Popularity and scope of e-Business have increased dramatically over the last few years. However, for online entrepreneurs, it’s always a challenge to grab the attention of potential customers.
To spread your online business arena widely you must build a strong marketing strategy regarding how to promote your business locally. Also, you should recognize your buyer persona and analyze the latest marketing trends carefully to increase the revenue of your online business.
However, it’s better to scream your brand voice in a crowd rather than in the space.
Today we will discuss powerful tactics to promote your online business locally.
Advantage of Local Promotion: Is it Really Important for Your Online Business
Do you know? According to Google, 46% of searches have a ‘local intent’.
Around 80% of 490 million Smartphone users use their mobile to purchase any local service in a day.
That is the reason, Google emphasizes more on local search methodology.
Therefore, as an online business owner, you cant avoid the local promotional activities.
In this modern age, the main challenge of local business is losing investment and customers quickly. It indicates the gap in your marketing strategies that keeps you behind the race.
Due to lack of proper marketing, around 33% of small business cannot cross 10 years fence.
Being successful, you must stay ahead of the race by knowing your customer behavior. However, only the old traditional strategies might not effective in the digital era.
Therefore, we have listed the top 23 marketing strategies to promote your online business locally.
23 Proven Strategy To Promote Your Online Business Locally
No matter which type of business you hold, if the targeted audience of your business includes the local community you must go through a planned local promotional scheme to get more loyal consumers.
Here, you will learn how to serve your community, get them engaged in your sales funnel and finally make them advisor of your business.
Technical Methodology for Local Exposure
The latest advancement of technology lets you do things more smoothly than before.
Local SEO: Things You Should Consider
Local SEO referred to as Local Search Engine Optimization.
It is the most powerful element that helps to grow every small or multi-location company and generate more leads.
As we mentioned above, around 43% of total Google search has a local intention. So, if you do not optimize your website with local SEO trick, you will lose potential customers eventually.
Local SEO allows you to reach the customers with minor effort. You need to optimize your business site with effective local keywords that local people will use to find out the services or products you are selling.
In addition, you have to optimize GMB page, Social media, Business listing, Link Building, On-page Optimization, and others
Experts have observed a maximum of 250% growth in local business once the business owner applies local SEO successfully.
Optimize your Google My Business listing
Most of the consumers start their searching for a particular product or service on Google.
They want a quick and effective suggestion.
In order to amplify visitors satisfaction Google has updated its algorithm targeting the geographical area. To make the visibility of your business better in Google Map and Google search the most secure and best place to start is Google My Business page.
It states that last year, 97% of consumers searched the Internet for a local business.
Moreover at an average online consumer read 10 reviews before trusting on any brand.
So, as an online business owner, you must enlist your business on Google My Business page with all the basic information and images of your business.
In addition, it will allow your customers to add reviews and photos for others. Therefore, it is an effective way to secure your place in the Google-3pack and gain more consumers for your business.
Hence, create and claim your Google My Business listing asap!
Local Web Citations and Directory Listings
Listing a business or website on local business directories works as an important ranking factor in Google.
A lot of people search on the local directory in need of local services like painters, pest control, plumbers, cleaning agencies, etc. So, it is important to claim your business on directories and update your business information to assist your consumers to find your business.
Study says clients using consumer online review sites often visit Yelp before making a purchase on online.
Source: Yelp.com
Therefore, find some local directories that will work for your business and update your business information there.
After that, ask for reviews from your customers. Having positive reviews on these sites will work like a magnet to attract more loyal consumers towards your business.
Increase Your Social Media Presence
Social media is a boon for an online business to get the crowd of potential consumers.
You can join a local group related to your business and share your latest offers. It will aware your local customers about your business and brand recognition. In addition, you can create your own social media page, where you can update the latest offers and participate with customers in instant discussion and QA session.
Besides participating in a discussion, you can also ask the real buyer to review your business. You can also offer some benefits in return for these reviews.
In this way, social media presence increase your customer acquisition, retention, and brand recognition.
