What Is Local Marketing and What Does a Local Marketing Agency Do?

Table of contents

• Introduction
• What is local marketing?
• Local marketing agency explained
• What is local marketing strategy?
• Local digital marketing explained
• How do I find local customers?
• What does a local marketing agency do
• Conclusion

Introduction

When I relocated to California some years ago, I knew little about the city and my new neighborhood. As I settled well and established myself as a new resident, I had discovered a local marketing agency.

This local marketing agency helped me find the businesses, vendors, and experts I needed in a new city — from a hair salon and gym to a home appliance repairman and locksmith. But this agency couldn’t have helped me discover these folks without these businesses investing in local marketing.

Do you know that 97% of people learn more about a local business online than any other medium? However, 88% of mobile internet searches for local businesses result in either a call or business visit within one day.

To survive in the market, local businesses need to understand that adapting to the modern way of marketing is key.

If you see a plateau or decline in sales. Then, it’s time for you to mix up your marketing techniques and involve the service if an agency. You need them to stay ahead of your competitors and to remain successful in the future.

Your local marketing agency will analyze the latest marketing trends. Recognize the customer buying behavior. And know how to get more money from your existing customers.

Unfortunately, only few local small businesses reach the 10 year mark. The rest fail. I don’t want you to end like that too.

So, if your business caters for a local customer, has many service areas, and has a brick and mortar location. Certainly you need a local marketing agency. In this article, we will break down local marketing and what does a local marketing agency do.

What is local marketing?

Local marketing is becoming more relevant than ever, especially with local stores needing to operate online.

Research has it that “almost half of Google searches showed local intent with a third of customers do check local businesses online every day”.

Then, what is local marketing?

Local marketing is a method that aims potential customers within a particular radius – typically 50 miles, of the physical location of a business. It’s equally known as location-based marketing, neighborhood marketing, or local store marketing.

Local marketing works well for any brand that has a physical brick-and-mortar location, including shops and bars, or any locally-based businesses that travel to a customer’s place, such as plumbers and electricians.

This means local businesses can use a range of outbound and inbound marketing strategies to attract customers, including:

• Inbound: Google My Business, Local SEO, social media marketing, etc.
• Outbound: Display ads, attending local events, community involvement, etc

Local marketing is quite different from global marketing.

Most marketing tip focuses on global (or general) marketing, like a software service. Certainly local businesses don’t need a global reach, they just need to target their community.

One of the potential dangers with local marketing is that if you’re not careful, you can think too big. Making you to waste time and money on the wrong location and customers.

For instance, if you have an acting school located in Ohio, you should target “acting school in Ohio” rather than the generic term “acting school” so that you reach people in your local area.

93% of customers say they won’t travel more than 20 minutes from home to make an everyday buy. So, be sure to direct all your efforts at the right person within a precise particular area.

Why is local marketing more important than ever?

Local marketing is crucial for small and medium-size businesses that do rely on people visiting their physical location to buy goods or access a service. This include shops, dentists, physiotherapists, bars, restaurants, and car dealerships.

Customers rely on referrals and the internet to find these local businesses:

Study shows that 85% of business owners depend on word-of-mouth referrals.
While 90% of custumers have checked the internet to find a local business.
And 33% of customers study local businesses online every day.

The good thing with Google’s search algorithm is that it uses a searcher’s location to display local businesses. Even when the user doesn’t specify a location in their query.

For instance, if you enter a generic term like “tea shop”, the first results that Google displays are the tea shops close to you:

Local marketing agency explained

Local marketing agency is an agency that works with local businesses, using marketing strategy to targets customers within a certain radius of the physical location(s) of their clients’ business. They work with businesses that has at least one brick-and-mortar business location, this applies to both local businesses and chains.

Local marketing agency is a marketing agency you should consider hiring for the growth of your business both online and offline. They can work for any brand that has a physical location, but importantly for locally-based businesses whose primary business happens in-person (versus online, where customers in any location can buy).

The agency allows businesses to hone their resources on a select customer, one that will actually respond to and shop from your digital and print ads.

