Does the thought of trying to stay top-of-mind with your customers and running your business seem daunting? You’re not alone.

Being a business owner takes a lot of time and energy.

Here are just a few examples of how Dream Local has helped small businesses to succeed in their online marketing efforts:

1. Social Media

Dream Local helped Quality Discount Roofing reach more customers via social media. The challenge was to achieve this for a service-based business, like roofing, that customers need only occasionally.

We started with a digital marketing strategy that included industry best-practices for reaching potential customers; built and optimized a paid ad campaign for Facebook to increase fans, website traffic, and social engagement; write and post 2 blogs per month to increase search traffic, educate prospects and attract customers.

The result: In the first 9 months, the business received 302,838 impressions on its Facebook page, increased its fan base, engaged customers and increased website traffic from social channels.

2. Email Marketing

Henry Repeating Arms Co. hired us to run a sweepstakes to grow its email database. We used a small paid ad budget to promote the contest and encourage engagement. The primary tactics consisted of targeting online forums and social pages to highlight the contest and attract interest from related sites. By targeting the right people and social sites, we delivered a new email target list with more than 25,000 email addresses in 10 days. The sponsor was so pleased with the results that he quickly decided to repeat the sweepstakes in the following year.

3. Online / Social Media Ads

The Inn at Cuckolds Lighthouse opened its doors for guests in 2014. The challenge was to quickly build brand recognition and facilitate bookings for that first season as well as acquire the correct audience for ongoing bookings and sales.

Dream Local redesigned the inn’s existing Facebook page beginning in March 2014, when the page had just 184 likes. About 10 months later, by Feb. 1, 2015, the page had 3,486 likes. Of the additional 3,302 likes, about 73 percent were generated by Facebook pay-per-click advertising designed specifically to increase page fans. We also administered several campaigns targeted specifically to increase engagement by “boosting” specific Facebook page posts. Engagement includes post likes, shares, comments and clicks on links.

Since 2015, the Inn has had a 100% booked rate with a growing waiting list of people hoping to get a chance to stay at the Inn. The “Lovers, Lighthouse and Lobster” package developed by Dream Local continues to generate 30% of the inn’s bookings.

4. Local Events

Social media for the Maine Lobster Festival is managed by our team here at Dream Local. Around 30,000+ people attend the festival every year and 1,300+ people volunteer their time to help make the festival happen. Dream Local is in charge of social media channels, media planning, advertising design and management, public relations, documenting festival events, providing online customer service, and acting as a liaison between festival coordinators and outside media. Our team has worked to promote the Maine Lobster Festival around the world with great success.

5. Blogging

Blogs are an incredibly effective way to stay top-of-mind with your customers. Not only do they provide content for you to share on your social media pages, they also help your website appear on search engines, and they position you as an expert in your industry. Many of our clients and partners use blogging as a part of their marketing strategies to generate more sales and engagement.

The keys to successful blogging are: generating content on a consistent basis so people think of you when they want to know something about your area of expertise; and choosing topics that will be relevant to your audience and generate the right keywords for your website.

If you are looking to increase your business’s online presence but you’re not sure where to start, sign up for our free digital audit.