Optimizing your marketing for your local audience

Coming up with a marketing strategy for a service or product that’s tied to a local market can seem difficult, but it gives you an opportunity to optimize and hone in on your tactics. Here are a few tips to help your optimize your marketing strategies for your local audience base so you can focus in on qualified customers.

Set up your business on Google My Business.
As a local business, you have some leverage over national businesses when it comes to Google searches. And as we all know, organic searches can be a big, and profitable, source of business for companies. If you Google an industry keyword, let’s say flowers as an example, you’ll see paid advertisements pop up on the first few rows of the Google search. Right below that, however, before a consumer can even get to the organic searches, you’ll see a list of local businesses that provide flower services in the searcher’s immediate area. It even comes up with a Google map win pins showing exactly where these businesses are. This is a feature that is only provided to local businesses, and a great way for you to leverage Google’s tools to begin a solid SEO strategy for your local business.

Get familiar with your local media outlets.
Your regional newspaper, zip-code specific magazines in the region, local bloggers and TV stations are all resources for you as a local business owner. Regional media outlets are keenly interested in the updates and news stories within the region they cover. Plus, without all the noise from other companies reaching out to journalists at national publications, you have a better chance of converting a press release into a published story on these local outlets. Even if you provide services at a national level but are based in a specific region, those local media outlets will be interested in a business that’s based in their region. Send them relevant press releases for opportunities for coverage, and make sure your announcement is newsworthy to the local audience by focusing on your company’s local ties to the area. Additionally, distributing your release on NewswireGenius will get it placed on news websites that journalists in your area may be monitoring for stories to cover/write about.

Connect with your community.
Most local businesses depend on their community’s support and patronage to keep their business thriving, and due to the importance of that relationship, most businesses give back to the community in one way or another. Whether that’s a donation to the local schools or freebies during town hall meetings, a lot of businesses are willing to give to their communities as a way to thank them for their support. While there’s nothing wrong with giving out of appreciation, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be leveraging those donations to optimize your marketing strategies. Community involvement and donations are great hooks for local journalists, so if there’s a big opportunity that you’re involved in, you should include that information in your press release and make sure the local media outlets are aware. If you know media or influential individuals within the community will be at an event you’re donating to, make sure you ask for signage around your products for a great advertising opportunity.

Get focused on your advertising.
If you’re setting aside budget for advertising in your local media outlets, you want to make sure you’re choosing the best outlet for the optimal reach to potential clients. While number of reach is an important factor to consider, quality is also absolutely something you should look at to put your marketing dollars to good use. If you have an online presence, you can look at Google Analytics data to see what types of customers are using your business, and match that up to the media consumer demographic. You can also take a simple survey of the customers who come to your business to see their media consumption habits. This will help direct your decision making on which outlets to focus on. Just because you’re blasting your company news to a larger number of people does not mean it will bring customers through the door. You want your marketing efforts to match the types of customers you want to bring in so you’re getting qualified leads.

Encourage positive reviews from customers.
Your customers can be your best marketing tool. Many customers today will Yelp or Google a local service before frequenting it to ensure they’re going to a place with good reviews. Encourage your current customers to write positive reviews about your business to get your name out locally. You can also consider paid advertising on Yelp or Google platforms to get your name high up on the results and build awareness about your business.

You should study and understand your customers and local market to leverage all your marketing tools in the best way possible. This will ensure your marketing dollars and efforts are optimized to ultimately provide you with the sales you’re looking to accomplish.