How to do local marketing for small businesses?
Know your audience
The first step in the local small business marketing process is to know your target audience. To whom do you sell? This means starting with your brand identity.
Your brand identity will be the first thing people think of when they hear your name. You need to think of 3 words associated with your brand. Are you more of a fun, cool, pop brand that likes to use pop references everywhere?
Or are you a formal suit-and-tie brand that likes to talk in numbers and facts?
Defining your brand identity will help you easily find your target audience. Once your business knows its identity, it will be easier to attract the same crowd.
The next step is to identify your buyer person
When creating your buyer persona, you need to think beyond your customer’s age and profession and dig a little deeper into their motivations, fears, and pain points. This will help you craft a message that speaks to them and makes them feel attracted to your brand rather than your competitors.
Once your buyer persona is ready, you can create your brand assets like logo, brand name, design material, tagline, etc. At this point, you should also have your USP ready. Knowing what separates you from the crowd will also help you attract more customers.
Refine your messaging
All the work you did in step one will now help you create the perfect message.
Always remember this slogan, it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it. How you present yourself as a brand to others will completely make or break the deal. You want to present yourself as a human being speaking behind a company’s name and domain.
You want your customers to connect with you as a human, so make sure your message is friendly and conversational with a little humor.
When creating your brand message and USP, keep your target audience and brand identity in mind. Create a message that speaks to your customers in a way that they feel understood while creating a lasting impact on their heads and hearts.
Define Your Audience
Determine your budget
Determining your budget plays a huge role in keeping your local marketing strategy intact. Having a marketing budget in mind will help you keep track of how much you’re spending on what. If you do this, you’ll probably find that you’re wasting money on things you don’t even need.
Most of the time, business owners don’t realize the expense they are making and if it is even valuable to them. Determining your budget will also help you break down how much you’ll need to spend on any ads or tools you might need.
Configure your local website, meta tags, and descriptions
Setting up your service website with all local settings can attract more customers to your business. Your local website will act as a map for every customer who doesn’t know about your business yet.
Having information about your business, as well as the products/services you offer along with a contact page can help potential customers decide if they want to work with you and contact you if necessary. Plus, having a website for your small business looks professional to new customers.
When creating your website, you should have three things in mind. First, think about your website copy. Think about your buyer persona, pain points, and USP to craft a simple yet effective message.
The second part is to make your website mobile-friendly. Simply put, make your website look great on a smartphone because more than 61% of potential buyers are more likely to contact a small business if they have a mobile-optimized website.
Last but not least, enable all your local settings. To get more local customers to find you, you need to localize your website. You can do this by adding website content that is relevant to your local shoppers.
Another way to localize your website and rank on GoogleLocal SERPs. You can add location pages. If you run more than one small business, these pages will make it easier for your customers to find and contact you. These pages usually contain your company name, address, phone number, email ID, etc.
Setting up your Google My Business listing
Go online with social media
Having your commercial presence on social networks can help you explode your sales without waiting for Google to rank your website and listing. Having a business social media account depends on your buyer persona.
If your buyer persona likes to hang out on Instagram, that’s where you’ll promote your business.
For example, if you sell handmade candles to aid sleep, then Instagram might be a good place for you and not LinkedIn. Understanding your buyer persona and their preferred social media channels will help you make quick sales.
You can use local hashtags and your location to attract a local audience in your area. Making local marketing easier for you. Moreover, you can also use the tagging feature to tag your photo on Instagram to attract region-based people.
Tell people to leave reviews online
Social proof leads to greater trust in your industry and local marketing efforts. According to a survey by OptinMonster, the average consumer reads 10 online reviews before buying a product. Every time a customer buys from your store, be sure to ask them to leave you an online review.
You can use this review on Google and other listings, websites, and landing pages to convert more customers.Remember that people trust people, so be sure to include the name and photo of the person who wrote this review.
Make the most of localized email marketing
64%of small business owners use email marketing to target their customers. Combined with local marketing, email marketing can help you send content related to your business, discounts, and new products coming to your store.
Build your business from the ground up! Learn the fundamentals of local marketing and broaden your reach with our tips and insights. Get started today and take your small business success to the next level.
