Local Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses
Local marketing can be defined as any communication strategy of a company aimed at a population in a geographic area or catchment area since the company wants to target its audience locally.
Let’s dig deeper and discover more… 🧐
Why Apply Local Marketing?
The answer is simple. Local marketing will help you develop your local visibility and your turnover. There are several ways to apply local marketing, including digital.
After many years of experience working with local and international companies, we will give you the best local marketing strategies and examples to inspire you.
Well! 👌
So, What Is Local Marketing? 🤔
Local marketing represents the set of marketing communication strategies that aim to reach customers locally. In short, companies try to target people in their catchment area (definition below) and attract them to their point of sale.
This is called drive-to-store marketing, or web-to-store. It is a proximity marketing and related to the catchment area. The catchment area is defined as the area of influence of a business depending on its location.
💡 We can take the example of a real estate agency that puts an advert in their street or the example of another that distributes flyers or leaflets. This is a part of the real estate action plan to be carried out to get more sales.
However, digital is very present today and it allows for localized digital advertising.
💡 For example, Google My Business, local Google referencing, or advertisements.
And, What Is Local Digital Marketing?
Local digital marketing is a strategy similar to local marketing but uses the internet or other technological resources to attract customers. The advertisement or message can thus be broadcast on the passerby’s phone or computer.
There are many local digital marketing solutions such as localized SEO or local SEO, Google My Business, Social networks, Google or Facebook ads, or digital tablets
We shall give you the best of them: physical and digital local marketing strategies.
Just keep reading… 🤓
How to Promote Your Business Locally — Online/Offline?
There are two types of local marketing and communication strategies:
- Physical Local Marketing.
- Digital Local Marketing.
We will give you the most effective strategies to succeed and have more customers to your points of sale.
Physical Local Marketing
There are many other sub-types of physical local marketing as follows: 👇
1. Localized Communication
There are traditional ways in local marketing that you could do. It’s a bit of advertising in your city or area. The goal here is to use local media to reach your customers.
Means of local communication:
- Signage media: such as neighborhood cinemas, billboards on the roads, or bus stops.
- Local media: such as local radio and local press in your city or region.
- Door to door: although not widely used today, it is also a good sales tool for some companies.
2. Local Distribution of Flyers 📝
A classic way to advertise around your point of sale is to hand out flyers. Some flyers, if well done, can have as much of an impact as an online advertisement.
Some establishments use certain methods such as discounts, promotions, or a loyalty card to attract prospects. You can also put your novelties forward.
You can distribute the flyers directly to prospects, on the car breeze bar, or by mail. Be careful to respect the rules in force for the distribution of flyers, such as the authorization of the town hall or the mention “do not throw on the public highway.”
⚠️ Remember, good distribution to the right people can generate visits to your store.
3. Host Local Events 🕺
It may sound funny, but certain activities such as a small band party, a birthday party, or even a special themed day (Sham Al Nassim, or Christmas) can retain your customers and bring in new ones.
4. Develop Local Partnerships 🤝
Do you know the football team in your city? Do you know the humanitarian association nearby? You can develop your visibility by getting closer to local sports and cultural associations in the form of a partnership.
You can for example sponsor them with the highlighting of your logo. If there is a special and pop-up market in your city, you can register there and have a temporary stand to advertise your products or services.
You can also register on local directories in your city. There are probably business directories in your region, city, to reference you. This is great for your local SEO and your reputation.
There are also specialized directories in which you can be referenced to appear better in Google maps search results. Directories will allow you to have a better presence on the web with presence management and therefore better SEO.
Digital Local Marketing
Maybe you have a dream to grow your business into an international enterprise, or you may want to be a big business within your local community. In either case, the Internet can be helpful.
In this regard, we should ask what does “local” exactly mean? 🤔
The term “local” usually deals with a business operating through a physical shop, like a supermarket or a pharmacy.
But, at the same time, it involves service businesses that reach out to be in direct touch with their clients, like an electrician or a handyman. These careers normally sell products and services to the close population, and also to the visitors from other areas.
