You know how competitive things are as bigger companies with bigger budgets try to encroach on your business. But there’s one area where you can always dominate – and that’s your local market.
So how can you win your local battle for business?
The answer comes down to following the three main principles of modern day marketing.
- Find an effective way to get the attention of your audience.
- Convince them that you’re the right business to solve their problems and fulfil their needs.
- Then, and most importantly, build a positive, trusting relationship with them until they are ready to buy from you.
5 great ways to get the attention of my local audience
It’s still the case that most people prefer to deal with a local business, so invest time and energy in making sure that local people know who you are and how to contact you.
Here are some tried and tested tools to use:
- Google Business Profile
This replaced Google Places in 2014. It’s free, so if you haven’t done so already, get listed with Google Business Profile so potential clients, searching online can find you. Do the same with Bing and Yahoo.
- Free Index
Use Free Index to get your business some local reviews. The more positive your reviews are, the higher up the index you go. Also encourage Clients to give you positive Google Reviews.
- Network for referrals
An effective networking strategy will always be a productive way to generate new business locally but as you develop your plan, consider the many benefits of adding a referral element to it.
- Local search engine optimisation
At its most basic, this means including your local operating area in the keywords of all your web pages and page title fields and adding as many relevant back-links (links from other local websites) as possible.
- And don’t forget traditional marketing techniques
Consider sending press releases to local media.
Sponsorship, for example of local sports teams or charities, can also be cost effective.
An example of eye-catching and engaging local sponsorship