Is marketing to clients in a specific place dead? With a growing focus on scaling your business to go national or international, what does that mean for local businesses? Actually, at a time when everybody else seems to be focusing on the national or international level, it seems like there’s a lot of opportunities for local businesses. This article is going to give you the five marketing strategies especially designed for local businesses.

Local SEO

The number one strategy for local businesses is local SEO. With over 1.8 billion websites out there, it is getting harder and harder for local businesses to rank for simple keywords. But is SEO a total waste of time for local businesses? Absolutely not. One strategy that is still super effective is local SEO. So what does that mean? Local SEO is basically working on a keyword for a very specific geographical area, for example, “chiropractor in Delray Beach” or “Cheap Virginia Solar.” Instead of competing with tens of thousands of chiropractors in the US for the word chiropractor and back pain, local SEO focuses only on chiropractor in Buffalo, New York, or back pain expert in Houston, Texas. Truth be told, if you are chiropractor in Miami, why do you care that someone found your website in Houston, Texas? They’re never going to drive to your location. They need someone that is close to them. With local SEO, you’re going to get results where it counts; in your backyard.

Local Business Development

This is a timeless marketing strategy. By creating added value relationships with other local businesses, you’re able to tap into a new customer base and expand your reach. So continuing with the example of the chiropractor, what you could do is develop a relationship with all the local gyms in your area. The gym is where people are most likely to hurt their back or their neck. What a better place for you to have your business card or a flyer posted than in each of the gyms in your local town? And you can reciprocate with the gym by having their flyer offering a 10% discount to all your chiropractor customer base. Basically, it’s a win-win proposition. The point is both of your businesses are targeting the same type of customers, yet you’re not competing with one another. By working together, you are now both able to grow your customers’ base without walking on each other’s toes.

Localized Focused Facebook Ads

Facebook ads is an extremely effective way to market your products and services because of the local geographical targeting options. In fact, you can even target people by their zip code. You can then refine that by a group, the kind of cars they drive and even the kind of money they make. This is especially useful for businesses catering to tourists, because even if someone is from out of town, Facebook knows where they are. That’s because everyone has GPS tracking software on their phone and, well, Facebook knows where you are. Remember you checked into a restaurant last night in Miami? Yeah, Facebook knows that now. The good news for you is that people in town, even for the weekend, will be able to see your ads.

Public Speaking

Speaking at local events and local meetups is a great way for you to establish yourself as a leader in your community for your industry. Think about the information you could share with the general public out there that would make a difference for them. Then, find local meetups or local chambers of commerce and offer your services to speak. You’d be surprised how many organizations are looking for local speakers, and if you can find a relevant group in your area that shouldn’t stop you, creating a local meet up in your area has never been easier than it is today. 

Have a Facebook Group

There are many examples of Facebook groups that are catering to people with a shared interest in your local area. Making a local Facebook group with a shared interest around your industry is a great way to attract a whole bunch of people that may have not heard from you before. However, keep in mind that it’s really about the shared value, and it’s not a place to overly promote your products and services. If you do that, it will fail. Just engage, communicate and connect. 

Always remember the golden rules with Facebook groups. Don’t allow self-promotion or allow anyone from being nasty to one another. Take them out immediately. You need to create a group where people feel safe to share and engage. So, what local Facebook group do you belong to? 

Aim for Repeat Customers

Overnight success in business takes about 10 to 15 years, but any strategy takes time, trial and error. So if any of those strategies don’t work for you within the first week, remember to be patient. It will just take a little bit of dedication, persistence and patience. You might think that local marketing is used primarily by small businesses, and may only have a single location or outlet. But, sometimes franchised businesses also may employ local marketing. There’s a McDonalds that does sponsor local sports events. This type of marketing promotes its specific location in order to develop a repeat customer base in the immediate vicinity of the business location. 

The strategy is to build an awareness of the company in the local area. How do they do it? TV advertising would be too expensive and inappropriate. Some examples of common local marketing include local newspaper, print ads, featuring coupons or upcoming sales. They could also sponsor community affairs and social gatherings. There’s also local ad space, such as bus stops or other outdoor billboards. Finally, any entrepreneur can use a direct marketing approach, using simple direct sales letter.

Repeat business is a real cash cow. Local marketing to customers who like to shop near their homes is very smart. It saves them time and is more convenient. Therefore harnessing repeat business is really important for startups doing local marketing campaigns. If you follow those five tactics, experts guarantee that your business is going to grow.