marketing? If we love outbound marketing are we cheating on inbound?

As a successful and busy business owner, you likely don’t have a lot of time to waste on reading random articles. You also don’t want to waste time on initiatives and marketing methods that don’t work. If you’re the type of person who wants to have actionable items that can really help grow your business, things that you can start today, read on. When it comes to your small business digital marketing, you want to get the most out of it and get on it quickly. Here is some helpful information to guide you in doing just that.

Hot or cold. Bitter or sweet. Day or night. Happy or sad. Friend or foe. Sometimes we tend to see our world in absolutes – black or white. But we know there is plenty of gray area to make us question it all. In the marketing world, inbound and outbound marketing is one of those areas. While neither is absolutely good or evil, it’s how you use it that makes all the difference.

It’s finally that time. Your company is growing so much that you recognize you can’t do all of the marketing on your own, and you want to hire a consultant to help. With all of the marketing channels out there today, hiring a consultant is both needed and dreaded.

It’s needed because you want someone who is full time ‘immersed’ in the marketing world, who can give your company the best marketing services.

It’s dreaded, because you wonder deep down how to know if you’re hiring someone who can help you be successful. Are they any good? Can you trust them? Consider the following questions that all online marketing consultants should be able to answer. Ask these – and if you don’t get a good answer – keep on moving.

Have you heard of inbound marketing? Maybe you are an expert at it, and no further explanation is needed. Or maybe you have heard of it, and think it is simply another term for internet marketing or SEO. Or, you have never heard of it at all and a good explanation would be helpful. You’re in luck.

Are you looking at your current marketing plan and demanding, “show me the money?" Then it might be time for you to consider a different type of marketing. If you are too busy to implement a new strategy you should look into hiring an inbound marketing company