Did you know that almost half (46%) of all Google searches are performed to find local information? According to local marketing statistics, 78% of location-based mobile searches result in an offline purchase.
88% of mobile searches for local businesses led to a call or visit to the business within 24 hours. 72% of consumers that did a local search visited a store within five miles.
What’s even more amazing is that mobile searches with local intent tend to convert much better than searches without local search intent.
Google partnered with Ipsos MediaCT and Purchased to study local search behaviour and found that 18% of local smartphone searches were purchased within 24 hours. Still, only 7% of non-local searches generated a sale.
All these statistics highlight the importance of local marketing as a digital marketing strategy framework.
Despite this, most businesses either ignore local marketing to attract international customers or don’t know about the right local marketing strategies they should implement to get the best results.
In this article, you will learn about seven local marketing strategies that can drive traffic and boost your engagement.
- Interact With Local Audiences
When engaging with local audiences, social media can prove to be a powerful tool. With millions of active users, you can easily find local audiences interested in engaging with your brands.
You can also use social media to increase brand awareness among the local population and build long-lasting relationships.
Don’t forget to add your location to your social media profiles and use location as a tag in your post to get the attention of local customers.
Choose a social media platform where your target audience spends most of the time. You can also use influencer marketing by identifying local niche influencers, and it can also boost content marketing efforts.
Submit Your Website To Local Business Directories
You might consider this strategy old school and might even ditch it because of it, but the fact is that it still works.
There is no denying that most customers will use search engines. Still, a huge percentage of local customers head over to these local business directories when looking for local business information.
If you have not submitted your business to those local business directories, it won’t appear in their search.
As a result, they won’t know about your business. Some local users also use these business directories to find business professionals in niche industries.
In addition to these business directories, you should get your business listed with the local chamber of commerce, yellow pages, and niche directories. The more places your business appears, the more likely a local customer will find you.
Target Local Publications and Media Outlets
If you are familiar with search engine optimization, you might know how important high-quality backlinks are for helping your website rank higher on search engines.
A backlink from a high-quality website is like an endorsement that you are a trusted source. Similarly, if you want your local customers to trust you and do business with you,
It would help if you focused on featuring your business in local publications. You can also get great brand exposure by appearing on popular local media outlets.
Find publications and media outlets that align with your business vision and model. Just cold-pitching dozens of local media outlets and publications won’t work.
You must present an interesting and unique angle that delivers value to your audience to convince them to feature your business.
Localize Your Ads
One of the best things about pay-per-click advertising is that it can give you results quickly. If you want to achieve the same goal while targeting a local audience, you must localize your ads.
Here are some of the ways you can use to localize your ads.·
- Use local language and words for your ads
- Respect the cultural norms and avoid slang
- Promote region-specific and demographic-specific offers through your local ads
- Remarketing
Sponsor Local Events
The primary objective of content marketing is to stay on top of your audience's mind. Even if you don’t have a physical presence, you can still join the local community by sponsoring local events.
Analyze the local event calendar and find sponsorship opportunities you can use. To increase your brand awareness, you can also target popular events such as sporting events, races, and even parades.
You can also publish a blog post or a press release announcing the sponsorship news.
Cross-Promote Your Local Business
Let’s say you are offering a special promotion to your customers, and then you will only be able to reach customers who are familiar with your business.
As a brand, you want more and more people to know about your offers. The best way to do this is to cross-promote your offer in partnership with other brands. This will help their audience hear about your brand and its offers.
You can also partner with local brands that are offering complimentary services. For instance, if you own a coffee shop, you can join hands with a bookseller,
or if you are an airline, you can collaborate with food and beverage companies to serve food and drinks on flights. Similarly, you can partner with a cheap dedicated server provider if you offer web hosting services.
Start a Referral Program
Are you interested in attracting new local customers? If yes, you can start a referral program. A referral program rewards satisfied customers for referring your business to their friends and family.
To make your referral program more effective and enticing, you can offer a special discount to both the referrer and the person who is being referred.
One of the biggest advantages of starting a referral program is that it generates a continuous stream of customers, increasing your conversion rates and boosting your revenue while increasing customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.
Which local marketing strategies do you use to attract more traffic and increase engagement? Please share it with us in the comments section below.
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