💡 For example, a potential customer living hundreds of kilometers away, but is on vacation and decided to come to your district. So he is searching for an office to rent a car while he is here.
These kinds of locally active careers are familiar with tools such as the Yellowpages, to help the customers to locate their products and services faster. If a person decides to buy something like an A/C unit, he would search stores within proximity and then go to one or two to check the available product(s).
🔎 Currently, people search for anything from their seats via their mobile devices, or they would Google something just to pass the time while waiting at the clinic.
Consequently, if they are looking for a product or service you sell, and if they are at your locality, it would be the precise chance to appear on their screen.
How Does Local Search Work? 🔎
💡 Take a simple example, a person needs to locate a car rental office closer to his house. He performs a search for a car rental office, his city or district included as one of the search variables.
Then, the search engine will give him a list of local offices all with the address, phone number, and working hours. If he is searching via a mobile, he can simply call any office, or better he may activate the map function on the smartphone, to facilitate finding the way to the office.
Take advantage of the great opportunity provided by the ExpandCart platform and create your free online store today.
Free for life, no credit card, no hidden fees
How to Promote Your Business Online — Locally? 🤔
Most importantly, make sure that your contact information appears on your website. If you run an office or store, make certain to write the address and, if possible, a Google map, along with phone number and the work hours, to enable the visitors to find their direction.
If you run a service area shop, your website should clarify the area covered by your service, and in what manner customers can contact you. As you see, there are many available methods to convert the local population into local customers.
Just to name a few, Google My Business, Yahoo smallbusiness, and Microsoft Advertising. Any of These tools may lead potential clients to your local business.
Local advertising on feedback websites and social networks resemble a great opportunity to be in touch with the local audience through their mobile devices.
Also, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can help you approach local customers. Local businesses should be visible in the area at any screen by potential customers. A person who wants to buy in a certain place is likely to spend money, and your office/store should be their go-to buy.
In addition to the above, there are other effective local digital strategies to convey 👇
Let’s figure them out…
SEA or Google Ads
These are Google ads to showcase your activity on search results. You need to advertise on specific keywords to reach the desired leads. We talk about paid referencing or Search Engine Advertising (SEA.)
Instead of waiting for your site to rank well, you can have quick and immediate results with SEA as of the launch of the site. In addition, you will have measurable results thanks to Google Ads analytics and the performance of your ads.
You also have the option of establishing a monthly budget and setting limits. The only downside is that the prices are quite high.
💡 A new program arrived in 2020 called Local Services Ads, allowing localized businesses to be visible in their geographic area with a “Google Guarantee” badge.
If you have a business that depends on its catchment area this could be of interest to you. This announcement gives you the opportunity to distinguish yourself from the competition and get more appointments.
Local SEO and Google My Business
We believe that local SEO is the most effective long-term marketing communications strategy. It allows you to have a good number of qualified prospects and regular store visits without paying a budget. If you have a physical establishment that depends on its catchment area then you need to do local SEO.
This is a marketing strategy that consists of optimizing your website, its reputation (reviews), and its Google My Business listing to appear among the first on Google.
Local SEO is to some extent similar to SEO or natural referencing. You need to optimize your website from a technical point of view, content (keywords), performance, and notoriety. When your site is well optimized, you have a better chance of appearing in Google Maps results.
You also need to optimize your Google My Business account because it is your company’s identity card. When you improve your Google My Business listing, you do Google my business referencing and you position your listing better on Google.
There are simple things you can do to start getting results, such as completing your form (e.g. photos, and information.) Platforms like Yext let you optimize your listings adequately.
You should also look at your reviews on your Google listing. Reviews are important to your business e-reputation. The internet user generally chooses the establishment with the best rating and the most reviews.
This is why you need to have a strategy to get more advice. We’ve listed the best ways to get more reviews on Google in our article.
In a Nutshell
Local marketing is important because it allows you to attract consumer trends and at the same time to effectively retain them. Of course, a local marketing strategy must be thought of globally in the communication strategy.
It is necessary to have a global strategic approach: think global to act locally. Then you have every interest in using an effective distributed marketing solution. This will allow you to have a coherent local and national discourse and thus strengthen your brand image.
