Key takeaways
- Local businesses have to compete fiercely for customers, so it’s important to connect with consumers and be different from your competitors.
- To win over local customers, you need to use a mix of digital marketing techniques and more personal methods.
There are some local marketing strategies that involve a cost, but many of them are free and easy to do.
As a small business owner, you should focus on local marketing initiatives because there is a finite number of customers in your area. Your competitors are also vying for the same customers, so finding ways to stand out from them is important. Some smart marketing tactics you can use to reach local consumers and become part of the community include holding events, giving back to the community, and using local directories and print media.
If you want to stand out from the competition and attract local customers, follow this guide with nine different marketing strategies.
- Start a Website or Blog
Don’t hire a professional web design company to develop your business website or blog; you can do it yourself.
You don’t need to spend any money to create a fully-functional and attractive site. Free tier platforms, such as WordPress.com or SquareSpace, will allow you to do so for free, or very little.
In order to promote your business, you will need to pay for a domain and web hosting, which will cost you around $5 a month. Although this is a minimal investment, it will allow you to create a good home base for your business.
- Get Active on Social Media
If you are not using social media to promote your business, you are losing out on the potential for your company or products to go viral.
You are not alone in using social media sites. Millions of people use them every day for personal reasons.
You don’t need to spend a lot of money on social media marketing or tools to promote your business. For free, you can create business pages on social media sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.
A great way to make your business more well-known and to keep your audience base satisfied is by regularly posting interesting and informative content on complete business profiles and pages.
- Get Added to Internet Directories
A ton of highly reputable website and business directories, like Yahoo and Google, offer listings for businesses. Others include Yelp and TripAdvisor. Make sure your business is listed on them.
Most of the listings are free, many are automatic, and you may be pleasantly surprised by how much they’re worth.
Many of the sites listed have high search engine rankings, meaning that people looking for your business will be able to find these links quickly and easily. This is because they appear on the first page of the search results.
If your business is similar to ones that are being looked at on these sites, then you can gain traffic and potential customers from those viewers.
- Get Active with Online Communities
There are many online communities for businesses and industries. You can find one that is related to your business or industry.
You can use online communities to promote your business. This includes using forums, social media groups, and more. These communities provide you with great opportunities to reach potential customers and promote your business.
When posting on forums, websites, and communities, it is important to contribute useful and helpful information without overtly promoting your business. However, you can post a link to your website and say with which business you are associated.
Connecting with others in your field can help establish you as an expert.
If people see your name often and realize that you are an expert in your field, they may be more likely to use your company’s services or recommend you to others.
- Email and Forum Signatures
You should always include your website’s URL and contact information for your company in your email signature, whether you are posting on forums or sending an email to your grandma. Although it is free and easy to do, it is still a powerful tool. It can help raise awareness about your business and help people associate your name with your company’s name.
You can set your signature on most free email programs and forums so it appears at the bottom of all your correspondence without taking any additional steps.
- Press Releases
There are websites that allow you to submit press releases for free. These can be great resources when you have news to share about your business – it doesn’t have to be big news, but it should be news.
If you submit a press release, you increase the number of people who know about your company and what it has to offer. A journalist may read your press release and decide to contact you for more information, which could lead to a story being published.
- Ask for Reviews
Google and Yelp allow people to rate their experiences with businesses, which helps spread awareness about the business and get customer feedback. Asking customers to leave feedback on these sites can be beneficial for business owners.
Additionally, you may be shocked by the number of individuals who utilize these platforms. Reviews that are positive can assist in convincing people to patronize your business instead of investigating your rivals.
- Guest Blogging
You can always ask friends in a similar industry to submit a blog post for your website.
When writing the blog post, make sure to focus on providing information or tips of substance and value rather than sounding sales-like or promoting your own business. At the end of the post, include a blurb about yourself and your business with a link back to your site.
It is important that the guest blogging opportunity you take is of high quality and from a reputable website. This way, guest blogging will be more valuable and targeted toward individuals who are interested in your niche.
