Even if your small business is profitable right now, you need to stay ahead of your competition to remain successful in the future. Furthermore, positive online reviews make 73% of consumers trust local businesses. Join a local group Local businesses need to remain active in their communities. You’re already putting in long days, and you just don’t have enough time to focus on your social media strategy. Set up a customer referral program Implementing a customer referral program is one of my favorite ways to acquire new customers without doing any work. Focus your efforts on getting more customers to join your list, and the rest will take care of itself if you stay on top of your campaigns. If you already have a live app or you’re in the process of building one, refer to my guide on how to improve the profitability of your small business mobile app. It might be time to switch up your marketing strategy. If you’re looking for new ways to promote your local business, use this guide as a reference. What types of marketing strategies are you using to promote your local business?
To survive, local businesses need to learn how to adapt to the modern way of marketing.
If you are seeing a plateau or decline in sales, it’s time for you to mix up your marketing strategy.
Even if your small business is profitable right now, you need to stay ahead of your competition to remain successful in the future.
Analyze the latest marketing trends. Recognize the consumer buying behavior. Learn how to get more money from your existing customers.
Unfortunately, only 33% of small businesses reach the 10-year mark. The rest fail.
I don’t want you to become the sad statistic. This was my inspiration for writing this guide.
If your company is new, you need to do everything possible to stay strong for years to come.
Local businesses that have been around for decades may be ready for a marketing facelift. Your strategies that worked 20 years ago probably won’t be as successful in 2018 and beyond.
I narrowed down the top 15 marketing tactics for local business owners. Use this guide as a reference for your future marketing campaigns.
1. Set up your free listing with Google
How are new customers finding you?
If you’re old-school, you may be relying on word of mouth, radio promotions, print ads, and direct mailing. But last year, 97% of consumers searched the Internet for a local business.
Furthermore, positive online reviews make 73% of consumers trust local businesses.
That’s why you need to make sure your local business is listed on Google.
Setting up your free Google listing makes it easy for consumers to find you when they search for terms related to your business.
Your listing will have all your information:
- address
- phone number
- hours
- directions
- link to website
You’ll be able to add photos to give people a better understanding of the way you operate.
Customers will also be able to add photos. They’ll write reviews about your local business for other people to see, which will have a major impact on your successful.
You need to learn how to get your customers to recommend your brand to others.
Your star rating is the number one factor used by consumers to determine whether they’ll buy from your local business.
In fact, 94% of customers will use businesses with a 4-star rating.
2. Start blogging
As you’ve just seen, consumers use the Internet to find local businesses.
That means you need to understand the basic principles of SEO if you want to increase your chances of getting ranked as a top result.
Roughly 47% of clicks go to the top three positions of Google search results.
Blogging will help you tremendously with your SEO strategy. Just look at these numbers:
More website traffic, more followers, and more leads will ultimately translate to increased profits.
Publishing new blog posts means your website will be updated more frequently with fresh content, which will increase your chances of getting a higher search ranking.
Plus, your posts are a great place to add keywords prospective customers may be searching for when browsing online.
Once you’re able to establish a steady group of readers for your blog, they’ll visit your website on a regular basis. The more they visit your site, the greater the chances you’ll have of getting them to convert.
3. Join a local group
Local businesses need to remain active in their communities. Joining a local group is a great way to stay connected with residents and other business owners.
I suggest joining your local Chamber of Commerce. There will be a small annual fee, but it’s worth it.
Attending these meetings and events will expose your brand to other businesses.
Will your competitors be part of these groups? It’s possible. But that’s even more of a reason for you to be there.
Let’s say you own a local t-shirt company.
Another local business may be hosting an event in town and need custom shirts made. Rather than ordering the shirts online, they’ll be more inclined to use your services if you both belong to the same local group.
That’s the whole idea behind joining. The businesses look out for one another and always try to support local brands.
4. Give back to the community
Being part of a local community also means you need to give back.
If you’re charitable, don’t be shy about your involvement. Consumers want to hear about how your local business supports charitable causes.
Research shows 91% of customers say they are willing to switch brands if it means supporting one associated with a charitable cause.
And 85% of consumers will have a more positive image of your local business if you support a charity they care about.
You can even ask your community and customers which charities you should support. Studies show 39% of people want to help decide on the charities a business supports by a voting system.
It’s a safe bet to associate with local charities.
This will definitely help you and your business become closer to your community.
You can approach this in many ways.
For starters, you can make an annual contribution to a charity.
You can also run special promotions with a certain percentage of sales on a particular day or week goes to a cause.
Giving back to your community doesn’t always mean donating to a charity.
For example, let’s say you own a local restaurant. You can provide food for a public high school graduation event. These types of parties run by the school are intended to keep students safe and sober on the night of their graduation.
5. Run contests
Contests are a great way to get people excited about your local business.
The best way to run these contests is through online platforms. Leverage your social media profiles for this strategy.
Run contests that encourage user-generated content. For example, ask your followers to post pictures related to your business. Then pick a winner based on who gets the most likes on their photo.
The whole idea behind these contests is to grow your social media following.
If people see their friends and family posting about your local business on their social profiles, it will…
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