Local marketing covers all marketing tactics and strategies aimed at enticing local customers within a certain radius of a business to it.
This form of marketing can be done online using tools and methods that target the audience geographically. It could also be done using traditional offline marketing methods, like newspaper, tv, or radio advert. However, for the best result, most top marketing agencies, like Local Brand Advisor, recommend a combination of both strategies.
Meanwhile, if you run a small business and you want to know how to market your business locally, here are some local marketing strategies you can implement.
Offer Incentives to Referrals
One of the best ways to generate more business is to offer incentives to your customers for referring others to your business. This will not only keep your past customers coming back but also reel in new customers. These new customers will also go ahead to refer your business to friends, family, and professional contacts. This will help you expand your network and gain more exposure.
Cross-promotion With Other Local Businesses
Cross-promoting with other businesses in the area is a great way to market your goods or services.
By Cross-promotion, you can cut your marketing and outreach costs in half and get exposure to the other business’s audience. It will also help you build professional relationships. In some cases, you can even offer discounts to the other company’s customers. Cross-promotion can also help you increase your social media presence, and it can be free or very inexpensive.
Cross-promotion is a common marketing strategy for small businesses. However, it requires some creativity on your part. For example, a carpet and tile cleaning company can reach out to flooring businesses in the area to co-sponsor an event. By doing this, both businesses will gain exposure to a new market.
Cross-promotion is also perfect for businesses located in shopping centers. This method allows customers to be introduced to another small business within walking distance. It also saves time and money from organizing demonstrations. In addition to these benefits, cross-promotion with other businesses can also help your business’s reputation in the local community.
Facebook Ads Manager
Facebook is a powerful tool to help your local marketing campaign. Facebook is a popular social networking site with over 2 billion active users. You can use this to your advantage and build a loyal following for your small business.
Unlike traditional advertising, Facebook allows you to target people in your area who are interested in your products or services. You can choose to run ads continuously or on a schedule. However, it is important to keep in mind that you should only run ads during business hours.
You can also view insights on your audience through Facebook Audience Insights. You can use this information to help you decide how to manage your ads. You can see insights on your page and on your followers. You can use these insights to create an ad message that will be most appealing to these followers.
Direct Mail
Direct mail is a great way to reach local residents and potential customers. This method allows you to customize your message to the specific interests of your target audience. For example, if you sell appliances, you can send direct mailers to people looking to buy new appliances. Your direct mailers can include information about the quality and value of your products.
Before creating a direct mail campaign, research your target audience. This will ensure you reach the right audience. Then, design a compelling offer that will make your ideal client want to take action. Direct mail does not have to be pushy, but it does need to motivate action.
Before you launch your direct mail campaign, do a test mailing of a smaller portion of your list. This will give you an idea of what the response rate is. Also, you can see how many letters you should send each week. By measuring the response rate, you can see whether the campaign is effective or not.
Direct mail is a low-cost and highly targeted local marketing strategy for small businesses. With targeted mailings, you can reach thousands of people in a short period. This method can be used to advertise your latest message, new grand opening, and more. Direct mail marketing can reach up to 5,000 people per day per ZIP code. It is a low-cost option that can boost ROI and brand recognition.
Optimize Google My Business listing
With more than 41% of internet users using google maps, having Google my business profile set up for your business is a no-brainer. With this profile set up and fully optimized, potential customers in your locality will be able to find your business easily.
In case you are not getting enough traffic to your Google my business profile, you can employ the service of a local SEO expert to help you optimize and improve the ranking of your business page.
If you haven’t claimed your listing, they can also help you claim it and fill it with the right information.
Get Involved In Local Community Events
Even though a lot of businesses have totally shifted their marketing efforts online, it doesn’t mean offline marketing is dead. You can still pull a considerable amount of business offline. To do this, you need to get involved in local community events. You can also host and sponsor your events to raise your brand awareness levels. These events need to be covered by the local press and publications. Also, since most of these media houses will end up posting their content online, this can make it easy for local people who didn’t attend the event also to find you online.
Get Reviews
Before patronizing a business, most local customers will check out the reviews and testimonies given by other local customers. So as a local business, it would help if you worked on getting reviews from your customers.
Importantly, you mustn’t pay for reviews or solicit them. The best thing to do is to suggest that your customers let other people around you know what they think of your services or products. And since the major way to do this is to post a review on your page or on theirs’ while tagging you, you’d be getting a review without directly asking them.
By following these strategies, you can easily boost your brand awareness and increase sales.
