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 01

Local Marketing Strategies for Success

Local marketing refers to strategies that target regional audiences near your business.

Local marketing is especially effective for businesses tied to a physical location, such as restaurants, boutique retail operations and professional advisors.

Getting your small business’s local marketing strategy off the ground is quick, easy and free; these tips will help you improve your local marketing efforts immediately.

This article is for small business owners looking to implement local marketing strategies to target audiences close to their business’s location.

Local marketing is an essential element of a larger marketing strategy for small businesses, as it can get your brand in front of a broader local audience that are likely to patronize your business in the near future. But what can you do as an entrepreneur to improve your small business’s reach with a local audience? This guide includes seven quick, free tips that can immediately improve your local marketing strategy.

What is local marketing?

Local marketing targets an audience based in the same town or region as your business. It is geared toward people who are within a certain radius of your physical location – generally based on a reasonable driving distance – who might realistically purchase your product or service at any time.

For example, if you run a restaurant in Red Bank, New Jersey, driving website traffic from Sacramento, California, is not going to do you much good. Instead, you need to employ local marketing tactics to ensure that the majority of your audience is indeed located near enough that they could conceivably drive to your restaurant or order delivery.

“The biggest approach people should be taking is really understanding who they’re trying to sell to … what benefit people can get from the product or service, and then relay that information upfront,” said Travis McKnight, senior content strategist at Portent Inc.

That’s true in all marketing, but especially when it comes to a local marketing strategy, he added. Part of the key information you should relay to your audience is where your business is located.

The goal behind a local marketing strategy is to spend your marketing and advertising budget more efficiently. Digital marketing is an effective tool for businesses of all sizes. However, if you are a local business and you fail to gain traction with a local audience, your marketing expense is all for naught. Not all traffic is created equal; a local marketing strategy ensures that you are targeting an audience that might patronize your business.

Key takeaway: Local marketing targets people within a certain radius of your business. It can improve conversion rates by narrowing the focus of your digital marketing efforts to potential nearby customers.

What types of businesses benefit from local marketing?

Many businesses can benefit from local marketing, but there are some types of businesses for which local marketing is absolutely required. Restaurants are a good example because they are physical locations that offer dine-in, takeout or delivery services. By nature, a restaurant is locked into its physical location.

Another good example of a business that needs local store marketing is a retail store. While even small retail operations often have e-commerce stores these days, local marketing can increase the store’s foot traffic and local brand awareness. This is especially important for small, boutique retail stores competing with large chains.

Similarly, professional services like lawyers’ and accountants’ offices should employ a local marketing strategy. While it might be more appropriate to cast a regional net for these services, it is critical for professional advisors to connect with a largely local audience. There are some notable exceptions to this rule, such as digital marketing companies, which often operate fully digitally. However, nothing beats an in-person consultation.

While there are plenty of businesses that need a local marketing strategy, other types of businesses should consider implementing local marketing as well. Just because a local strategy isn’t your priority doesn’t mean you can’t reap the benefits of capturing a wider audience in the town or region where your business is based.

Key takeaway: All businesses can benefit from local marketing, but some – such as restaurants or retail stores that depend on foot traffic – require a local marketing strategy.

11 local marketing strategies you can start today

Local marketing starts with some easy-to-implement steps that you can get started on today. Here are a few quick and simple ideas to improve your business’s local marketing.

1. Optimize your website (and localize it).

Website optimization is key to driving traffic, but is your website optimized for local users? Not only should you follow search engine optimization (SEO) best practices, such as employing keyword research to inform your website content, you should also guarantee that your website offers a top-notch mobile experience, said Heather Lodge, chief marketer at Click and Mortar.

“More than half of traffic coming to websites is from mobile devices,” she said. “If you have a website that’s nice and streamlined, with large text to read on a small screen and large buttons to easily click, you’ll have an easier time attracting local business.”

In addition to these recommendations – which are key for any digital marketing strategy – your website should also be localized, Lodge said. That means determining keywords and key phrases based on local SEO – ask yourself, “What is the local market searching for on Google?” A good rule of thumb is to frequently mention your community or nearby communities. If you’re targeting a regional audience, consider adding language to your website like “serving the tri-state area,” for example.

