I’ve compiled a list of the top 15 marketing strategies on how to promote your local business. This guide can be used as an inspiration for potential marketing campaigns.
Local businesses must learn how to adapt to modern marketing methods in order to thrive.
If your revenue has reached its peak or is declining, it’s time to change up your marketing plan.
Even if your business is already profitable, you should strive to be ahead of the competition in order to continue being successful.
Examine the most recent marketing trends. Recognize the purchasing patterns of your customers. Learn how to increase sales from your current customers.
Unfortunately, 20% of businesses fail during the first year. Only about 30% of them complete 10 years of operation.
I am not trying to scare you by any means. But these statistics were the driving force behind the creation of this article.
If your business is new, you must do everything possible to ensure its long-term viability.
Local businesses that have been in operation for several years may be in need of a marketing refresh. Your 10-year-old tactics may not be effective anymore or continue to make you successful in the years ahead.
How To Promote Your Business Locally
1. Start A Blog
As mentioned earlier, consumers go online to locate local businesses.
That means that if you want to improve your chances of being ranked higher on the search engine, you must first learn the fundamentals of SEO.
The first three search results in google get approximately 75% of the clicks.
Blogging can be extremely beneficial to your SEO strategy.
Increased website traffic, leads, and followers would result in higher earnings for your business.
By regularly posting blog articles, your website will be updated with new content, and greater are your chances of achieving a higher ranking in the search engine.
Additionally, your blog posts are a great way to include keywords that potential customers may use while searching online.
They’ll visit your site frequently once you’ve developed a steady community of readers for your blog. The more often they visit your website, the more likely it is that they will convert.
2. Free Advertising For Local Business In Google
What’s the best way for new customers to find you?
If you’re an old-school marketer, you might rely on word-of-mouth, print advertising, radio commercials, and direct mail.
78% of customers looked for a local business on the Internet more than once a week.
Furthermore, 91% of customers (18 -34 years old) trust local businesses with positive reviews.
As a result, you must ensure that a profile is set up for your local business in Google.
When people go online to look for something, they usually start with Google.
When customers search for relevant terms, your listing on Google for local business makes it easy for them to find you.
Listing local business in Google includes adding the following information:
- location
- phone number
- hours of operation
- directions
- website
You’ll be able to use pictures to give people a better idea of how you function.
Customers will be able to upload images as well. They can write reviews about your company, which will be seen by other people and have a significant impact on your reputation.
You must encourage your customers to spread the word about your business.
Consumers use your star rating as the most important factor in deciding whether or not to buy from your business.
3.3 is the minimum rating that customers would consider for a local business in Google.
3. Check Out Yelp To Verify Your Listing
Your local business could have profiles on other sites in addition to a Google listing.
Customers may have reviewed and rated your company, so you may already have a Yelp listing.
It’s a good idea to double-check that all of the information is accurate, including your address, store hours, website, and phone number.
After visiting a profile on Yelp, about 93% of customers make a purchasing decision.
It can be detrimental if a customer tries to reach you and the phone number is incorrect, or if they come to your store thinking that it’s open when you are actually closed.
It’s beneficial to claim your Yelp listing so you can manage the details on your profile.
4. Becoming A Member Of A Local Community
Local businesses must continue to participate in their neighborhood groups. Joining a local organization is a fantastic way to get involved in the community and engage with other company owners.
I recommend that you join the local Chamber of Commerce. You may need to pay an annual fee or get a membership, but it is well worth it.
Your brand will be seen by other businesses if you attend these events and meetings.
Will any of the competitors be a member of these organizations? Possibly. But that gives you more reason for showing up to these groups.
Let’s assume that you run a print shop in your neighborhood.
Another local company could be holding an event in town and may need business cards. If you are both part of the same local group, they’ll be more likely to order your services rather than looking for another vendor.
That is the whole point of joining these groups. Businesses watch out for each other and aim to support local businesses wherever possible.
5. Volunteer In Your Neighborhood
Being a member of a local group also means giving back to the community.
Don’t hold back on discussing your involvement with charities. Customers are interested in learning how their local business contributes to charitable causes.
According to research, 70% of consumers are likely to spend more with brands that support causes.
Furthermore, they will have a more favorable view of your local business if you participate in a cause that they care about.
You can also ask your group members and customers for recommendations on charities that they support. People can participate in deciding the charities a company supports through a voting system.
Associating with local charities is, therefore, a good idea for promoting local business in the area.
This will undoubtedly help you and your company in being more connected with your community.
This can be approached in a variety of ways.
You may begin by donating to a charity on an annual basis.
You may also run special deals where a portion of purchases for a certain day or week is donated to a good cause.
Supporting a charity isn’t the only way to give back to society.
Let’s say you own a restaurant in your neighborhood. You could cater food for a public-school graduation ceremony. These types of school-sponsored events are meant to keep students sober and safe on their graduation night.
6. Make Customer Retention Strategy A Priority
One of the cheap ways to promote your local business is to set up a customer retention program.
The best thing about this marketing strategy is that it allows you to make more money without acquiring new customers. Your main goal would be to entice your current customers to spend more on your services or products.
Your loyalty program’s objective should be twofold:
- increasing the frequency of purchases
- raising the average order value
You’ll be able to fuel revenue growth if you achieve these two goals.
Customers are more likely to purchase at stores that have customer retention programs.
Something as trivial as a punch card may be used for your loyalty program. On the fifth purchase, the customer could be given something for free.
You may also set up a framework that is a little bit more involved. Implement a retention program with various spending tiers to reward the highest-spending consumers.
