Business
Follow These 5 Simple Tactics to Promote Your Business Locally
Promoting your business locally requires making an effort to get immersed in the community that you are servicing. It is vital that you connect with nearby residents and prove to them why they should become consumers. This is where implementing intelligent marketing tactics comes into play in order to stand out from your competitors.
Keep in mind there are only a limited number of potential customers in your area to influence. Make the most of your ability to attract local business by following these five tactics to promote your company.
1. Blog Writing for Local Businesses
The beauty of blogging is that posting informative content that has been written about your industry online can lure traffic to your website. It is great that blogging creates the opportunity to reach web visitors from all across the globe.
But being able to attract local business by being considered a regional expert and thought leader can convert readers into consumers via in-store shopping or by purchasing products through e-commerce.
Blogging effectively is not just about cramming popular keywords into bulky blocks of text in hopes that people click on your content. More importantly, you want to help your readers by answering questions they may have related to your field.
People have to actually consume your content in order to stick around. Make it worth their while, and don’t waste their time with random fluff pieces.
Establish a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy by thoroughly researching locally searched terms and considering ways that they can be expanded into blogging topics that tie into your products and services.
Having a clear idea of what your audience is currently searching for online can help you ensure better traffic results to your website.
2. Billboards for Local Businesses
Billboard advertising for local commercial advertising purposes involves making your messaging visible on huge billboards and other outdoor advertisements in public locations.
Let’s say, for example, that your business is based in Tennessee, and you are looking to place Nashville billboards nearby to spark some local business and show residents that they should take your company seriously.
These ads make it possible to reach a significant number of people in a short period of time, people that are driving or walking past them. This means that those that are taking in your promotional billboards are actually physically located near your business at the moment, even if they are tourists.
Use your billboard to express why people need to stop what they are doing and use the solutions you offer to fulfill their needs. Also, advertising on billboards typically costs businesses less per thousand exposures than then they would end up spending using other media tools.
3. Targeted Ads for Local Businesses
Putting local digital ads inside your promotional campaign provides you with exposure to an audience that may have been previously outside your range of awareness. Make use of search engine marketing (SEM) advertisements that appear at the top of local search engine results.
Select a target audience and particular terms for your advertisements in order for your business to appear at the top of the list when local online searches occur for the goods that you provide.
There are also cost-per-click (CPC) or pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements that can be placed on well-trafficked platforms such as Yelp. One of the important pluses that come with cost-per-click or pay-per-click ads is the ability to take control of your spending budget, and you can also stop your ads at any point in time.
You will also only have to pay when your ads get clicked on, which ensures that your investment is being used towards reaching customers who are much more likely to propose what it is that you offer.
4. Influencers for Local Businesses
Social media influencers are popular people that have an engaged online following and can influence the purchasing choices made by local consumers that have come to appreciate their recommendations.
You are able to pay local social media influencers a fee, or you may also be able to offer them free products in exchange for posting about your business online. Being that these influencers have built their following by building trust from their followers and have taken time to earn their trusted reputations, their recommendations can go a long way in seeing a return on your investment.
Just think about how many times you have had a friend or family member refer you to a business. Social media influencers are an expanded version of word-of-mouth marketing.
5. Community Involvement for Local Businesses
As a reminder, don’t underestimate the organic promotional effort of community involvement by contributing to local causes and organizations that genuinely matter to you. These opportunities can take shape in the form of volunteering your time and participating while lightly getting the word out about your brand.
Partner with a locally-based charity and hold an event at your physical location that benefits residents in the area and associates your business with caring for the community.