You can improve your local SEO insights even further by leveraging free keyword research tools like Google Analytics, Google Trends and Google Search Console to inform precisely what local terms you should incorporate. The more you optimize your website for local search, the more local customers are likely to land on your webpages.

2. Update title tags and meta descriptions.

Another SEO consideration to keep in mind, McKnight said, is whether your website’s title tags and metadata up to date.

“There are a few different parts of metadata, but the majority of people only have to worry about meta description and title tag,” he said.

Title tag refers to the 60 characters that search engine users see on the search engine results page (SERP). Keeping a title tag relevant to your brand and location, but shorter than 60 characters is optimal, McKnight said.

The meta description is less likely to factor into search ranking, McKnight added, but it can improve click-through rates by signaling to users precisely what type of information they might find on the webpage.

“Data shows that a quality meta description … can help click-through rate. On the flip side, for a business like a restaurant that wants people to call, having a phone number in the meta description is huge,” McKnight said. “Meta descriptions should always be 160 characters or less.”

The title tag and meta description can be edited in the administrator’s tools of the web hosting platform you use. For many small business owners, McKnight said, WordPress offers an easy to use SEO function.

3. Set up local landing pages for all your business locations.

If your business has multiple locations, you should create an individual page for each location on your website to further your localization efforts.

“There will often be companies with a lot of different locations, but they don’t include pages with information on those different locations on their website,” Lodge said. “These pages should include each location, directions on how to get there, and what store hours are.”

Lodge added that these pages should include specific content about your business. For example, a real estate agent based in Nashville, Tennessee, shouldn’t just list on their website that they are a “real estate agent.” Instead, including the key phrase “leading real estate agent in Nashville” signals to search engines where the agent is based and helps serve results to a local audience. It also considers how people are searching for real estate agents; they don’t just want anyone, they want “the best” or “leading” real estate agents.

4. Claim your Google My Business listing.

One of the easiest and most effective local marketing strategies you can employ immediately is claiming your Google My Business listing. Google My Business provides search engine users with information like your location, store hours, directions, contact information, and more directly on the SERP.

“Claim your Google My Business knowledge panel and make sure that it is updated,” said McKnight. “Especially during COVID-19, make sure it reflects current store hours and accurately explains any restrictions, such as takeout or delivery only.”

Lodge added you should also claim local listings on other third-party sites, such as Yelp. The more places users can find your business (along with location information) the better off your local marketing success will be.

5. Optimize social media pages.

Social media marketing is critically important when it comes to local online marketing. Much like your website, your social media pages should be optimized and localized. This means providing up-to-date information, such as your business’s location, contact information, and store hours. It also means maintaining an active social media account. You can preschedule social media posts using tools like Hootsuite.

“From a small business perspective, social media revolves largely around communication about deals, reopenings or promotions,” McKnight said. “A lot of it is just reputation management.”

6. Encourage positive user reviews and engage online.

Encourage your satisfied customers to leave you positive reviews online, whether on Google Reviews, Facebook, Yelp, or elsewhere. You could even incentivize them to leave positive reviews with discounts or promotions, such as a raffle or giveaway.

You should also spend time responding to the reviews your customers leave online. Always be sincere and avoid copying/pasting generic responses, McKnight said.

“For the most part, respond to people with authenticity, humility and honesty – whether it’s a negative review or positive one,” McKnight said. “Set an hour per week just to go through, respond and make sure it’s not just a generic cookie-cutter response. Users are turned off by that and feel they aren’t listened to.”

7. Host or sponsor local community events.

Digital marketing is all well and good, but building a real-world bridge between your audience and your brand is invaluable. Consider sponsoring or hosting a local event whenever possible to increase brand visibility in your local community. This is also a great way to land local press coverage, which improves your odds of being found online by a local audience.

