How to Advertise a Small Business Locally- How do you advertise a small business locally? Small businesses are all over the world. Even with local search engine optimization, it’s very hard to be noticed on the World Wide Web these days. You can’t just set up your website and keep your fingers crossed for someone finding it, but you do have options using advertising to put yourself in front of people who may be interested in what you have to offer. One of the best ways to advertise is locally.
To start any new business it is always best to evaluate the local competition and then move on to general advertising strategies that will help your business. This article will aim at helping you to find good ways of promoting your business locally.
Table of Contents
Create a blog strategy catering to a local audience.
We’ve been fans of the blog for a long time at HubSpot. That’s because you can use your blog to attract the right audience and convert visitors who are interested in your product.
This is especially true for local businesses.
To start, blogging is an important SEO strategy to consider. By creating educational content, you can rank for local keywords and raise brand awareness.
The more content you have that ranks, the better.
Plus, with HubSpot’s marketing tool, you can get instant SEO suggestions for your blogs as you write them.
To further promote your local business, you can cater your blogging strategy to your local audience. This means that you can create blogs like “best places to eat in OC” if you have a restaurant.
Local guides and tips and tricks posts are popular among local audiences. When users are searching for a local business online, you want your blogs to appear on search results.
So, in case I haven’t said it enough, posting local content is a great way to attract a local audience.
I’m repeating this idea because it’s that important, whether we’re discussing blog posts, search strategies, or social media.
I’ll say it again: The content you post should appeal to your local audiences.
In regards to social media, this means that you’re using the right hashtags for your area and tagging the locations in your posts.
Additionally, being active on social media can help you rank higher in search engines. The more active you are online, the easier it is for local audiences to find you.
Again, using a marketing tool like HubSpot can help you do this in one place.
Join a local group
Local businesses need to remain active in their communities. Joining a local group is a great way to stay connected with residents and other business owners.
I suggest joining your local Chamber of Commerce. There will be a small annual fee, but it’s worth it.
Attending these meetings and events will expose your brand to other businesses.
Will your competitors be part of these groups? It’s possible. But that’s even more of a reason for you to be there.
Let’s say you own a local t-shirt company.
Another local business may be hosting an event in town and need custom shirts made. Rather than ordering the shirts online, they’ll be more inclined to use your services if you both belong to the same local group.
That’s the whole idea behind joining. The businesses look out for one another and always try to support local brands.
Local Listings
List information about your businesses on Google My Business and Yahoo listing for free. By adding the name of your business, website, images and hours you can take advantage of people searching for businesses on Google in your area.
Most of these online directories are free, but some may offer paid options to increase visibility.
Optimize for Local Search
Optimize your business website in order to get found by local search users. A large percentage of Google queries are location based. This gives your business much more visibility and adds more depth to local search results.
To optimize for local search, you should:
- Get a physical address
- Create Google My Business profile with clear business description, business hours, modes of payment etc.
- Get listed on business directories such as Yelp, Citysearch etc.
- Focus on attracting positive reviews and responding to negative comments
- Add schema markup to your website code
Get Involved in Local Community Events
Small businesses should focus on getting involved in local events You can contribute money toward local charities or an in-kind product donation. Not only will it help you get in front of your prospective customers but also give you the satisfaction of supporting worthy, local initiatives.
You can also host events or giveaways to collect customer information and follow up with customers for repeat businesses and referrals
Partner with Other Small Businesses
Reach out to other small business owners who are marketing goods and services that complement yours. Look for opportunities to create a cross-promotional deal with them so that you can tap each other’s client bases and advertise for free.
Increase Your Chances of Getting Found Locally with Google My Business
Your Google My Business profile is a free local advertising tool that can get you found on Google in a couple of ways: Your Google Business Profile is how your business appears on Google Maps, Google Search in the 3-pack, and Google’s Knowledge Panel.
But, that’s not the only way your Google My Business listing can help you win over local customers. You can seed the Q&A section of your Google Business Profile to highlight important features and increase customer confidence. You can also post promotions, events, photos, and products to your profile to give customers further incentive to do business with you.
Plus, your Google My Business listing allows you to collect and respond to Google reviews, a critical component of a successful localized marketing strategy — making it an impressive local advertising idea for your business to implement ASAP.
Claim, Verify & Create Local Listings
The internet is one of the first places people turn to when searching for a local business. In fact, 46% of all searches on Google have local intent. While 46% might not seem like a hugely impressive percentage, when you take into account that Google processes an average 40,000 searches each second, that translates into 18,400 local searches every second of the day. And, you know what shows up in the majority of local searches? Local listings.
So, local business listings are a great idea for advertising your small business. As you can see above, a Google My Business listing is essential. But, there are more free local listings your business needs to be on.
Make sure your business has a presence on the top local listings sites and include accurate and updated information across all of them. This may seem like a large feat, but it’s worth it to ensure your information is correct (plus, you can get help with listings management). Not only do search engines reward consistent information across the web (including the exact same Name, Phone Number, and Address), but correct business information creates a positive customer experience – something that’s super important.
Conclusion
Taking your small business from a local to a national level can be difficult when it comes to advertising. Almost every company in the world will state that they have the best product, best price and best service. It’s up to you to tell a story that you want to share with others in your community to let them know how great your business is.