Do you need local customers for your business? If you have a physical store or home services business, acquiring customers within your region is a necessity. But even if you are flexible with your coverage area, chances are most of your business will naturally come from customers in your hometown. That’s where local marketing comes into play.
Local marketing targets potential customers within a certain area. If you’re looking to drive more foot traffic to your store, increase the number of customers in your service area or simply grow your business, keep reading for a few ideas on how to make local marketing work for you.
Sell More with Local Marketing
Connect with the Locals Through Social Media
Most people engage with at least one brand on social media. What if they connected with your brand? Social media is a great way to make people aware of your business. Use local terms in your hashtags and keywords. Share photos of favorite locations and show that you and your company are a part of the community.
Partner with Local Businesses
Find a local company that offers different services than yours but promotes to the same audience. Offer to cross-promote products or services. This will undoubtedly create a win-win situation. At the same time, if everything goes well, you’ll get a company that’s on your side and both of you will grow.
Advertise Through Facebook
With its massive user base and an enormous number of parameters, Facebook is an ideal tool for local marketing. With Facebook’s targeting options you get an incredible degree of control over your campaigns. You can accurately define your target audience. This strategy is excellent for limited budgets since it only targets the people you believe are real potential customers.
Sponsor a Local Event
Another way of getting in touch with the community is supporting local events. You can sponsor an annual event or organize your own. It doesn’t have to be something huge; it just needs to show the community that you care. A great idea would be to support youth groups and sports clubs. People will respond by buying your products.
Encourage Local Testimonials
There’s no better promotion in this world than the word of a satisfied client. Your potential customers heavily rely on testimonials. To be precise, over 80% of adults check online reviews before making a purchase. So, how do you get those reviews? Since you see your customers every day, your job is not that hard. Every time someone stops by to say thanks or to tell you how you were right when recommending a specific product, ask them nicely to leave an online review of your company to encourage building customer trust through social media.
Create Locally Inspired Content
Having locally focused content is a great way to increase your visibility to potential customers. It also helps you establish yourself as a trusted name in the community. So, it makes sense to spend some time thinking about a content marketing campaign. Think about your customers’ most common questions and interests and base your content on that. Also, pay attention to your products or services and try to understand which of them would benefit from additional content the most.
Local marketing strategy is crucial to your business success, whether you are looking to maximize your visibility during holidays or generally. It is essential to establishing your name and trust in the local community. Additionally, there are many things you can do to improve your relationship with potential customers. Try out our suggestions and think of other ways that can help your business grow.