8. Utilize localized email marketing.

Email marketing strategies have some of the lowest costs among many of the marketing strategies available to you. The bulk of the cost is associated with obtaining valuable email addresses. Unfortunately, there is nothing in an email address that will tell you where the user is located; there are email-gathering techniques you can begin using that filter users by location. The easiest technique is to have a sign-up sheet in your store – ideally by the register – or at booths or events that you sponsor so that interested consumers see it and sign up to receive updates and promotions from you.

9. Try a direct mail campaign.

Direct mail is a much cheaper method of reaching customers than it might seem. What you pay for in stamps can be recovered by not paying for mailing lists and professional targeting. You can frequently target prime demographics by looking at neighborhoods that fit the demographics of your target audience.

10. Partner with other local businesses.

Partnering with other businesses can be a powerful tool. These alliances can multiply both companies’ total outreach. This works best when you find businesses with similar values and goals (and that don’t directly compete with your company).

You and your partner businesses, for example, can co-sponsor events. You can work together with your SEO content to ensure a mutually beneficial relationship. You can link to each other, too; and when these strategies are followed, every effort you put into outreach is multiplied by the efforts of your partner businesses.

11. Localize paid ads.

Advertising groups can filter ads by location and IP. Ads can be targeted for local users, and this feature is used by Google, Facebook, and other digital advertisers.

Outside of digital advertising, localized paid ads are still useful. Local newspapers, radio spots, coupon books, movie theaters and local sponsorships are some of the best ways to promote your brand to local consumers.

Key takeaway: Optimizing your website and social media presence with location information, and making sure your Google and Yelp listings are up to date are just a few ways you make it easier for locals to find your business.

Think globally, advertise locally

When it comes to optimizing your digital properties for a local audience, there is a lot you can do at little or no cost to your business.

Setting up an optimized and localized website, giving your social media pages the same treatment, and claiming your Google My Business listing are the best places to start. From there, spend some time engaging your local audience both online and in the real world. Respond to reviews and organize community-based events to increase your visibility and create a stronger bond between your brand and your audience.

Whether you run a business that absolutely relies on local engagement, or you simply want to improve your local marketing, these tactics are easy, affordable, and effective.

See what kind of splash your business can make in your community by implementing these local marketing strategies today.

Key takeaway: Many local marketing strategies are free to implement and can be easily accomplished. Get started by updating your website and online listings with your business’s location.

02

How CRM Benefits Marketing Campaigns

Customer relationship management (CRM) is essential to sales, marketing, and customer support.

CRM software can help to automate data collection and analysis so your teams know exactly how to personalize service to each customer.

CRM software provides insight into your customers and target audience, thereby allowing you to improve marketing campaigns to target likely conversions.

This article is for small business owners and marketers who want to use software to streamline operations, increase sales, and improve marketing.

For marketing to be effective, it has to get the right message in front of the right audience at the right time. To do this, you must have a solid understanding of potential and existing customers’ needs and then create marketing campaigns that address those needs. CRM software and tools can help marketing teams collect and analyze audience data to build more effective marketing campaigns.

Editor’s note: Looking for the right CRM software for your business? Fill out the below questionnaire to have our vendor partners contact you about your needs.

What is CRM?

CRM stands for “customer relationship management,” which describes the process of managing interactions with current and potential customers throughout the sales process. The goal of CRM is to improve business relationships with customers. CRM encompasses all of the strategies, methods, and processes that involve using data to develop, improve, and manage customer relationships. It also describes the software, technology, and applications used to support CRM.

What is CRM software?

CRM software refers to the software, applications, and technology that help organizations collect, organize, and analyze their customers’ data for the purpose of managing customer relationships. CRM software makes up part of the CRM system, which stores data collected on current and potential customers. This data is collected and tracked at every point of interaction with the customer, such as when they share their contact information, engage with marketing campaigns, communicate with customer support, and purchase a company’s products or services.

Different departments within an organization can use CRM software in specific ways:

Marketers can pull details on customers to create targeted marketing campaigns.

Sales reps can use previous purchases and interactions to put together customized offers before contacting customers.