A mobile app or a customer profile is the easiest way to monitor this sort of program, but we’ll go over that in more depth later.
7. Run Giveaways For Advertising A Local Business
Giveaways are quite effective for generating interest in your local business.
Using online platforms is the best way to run these giveaways. For this method, make use of your social media accounts.
Organize giveaways to promote user-generated content. For instance, get your followers to share photos of your business. The winner can then be determined by the one that receives the most likes for their photo.
The aim of these campaigns is to increase your social media subscribers.
When people see their family and friends talking about your local business on social media, it increases your visibility and there is a high likelihood that they will follow you.
You’ll now be able to share promotional content with your new subscribers that could convert them into customers.
8. Make An Effort To Be More Visible On Social Media
When we spoke about running giveaways for your local business, we briefly touched upon social media.
You should make an effort to get involved on as many social media channels as possible.
You’re probably on Facebook. However, that isn’t enough. Many small businesses have boosted their social media spending on mediums like YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram since the beginning of the pandemic.
If your business is in the B2B space, you should also add LinkedIn to your list of priorities.
Only a small percentage of small businesses post content and communicate with their followers regularly.
I understand your point of view. It’s difficult to run a small business.
You work long days and just don’t have the time to execute a social media strategy.
Don’t be worried. To help you simplify the process, there are many social media management tools available in the market.
9. Offer Rebates And Discounts For Promoting Local Business
Customers are price-conscious.
As a small business owner, you must take this into consideration and change your pricing accordingly.
Some of you might be reluctant to give discounts because you believe it diminishes the brand’s value. Furthermore, at a discounted rate, you may not be able to generate profits.
If this is the case, you should think about increasing your base rates. Then provide discounts based on the new rates.
This is more desirable to the customers psychologically. They like to believe that they are having a good deal.
If you are a local business that also has an eCommerce store, having a discount code can improve the chances of making more sales.
It’s in your best interest to offer discounts and coupons to consumers, whether you sell online at a physical location or both.
10. Grow Your Email Subscribers
Don’t overlook the power of email marketing.
Although it isn’t the newest or most hyped marketing strategy, it is still very effective for advertising a local business.
According to a study, 61% of customers prefer to be contacted by brands through email. The majority of users check their email before social media.
This is a profitable strategy. Your local business can expect a $36 return on investment (ROI) for every $1 spent on email marketing.
Targeted and segmented campaigns will account for the majority of your ROI from emails.
However, if you don’t have enough subscribers, your emails wouldn’t be effective.
If you are fully invested in your campaigns, your efforts will pay off. Focus your attention on driving more customers to join your email list.
11. Form A Partnership With An Influencer
Partnering with local influencers will help you elevate your social media marketing campaign to the next level.
There are community members who have a sizable social following.
You can pay them to spread your word through their channels and expand your reach.
The good thing about this approach is that it’s not too expensive. Each post would cost you just a few hundred dollars, and you can even lower their rates if you provide them with some freebies.
Influencers have high rates of engagement with their audience, and their subscribers are likely to follow their recommendations.
12. Enhance Your Customer Service
Your local business must have exceptional customer service.
How does customer service benefit your business?
As I stated previously, prospective customers will search for local business using a variety of platforms and resources.
They’ll check out online reviews, look at social media, and ask their family and friends for recommendations.
If you can provide excellent customer service, it will reflect on how you are viewed online. As a result, your existing customers will return, and new customers will start finding you as well.
13. Configure Google Alerts
Google Alerts is helpful for keeping track of what is being mentioned online about your business.
Any time your local business or tracked keywords are mentioned on the Internet, you will receive a notification via email.
This will keep you up to date with the latest news, whether it’s good or bad.
Let’s say a blogger writes a negative review about your business online.
Instead of learning about the post weeks later, you’ll be able to find out and act on it right away.
On the other hand, if a local news source publishes something positive regarding your business, you can share it on your social media platforms and website.
14. Create A Referral Program For Your Customers
One of the preferred ways for advertising a local business without doing additional work is to set up a customer referral program.
The purpose of this approach is to have your existing customers put in most of the effort for you.
It’s a technique that emphasizes consumer acquisition as well as customer retention, the two most important drivers of growth.
You must offer an incentive to all parties in order for your referral program to be effective.
For each referral, reward your current customers. This motivates them to go out there and send as many referrals as possible to your business.
The new customer, on the other hand, would need some kind of incentive to get started with your service or product.
They’ll start recommending your products and bringing in new customers if they’re happy with their purchase.
This can become a very profitable system for your business. This is because 83% of customers say that word of mouth influences their purchasing decisions.
In other words, referrals are valuable.
15. Develop A Mobile Application
Your customers are using mobile devices, regardless of the type of company you have or the industry you’re operating in.
If you have the budget for it, you should think about developing a mobile app for your local business.
Mobile users spend 90% of their time on apps.
According to studies, customers prefer a mobile app over a mobile site because of its convenience.
Apps are also liked by most users because of their speed compared to mobile websites.
You may not consider an app for your local business to be important right now. Even if you aren’t ready to begin the process, you can make plans to work on it soon.
When your app goes live, it will help in personalizing the user experience.
You can use your app to support your customer referral and loyalty programs.
Final Thoughts
Being a local business, you should take the necessary steps to stay ahead of your competition.
Analyze your latest marketing efforts to determine if they are delivering the results you are aiming for.
You might need to change things up in your marketing plan.
Use the strategies in this article, if you’re wondering how to promote your local business.
I don’t expect you to apply all of these tactics right away. However, spend some time on the list and prioritize a few of them based on your business’s needs.