- Master social media marketing
Facebook and LinkedIn are two popular social media marketing channels that allow businesses to interact with customers and other local business owners.
Local businesses should be active on social media to interact with consumers. Consumers expect businesses to respond to comments and questions on social media.
The most important thing to remember when using your Facebook page for advertising is to make sure your posts are relevant to your local market.
You can use LinkedIn to network with other small business owners and potentially open doors to partnerships, collaborations, or events with other local businesses.
- Use locally targeted ads
If you want to reach a specific local audience that you wouldn’t be able to otherwise, consider using locally targeted digital ads. Online ads can be very effective when it comes to reaching a particular target market.
The first option for marketing your business is through a search engine. This will allow your business to show up at the top of the list when locals are searching for keywords that are related to your business. You can target a specific audience and use specific terms in your ads to increase the chances of your business being seen.
You can pay for ads that show up every time someone searches for “best salon in Detroit” so that you appear at the top of the page before all of your competitors.
Additionally, you might want to look into cost-per-click or pay-per-click ads. common platforms for this type of ad include Facebook Ads, Google Ads, and Yelp Ads. Ads on Yelp can help promote your business in key areas on the Yelp website and mobile app, such as above search results and on your competitor’s business pages.
- Sign up for a local directory
Local directories, such as Yelp, make your business visible to local consumers. These platforms allow potential customers to read reviews and research a company before making a purchase.
The Yelp Business Page is a place where business owners can upload photos, write descriptions, add contact information, respond to reviews, and more. Additionally, business owners can run ads targeted at consumers in their area to generate traffic to their listings. Creating a Yelp Business Page is free and only takes a few minutes.
- Grow your email list
To paraphrase, email marketing is still an effective way to turn leads into customers, with 80% of small businesses finding that it increases customer acquisition and retention.
Email marketing is made more effective when you are able to segment your email list by specific traits such as age, location, or interests. To entice people to sign up for your email list, you could try sending out incentives or showing how subscribing can benefit them.
There are a few ways that you can get people to sign up for your newsletter. One way is to have sign-up forms and calls to action on your website, blog content, or onsite at your business. You can also incentivize customers in your store with discounts on their next purchase if they sign up.
- Get involved in the community
You can make your business more appealing to customers by showing that you’re a contributing local community member and genuinely care about it. You can do this by taking part in activities such as fundraising, volunteering, or local events. This will also help to spread awareness of your brand.
You could even partner with a local organization and hold a fundraising event at your business. You could donate proceeds to a good cause while also getting foot traffic in your door.
- Promote a loyalty program
Rewards programs can help you keep customers coming back and increase customer loyalty. If customers know they’ll get a bonus for every purchase, they’ll be more likely to keep coming back to your business.
Give your members a break on prices, or sweeten the pot with some freebies or position upgrades.
For example, if you own a cafe, you can offer loyalty cards and give customers a stamp for every coffee they buy. Once they reach a certain number of stamps, they can get a free coffee of their choice; or if they spend a certain amount of money at your shop, they’ll receive a free gift with purchase.
- Partner with local influencers
An influencer is someone with a lot of followers who can affect what others buy. Companies are starting to work more often with local influencers as part of their marketing.
Paying people to post about your business on their social media channels can be a cheap way to market your business, resulting in a lot of engagement from people in your community.
If someone has a lot of followers on social media, their recommendations carry more weight. People are more likely to visit a business recommended by someone they follow and trust. It’s like getting a recommendation from a friend.
- Start a referral program
A referral program is an excellent way to bring in high-quality leads while strengthening your relationships with current customers. This type of marketing strategy builds awareness naturally through word of mouth.
Consumers are more likely to make a purchase if their friends and family recommend the product.
Give your current customers a discount if they refer their friends and family. Give the people they refer a discount too.
The lawn care provider could offer free shrub trimming or lawn mowing to customers for every customer they refer. The new customers who were referred could also get a free mow after their first purchase.
