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Local marketing is an essential element of a larger marketing strategy for small businesses, as it can get your brand in front of a broader local audience that are likely to patronize your business in the near future. But what can you do as an entrepreneur to improve your small business\u2019s reach with a local audience? This guide includes seven quick, free tips that can immediately improve your local marketing strategy.<\/p>\n
Local marketing targets an audience based in the same town or region as your business. It is geared toward people who are within a certain radius of your physical location \u2013 generally based on a reasonable driving distance \u2013 who might realistically purchase your product or service at any time.<\/p>\n
For example, if you run a restaurant in Red Bank, New Jersey, driving website traffic from Sacramento, California, is not going to do you much good. Instead, you need to employ local marketing tactics to ensure that the majority of your audience is indeed located near enough that they could conceivably drive to your restaurant or order delivery.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest approach people should be taking is really understanding who they\u2019re trying to sell to \u2026 what benefit people can get from the product or service, and then relay that information upfront,\u201d said Travis McKnight, senior content strategist.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s true in all marketing, but especially when it comes to a local marketing strategy, he added. Part of the key information you should relay to your audience is where your business is located.<\/p>\n
The goal behind a local marketing strategy is to spend your marketing and advertising budget more efficiently. Digital marketing is an effective tool for businesses of all sizes. However, if you are a local business and you fail to gain traction with a local audience, your marketing expense is all for naught. Not all traffic is created equal; a local marketing strategy ensures that you are targeting an audience that might patronize your business.<\/p>\n
Key takeaway:\u00a0<\/i>Local marketing targets people within a certain radius of your business. It can improve conversion rates by narrowing the focus of your digital marketing efforts to potential nearby customers.<\/strong><\/p>\n Many businesses can benefit from local marketing, but there are some types of businesses for which local marketing is absolutely required. Restaurants are a good example because they are physical locations that offer dine-in, takeout or delivery services. By nature, a restaurant is locked into its physical location.<\/p>\n Another good example of a business that needs local store marketing is a retail store. While even small retail operations often have e-commerce stores these days, local marketing can increase the store\u2019s foot traffic and local brand awareness. This is especially important for small, boutique retail stores competing with large chains.<\/p>\n Similarly, professional services like lawyers\u2019 and accountants\u2019 offices should employ a local marketing strategy. While it might be more appropriate to cast a regional net for these services, it is critical for professional advisors to connect with a largely local audience. There are some notable exceptions to this rule, such as digital marketing companies, which often operate fully digitally. However, nothing beats an in-person consultation.<\/p>\n While there are plenty of businesses that need a local marketing strategy, other types of businesses should consider implementing local marketing as well. Just because a local strategy isn\u2019t your priority doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t reap the benefits of capturing a wider audience in the town or region where your business is based.<\/p>\n Key takeaway:\u00a0<\/i>All businesses can benefit from local marketing, but some \u2013 such as restaurants or retail stores that depend on foot traffic \u2013 require a local marketing strategy.<\/strong><\/p>\n Local marketing starts with some easy-to-implement steps that you can get started on today. Here are a few quick and simple ideas to improve your business\u2019s local marketing.<\/p>\n Website optimization is key to driving traffic, but is your website optimized for local users? Not only should you follow search engine optimization (SEO) best practices, such as employing keyword research to inform your website content, you should also guarantee that your website offers a top-notch mobile experience, said Heather Lodge, chief marketer.<\/p>\n \u201cMore than half of traffic coming to websites is from mobile devices,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you have a website that\u2019s nice and streamlined, with large text to read on a small screen and large buttons to easily click, you\u2019ll have an easier time attracting local business.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to these recommendations \u2013 which are key for any digital marketing strategy \u2013 your website should also be localized, Lodge said. That means determining keywords and key phrases based on local SEO \u2013 ask yourself, \u201cWhat is the local market searching for on Google?\u201d A good rule of thumb is to frequently mention your community or nearby communities. If you\u2019re targeting a regional audience, consider adding language to your website like \u201cserving the tri-state area,\u201d for example.<\/p>\n You can improve your local SEO insights even further by leveraging free keyword research tools like Google Analytics, Google Trends and Google Search Console to inform precisely what local terms you should incorporate. The more you optimize your website for local search, the more local customers are likely to land on your webpages.<\/p>\n Another SEO consideration to keep in mind, McKnight said, is whether your website\u2019s title tags and metadata up to date.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are a few different parts of metadata, but the majority of people only have to worry about meta description and title tag,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Title tag refers to the 60 characters that search engine users see on the search engine results page (SERP). Keeping a title tag relevant to your brand and location, but shorter than 60 characters is optimal, McKnight said.