Customer support representatives can use customers’ backgrounds and contact information to provide a higher level of customer service.

CRM software captures useful data for marketing teams, sales teams, and customer support representatives.

What is CRM in marketing?

The more you know about your customers, the better the advantage your business will have over the competition. Knowledge gleaned from customer data allows your company to improve and focus its sales and marketing efforts, and helps you grow your business. CRM enables you to collect and organize customer information and identify customers’ preferences (e.g., what products they need and prefer, the solutions they are seeking, or their areas of opportunity or weakness). It also provides the information required to tell customers and prospects what they need to know about your products or services.

Using CRM in your marketing benefits your business by helping you do the following: 

Get a better sense of your target audience. The CRM centralizes customer information, allowing you to develop a complete picture of your customers and track any changes as your business grows.

Target specific customer groups. When you know your customers’ backgrounds, interests, and purchasing histories, you can focus your marketing efforts on the customers who would be interested in the message.

Find new customers. You can use what you have learned about current customers’ preferences to create targeted marketing campaigns for prospects with similar interests.

Identify audience trends and preferences. CRM software helps you uncover patterns in the data to learn what your audience likes, thereby helping you connect with your customers.

CRM software can improve marketers’ understanding of their target customers and allow them to segment their audience for marketing campaigns.

6 CRM features to improve marketing campaigns

The specific CRM tools a business uses for its marketing campaigns will depend on the industry and size of the organization. However, most businesses will benefit from the following features:

Centralized location for audience data

CRM software stores and organizes customer data (e.g., contact information, phone calls and emails, customer feedback, sales activities) in a centralized location. Creating a central repository of customer data helps you find, organize, and analyze customer information as you collect it, as well as uncover trends, patterns, and insights (e.g., the most popular products, the most effective marketing messages, customer demographics).

Segmentation and targeting of customer groups

CRM software enables businesses to segment customers into groups according to a wide range of characteristics, such as demographics (e.g., age, geographic location, job role, industry, company size) and activities (e.g., recent and past purchases, email response rates, social media activity, personal preferences). This information enables marketers to create very defined customer profiles and then personalize their marketing messages to target very specific groups of customers. Marketers can also create targeted business-to-business email marketing campaigns, which can increase subscriber numbers, email marketing metrics, and revenue.

Creation of personalized content

Because CRM software provides a wealth of information about your customers, you can customize communications to each person you contact. People dislike impersonal marketing messages that begin with generic introductions like “Dear customer.” You can pull information from your CRM software to create communications that address potential and current customers by name. You can also include the customer’s position and company to truly tailor the message and grab their attention.

Having other information about the customer, such as their purchasing history and preferences, as well as notes on previous communications, allows you to craft a message tailored to each customer. For example, you could discuss ideas and opportunities, provide useful and helpful information, and guide the conversation to suit a specific customer. This level of personalized content results in increased response rates, more positive brand perception, and higher revenues.

Seamless connection to marketing channels

Using CRM software, businesses can share customer information across all departments within an organization, such as marketing, sales, and customer service. When these departments share access to audience data, it makes it easier to uncover customer insights and create personalized communications. Without a CRM, it’s easy for data in different departments to be duplicated, overlooked, or lost, but a company-wide CRM allows the marketing team to create and use customer reports that contain complete information. It also ensures messages are consistent and focused within specific channels.

Ability to create, test, track, and improve marketing campaigns

Your business can use the information a CRM collects to create targeted marketing campaigns, test campaigns and different elements of those campaigns (e.g., headings, offers, graphics), and track the results of each campaign. Using a variety of metrics – such as email open rates, new subscribers, and purchases – you can evaluate how each campaign performs and then adjust it to improve results (or cancel campaigns that are clearly not getting results). This will enable you to make the best use of your marketing budget.

Another benefit of CRM software is that you can reuse marketing campaigns that have proved effective in the past. You can use the data and analysis from previous marketing campaigns to demonstrate their success, thereby removing any guesswork about where to spend your marketing dollars. The ability to recycle campaigns, templates, forms, and other marketing materials for new customers and markets will improve the efficiency of your marketing resources.

