5 Local Marketing Strategies You Need to Know

Starting a small local business is a giant undertaking. To build your brand, you definitely need to engage in digital marketing, as nearly 80% of consumers shop online.

However, the majority of your customers will be people in the community, which means you need to focus your efforts on the local demographic. The question, then, is how to create local marketing strategies that improve your online presence while focusing on the consumers who matter.

Not sure where to begin? Don’t worry, that’s what we’re here for. Keep reading for our top five local marketing tips.

1. Perfect Your Local SEO

First, you need to make sure your website is using the necessary language to draw in traffic from local users. Search engine sites like Google use SEO to identify the most relevant websites based on a user’s keyword search.

Therefore, your website must focus on localized SEO. Aside from industry and niche-specific effective keywords, you should also be using phrases like “near me” and “in (insert your town here).”

Furthermore, you must register your business with local and online listing agencies, such as Google My Business.

2. Affiliate With Other Local Businesses

Local marketing strategies also include teaming up with other small businesses in your area. Like you, they can always benefit from more brand exposure.

Find non-competing businesses with similar interests that you can build a mutually beneficial relationship with. You can advertise for one another and act as a professional referral system.

A good example would be a realtor working with local lenders, insurance agents, contractors, and so on.

3. Use Social Media Advertising to Target People in Specific Areas

Next, you need to get active on social media. The majority of Americans have at least one social media account and spend time every day scrolling through their feeds.

You can use paid social media ads to target specific demographics of people. You can dictate how you spend your marketing budget by targeting consumers based on location, age, gender, and more.

This is also an essential localized marketing strategy if you’re going global with an online business. Just because you aren’t in a specific region, it doesn’t mean you can’t use localized tactics.

4. Host an Event With a Local Charity

To create a significant impact on your community, we recommend teaming up with a local charity to host an awareness event. This can be anything from a silent auction to a 5k race.

Ask other local businesses to get involved and sponsor the event. There can be sponsorship tiers that grant the businesses different levels of publicity. They can set up booths to market their brand, have their logos printed on event merchandise, etc.

Start advertising the event months in advance to ensure the biggest turnout possible. You, the charity organization, and all businesses taking part should play an active role in getting the word out.

5. Create an Incentive Program to Encourage Referrals

Finally, remember that the best neighborhood marketing tactics require building credibility. People are more likely to buy a product or service if there are positive reviews supporting it.

In this case, you can incentivize current customers or clients to spread the word and refer new people to your business. For each successful referral, you can reward the person with a set cash fee, a commission, or major discounts.

Do You Need Help Creating Local Marketing Strategies?

Are you ready to improve your local marketing strategies? If so, be sure to check out some of our other articles before you go. Our blog is dedicated to helping small businesses and start-ups improve their brand recognition and make a name for themselves. See this article on using Google reviews.