Start Marketing In Your Own Backyard

With all the emphasis on the global market, and the marketing tactics that go with it, a lot of small, localised business owners can find themselves feeling a little lost. Fortunately, there are still a range of modern, effective ways that businesses can connect with the local community. Here are some of our best pointers for marketing your modern business a little closer to home.

Get Reviewed

When people are searching for a product or service in their local area, it’s now almost guaranteed that they’ll follow up by looking for some kind of review. As long as it seems to be impartial, a review by an individual can be significantly more convincing than the best marketing content ever composed. You should be making a point to get your company up on all the most popular review sites – Yelp, Consumer Reports, Amazon, and even things like Trip Advisor if it’s appropriate. After that, you should also make time for managing your presence on these sites, making sure that all the public information is accurate and up-to-date, and handling any kind of negative press in a healthy, open way. Including “review us” links on your site, or offering incentives for honest reviews on social media, will speed the process up greatly.

Localize Your SEO

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A lot of people associate SEO with businesses that have a large, global reach. However, there are still a range of SEO tactics which can be used to strengthen your brand in a single, concentrated area. If you can optimize your website for searches like “dressmakers near me” or “graphic designers in LA”, you’ll instantly increase your rapport with your target market in your local vicinity. You’ll also make your marketing a lot simpler, as you’ll only have to worry about ranking over your competitors in your immediate locality, rather than ones spread all over the world! While local SEO services have gained a lot of business for a lot of entrepreneurs, many business owners manage to neglect the whole technique, due to one common misconception. Remember that your business doesn’t have to be based in one or two geographic locations to reap the advantages of local SEO techniques. Even national and multi-national companies can benefit hugely from it!

Work with Complementary Companies

This can be an especially useful tactic in your early stages, or when you’re starting a business in a particularly small community. As long as it’s practical, and doesn’t give anything to your competitors, you should try to find a complementary company in the local area, and set up some kind of marketing deal with them. If you were running a content marketing service, for example, and there was a graphic designer in the same area, you might want to reach out to them and propose some kind of referral deal. This is just one of the many mutually beneficial partnerships you can set up between two local businesses. Recommendations and coupons can go a long way, and as long as both businesses are pulling their weight these deals can last for years!

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