More often than not, for small businesses their local market is the most important market. And when you are a newcomer, it’s not so simple to reach your audience. The locals are often slaves to their routine and they are reluctant to change the place they are used to, even if it has flaws.
Also, in local markets, especially the smaller ones, word-of-mouth is often crucial. When you are new, however, it takes time for the good word to start spreading. Not to mention that some markets are so small that your target audience doesn’t want to leave their neighbor's business and come to your new one simply because they don’t want to betray the person who lives next door.
But things are not at all gloomy if you know the right marketing strategies. In this day and age, we have so many digital tools under our belt. And they don’t even cost a fortune. In the next few lines, you will find out how to use these tools in some of the best marketing strategies for local business promotion.
Be the sponsor or the host of a local event
Yes, we said digital tools, but we believe that for a local business one great strategy is to connect with your community by hosting an event. Especially if you have just opened the business.
Choose a cause or an organization that is close to your heart and has the same values as your business and organize an event to gather money for it. Organize volunteers and sponsor their work to do something important for the community. Or simply find one such event and become the major sponsor.
This is a great way to show up on local people’s radar and get them to talk about your brand. You will probably also get some local press coverage. And your community will truly benefit from it.
A good example of this strategy is the insurance company Esurance. They are sponsors of a big event called South by Southwest Conference & Festivals (SXSW). As a result, people noticed them and started talking about them both at the event and on social media.
Be in charge of your Google (News - Alert) my Business profile
If your business doesn't have a Google my Business profile make sure you correct that mistake by creating it immediately. Here, your customers can see your location, business hours, and how to contact you. There should be a link to your website as well.
Customers have the option to rate your services here. Your rating will mean a lot to future customers when they are considering using your services. It’s highly recommended that you read and respond to every review, good or bad. Because this is a great way of showing that you care. Potential customers have an option to ask questions here as well, make sure those get answered in a timely manner.
Another thing that falls into this category is local directories. You should make sure that your business is listed in at least a couple of those. This will benefit you because many of your potential customers will look for you there. The most famous one is definitely Yelp (News - Alert), so don’t miss the opportunity to be listed there, but you should also do research on some local sites that are trusted in your community.
A great example of this is a local business from Arizona called The Estate Watch & Jewelry Company. They sell jewelry and watches, but also they are a trusted diamond buyer. All this information and more you can find on their Google my business profile. They are very meticulous to respond to ratings and comments, good or bad. They can also be found in major local directories.
Have a website and make sure search engines like it
Sure, word of mouth is great, but in this day and age, we all ask Google (okay, other Search Engines too) to illuminate us as to what is the closest solution to our current needs. This is why you need to have a website. It goes hand in hand with profiles on social networks, but make no mistake thinking Instagram is enough.
Once you have a website, make sure Google knows its location and what services and products you offer. You will inform Google about this by doing local keyword research and making sure the results of your research are logically shown on your website.
Keyword research might sound complicated but in reality, all you need to do is think: What will my customers ask Google when they want to find a business like mine? If you own a carpet cleaning business, for example, you need to be in the top results on Google when your possible future customer types: carpet cleaning near me.
You do this every day when you are looking for something, so you got this. Use free tools such as Google Analytics, Google Trends, and Google Search Console to keep you on the right path.
Once you have the keywords, they must be logically stated on your website. Have a section about what you do and how you do it, where these keywords will be mentioned. Don’t forget to mention your location where it makes sense.
You should have a blog too, where your customers will be able to read some useful advice and insights into your business. These will also help Google and others determine if you are the right result of a certain search.
Another extremely important thing that many small business owners forget is optimizing your website for usage on a mobile device. Half of the searches come from them, which makes this extremely important. Many businesses tend to forget it, perhaps because they think this happens automatically. Do not make this mistake.
As you can see, this type of optimization has many sides to it, and we will give you an example of one of them. A company called Aire Serv is in the heating and air-conditioning business. Naturally, they made sure they gave a lot of positive advice to the visitors of their website, such as how to clean dirty air vents. They also did their homework and made sure that they are using the right keywords so that Google knows who it should take to their website.
To conclude
There are many marketing strategies your local business can explore in order to gain new customers and keep the old ones. We believe, however, that these three we mentioned are among the most important ones (if not the actual most important ones) that will help your business stand out. No matter if you are new on the market or you have been there for a while.