The best guide for online entrepreneurs to Boost eCommerce Sales with Instagram.
Make Your Site Multilingual With Local Language
Usually, people get more comfortable with the sites in their native language.
So, it will be a great way to interact with your local visitors in their own language.
Common Sense Advisory surveyed 2,430 web consumers in eight countries to learn about how language affected their purchasing behaviors. They found that:
- 72.1% of consumers spend most or all of their time on websites in their own language.
- 72.4% of consumers said they would be more likely to buy a product with information in their own language.
- 56.2% of consumers said that the ability to obtain information in their own language is more important than price.
Therefore, there is a high chance to convert the visitors into your permanent customers if you offer your products and services in the local language.
Also, in order to expand your business in the global market, you can make your site multilingual based on your target audience preferred language.
Start Blogging
Blogging can be the secret weapon to increase your visibility on the search engine. It states that almost 47% of clicks go to the top three positions of Google and blogging is an effective way to get a higher rank in Google’s SERP.
Therefore, if you want to include your business into Google’s top position, you can start writing articles explaining your business type or service quality.
Nowadays, people love to read details reviews about the products or services they intend to buy. Through blogging, you can drive traffic to your business site, spread your brand voice and eventually make them convinced to be your next client
Hence, local SEO is about consistent online promotion activities and blogging is a smart way to do so.
Are you the owner of a start-up company? Go through this article to boost your reach.
Identify & Nurture local Advocates
In order to promote your online business locally, you need to create a strong bond with your local community.
Join a Local Group
Local business owners should stay connected with local residents and other local business owners.
It is an effective way to tell people about your brand.
Regular chit chat and sharing views with people will help you to realize their requirements and build up your strategy to promote your business. You can tie up with other business owners to spread your business and offer more facilities to your consumers.
Also, there is a fair chance to get loyal clients from these local groups. Eventually, you can establish a local community around your business that will span your brand voice loudly.
It will take time but surely pays off.
Give back to the community
You can grab the attention of your locality sponsoring small events like small events, school programs, cultural or religious programs.
Moreover, you can do some charity events to help others. It will satisfy your humanity as well as leave a good impact on people’s mind.
Therefore, tell your surroundings that you care about them and let them know what your company is doing to benefit a cause.
Also, you can build a network with other businesses involved in the same charity by donating your time and money. It will increase customers awareness and sale.
By participating in a local charity you can contribute directly to your community.
Hence, you will get huge support from your local consumes that they will not even hesitate to switch their brands and become your loyal advisors.
Run Contests
It’s an exciting way to tell people about your business.
It doesn’t matter which type of business you have if you want to create a curiosity regarding your brand locally it’s very effective to arrange any entertaining games or contests for your target audience. Most amazingly, you can do it online or offline. Both hold different but strong capability to increase clients for your business.
For instance, you are running an online tutorial website for school students.
You can arrange a quiz contest for your local school students and make them informed about your online tutorials.
However, you may own a global business but still, you can use this strategy to promote your business locally. An online contest can be conducted to get extensive exposure on social media.
It will involve your customers more into your brands. In return, you can offer some exciting gifts or discounts for them. Also, it will raise interest among your target audience regarding your business.
Therefore, you will get a high chance to convert them into loyal customers by serving them with the best.
Implement a Customer Loyalty Program
It’s a kind of awarding your existing customers in return for their consistency with your brand. Most amazingly with this marketing tactic, you can increase business revenue without having new customers.
Like, you can offer discounts to the customers on 5th purchase, more discounts on 10th purchase from your online site.
The main focus of your loyalty program will be:
- increasing purchase frequency
- increasing the average purchase amount
Returning Customers Spend 67% More Than New Customers – Keep Your Customers Coming Back with a Recurring Revenue Sales Model
business.com
Therefore, you should make your consumers returning to your site and encourage spending more money.
Offer Discounts
To increase your sale and push your customers to your brand you can offer online coupons and tempting discounts. However, you may think it will decrease your brand value and lower the profit.
