Brought to you by Business Warrior:
Do you want to attract more local customers to your business but you don’t know where you should start? The first step is to define local marketing.
Local marketing tends to focus on customers who live in the same locality as your business. This marketing method is normally overlooked by small business owners.
Getting local customers is important for any business whether it’s a startup or it’s been in existence for a long time. No matter how great your services or products are, without any interested customers, you won’t fare well against your competitors. For a small business owner, if you lack effective marketing for your products, it will be hard for you to attract more customers.
Business owners should learn new marketing strategies for small businesses, like successfully using buyer personas. This helps you understand different types of people and how they react to various products and services within your locality.
There are many tips about the best ways to attract local customers. The four tips discussed below have been proven to be the best by business owners. You might not use all of them, but they’re be helpful for businesses – both online and offline stores.
Tips that Help You Attract More Local Customers
1. Set up a Free Listing with Google
Each day, people turn to Google to look up an answer to a question, discover a new place to visit, find solutions to their problems, and look for products to buy. Every new search presents an opportunity for businesses to grow by filling the need of that customer. To add your business to Google listings, include the following:
- Business name
- Business category
- Address
- Hours (open/close)
- Website link
- Photos
- Directions to the shop
2. Participate in Community Events
Most people like to support local businesses. Therefore, it makes business sense for an entrepreneur to build and connect with the local community.
This ranges from participating in local fundraising events and organizations (e.g., joining the local Rotary International chapter), sponsoring local sports teams, and sponsoring local community events, such as the local fun run. This helps raise the business’s profile and attract more customers from the locale.
3. Build/Update Your Website
A website is a digital address for your business that you can leverage to show your business to the right audience in relevant searches. You can set up Google Alerts to ensure you get notified anytime prospects mention your business and provide instant feedback when it’s required.
To optimize your website’s visibility, review your search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO) tactics and ensure your website is mobile-friendly. This helps prospects find you faster. Also, leverage online ratings and review sites to increase social proof and attract more customers.
4. Offer Discounts and Promotions
Well-timed discounts and offers lure customers to your business and increase the likelihood of conversion depending on where they are in the buyer journey.
Deals can attract prospects who’ve been considering doing business with you while making current customers loyal ambassadors of your brand. To optimize the impact of these activities, measure what was bought and what offers were redeemed to inform future promotions.
Conclusion
Attracting local customers ensures growth for an enterprise through the community goodwill associated with its involvement in the area. Businesses have to ensure they create specific marketing messages curated for the buyer persona from the business locale.
Once a business builds social proof with the local residents, growth becomes easy by leveraging existing formal and informal business networks. The key is to offer exceptional customer service to satisfy customer needs and keep a positive conversation going about the business both offline and online.
