CRA Business Marketing Explored
Here is everything you should know about local marketing to help your business with physical locations spread brand awareness within a targeted geographical area. From listing pages to creating a responsive website, here are seven ways your business can start local marketing today.
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Local marketing, also known as ‘local based marketing’ or ‘neighborhood marketing’, is a marketing strategy dedicated to reaching out to people who live within a certain geographical area. This area is limited to the distance around the business from where foot traffic can be expected from.
Local marketing is useful for businesses that are based out of physical locations. Whether your business has a single store or a chain of stores, you stand to gain by inviting people in your locality to make purchases from your business.
Local marketing begins with a thorough analysis of the kind of people who live in your area. To do this, you need to create customer personas for your target market.
This tells you about what your largest consistent consumer base is like, what they respond to, and how you can advertise to them.
Customer personas inform you on the general consumer base within your geographical area. It’s essentially consumer analysis, and it’s crucial if your want to build a loyal and trusting consumer base in your area.
Aside from customer personas, here are seven ways you can start local marketing your business today.
1. Ensure That Your Website is Responsive
A responsive website works seamlessly across multiple smart devices. From laptops to mobile phones, your website should run equally well on all platforms.
Before you start local marketing in your area, ensure that your website is up to par. People looking for local businesses in their area are bound to find your website before they find you. Most people find information on products and services online first.
2. Localise Your Website
This includes adding information about your state and city in your website’s title tags and meta description. Whenever your business is mentioned anywhere online, it’s called a ‘citation’.
A citation is useful is leading people to your website. If your website isn’t localised, people near your business’ location won’t be able to find you.
Aside from specifically mentioning your area in your title tags, description, and using them as a part of your SEO, adding maps and navigation is another great idea. You can also consider geo-tagging your social media posts. This lets people know where your store is located.
3. Local Listings
Listings in your local area, as well as on third party websites increases foot traffic as well.
To do this, you need to look into all the business listings in your area and ensure that your business is on there. Then, repeat the process online when it comes to online listings within your geographical locality.
If your business isn’t mentioned somewhere, then make sure you are. When you are checking to ensure that your business is mentioned, make sure that the details are correct as well.
A wrong address or an incorrect email id or contact number can lead to you losing customers.
4. SEO Optimize
In this stage of local marketing, you need to integrate local SEO into your website.
The more optimised your website is when it comes to keywords mentioning your geographical location, the more likely potential customers are to find your business.
This is crucial, as usually, when people look for a product or a service on social media, they turn to social engines. Common search terms when looking for a store or a service is ‘(insert store/service name) near me’.
This allows them to find relevant businesses in their locality. To ensure that your business appears in the search, your website needs to be SEO optimised.
5. Social Media and Local Media
Aside from your website, your social media should also be optimised to reflect your location.
You can consider geo-tagging your social media posts. This lets people know where your store is located. If your business has an Instagram or a Facebook account, use the location tag to enable people to find your business.
This works for your business in two ways. On one hand, you let people know where your store is located. On the other hand, pictures and high engagement with locals on social media reflect strong community ties.
Asking local publications to include an ad listing about your business, or asking someone to review your business can both help you spread brand awareness among the local community.
6. Online and Offline Paid Advertising
Local advertising helps you directly target market to the local community.
Get in touch with local newspapers and news networks about promoting your business. You can also sponsor community events in your area to get the name about your business out.
If you find a community event that fits your brand, why not set up a booth there? You can offer free mugs, shirts, notebooks or pens with your branding. These are items people find useful, and the branding will help them remember your business.
Facebook, among other social media platforms, allows you to target market within specific geographical areas for a nominal sum. Targeting the locals with ads about your business on social media will help you get the name of your business to spread in your locality.
7. Spread The Word Yourself
Sidewalk signs, fliers, direct mail advertising and even sample products spread brand awareness as well.
These ideas have been used in local advertising for decades, and they continue to be effective even today.
You may also want to consider getting business insurance for your company. To know more, click here.
Sources:
- Decker, AD, ‘The Ultimate Guide to Local Marketing’, viewed February 11th 2021,https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/local-marketing
- Forment, LF, Updated September 8th 2020, ‘Local Marketing for Small Business: Strategies, Examples, Tips’, viewed February 11th 2021,https://www.fundera.com/blog/local-marketing
- Moser, JM, ‘7 Tactical Ways Every Business Can Use Local Marketing to Sell More’, viewed February 11th 2021,https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/local-marketing/#6-sponsor-a-local-event
- Parker, PP, August 14th 2020, ‘The 5 Critical Elements for Local Marketing Success’, viewed February 11th 2021,https://martechtoday.com/the-5-critical-elements-for-local-marketing-success-243287
Article Credit to Central Recorder.
Do you have a local marketing strategy for your business? Do you think the 7 ways detailed above can assist you with marketing your business to the local community? Let us know in the comments below. Also, if you found our content informative, do like it and share it with your friends.