Well, there is a thin line between an effective discount policy and unnecessary or not personalized discounts. You need to set up your discount strategy according to your brand value and customer requirements.
Make a profitable deal on special occasions to grab more traffic on your site and increase business revenue. It will definitely maximize your profit margin and bring extensive sale within a short time period.
As an example, if you run an online beauty shop you can offer a free trendy makeover after purchasing a certain amount from your eShop.
It will definitely increase your sale if you serve your consumers with quality products.
Collaborate with a Local Influencer
If you want to boost your community-building program to an advanced level, collaboration with a local influencer is a superb but a bit expensive way.
Usually, influencers have a large number of fan followers in society.
You can pay these people to promote your online business to their social channels and upgrade your reach to an extreme level. Also, they can spread your brand voice through other offline activities like meetings, social gatherings, referring, etc.
To do so you may cost some dimes or offer some tempting deals to the influencer. This method is inexpensive but you can easily reach your target clients’ quickly.
Besides, having good business, their recommendation adds value to your business in that locality.
Start a Customer Referral Package
You need less effort to get new customers if you start a customer referral package. Your existing customers will do the hard work for you in exchange for a beneficial deal.
Besides, making the new customer for your business, the referral program helps to retain your old customers too.
For a referral, you can offer some bonus to both parties.
You can influence the existing customer to refer your business and retain them by giving some extra advantages. Moreover, you should offer some exciting deals to your new customers to make them advisor for your business.
Hence, if the new customer becomes happy with your business they will become a loyal customer and refer to others.
As a result, there will be a chain of customer acquisition and retention.
Email to Subscribers regarding new Offers
Although the email marketing is not a new concept, still it can influence a lot in customers buying process as long it is direct marketing from the seller to the buyer.
Various research accepts the facct that around 81% of local business owners find email marketing is effective to retain their customers.
According to digital marketer, 80% email marketing campaign ends with successful results.
Besides, being extremely profitable, you cannot get a massive response without having subscribers. Therefore, you must focus on the subscriber list and nourish them regularly.
However, email marketing gives a great ROI of up to 77% if it has a specific target.
Latest Digital Tactics How to Promote Your Business Locally
There are some advanced digital schemes to accelerate the promotional activities for your online business.
Introduce a Mobile App for Your Business
Regardless know the type of your online business, I can guarantee a huge percentage of your customers are using Smartphone.
If the investment is not an issue, you can think of introducing a mobile app because people spend maximum time on mobile by using apps.
Many research works conclude with accepting that around 63% of customers prefer apps compared with site browsing.
Around 57% of total users like using apps as it is faster than the site.
For the recent time, it may be less important but it is an investment for the future of your local business. You can use the mobile apps in the loyalty or referral package and increase the subscriber list as well.
Turn on Google Alert
Google Alert helps you to know the gossip about your local business instantly. You will get an email notification if there is something published about your local business on the web.
Regardless of the positive or negative review, you can take suitable action accordingly.
For example, someone writes a negative review of your business, you can attain it and take proper steps instantly rather than knowing it may be a week later.
Sometimes the negative reviews can be a scope of improvement for the future. Again, you can share the positive reviews to your social channel and website, while someone writes positive elements regarding your services or products.
Ask Online Review and Use as Reference
It is a great way to ask for a review from your customers, which acts as a reference for the local business. Positive review often boosts your business instantly while negative review allows you to improve in the future.
You can offer an incentive or discount in return for a review.
Customer review page on the website is a good option to know what people think about you and your service. Social media page like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, etc. also can be a great way to interact with your reviewers.
Here, you can communicate with your customers directly and ask for their review. You can post positive reviews as a reference on your social pages to influence other customers.
Paid Ads For Local Business Improvement
If you need the quickest result from the web, the paid ads are the simplest solution. You can reach at the top of Google or Social Search through paid ads.
You can advertise your local business using various type of ads like display ads, search ads, and social ads, etc. For a local business, the search ads are most effective in dragging customers to your website.
