HOW TO ADVERTISE YOUR BUSINESS LOCALLY

by Tyler Palmer Treasure 19th Mar 2021

With most aspects of the business world since the technology boom, things are solved by working smart not hard. But why isn’t it the same for advertising yet? Long gone are the days of purchasing huge spaces such as billboards or newspaper full page colour prints. Now without the need to break the budget, it is vital to use savvy marketing techniques and all options that are available that don’t break the budget, options you might not know as of now but will by the end of this:

 

1: Social Media

First and foremost, with the knowledge of who your target audience is, it can be a synch to use social media to market to any niche groups.  Promotion of any news, events or marketing campaigns can be thread through like a needle, connecting and collecting all potential customers in an optimised fashion, as opposed to blanket spreading your brand in an inefficient waste. Here the effects of marketing as opposed to simply getting people to see your brand are most apparent.

 

2. Be ahead of the curb 

The internet can seem too vast a service to find business, especially if you are smaller and confined to a locale. This might be the reasoning behind why a lot of businesses haven’t reaped the benefits of utilizing platforms such as YouTube, Instagram or TikTok in an efficient way. The newest generation of spenders that will be vital to a business’s long-term success begin their spending habits here.  Apps like TikTok are new therefore have a smaller number of brands and less competition than one might face anywhere else. The direct engagement you can get on your ads rather than a small link on a website or a half page ad to be ignored is invaluable. 

 

3. Branded Marketing Channels: Do it yourself

 

Creating your own brand and marketing channel is something every business needs to contemplate seriously. The outrageous benefits of video marketing being listed here:

 

Making sure you have qualitative content; a brand can quickly grow to the point that you are the words on everyone’s lips in your local watering hole. This can be achieved on new age media without having to waste any effort. Not only capable of advertising to your local area but also advertising to those groups of potential customers you have prioritised. 

 

4. Using Local Creators to promote your brands positive image

 

But this can be a hassle, which is why so many businesses that choose to advertise locally using social media are doing so using local influencers to promote. Tik Tok, Instagram and Twitter have droves of popular creators from small cities or that cater to specific groups. With all of them concentrated on a single page, following this person trusting them and listening in a much greater manor than they would with any other form of advertising and tell their friends, co-workers, colleagues about it. See for yourself with creators like YunYun based in Berlin with a high Germany and EU based audience. Collaborating or hiring local creators should be top of the agenda for any small business that wants to run marketing campaigns for specific locations. 

 

5. High Audience Engagement Rate

The key word you will hear over and over when dealing with advertising anywhere online whether it be listings, local directories or social media is ‘user engagement’.  This is built on the fact that not all advertising methods are created equally. Those which yield more clicks for your business, taking a user from a passive viewer, or in some cases ignorer of your advert to an engaged active user, reign supreme. Luckily for you this is calculable through user engagement rates. This has been cultivated and almost perfected by social media apps, using unique algorithms to get as high an engagement rate as possible. Highlighted by TikTok where an advertised video can go viral in a matter of days even if you’re starting from scratch with an account of 0 followers. Utilizing the 90% of potential customers who use the app multiple times in a day to drive home your business and what sets it apart from the others in your local area.

 

 

  • Using a website

Of course, none of this matter if there’s nowhere for these clicks to go, which is why the first step is to have a home base, this is often a website. This should be the place where all roads lead to, it needs to be a clear depiction of what service or products you provide. As well as being user friendly and search engine optimised (SEO).  More specifically a mobile function is vital especially if you’re dealing with generation Z, the largest group of net spenders.  The integration of marketing campaigns with a website and all other social media platforms your business wishes to make use of, is a necessary step as your aim should be to have users one click away from the product or to the website explaining the quality of what you do. 

 

 

  • Different strokes for different folks 

 

Listing your business on as many popular directories is a free way to collect customers who are actively searching for a business such as yours and will be ever so more inclined to use it and spend money. Of course there are directories such as, Google, Bing, Yahoo, LinkedIn but more comprehensive and user oriented directories are found on websites like HubSpot. The more specific the directory is to your business the better, for example if the product is child related KiddyUp would be the place for you. 

 

The old ways are not dead, they’ve just changed faces. It couldn’t be more clear,  than in the method of guest posting. This using the tried and tested networking tool for great results. Using a connection and guest posting on their website, this can be through writing a blog, you can attract some free spending customers. 

 

 

  •  Make blogging a high priority

 

The importance of a blog on your website is 4 fold. Vital to your SEO, it increases the chances of being noticed on the wider internet spaces such as Google, using keywords and phrases to do so. 

Blogs are a key way to have users engaged and informed with all the information you have deemed necessary to turn them into consumers. This is why it is important to have new, quality content that is valuable and engaging for your readers.