Going from a national to local marketing strategy

[Imageco]

I started my graphic design business (imageco.com) after the dot com industry collapsed in 2001 and there were virtually no jobs to be found, I focused mainly on logo design and ultimately figured out a way to drive quite a lot of traffic to my site by the means of creating directories for printers in every major city in the US. It worked exceedingly well for many years but eventually I had a lot of copycats use this technique and ultimately it pissed off quite a few designers around the country and I was reported one to many times to Google and was forced to make some changes. So I dropped the directories and redesigned my site and stuffed as many place names in the site as I could so I wouldn’t lose all my traffic, it worked for a while but ultimately my site has drifted further down in the serps and with the advent of Google Local my traffic pretty much disappeared. Furthermore with the surge in crowdsourcing businesses like 99designs the value people placed on my logo design services dropped to a point where there just wasn’t much reason to go after a national market anyway. I’m not proud of how I built my business but I don’t make any excuses for it, I had a mortgage and a family to feed so I did what I needed to do.

I’m now at the point where I’ve decided my best option is to move away from logo design and redefine my business as more of a visual identity/graphic design company and go after the local market. I live in the Seattle area, Bellevue to be specific and the economy is such that I know there is a ton of local opportunity that I'm missing out on and I want to focus my marketing efforts here.

My question is what is the best way for me to do this? I focused mainly on logo design for nearly 20 years and my keywords are built around logo design for which I still hit fairly well on but I need to expand my offerings and want to redirect my efforts at turning up on local searches for other terms like graphic design, web design, print design, etc. I don’t necessarily want to instantly drop all of the landing pages I created for logo design because that is still where the majority of my business comes from but I’m fairly certain that these landing pages have me Pigeonholed as just a logo designer. Do I need to delete everything and start completely from scratch or is there a less extreme approach to making this kind of transition? And once I do make these changes what might be the time frame for turning up better locally? I’m in the process of redesigning the site, updating my portfolio and writing all new content and could really use the advice of this community. Thank you!

[Imageco]

Hi Miriam,

I just fixed #1 and #2 is already true to a degree.

My goal isn't to sell more logos to the local market it is to present my business as a visual identity company which is actually a more apt description of what I do for my customers. I have another website that i put together to present myself to local business on a case by case basis when I played with the idea of going to work for someone else. The site is garnergraphics.com and it gives a more well rounded view of the work I do.

I'm in the process of redesigning Imageco.com, rewriting all of the copy and showcasing work that has more of a mass appeal so that I won't present myself as the one-trick-pony logo designer that my current site does. I guess my main concern at this point is whether or not I should kill off all of the geographic landing pages that are focused on logo design in order to start ranking locally for other terms. As I mentioned I still get a bit of work from those pages so I was thinking of moving them to a subdirectory and redirecting the traffic while I make the push locally... or will it hurt my local efforts just by having all of those pages? Do you think I should abandon the national market altogether or should I keep them and refocus all of those landing pages on presenting myself as a visual identity business? Ultimately I think my success is going to be determined by getting in front of local businesses, startups, and entrepreneurs so if the best move to accomplish that requires completely abandoning those pages I am more than willing to do so.

I very much appreciate your willingness to offer me some guidance on this because I really do need all the help I can get.

Thank you!

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Imageco!

Thanks for the important details about your business model. In order to become truly dominant in the local market, you're going to need to be able to complete in Google's local packs, and in order to do that, you have to have

1. A physical address, even if it's your home address that you keep hidden on your GMB listing

2. Face-to-face contact with at least some of your customers

If you can't meet both requirements, you won't be able to build local business listings, and you'll be in the same scenario of real-world design houses beating your virtual business because they meet the criteria of "local" that your enterprise doesn't. You'll be stuck with either going after local-organic rankings (appearing for local searches but in the organic results instead of the packs) or utilizing PPC to show up for local searches (can be quite expensive).

So, basically my advice here is that if you want to narrow your consumer base to a local market, you've got to find a way to go fully local, meaning having a business model that meets the description of my 2 point list, above. Anything short of this and you'll likely be experiencing that same frustration you did trying to compete as a virtual national business.

However, I will add that the market may remain tough, whether your business model is virtual or local. Automation and cheap solutions have proliferated, as you've documented, and I'm not sure a local business just selling logo design would be financially viable. You mention you might expand into other service areas, and that you're doing research and seeing a ton of opportunity. I'm curious to know, these days, do most people think of ordering logos as a virtual or real-world action? I remember selling them back in the early 2000s on eBay and places like that. Have you seen a shift in the market that makes you feel people in Seattle would specifically be thinking of ordering a logo design from a real-world business that's local to them? Or would that hinge on it being tied into another service like print marketing? Curious.

