5 Must-Haves for Every Local Marketing Strategy

Local marketing is reaching potential customers within a smaller geographical area—a radius of 50 miles—and turning them into faithful followers of your brand. When your strategy is focused on your online audience, it's called local digital marketing. 

Why Go for Local Digital Marketing? 

With 34% of consumers going online daily to search for a local business, digital marketing virtually works as inbound marketing that brings customers to your doorstep. Here are other ways that you can benefit from marketing locally: 

• It's affordable. 

Managing a website, business social media account, or other digital marketing platforms allows you to reach a wide audience at less cost than spending for TV or print ads.  

• You can target a specific demographic. 

You can use search engine optimization tactics such as including location-specific words on your website or social media content. You can also target people of a specific gender, occupation, or age range when creating Facebook or Google pay-per-click (PPC) ads. 

• It allows you to track results accurately.

Tools such as Google Analytics are available to help you measure how your marketing campaigns are doing. You can concentrate on which strategies—ads, emails, testimonials—perform best.  

Local Marketing Success Essentials 

What elements should make up your checklist for your local marketing strategy to succeed in gathering leads and improving sales? 

1. Reviews 

Reviews affect your visibility on Google as the search engine uses them as a ranking factor for establishments. 

As much as 87% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses in 2020. They looked at the star ratings, legitimacy, recency, sentiment, and quantity. 92% of B2B buyers answered "yes" when asked if they'd likely purchase a product or service with a trusted review about it. 

As you nurture positive online interactions with your customers, convince them to share good reviews about your product or service on Facebook, Google Reviews, Yelp, and so on. Marketing also involves spending time to read and respond to reviews.  

2. Listing management 

Add or claim your space in Google My Business and other business listings to keep your brand's identity accurate and consistent online. Help search engines and internet users find your business faster by including as much information as possible. Specify and provide your business category, services, store or office hours, product descriptions, photos, and modes of payment.  

3. Local SEO 

Your web pages should include city and state names and localized keywords and phrases.  

Google Trends, Google Analytics, and Google Search Console can tell you what your local community is searching for and what words they use when they post a query on Google. If you have more than one store, create a unique service page for each neighborhood or community you serve.  

Also, localize social media content by using location tags and local hashtags.  

Remember to update your website, business listing, and social channels whenever you change your business name, address, or store hours. 

4. Paid ads 

You can appear on top of local searches by advertising via local PPC search ads and Google local service ads. To promote your business on Facebook, you can set up local awareness ads. These ads allow you to define the audience and location you want to reach. 

5. Deals, contests, and promos  

Send social media and email announcements about discounts or giveaways coinciding with special events or holidays within your community. 

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