At first, you have to pick some buying keywords for your business and start a paid ad campaign.
Once you win the bidding, your website will appear at the top of the search for those targeted keywords.
Become an Influencer in Forum
You can also sign up your business-related forums for rising your business reputation and brand recognition.
Forum is a common online platform for people who share the same values.
You can participate in the discussion of these groups to share your views and get introduced with them. Around 300 million Forums are offering the business owners to generate a high volume of leads from the discussion.
You can create important content as a forum post, Q&A, and discussion.
Moreover, you can share your website link as a referral in these forums post. It will drag the visitor to your website through the link and create brand recognition in the forum.
If you regularly help people by doing such things, you will become an influencer on the web to whom people can trust.
Traditional Strategies to Spread Your Online Business Locally
Some old marketing tricks and methods are still workable for promoting your business locally. Let’s have a look!
Focus on your Clients’ Service
Great Client Service is necessary to keep clients happy and bring new clients through a reference.
People often search for real clients reviews before going to purchase from a local business. They also ask their friend and relatives for recommendation around the locality.
If you provide good customer service, you will get continuously new clients from your old or regular buyers. You must be good at client handling, to make your consumers work as your advisor.
Besides customer acquisition, great customer service brings new clients to your business and generate more revenue.
Create a Buzz for your Business
Buzz marketing is a viral marketing technique to spread particular news rapidly.
You can use this approach to create excitement among the users or customers about a particular product, service, brand or your business. Besides having customer retention, you will get customer acquisition from buzz marketing.
It will create hype about your business in the consumers.
As a result, people will start spreading your business and drive more revenue towards you. However, once you get the customers, you should have the potential to retain them.
Press Release to Influence Business Growth
The press release is a traditional technique but still has a genuine impact on a local business. Therefore, you can use it in different ways to influence your online business.
Firstly you can find out the reporters or blogger who write in your business category. Then, email them enclosing the press release. If they are happy with your content, they can make a good review of your business.
It will give your business a huge local exposure.
You can also optimize the press release with the target keywords and publish it on the web. Also, you can use Press Release distribution service.
In this way, you can arrange an online web portal coverage for your business
The entire events bring publicity and brand awareness for your local business.
Create a Joint Venture Network
The joint venture enables the business to grow rapidly. It helps to expand the business to a new horizon.
Joint venture with local or global giants increases your business capacity. It also shares risks and cost with the allies that increase the profit.
You may get financer and more skilled staff for your business.
Also, you will get access to the partners’ customers instantly, which can be a big burst for your business.
Therefore, you can use various marketing tools to attract your partner companies customers by offering additional benefits; email the latest offers, quick services, etc.
You can do a partnership with the local business owners who offer subsidiary products related to your business. In this way, you can increase your customer satisfaction level offering a wide range of products or services they need.
Suppose you have an online laptop shop. Usually, laptop users require some other essential elements like Cooling Pads, screen and keyboard protector etc. If you don’t sell these items you can collaborate with other business owners who sell these products and make some good deals for your clients
The entire event will bring huge revenue to your online business.
Final Words
Congratulation! You have made this so far.
Now you have all the required tips and tricks to foster your online business with local marketing strategies.
It does not matter if you run a small local business or a big multinational company, Local Marketing is a great way to gain clients from your surroundings.
Furthermore, successful Local Marketing attracts new users as well as increases the number of repeat customers for your online business site.
Now, you can set up your online business and follow our top business marketing tips to promote your business locally.
An enjoyable article to read, with some fantastic ideas on how to promote your business. I believe social media is an amazing platform to share details about your business and begin to grow online. Blogging can also be helpful as this gives you the opportunity to show who you are a business.
An extra way to get your brand out there is to attend local tradeshows and events, some of which can be free. Take a roller banner with your services and products listed and use the time to build new relationships and contacts.
I really enjoyed this article. How to analyse the marketing trends in the presant market?How to create more community in online?can you give me any suggestions for that?