The title may shock you, but it’s true. We can help you discover lots of local marketing strategies that don’t include social media.
Local marketing activities can help your business land new customers and hang onto existing clients. Here’s a list of specialized advertising ideas that can help your local company reach more people affordably and effectively through local marketing.
Local Marketing Strategies You Can Incorporate Today
1. Events
Apart from the classic exhibition stand, which is often associated with high costs, community businesses have other options to encounter the desired target group to win new customers. One of these local marketing strategies is events held outside of regular business hours.
By opening the doors to potential customers with relevant events, you kill two birds with one stone. You’re the organizer of a cool event that people are talking about while attracting customers to your store.
Your local bookstore offers readings, your bar hosts a gin tasting, your café invites you to paint and sip coffee, the theater provides a film followed by a Q&A with the director. There is almost nothing limiting your possibilities. However, what is important is the relationship to your shop, your products, or your service.
Events are a cost-effective promotional tool because visitors usually pay to attend such an event. At the same time, a successful event is a multiplier for your word-of-mouth advertising.
2. Spend Time on Local Search Engine Optimization
No matter how amazing your product or service is or how well you meet the needs of potential customers, if your business isn’t online, no one will find your front door offline. Not only do you need an online presence you need a website that pops and lures potential customers into your shop. Spending time on local search engine optimization (SEO) ensures people in your community find your business when they search online.
Since a website is often the first or second contact with your company, a potential customer must get added value online after clarifying their basic questions (name, address, contact details, business hours). This can be a digital menu, a program booklet, your range of services, or an online shop.
Your business must be displayed in the search results’ top spots, and local SEO is incredibly important. The difference from classic SEO marketing is the focus on regional keywords instead of generic ones.
The topic of SEO is not only extensive but also very complex. Registering with Google My Business, on the other hand, is not only easy but also free. You can use this tool to manage your company’s online presence in Google Search and Google Maps.
One significant advantage of this is that you can list opening times, contact details, and other information about your company, and it is displayed in the search results. This way, you can pick up potential customers directly with specific search queries.
3. Register Your Business with Industry-Standard Directories
The number of review websites on the Internet is enormous, and so is their power. A good or bad rating can determine if a potential customer visits the store at all.
With the proper reputation management, companies can use review portals to their advantage, respond to customer complaints, and continuously improve their service or products. Also, regular positive reviews drive the company website up in the Google ranking and local search.
Offline Promotions
In times of digital overstimulation, you have the opportunity with “hands-on advertising” to give potential customers something that has staying power. For example, you can use non-digital advertising in stickers, vouchers, flyers, or unusual offline campaigns for cost-effective marketing support.
This is guaranteed to be a topic of conversation in your local community. With physical advertisements, you’ll ensure an extraordinary customer experience that people will remember for a long time.
4. Use Local Cooperation for Local Marketing
Especially in the initial phase of a local marketing strategy, meaningful collaborations can create great added value, both online and offline. Through intentional cooperation with partners who address the same target group, you can get new customers inexpensively and quickly.
Joint advertising, cross-selling campaigns, and advertorials can increase the effectiveness of the advertising and, at the same time, reduce your costs.
5. Get Your Name Out There
Even if the planning of your local marketing activities and the weighing of your financial possibilities may be time-consuming, your efforts will be worthwhile, bringing new customers to your business in the long term.
Without proactive, targeted acquisition of new customers, the flow of customers will inevitably stagnate over time. Don’t leave your local marketing strategy to chance. Let the specialists at NuMedia Marketing develop and implement the perfect plan for your business. Call us at 317-563-7235 to see what we can create for you.
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