With so much tension in the business world and the marketing industry, it’s no surprise that business owners such as yourself are continuously trying to innovate. Everyone’s main goal, whether they admit it or not, is to be known globally. This is why local marketing strategies are often underestimated. Some businesses tend to stay away as far as they can from what they deem as merely “a local marketing strategy” - as if it was supposed to be an insult. Little do they know that the right local marketing strategy can really bring your business to the next level. And in this article, we will help you consider different local marketing ideas for your business.
1. Sponsor Local Events and Activities
As a business owner with a primary goal to aim high and go global, business owners often have a tendency to overlook local events and activities. Little do they know that these kinds of events are good exposure for your business. Sponsoring local events and activities is an excellent local marketing strategy because you give your local community a chance to get to know you and your business. Getting involved with them significantly raises your brand awareness and helps them be more receptive to your business. In doing so, make sure that you host or sponsor something that you believe in and something appropriate for your target market. Think about how this exposure will help your business and how your business can significantly help and contribute to the events or activities. This would ensure that these efforts in your local marketing strategies actually make an impact in your community.
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2. Get Your Name in the Local Business and Google Listing
Small towns and communities usually have a business registry. Here is where the locals typically look for local businesses that can accommodate their needs. Check to see if your local community has one and sign your business up - or if ever, your business is already registered, then maybe double-check and update the information listed. Some other online sites and directories cater to the different local communities and local businesses. These local marketing strategies can help you stay relevant to your local community and help you have a permanent presence - both online and offline. In addition, another local marketing strategy you should really consider is Google listing and other search engine listings. Here you can put your business name, what kind of business you are, your specific location, and contact information. And since many people often go online to look for local companies that can provide them what they need, this will help you grow your market even more - both locally and globally.
3. Partnering with Other Local Businesses
Partnering with local businesses is another great addition to your local marketing strategies. Marketing local businesses like you will help you build a solid and long-lasting relationship with someone as passionate about business as you are and ensure a mutually beneficial relationship for years to come. See, this local marketing strategy helps you widen your horizons. If you have another business by your side, you expose yourself to a whole other set of customers and consumers the same way your customers will also be exposed to another business. Be creative in this partnership. Remember that you are marketing local business side-by-side, so both of you should benefit from it. Think about how you can appeal to both your target markets. Try to come up with something that will be talked about for days to come.
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4. Join Online Professional Groups
There are many online social networking sites where you can join in and utilize your local marketing strategies. Here, you can interact with and share experiences and expertise. This marketing strategy will allow you to widen your horizons and connections. With these professional groups, you can extend your network and form relationships that you can take advantage of in the future. This can also lead to you partnering with other local businesses, as mentioned above. In the end, using the online community platform will really give you eyes and ears and an active presence in the industry.
5. Promote Your Local Community
By promoting your local community, you extend awareness of not just your brand but for your whole community and other businesses in general. Some businesses don’t think that this is a good local marketing strategy, but on the contrary, if done right, this can be one of the best local marketing strategies that you would involve yourself in. The reason is that while this prompts you to move away from just the notion of marketing local business and incorporating keywords into your website content, doing so also helps you build your brand. It gives you a good name among locals, and in turn, it allows for great reviews online and offline. You can do this by adding information about your community. You can add blogs or a gallery of website images of the best things about your location. You can make a guide of the must-see destinations in your community - which should include your business site.
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6. Go Old-School
You have to understand that maybe your local community would not readily accept some local marketing strategies you throw at them. Nevertheless, there are still a lot of opportunities to exploit to target nearby customers and consumers. You can go a bit old school and get out of your way to collect brochures, flyers, and business cards. You can incorporate your visual design elements into all of these and ensure that more people know about your business. You can also still use some online local marketing strategies like email marketing and conversational commerce. When you are not afraid to get your hands dirty and your backs sweat from work, you can truly reap its benefits for years to come.
7. Encourage Reviews
Online reviews are not just encouraging for your potential customers; they are also one of the most effective local marketing strategies that you can use. Not only does customer feedback help you in gaining insight into how you can make your products and your business more extraordinary than it already is, but customer reviews also increase your exposure. By commenting on your posts, replying to your comments, or giving feedback about their customer experience, your customers increase your presence in the online community. The more online interactions you go through with your customers, the more chances your business’ name comes up on the different social media sites. Starting the conversation is always a good local marketing strategy - locals are amiable, after all.
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8. Encourage Word of Mouth Marketing
A massive advantage of being part of a local community is that word literally travels fast around there. Thus, if you encourage your customers to refer other customers to your business, then your local marketing strategies can have better outcomes than you can even imagine. You can do this by offering incentives or bonuses whenever they bring another customer along with them. If you can penetrate an already existing and strong relationship between them, you can also expect to benefit from that newly formed friendship. You can also start referral or affiliate marketing programs to encourage them to get more involved. Word-of-mouth marketing might seem tedious, but we can guarantee that it is a local marketing strategy that has proven to be effective in ensuring success.
9. Use Location Tags
Many social media platforms allow you to put your location in each post/story. By using location tags, you optimize and localize your social media accounts. This is a good marketing strategy because it allows you to better target customers and consumers near you. This would also increase the brand awareness of your store. If more people know about your exact location, they would more probably be compelled to go and find your business which would eventually translate into more customers learning about all you have to offer. Using location tags would also give you more chances of appearing in different search engines and online platforms. You can not just tag your location on your social media sites; one of your marketing strategies can be to add a Google Map pin of your business location on your website so that your site visitors can more easily find you.
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10. Localize and Optimize Your Website
Last but not least, on our list of local marketing strategies is to optimize and localize your website. There are many search engine optimization techniques that should be part of your marketing strategies. But in addition, you should also consider using it as your primary local marketing strategy. You do this best by finding out your local SEO keywords and using them on your website. You can make use of Google Analytics and other free research keyword tools to achieve this. The name of your community and location might also be good SEO keywords. These local marketing strategies will really help you streamline your content and focus on what would be best for your market. You would be able to really attract more customers and eventually grow your business.
Strikingly is a website builder that can help you accomplish all of these local marketing strategies. It has many different features that you can utilize. You can add videos and galleries of images, texts and banners, social media feed, social media icons, and many other tools that can help you carry out any of these local marketing strategies. Sign up now and let Strikingly help you achieve your local and global goals.
