How To Turbo Charge Your Local Marketing Strategy In 2018
Local businesses, confined to a specific local area, find it extremely hard to level the playing field when it comes to competing with businesses that are bigger and better than them. That’s understandable- given the fact that the latter has money to splurge on marketing and advertising and the capacity to hog a bigger slice of the marketing pie. However, local businesses need to remember that local marketing strategy operates with a different set of marketing tools that can help them get the outreach and exposure that they need to attract customers. Here’s how they can get going.
For starters, local businesses need to get their personal and online marketing campaigns off to a good start with consumer engagement and greater interaction the precursors to building value and subsequent building of customer relationships. And the best way to do that in the current scenario is to latch on to social media the do-gooder for everyone and everything.
Social Media the ‘Be All And End All’
The power of social media is immense and the best way to get recognized, the best way to engage and interact with prospects and customers and the best way to get a longer outreach is through social media platforms. Facebook, with more than 2.1 billion accounts is perhaps the largest and easiest accessible database for local businesses. Without aggressively promoting their products and services, it helps engage with customers about new products, give them information about what they do and what they have to offer. Social media marketing is the best way to make people aware that local businesses exist and can cater adequately to customer needs.
Research Your Targeted Audience
Once local businesses identify their target audience on social media, they need to identify what engagement platform they prefer. Knowing this is the valuable insight as they can use that platform to interact, engage and attract. In short, instead of wasting time and energy on different social media platforms, they can focus their marketing energies on the ones that matter most to their customers and prospects.Local marketing strategy is as important as your Digital marketing strategy when it comes to making the cash registers ring!
Information Should Be Relevant and Meaningful
Yes, people want information, but local businesses need to remember that social media marketing is different from traditional marketing. Relevant, valuable and insightful information is better than meaningless mumbo-jumbo. When individuals get to hear about a product or service, they would like to be able to talk about it with a real person and discuss the various “whys and hows” with them. So making that possible makes a whale of a difference. The ultimate aim of any campaign is to send a loud, clear message—one that is not lost amidst an ocean of information.
Customer Data Is Important—Manage It Well
Data is important as it tells you more about your customers, your prospects and also helps to evaluate performance and progress. Having all the relevant data in a single location helps analyze and manage data better and make business decisions quickest.
Mobilocracy Is the Word
With the world going mobile, mobile-friendly websites have become the norm and this should be the point of focus- catering to a wider mobile audience with mobile responsive designs, rather than confining only to ensuring that the sites are desktop or laptop friendly. This is especially useful to local businesses that are working on a shoestring budget but want an effective solution that has a greater outreach. Customers are happy and so is the mighty search engine Google.
Create Campaigns That Pay Back
Initially at least, pay per click services and the like help local businesses to be up and running and gives them the start they need to kick start into ‘aggressive mode’. Of course, conversions may not be forthcoming, but at least greater website awareness is created, which in the long run could well translate into sales.
Work towards Building an Online Reputation
The importance of building trust and credibility online cannot be emphasized enough this is the pivot around which local businesses should revolve. The natural tendency of human beings is to look at reviews of a product or service that they want to buy or use. So do give users a place to voice their approval or dissent. Bad reviews are as important as good ones in the sense, it tells businesses what they lack and what they need to do to improve.
Embrace E-Commerce
Technology is fast changing the business landscape and local businesses, clinging on to old monetary systems, need to take the plunge the sooner the better. E-commerce helps them to reach out to new markets, be available throughout the year, enhance the chances of new sales channels and makes them more competitive.
Keep Your Marketing Message Clear and Simple
Businesses, as a rule, big or small, want to sell and enhance revenue regardless of their size, one thing should always prevail. The bottom line, however, must be to catch the attention of the customer and sustain their interest- just let customers know what you have to offer, where they can get it and why you think it should be good for them.
Optimize Use of Marketing Tools and Resources
Marketing in 2018 is not going to be easy and the sooner that local businesses realize that ‘what works for another, needn’t work for them’, the better it is. There are hundreds of tools and resources out there just for the asking, but optimizing their potential is the real key. They require a local marketing strategy that is ‘unique to them.
Conclusion
Remember, simplifying strategies doesn’t necessarily make them easier or less time-consuming- it helps clear the maze and haze that local businesses always experience and gives them a clearer roadmap for the future. One may safely initiate a few of the strategies discussed above into marketing and earn the desired results. After all, you may need a unique strategy to work for you and adapting it to your model of operation would be a better option than just going with the flow!
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