In the 21st century it has become increasingly difficult for more traditional brick and mortar businesses to keep up with the rapidly advancing movement of technology and digital marketing trends. In this article, we will be examining how a “regular” business can keep up with the way consumers are shopping. We will be focusing on a fictional locksmith business, as this is an industry many would not associate with online marketing and one that many business owners may not even know that they can leverage.

Forms of Advertising

There are multiple forms of advertising we as a locksmith could utilize however, some are better than others, and we will list our top picks below. We have selected our choices based on ROI and ease of use for a non-tech savvy user, as well as popularity among the marketing community. Each will be broken down individually below.

1. Social Media Marketing

2. Video Marketing

3. Paid Advertising

We will discuss these three advertising strategies in more detail below.

Social Media Marketing Explained

Imagining we are are newly formed locksmith business, we could do a number of things right off the bat. First, we would need to get some social media accounts set up. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and many others account for a large percentage of internet users, and many people are actually going to these platforms to not only read reviews, but directly make purchases as well. For this reason it is vitally important to be present as a brand across all social mediums. We can also run advertisements on our social media, but given the emergency nature of our assumed profession, this might not be a viable option for our business.

The Big To Do About Video Marketing

Videos have become an incredibly powerful way to get your message across to a consumer and, with over 4 billion views on Youtube each day, it would seem silly not to get some of the traffic for your business. Youtube is not the only platform however, and users on sites like Vimeo and Sprout are increasing as well. An example of a video marketing strategy can be seen below by a company that actually caters to locksmiths (we will touch more on it in the paid advertising section.

Locksmith Marketing Video Example

In the video above, the company in question is essentially renting out the digital real estate that the video has in Google and Vimeo. For a local business with no advertising know how or budget, this can be a very viable way to drive targeted traffic to your business. In our example, we might rent this video and replace it with our own promotional video that talks about our company. This way, we can simply get directly in front of the traffic already going to the clip, and use it for our own benefit.

Paid Traffic Advertising

Paid traffic is one of the most used methods for client generation, brand promotion, and overall traffic acquisition. There are a number of paid advertising mediums available to business owners including Google Adwords, Facebook Ads, and even good old fashioned radio ads, all of which have ups and downs. There are also other services offered by companies such as the one mentioned above. Let’s say that our company is based in New York and we want to get in front of all those people we know are searching for our services online. We could simply find a company like the one above that runs a New York locksmith directory, get ourselves a listing, and be all set. Taking that one step further, we could narrow it down by city or town, so that when people look for a local locksmith, they find our business first.

Google Ads and Facebook ads are also great ways to generate traffic (especially Facebook). Their ad system allows you to narrow down your target audience to the exact demographic and base it on interests, life events, relationship status, and much more. These targeting features allow a business to focus in on their ideal client, and speak directly to them, which is incredibly powerful.

In conclusion, there are a multitude of ways you can go about getting clients for your business, and the route you decide to take depends entirely on your company, the audience you want to target, and what plain ol works.