Tools to support business growth

By using CRM software to collect audience data and learn more about your current customers, you can apply your research to find and communicate with potential customers in existing and new markets. You can also improve customer loyalty by using the information you have collected on your customer base. Small businesses that do not have large marketing budgets can use CRM software to stretch their resources and support business growth. Rather than marketing to large swaths of potential customers, a small business can identify the people who are most likely to buy its products or services and focus marketing resources there.

CRM software can boost marketing campaigns by contextualizing customer data, personalizing marketing materials, and testing new iterations of campaigns to optimize performance.

Choosing the right CRM software for your business

There are many types of CRM software packages, and although they offer a lot of the same features, companies have different needs for their CRM. Ask the following questions to help determine your business’s CRM needs:

Will you use CRM software primarily for marketing, sales, or both? The software you choose might depend on which teams in your organization will need or benefit from customer

What level of complexity does your business require? Some businesses might benefit from using a simpler CRM that they can adjust as they grow.

Which marketing channels do you use to communicate with your audience? It would be ideal to use CRM software that integrates easily with your most widely used marketing channels.

Do you want your CRM software to scale? You will likely find new ways to use the data from your CRM as your business grows, but you might never need some features offered by higher-end software.

The right CRM software for your business depends on your unique circumstances, so make sure to evaluate your business before selecting a system.

03

4 Benefits of Using Social Media to Grow Your Small Business

Business owners’ marketing plans are filled with a wide range of tools and options, but nearly every business can benefit from social media marketing. With so many people using social media, there’s an excellent chance you can reach your target audience and boost sales.

Social media experiences differ by industry and business type and scope, and social media marketing is constantly changing. However, every business stands to gain significant advantages from using social media as a tool for growth. We’ll explore the benefits of social media for business and highlight some mistakes to avoid.  

According to GWI, 59% of the world’s population uses social media, with an average daily usage of 2.5 hours. It makes sense to find your customers where they are and connect with your audience on social media. 

Here are four benefits every business can realize from an effective social media presence. 

1. Social media helps businesses learn about their target audience.

The first and most obvious benefit of social media as a growth tool is identifying your target audience and learning about their needs, thoughts, opinions, desires and experiences. People online are often more receptive to brands and products and willing to discuss their experiences. 

To learn more about your customers and prospects, check out competitors’ social media profiles, and visit groups where people discuss your niche. For example, to create content for your gardening website, find Facebook gardening groups and see what people are discussing. If you notice that most members have similar pain points or questions about growing climate-specific flowers, use that information to help build customer personas and a content marketing strategy. 

Research and collect survey data to learn where your audience hangs out online. Your target audience may spend its time on YouTube, so influencer marketing will help you reach it. If many potential customers like Twitter, create an active Twitter presence where you interact and respond to consumers. 

The more you know about your target audience, the more you can personalize the marketing experience. 

2. Social media helps create personalized advertising. 

Digital advertising is big business. According to Hootsuite, social media will account for a third of all digital advertising spending in 2022. 

As you learn more about potential customers, you can create personalized ad campaigns on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Many consumers want to see products and offers relevant to their lives and experiences. 

There are several ways you can create personalized ads on social media, including the following:

Use retargeting pixels on your website. The first tactic requires retargeting pixels on your website. When consumers come to your site but leave without purchasing, your website drops a browser cookie on the user’s IP address. When they browse social media later, they’ll see personalized ads based on the items in their cart and a discount to sweeten the deal. 

Target ads to consumer interests. Use the data you glean from researching your target customers to create ads personalized for them. For example, if you learned that most customers want tips for repurposing garden tools, you could create an e-book on the topic and offer it as a lead magnet. 

Create a landing page on your website where social media followers will arrive when they click your advertisement. Consider your ads’ scale and frequency before creating your landing page to make the best design decisions. 

To monitor your digital ads’ effectiveness, track key social media metrics like engagement, reach, followers, impressions, views and website traffic.

