Neighborhood marketing, also known as local marketing, is a tactic to target customers living within a certain radius. Creating a marketing strategy for your local business is not the same as marketing for an organization with a national or a global reach. Also, local marketing may mean concentrating on accessing a specific community. It applies to any brick and mortar venture or service, which serves consumers living within a dedicated locality. You should also leverage a popular Instagram growth service/Instagram followers app to improve the number of your local followers. If you search for marketing guidance, most of the resources focus on global marketing strategies. It is okay for businesses with a wider reach and targeting a larger market. At the same time, an owner has to be more focused on local marketing. It is all about ensuring a significant impact, although the area is small. Location-based marketing makes sure that your venture accesses the right kind of customers. It would be great if a local bakery, for instance, has millions of followers on Instagram. However, this does not guarantee whether all these followers will become customers in reality. As such, local marketing concentrates on a tiny local community, which a business will serve.
Contents
- Importance of Local Marketing
- 1. Focus on Social Media users in your Local Area
- 2. Manage your Business Listing in the Search Engines
- 3. Sponsor some Local Charitable Events
- 4. Join Online Professional Groups
- 5. Register with Business Directories of your Locality
- 6. Follow up with your Local Customers
- 7. Begin a Referral Program
- 8. Engage in Cross-Promotion with other Businesses in the Locality
- 9. Introduce your Business to Local Media
- Conclusion
Importance of Local Marketing
Any business requires customers and local marketing can help you to acquire these customers. It is as simple as that. Business owners should have proper marketing strategies to attain their objectives. If you own a small business, most of your customers will come via foot traffic, online local searches, and word of mouth. Owners of small businesses have to ensure they have a reasonably good presence in these areas. Check out the following local marketing strategies to help your business draw customers from your neighborhood easily.
1. Focus on Social Media users in your Local Area
You can target those users on social media platforms who live in your locality. However, you have to know the trick of using it that way. For instance, Facebook has a feature, which enables an owner to promote or market their business to other local users on its platform. You do not have to advertise but get your current local customers to follow your business page on social media. Include interesting content and make sure the updates are visible to your local family and friends who could be followers of your followers.
2. Manage your Business Listing in the Search Engines
Most people search on their mobile phones or online first using search engines, such as Bing or Google, and then visit a business. It is possible to manage a lot of relevant details, which feature on Google business listings. These include phone numbers, hours, addresses, and pictures, among others. You can have a Google Business account free of cost. Have you claimed your Google Business listing? Do it as soon as possible if you are yet to utilize it.
3. Sponsor some Local Charitable Events
Make it a habit to sponsor charitable events from time to time in your local community. It is an excellent opportunity to promote brand awareness. You need to also ensure the cause or event should be something you are convinced about and appeal to the target consumers.
4. Join Online Professional Groups
There are some social media platforms, such as LinkedIn, that offer you access to share your network and expertise. It is extremely relevant for local B2B ventures.
5. Register with Business Directories of your Locality
There are occasions when local customers search directories to find professionals and businesses from a specific niche in their locality. Ensure that your business features in all relevant directories and make sure that the information is accurate. You need to remember yellow pages, niche directories, and the local chamber of commerce, among others.
6. Follow up with your Local Customers
You should make it a practice to send a thank-you note through an email after a sale for receiving positive testimonials. However, make sure that you do not offer anything instead of a positive customer review. At the same time, a thank-you email mentioning that you would love to receive constructive feedback and like a testimonial for your site if they would give one has become a common practice these days.
7. Begin a Referral Program
Referral programs could be as simple as offering a few business cards to your satisfied customers and requesting them to refer their family or friends. Alternatively, you might offer a discount, award, or bounty to the customers being referred and the referrer.
8. Engage in Cross-Promotion with other Businesses in the Locality
In case you introduce a promotion or special scheme for your customers, you can only access those people who are aware of your business. However, if another business and you come together with a joint promotion, customers from both these businesses will possibly know about it. For instance, a movie theater could partner with a local eatery for a “movie and dinner” special.
9. Introduce your Business to Local Media
You can offer your expertise through topics relevant to your business to the journalists and editors in your locality. For instance, an HVAC business could be able to offer some quotes for a newspaper in the locality about how to reduce heating expenses during the winter. Also, you may send out certain press releases for suggesting article ideas. You may do that, particularly while associated with a current news program. While persistence is good, do not irritate editors by being pushy. So, maintain a proper balance while interacting with them.
Conclusion
Make sure to take the support of a reputed influencer marketplace like Ainfluencer for better brand awareness among your potential customers. Such platforms usually include robust behavioral analytics to gauge the behavior of your target audience. Together with a popular Instagram growth service, this can boost your brand visibility.
