Most business that rely on local customers (eg a restaurant, dental practice, school or workout studio) underestimate the effort (and need) for marketing their business locally. Some make the mistake of assuming word-of-mouth and foot traffic will be enough to generate awareness of a new or small business.
However, local marketing strategies can significantly impact the success of a local business. A well executed strategy can 1) attract nearby customers and 2) build a community presence. Below are some proven methods -- organic, earned and paid -- to advertise your business locally:
We’ve talked extensively about the importance of optimizing your Google Business Profile. It’s a powerful and free tool that every business who meets customers in-person should take advantage of. Your GBP is how people searching in Google Maps and Google Search (such as in “near me” queries) find your profiles, read reviews of your business and lookup your address and hours of operation.
If you haven’t already, read how to generate organic visits to your Google Business Profile.
Local SEO leverages the fundamentals of SEO. You’ll still want to target keywords in your content and meta tags, but you’ll want to also use location modifiers.
Consider sponsoring or attending local fairs or charity events that align with your business and customers. Your brand can gain visibility in the right events, as well as backlinks that can help with SEO. I’ve seen pediatric dental groups host booths at summer camp fairs and hand out toothbrush kits.
Organize workshops, seminars, or open houses at your location to draw people in and showcase your offerings.
Imagine Swimming offers free mommy and me swim classes for infants to generate leads for their paid classes for babies and children.
Partner up with local businesses that complement your products or services for cross-promotions. You'll each expand your audience reach by tapping into each others followers.
This Ya Ya Preschool partnered up with local bakery, PS & Yao, for their first pop-up in Manhattan. And, the event got shared by @soha_eats to her 32.2K followers.
Your best customers can often act as a highly effective and inexpensive marketing engine. Referral marketing is when a business encourages customers to recommend your offering to their friends, colleagues or family. Referrals are typically high-quality prospects with a high likelihood of purchasing, because they’ve heard about you through their trusted network and are already informed about your business.
Encourage more referrals by offering rewards to the referrer and/or referee. Ideally, you choose an incentive that is part of your business and lower cost. For example, you could offer discounts on membership fees, a complementary product, or a gift card to your store.
Traditional offline advertising can still work, but you have to be analytical and strategic with the publishers and channels you work with. Because you’re paying for these ads upfront, you should run the numbers to see which channels and formats are most effective. Try testing on a small enough scale to limit budget and potential loss, but large enough that you can have enough sampling data to infer some insights.
Before you start paying for ads, it might be helpful to run some back of the envelope calculations where you can. To do this, you’ll need the following info:
Your Business Metrics:
Campaign metrics:
We’ll walk through some examples as we discuss the various paid channels for local marketing.
Direct Mail is when you send physical mail in bulk to potential customers that you identify to match your target audience.
Local businesses can advertise their offering by send postcards or promotional materials to residents in specific neighborhoods. Direct mail campaigns can be particularly helpful when your target audience isn't online much or might have a harder time finding you online.
As old school as it is, direct mail can be a surprisingly effective channel. The USPS has a program called “Every Door Direct Mail” or EDDM where you can build a list of addresses based on zip code, street name or neighborhood and filter by things like household income, age and household size. Realtors frequently use databases that can tell them the addresses of homes sold during a certain time frame, so they can target potential clients who might be ready to sell their homes.
While direct mail can be an effective channel for broad offerings, it may not be the best fit for a niche or low-cost offering.
For example, let's say a summer camp is considering testing a direct mail campaign to advertise their new program. They charge $1,000 per week, and most kids attend their camp for five weeks across two years. The average LTV is then $5,000. They place a QR code on the mailer that allows users to go to the site and sign up:
The conclusion I would draw from this is:
Response rate can be influenced by several factors, which can in turn skew your outcome higher or lower:
Conversion rate can also be influenced by the mail piece.
Direct Mail, like all other channels, benefit from repetitive exposure and variable testing. A campaign that performs “okay” may be worth trying again, while tweaking the audience, messaging or CTA.
Print ads in local papers, although seemingly fewer and further between, are another avenue for promoting your local business.
This facility that treats varicose veins has been advertising daily in every issue of AMNY, so I presume it's working? I guess it makes sense, given that readers of are consuming this publication during morning and evening commutes where many people are standing for long rides.
Distribute flyers and posters in strategic locations like community centers, libraries, and cafes. Some places may have strict rules about unsolicited ads, so check first with the owners or managers.
Google Ads makes it easy to set up ads on any budget. The most targeted way is paid search, also called pay-per-click ads, where you can buy ads on keyword searches, like “indoor playspace” or “nyc stem camp”, and geo-target users in states, cities or other locales.
Clicks can be expensive, but the quality of the traffic you get from paid search tends to be pretty good — ie high-intent users who have a relatively high chance of purchasing.
Google Ads also offers other types of campaigns, like display and video with goals such as website traffic, leads and phone calls.
Facebook ads, on the other hand, help you identify people with interests that overlap with your target customer. A bilingual spanish school might target users in New York, NY that are parents of school-aged children who have Spanish Language interests:
Facebook Ads tend to be “cheaper” than Google Paid Search in that clicks from the ads and traffic to the site cost less. But, conversion rate is also lower as these users may not be actively searching on your offering. Rather, they happened to see your ad while on their Facebook app.
Promoting your business locally involves a mix of online and offline strategies. By optimizing your online presence, leveraging social media, participating in community events, collaborating with other local businesses, utilizing traditional marketing methods, offering promotions, and engaging in community service, you can build a strong local brand and attract more customers. Consistency is key, and authenticity is crucial for community engagement.
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