[BartonInteractive]

Happy to help! And if you end up really digesting all of this information and becoming fluent in it, I'm quite sure others will start asking you where to go and what to do next as well!

Best,
Zack

[Imageco]

Hi Miriam,

I do meet with customers but only on occasion as most of my clientele aren't local and given the nature of my business it's not very cost effective for either my customers or myself to meet in person. I suspect that will change though as I make a push into the local market. I presently don't have any plans to open up a storefront but again that is also apt to change once I grow my business locally and eventually dominate the local market...you know because of all the value and guidance I receive now that i am a member of Moz

Thanks for the welcome!

[MiriamEllis]

Hey There!

It's great to see you getting such helpful input from our community here, and we're so glad to have you!

I respect the honest way you told your story, and you made it easy to follow the ups-and-downs you've experienced over the years. Donna has linked you to an article of mine with a graphic that can help you identify local business model options, and I have 2 specific question:

Are you planning to open a physical storefront?

Are you planning to meet face-to-face with clients, either at your store, your home or your clients' locations?

[DonnaDuncan]

You are most welcome!

[Imageco]

Thanks Zack, I just joined last week and am just getting my bearings so I thought I'd try and get some feedback and direction with a question before diving in headfirst so I really appreciate you pointing me in the right direction. I'm eager to get going on this as I've drug my feet for far too long and your input will not go to waste. I'll start with the beginners guide and work my way up to the workshop and I'll also check out your blog post. Thanks again for your help, your response has made me feel quite welcome to Moz.

[Imageco]

Thanks Donna, I really appreciate your insight and for taking the time to provide such a thoughtful response, I was really hoping to receive such an answer when I posted this question and you exceeded my expectations. I'm new to Moz and have much to learn and you have given me the direction I was looking for, I will not take it for granted and plan on thoroughly reviewing the material you have directed me towards. I do turn up on local searches already just not for the terms I would like to so hopefully it won't require a year to make this change, but it is what it is and I'm in it for the long haul. Again, thank you for your response.

[DonnaDuncan]

Imageco,

No shame in trying to provide for your family! In fact, you led the way for a while there creating all those local directories. Not a good approach nowadays, but it worked for a while.

_What is the best way for me to do this? _

I'm going to point you to two resources created by Miriam Ellis, a local expert at Moz and a person who has tremendous insight and is willing to share her wisdom with anyone who asks.

Moz Local Checklist - This first one looks at the type of business you have and Google Guidelines to arrive at the best strategy for your Google My Business listing and content. It also inventories all the other steps that will need to be taken to achieve local SEO success and provides links to other helpful resources and a checklist.

Local Landing Page - Inspiration, tips, guidelines, and a template for creating truly valuable local content.

Do I need to delete everything and start completely from scratch or is there a less extreme approach to making this kind of transition?

I recommend you inventory your existing content after you've reviewed the resources above and then decide whether to keep, change, or delete them. I would expect they'll be helpful in coming up with "truly valuable local content".

And once I do make these changes what might be the time frame for turning up better locally?

As I'm sure you well know, local SEO takes time too. How long it will take is going to depend on your starting point relative to your competition. If you want to set a ballpark, I'd say a year. It's a ballpark. You should start showing up on maps sooner than that, but you may not make it into the local three-pack for some time after that. Much will depend on the strength of your competition and the health of your existing website. Local and organic are intertwined. The latest local search ranking factors study published by Moz found that the second most influential contribution to local rankings (second only to your Google My Business listing) was link signals - not on-page, not citations, and not reviews.

Good luck Imageco! Work hard. You'll get there.

[BartonInteractive]

Note: Just got into my car but had another thought. If you're just looking to answer all of your questions in one sitting, I did just write a blog post as a beginner's checklist to SEO that could also be well worth a quick read. Hope this helps:

http://giantjet.net/local-seo-checklist/

Best,

Zack

[BartonInteractive]

Hi there,

I'm wanting to chime in, as I also have a love for both SEO and logo design. In all honesty, I couldn't recommend more to you starting with (A) the Moz Beginners Guide to SEO section of the Moz site (which is free), and (B) taking the Moz workshops and trianing (not free but well worth it). Doing this, and in this order, with the workshops (interactive webinars) in the order they're listed will very much get you a wealth of knowledge on SEO. By that I mean, telling you which steps need to be taken, the order they should be taken, and the prioritization and weight each carries (and why). Even just beginning with the Moz Beginners Guide to SEO article (it's more an entire section of a site than a little blog post), and then the first Moz webinar or two may answer the majority of the questions you have here, which will be a HECK of a lot cheaper than hiring an SEO specialist to do this for you.

Best of luck to you!
Zack Barton