3. Boost your SEO ranking and improve site engagement via social media.

Boosting your SEO ranking and improving engagement are closely connected. Contrary to popular belief, the number of likes and comments doesn’t directly correlate to your SEO ranking. If that were the case, it would be easy for anyone to game the system and get an undeserved ranking. 

Instead, improving your social media presence can indirectly lead to higher SEO rankings. For example, creating engaging social media posts will encourage consumers to visit your website, positively impacting your SEO ranking. Google wants to know your site is relevant and that users interact with its pages. 

One SEO strategy for encouraging website traffic via social media is promoting a giveaway on your social media channels. This will improve audience engagement on the social platform while encouraging consumers to head to your homepage and browse your content. 

4. Social media helps businesses build social proof.

Social proof is a psychological phenomenon where people are more likely to buy a product if they see other people using and enjoying it. Many businesses add testimonial pages and positive customer reviews to their websites to build social proof. While this tactic is excellent for enticing curious consumers on your site, you can create social proof online through your social media profiles. 

For example, if a customer writes a glowing review of your business and tags you, share it on your profile and thank them for their feedback. When people find your profile, they’ll see what others are saying about your business. 

If your content marketing strategy involves writing guest posts for other publications, share these posts for additional social proof. If someone sees your guest post on a site they already follow and trust, they’ll automatically have confidence in your brand. 

Like all forms of marketing, social media marketing is only as good as its strategy – and the people implementing it. Faulty social strategy or execution can create negative consequences for a brand. Here are some examples. 

1. Social media can backfire when you sell too hard.

Social media users want entertainment, connection, and education; they don’t venture onto their social platforms seeking a hard sell. While they understand businesses must make sales and social media is a sales channel, they expect a more friendly, casual, and low-key approach. 

Limit your promotional posts and share helpful and interesting content. As a rule of thumb, use the 5:3:2 rule for social media, which says that for every 10 posts:

Five should be curated from other sources.

Three should be content you have created.

Two should be personal, fun content that appeals to your target audience.

2. Social media can backfire when you appear fake. 

Authenticity is prized on social media, particularly if you want to build a brand that attracts Gen Z and millennial customers. Followers expect companies to be real with them, admitting when they make a mistake and presenting their human side. 

If your social media account looks too polished – for example, using stock photography and models – your followers will likely abandon or attack you online. 

Show real people in your posts and ads, not models. Include photos and videos of actual employees doing their jobs. 

Create a user-generated content strategy by encouraging social media followers to create and post authentic content about your brand.

3. Social media can backfire when you are deceptive.

The internet is not kind to businesses caught in a lie or deception. When you make a claim, it must be true and backed up by action. 

For example, if you say your business prioritizes customer service, you must display consistent, high-quality customer service via social media as well as phone, web, and email channels. If you say your company has a sustainable business model, be ready to back it up with proof and action. Social media will punish greenwashers, and your claim will cause significant damage.

4. Social media can backfire when you’re out of tune with your audience.

People on social media like to follow brands that express values consistent with their own. Don’t promote values that are out of sync with your target market just to make a point. You will end up alienating them and losing followers. 

If your values differ fundamentally from those of your target market, focus on relatable values. For example, your political views may diverge, but everyone can get behind your commitment to a quality product. 

5. Social media can backfire when your content is low quality.

People use social media to find value – educational, interesting, surprising, funny, entertaining, and helpful information. If your content doesn’t meet these criteria or your graphics and photos are poor quality, followers won’t stick around. 

Before posting anything, ask yourself if it’s something your audience will want to share or comment on – in a positive way.  

There’s no question that every small business should embrace social media as a marketing tactic. Countless people use social media to check out new products, research brands, and eventually make purchases. 

It’s your job to pinpoint your target audience and learn about its pain points and goals. Once you understand whom you’re targeting, start creating personalized ad campaigns for potential customers. Nurture your consumer relationships by sharing comments, replying and interacting with other businesses. Finally, research your analytic data and find new ways to grow your audience and improve sales. 

Thomas Griffin contributed to the reporting and writing in this article.