They understand that the key to successful local marketing is accurately defining your buyer personas. With this process, the agency understand your target audience’s demographic and psychographic information, including their geographic location(s). This location data is helps the business to pinpoint where you can funnel your local marketing energy.

What is local marketing strategy?

Here at Urbizboost, we see local marketing strategy as a marketing strategy that targets customers that live within a certain distance of the business location. This strategy is used to allow businesses market their goods and services to potential customers that live in a certain area, town etc. This is a marketing strategy that is often overlooked by small businesses, because many of them take their marketing cues from larger conglomerates.

There are ways to reach out to customers. Note that not every marketing strategy will work for every business, but these marketing tips will guide you:

Know the customer

The first and most crucial step is to develop a marketing campaign and equally know who your customer is. Is not enough to know the group your ideal customer belongs to. But you should equally have an idea of their ideal interests and what is going to appeal to them. You should equally find out where your customer is. For instance, what social media platforms does your customer spend the most time on?

Target the customer

Now that you know who and where your customer is, then make sure you reach them. Create and design your campaigns around the customer’s interests. Use the exact keywords they’ll be searching for. Make ads that explain how your product or service will solve a problem the customer has.

Get involved in your community

Now, find local events in your area and participate. Volunteer for a cause in your area, and do wear T-shirts with your logo. Donate prizes to competitions and contests that will engage your arwa, and make them want to come back to your business.

Take advantage of local directories

One of the easy way to generate local traffic is to make sure that your business show up in local search results. You can do this by simply listing them on Yelp, Whitepages, Angie’s List and any other local directories.

Gather and post testimonials

Don’t be disappointed when people post negative reviews instead of good ones. But when you see a positive feedback, make sure you share them and also post them on other sites. When you have positive discussions with customers, do encourage those customers to write and share good reviews too.

Use local media

Never you underestimate the power of local media, especially when you are located in a small town. Local newspapers or radio stations or shows can be effective when you’re looking to drive more foot traffic.

Local digital marketing explained

This term local digital marketing is used by local marketing agency to help local businesses reach more customers, increase their revenue, and create new jobs. It aids the business grow significantly and may help a business to be more successful compared to a business that does not have a digital footprint.

Last year showed that businesses that used local digital marketing effectively were up to 3 times more likely in increasing the number of calls they received. Improve their leads, and improve their sales compared to businesses without an online presence.

Study has shown that the top 20% of small businesses that used digital marketing had sourced 43% of their customer base from another region during the last year. This had led to a much larger potential market for the business.

During the last year, small to medium-sized businesses that used local digital marketing were able to see revenue growth that was higher than businesses without an online presence.

However, your local digital marketing strategy should target and appeal to potential customers in your area. To be able to reach your local customers for your business, let’s take a look at some local digital marketing tips below.

• Have a mobile friendly website
• Optimize your site for local search
• Have a clean, professional design
• Include address and hours
• Offer multiple contact methods
• Have a clear call to action
• Regularly post on social media
• But always keep your audience in mind while posting
• Consider social media advertising targeting your area
• Create locally optimized keywords
• Monitor online reviews

How do I find local customers?

Owners of small business are always looking for new customers. People might wander in to check out what you offer in your brick and mortar store. But how will you continue to find new local customers?

Well, let’s study these ideas below:

Network

This may look obvious, but you will indeed be surprised how many owners of small business don’t do this. Probably they may feel uncomfortable networking or don’t even see the benefits. Even if you don’t meet omeone who might interested in your products and services. You can never know who they know. Word of mouth is very powerful and can drive good revenue for your business.

But your time is very valuable. Where you go, depends on who your ideal customer is. Probably you sell to other local businesses, then your local Chamber of Commerce is a good place to start. You’ll understand fully about other businesses in the area and they’ll understand yours. When you promote each other’s businesses, that will be a win-win for the local economy.

When your product or service is industry specific, you may need to spend your time at industry events instead. Before you spend money on sponsorships or getting a table or booth, consider attending an event first. You have to make sure that it will be a good investment for you.

Co-promote

When you create a promotion with a complementary business i.e one who serves similar customers. This can dramatically increase your reach because you will have access to each other’s customers.

