4 Easy Local Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

These days, business owners are getting bombarded left and right with the latest marketing trends and techniques. In this climate, it can become easy to get caught up in the mix without an effective strategy.

Blindly investing in marketing can have a negative effect on your profit margins, and many business owners end up spending more than they can afford in a desperate attempt to push their businesses to the forefront of their industry. However, there are some simple techniques business owners can use to make the most out of their local marketing efforts. Here are a few of them.

Facebook Advertising

Social networking has taken the marketing world by storm. In today's technologically driven environment, it is imperative that your organisation is visible on the social networking platform. Facebook is a cheap and effective method of marketing your business to your target audience.

Reviews and Review Websites

According to a study conducted by BrightLocal, 88 percent of consumers place the same level of trust in online reviews as they do in personal recommendations. Get your product information indexed on major review websites and then make sure that you are continuously monitoring those sites. Ensure that your information is continuously updated and that you handle any negative reviews with dignity.

You can start by putting a “review us” link on your homepage, and asking your loyal customers to post reviews on their experiences. Google and consumers like to see a solid track record of positive customer reviews; as you grow in this area you will begin to see an increase in your profit margins.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

One of the strategies used to get your website to rank at the top of Google's search pages is through search engine optimisation. There are several ways in which this can be achieved. To start, you should have local accounts on all of the major search engines such as Bing, Yahoo and Google.

Second, in order to effectively reach your target audience, and your local area, you must utilise the right keywords. For example, let’s say you own a bakery in Cambridge and you want to improve your SEO Cambridge results. When people look for your website, they will usually search something like "The best bakery in Cambridge" or “good bakery in Cambridge”. These are the types of keywords you should be aiming for.

Any search query involving a locality will be viewed as a local search and local listings are prioritised by Google and placed at the top of the search engine results page. When you are only dealing with the competition in your area, it is easier to reach your target audience because you are not dealing with as many competitors. This SEO expert's tips for success shows you how you can build your brand using search engine optimisation.

Create Instructional Videos

Video content is currently one of the best marketing strategies. As a small business with limited capital, you can hire film production students to create YouTube video content. If your budget won't allow you to hire anyone, you can also do it yourself. You will find plenty of video tutorials which will instruct you on how to shoot a professional looking video using an iPhone.

Final Thoughts

Marketing is one of the most important elements for any business. If you are a small company that can't afford the services of a bespoke marketing firm, we definitely encourage you to implement some of the suggested strategies in this article to take your local marketing efforts to the next level.