<\/p>\n The meta description is less likely to factor into search ranking, McKnight added, but it can improve click-through rates by signaling to users precisely what type of information they might find on the webpage.<\/p>\n \u201cData shows that a quality meta description \u2026 can help click-through rate. On the flip side, for a business like a restaurant that wants people to call, having a phone number in the meta description is huge,\u201d McKnight said. \u201cMeta descriptions should always be 160 characters or less.\u201d<\/p>\n The title tag and meta description can be edited in the administrator\u2019s tools of the\u00a0web hosting platform\u00a0you use. For many small business owners, McKnight said, WordPress offers an easy to use SEO function.<\/p>\n If your business has multiple locations, you should create an individual page for each location on your website to further your localization efforts.<\/p>\n \u201cThere will often be companies with a lot of different locations, but they don\u2019t include pages with information on those different locations on their website,\u201d Lodge said. \u201cThese pages should include each location, directions on how to get there, and what store hours are.\u201d<\/p>\n Lodge added that these pages should include specific content about your business. For example, a real estate agent based in Nashville, Tennessee, shouldn\u2019t just list on their website that they are a \u201creal estate agent.\u201d Instead, including the key phrase \u201cleading real estate agent in Nashville\u201d signals to search engines where the agent is based and helps serve results to a local audience. It also considers how people are searching for real estate agents; they don\u2019t just want anyone, they want \u201cthe best\u201d or \u201cleading\u201d real estate agents.<\/p>\n One of the easiest and most effective local marketing strategies you can employ immediately is\u00a0claiming your Google My Business listing. Google My Business provides search engine users with information like your location, store hours, directions, contact information, and more directly on the SERP.<\/p>\n \u201cClaim your Google My Business knowledge panel and\u00a0make sure that it is updated<\/a>,\u201d said McKnight. \u201cEspecially during COVID-19, make sure it reflects current store hours and accurately explains any restrictions, such as takeout or delivery only.\u201d<\/p>\n Lodge added you should also claim local listings on other third-party sites, such as Yelp. The more places users can find your business (along with location information) the better off your local marketing success will be.<\/p>\n Social media marketing\u00a0is critically important when it comes to local online marketing. Much like your website, your social media pages should be optimized and localized. This means providing up-to-date information, such as your business\u2019s location, contact information, and store hours. It also means maintaining an active social media account. You can preschedule social media posts using tools like Hootsuite.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom a small business perspective, social media revolves largely around communication about deals, reopenings or promotions,\u201d McKnight said. \u201cA lot of it is just reputation management.\u201d<\/p>\n Encourage your satisfied customers to leave you positive reviews online, whether on Google Reviews, Facebook, Yelp, or elsewhere. You could even incentivize them to leave positive reviews with discounts or promotions, such as a raffle or giveaway.<\/p>\n You should also spend time responding to the reviews your customers leave online. Always be sincere and avoid copying\/pasting generic responses, McKnight said.<\/p>\n \u201cFor the most part, respond to people with authenticity, humility and honesty \u2013 whether it\u2019s a negative review or positive one,\u201d McKnight said. \u201cSet an hour per week just to go through, respond and make sure it\u2019s not just a generic cookie-cutter response. Users are turned off by that and feel they aren\u2019t listened to.\u201d<\/p>\n Digital marketing is all well and good, but building a real-world bridge between your audience and your brand is invaluable. Consider sponsoring or hosting a local event whenever possible to increase brand visibility in your local community. This is also a great way to land local press coverage, which improves your odds of being found online by a local audience.<\/p>\n Email marketing strategies have some of the lowest costs among many of the marketing strategies available to you. The bulk of the cost is associated with obtaining valuable email addresses. Unfortunately, there is nothing in an email address that will tell you where the user is located; there are email-gathering techniques<\/a> you can begin using that filter users by location. The easiest technique is to have a sign-up sheet in your store \u2013 ideally by the register \u2013 or at booths or events that you sponsor so that interested consumers see it and sign up to receive updates and promotions from you.<\/p>\n Direct mail is a much cheaper method of reaching customers than it might seem. What you pay for in stamps can be recovered by not paying for mailing lists and professional targeting. You can frequently target prime demographics by looking at neighborhoods that fit the demographics of your target audience.<\/p>\n Partnering with other businesses can be a powerful tool.\u00a0These alliances can multiply both companies\u2019 total outreach. This works best when you find businesses with similar values and goals (and that don\u2019t directly compete with your company).<\/p>\n You and your partner businesses, for example, can co-sponsor events. You can work together with your SEO content to ensure a mutually beneficial relationship. You can link to each other, too; and when these strategies are followed, every effort you put into outreach is multiplied by the efforts of your partner businesses.<\/p>\nWhat types of businesses benefit from local marketing?<\/h2>\n
11 local marketing strategies you can start today<\/h2>\n
1. Optimize your website (and localize it).<\/h3>\n
2. Update title tags and meta descriptions.<\/h3>\n
3. Set up local landing pages for all your business locations.<\/h3>\n
4. Claim your Google My Business listing.<\/h3>\n
5. Optimize social media pages.<\/h3>\n
6. Encourage positive user reviews and engage online.<\/h3>\n
7. Host or sponsor local community events.<\/h3>\n
8. Utilize localized email marketing.<\/h3>\n
9. Try a direct mail campaign.<\/h3>\n
10. Partner with other local businesses.<\/h3>\n
11. Localize paid ads.<\/h3>\n