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7 Local Marketing Strategies for SME Businesses

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Last editedMar 20222 min read

For many small to medium businesses, marketing strategy is best directed at a local audience. In this post we’ll define what’s meant by the term local marketing, as well as outline some local marketing tips for small businesses.

What is local marketing?

Local marketing is directed at an audience — or market — based in the same region or locality as a business. It therefore targets individuals within a certain radius of a business’ geographical location — typically a reasonable driving distance — with the idea of attracting customers who can feasibly make the trip to your store or business front.

7 local small business marketing tips

1. Optimize your website

Optimizing your website, especially optimizing it for local consumers, can generate significantly more traffic. Beyond ensuring the basic appearance of your site is attractive to customers, using search engine optimization (SEO) can help bring users onto the page.

To optimize the site on a local level, you should use keywords and phrases based on local SEO. Google Analytics and other tools allow you to see relevant keywords and searches in your area.

As well as key words, title tags and meta descriptions also play a key role in SEO. Having a title tag that is relevant, informative and under 60 characters is optimal. With the meta description, including keywords and pertinent information can also help the site rank higher in search engine results.

2. Create a local landing page for each of your business locations.

If your business is more medium sized and has several locations, consider setting up an individualized landing page for each location. This will help search engines rank your website higher in each location.

3. Utilize Google My Business listing

A very effective local marketing strategy is claiming your Google My Business Listing. This is the box that appears one the right with company name, contact information, website and opening hours whenever you google a business.

It’s not just your website that should be optimized and localized, but your social media pages too. This includes keeping information like a business location, contact details and opening times up to date. It also involves maintaining an active presence on your social media pages and posting frequently.

5. Get customers to leave reviews and feedback online

Part of your local marketing strategy should be encouraging happy customers to leave positive reviews and post feedback online. This could be on Facebook, Yelp or Google Reviews. New customers will likely check out any reviews first, and a series of positive reviews is always a promising sign that can attract more customers.

It’s also important that you engage with the reviews you receive, leaving a reply with a personal touch. This helps customers feel connected and heard, which can boost customer loyalty and lead to an increase in word-of-mouth marketing.

6. Get involved in local community events

While digital marketing is a powerful force, nothing beats real-world brand visibility. Through hosting or sponsoring a local event, members of your community will grow to recognize your brand and become aware of your business. You may even attract some local press coverage which will increase the likelihood of you being found online by your local audience.

7. Partner with other local businesses

Partnering with other local businesses can be a great way to boost your marketing reach. Ideally, partnerships are formed between businesses with similar principles and ideals. For instance, a local fish restaurant would be well-suited to partnering with a local fishing company.

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