Want to Write for Us?

We appreciate your interest in writing for Local Marketing Institute. We are always looking for talented and knowledgable local marketers willing to share their expertise with others, but we are very selective in choosing our writers.

Please review our guidelines and, if you feel that you are a good fit, complete the form below. We’ll respond within 7-10 business days.

About LMI and Our Readers

At Local Marketing Institute, we are 100% focused on effective and ethical digital marketing tactics for LOCAL businesses. Our readers are companies that serve their customers face-to-face whether at their location or at their customer’s location.

Examples of local businesses include:

  • Storefront businesses – restaurants, retail stores, salons, entertainment venues, medical / dental offices, banks, etc.
  • Service area businesses – HVAC contractors, plumbers, lawn care / landscape, home repair, cleaning services, etc.
  • Professional businesses – attorneys, accountants, real estate professionals, investment advisors, etc.
  • Community services – schools, government offices, parks, churches, etc.

Local businesses can be small to medium-size businesses (SMBs), but can also be larger single-location businesses as well as national chains / franchises. The key is that all the businesses all serve their customers face-to-face.

What We Publish

We publish articles that teach local businesses how to market themselves online effectively and ethically. Articles are primarily tips or “how-to” in nature and written for an intermediate marketing knowledge level. We want businesses to immediately apply what they learn from your article.

We prefer focused articles around 700-1000 words in length on specific, focused topics. However, we will also consider longer, cornerstone-type articles that go in-depth into a larger subject area.

Our articles cover all aspects of local digital marketing including:

  • Local search / SEO tactics
  • Listing management (GMB, Apple Maps, Yelp, Bing, BBB, data providers, etc.)
  • Reputation management (online reviews / ratings, spam management, etc.)
  • Local business websites (WordPress, builders, search console, tagging, hosting, etc.)
  • Messaging (email, automation, SMS, messenger, etc.)
  • Social media (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Nextdoor, Pinterest, etc.)
  • Digital advertising (Google, Facebook, Yelp, geofencing, digital billboards, etc.)
  • Analytics (Google Analytics, call tracking, GMB Insights, dashboards, etc.)
  • Loyalty programs, local business apps, booking / ordering systems, etc.
  • Legal compliance (privacy, ADA, sweepstakes / contests, etc.)
  • Multi-location management

We like for authors to “own” their posts and update them if information changes. We ask for authors to review their posts twice per year to see if they need updating and submit revisions. To that end, we try to avoid duplicate posts on the same topic. Please do a search of our site and ensure that your topic has not already been covered.

What We Don’t Publish

We don’t publish infographics, syndicated content, advertorial content marketing, or link-building / link-swap articles.

We don’t publish “black hat” strategies that violate the terms of service of Google, Facebook or other online platforms.

To avoid conflicts of interest, contributors may not mention tools, products or services that are in any way affiliated with. If you currently work for, represent, are an affiliate of, or are otherwise incentivized for mentioning a tool, product or service, you may not include it in your article.

Articles must not contain links to a company or its products / services unless it’s about the subject matter that is specifically being addressed. For example, links to the Google My Business, Apple Maps, Yelp, Facebook business interfaces or knowledge bases relevant to the article are fine. Links to established, 3rd-party studies are also acceptable.

LMI reserves the right to edit or remove links that in its opinion are promotional in nature.

Who We’re Looking For

We’re looking for articles submitted by individual authors, not companies or content teams. We prefer articles from practicing local marketing professionals who have an in-depth, day-to-day knowledge of their specific area of expertise.

Authors must have a history of writing detailed, tactical articles, that provide practical and trustworthy advice for local businesses.

Here are three examples of the type of articles that we’re looking for:

We primarily publish original articles, but have options for established authors who still want exposure to our audience, while keeping the original article on their own website. Please contact us for more information.

What You Get As a Contributor

Contributors get a byline at the top of their article linked to their author page on the LMI website and get a biography block at the bottom of their article with their name, photo, bio, and an active link to their website.

Author Block
Example of an author block on a contributed article

Contributors also get a dedicated author page on the LMI website with all of their contributed articles listed below their author biography.

To help drive visibility, we notify our entire email list and social media channels of a new, contributed article typically the same day that it is published.

Topics We’re Currently Looking For

These are just some of the article topics that we’d like to publish on Local Marketing Institute. Of course we are always open to other ideas as well as long as they conform to our article guidelines above.

  • Does geotaggging photos actually work for local SEO?
  • Organic marketing tactics for Nextdoor
  • Guide to Nextdoor advertising for local businesses
  • How to best use UTM tagging in Google Analytics for local businesses
  • Effective email automation tactics for local businesses
  • How to best ask customers for reviews
  • How to get the most out of GMB’s Marketing Kit.
  • SMS tactics for local businesses
  • How can local businesses protect their marketing assets so that they own them instead of their agency?
  • Is NAP consistency still important?
  • GMB post strategy and how it ties to a social media strategy
  • Best practices for Google Local Service Ads (LSAs)
  • How local businesses can set up a remarketing campaign
  • How to get the most out of GMB’s booking feature
  • Should local business websites use AMP?
  • Effective chat strategies for local business websites
  • How to use FB instant messages on a local business website
  • Anatomy of a successful location page for multi-location businesses
  • Anatomy of a successful single-location website
  • How to properly tag a local business website and what tags you should use
  • Examples of successful Google Ad campaigns for local business
  • Examples of successful Facebook Ad campaigns for local business
  • Examples of successful geofencing ad campaigns for local business
  • How local businesses should use Facebook Messenger
  • Organic Pinterest strategies for local businesses
  • Organic Instagram strategies for local businesses
  • Organic LinkedIn strategies for local businesses
  • Guide to effective GMB websites and how to use them
  • How to measure store visits with Google Ads
  • How to measure store visits with Facebook Ads
  • How to claim and optimize your business listing on Bing Maps
  • How to claim and optimize your business listing on Foursquare
  • How to claim and optimize your business listing on Infogroup
  • How to claim and optimize your business listing on TripAdvisor
  • How to claim and optimize your business listing on Yelp
  • Call tracking best practices
  • How to create a privacy policy and terms of use document for your website
  • ADA compliance for local business websites