Bundle

You should know that everybody loves a good deal. So, the question here; what is that natural thing that someone would want when they buy an item or service? When you already have sales, what do people tend to purchase together?

Optimize

What do you think that people type into a browser to find you? You, an owner of a local business, you need to target the name of your city with your products and services. However, it’s frustrating to look for something and only to find out that it’s located 20 miles away.

Be the expert

When people seen you as an expert or thought leader is extremely important when you’re a service provider. It may get you noticed by your prospective customers and makes you different from your competition.

Nowadays, you and your competitors are competing for attention. What will be the best way to get your message out? You need to decide, but a combination of print, online, and speaking will be very effective, as each strategy supports and magnifies the power of the other.

Well, you can see, none of this is difficult, but it will certainly take time. I recommend you look at your marketing plan and get it very clear about your ideal customer. The clearer you are about who you want target, the decision on where and how to market to them will become easier.

What does a local marketing agency do

Lcal marketing tactics used by a local marketing agency to attract new business from their clients’ local area and surrounding neighborhoods.

They will confirm if your website is mobile-friendly

Probably you aren’t surprised that over half of worldwide internet traffic takes place on mobile devices.

But did you understand that 61% of mobile searchers are likely to contact a local business if their site is mobile-friendly? A mobile-friendly site is crucial in attracting new business, especially local customers.

A mobile-friendly site loads seamlessly when accessed on a mobile device. They always show bigger text, form fields, menus, and buttons, and make it easy to browse site information on the go.

Before a local marketing agency embark on these local marketing strategies. They will first confirm if your website is mobile-friendly.

The agency will localize your website

The agency will localize your website and make your web content relevant to your local customer base. First, they will add location-based terms to your website. For instance, instead of “vegan bakery,” your homepage could read “best vegan bakery in Ohio”.

When your web content is localized, the language will equally be consistent between your website, social media, and digital ads.

Secondly, they will add location pages to your website. Your local marketing agency will do this if you have more than one brick and mortar location. These pages will publish your business name, address, phone number, and other important store information. This they will do because it help you rank on local SERPs.

Claim your local listings on third-party websites and directories

There are many third-party websites, directories, and review sites that show local businesses and educate customers on where to shop. As a local business, your local marketing agency will make sure you don’t miss out on this traffic (both digital and foot).

These sites are relevant for SEO and search intent purposes; for instance, consistency between your name, address, and phone number information. It’s extremely relevant, and these directories will help you establish that online.

The most important listing they will claim for your local business is Google My Business. This will certainly will allow your business information to show up accurately when customers search for your name, industry, products, or all the above.

With this process, you will also equip your customers to start leaving you reviews, which is another critical component of drumming up local business.

Them setting up these listings will legitimized your business’s online presence and improves your search engine rankings.

Local marketing agency invest in local SEO

Local searches lead 50% of your mobile customers to visit your store within 24 hours. But this can’t be possible without local SEO. Local SEO is used optimize your site to rank for locally relevant terms and keywords. The agency can use Google Trends, it’s a helpful tool to identify what terms are popularly used in your location and for your industry.

In addition to localizing your website, they will also create local content. Your agency will you promote local gatherings, neighborhood events, and industry listings from your area. With this type of content, your website will be localized and paint you as a local authority.

Localize your paid advertising

They will use local advertising, it is another powerful way to reach your local customer. Not only will this strategy target specific customers and personas (hint: based on their location), but it equally involves adding important keywords to your ad content.

They will go local on social media

Social media is the quickest and most efficient way of connecting with local and global customers alike. Most social platforms will provide many localization options. This ranges from setting a location in your profile to tagging the location of each post.

They will make use of your local media

Local news consumption is very much alive and well. Customers still trust local media to keep them updated about their communities and neighborhoods, including business and economy related information.

With this, the local marketing agency will engage in radio advertising, they will equally take out an advertisement in the local newspaper or find your way on your town’s morning news show.

Conclusion

As your local marketing agency, Urbizboost is able to provide everything you need for a successful campaign. This includes to develop a strong brand for your website, promotional items, print and digital ads. We will make use of our proven marketing strategies, and then advertise your product or service to customers. This way, you can start converting leads into sales of your own.

That’s what we Do!