More Powerful Local Marketing

Not every business is trying to sell products to the other side of the world. In fact most need to win customers from within a 20km radius. With global marketing tools like Google and Facebook this is getting more difficult, as competitors can take customers from you more easily from outside your territory. We can help you compete far better.

Your Customers are Looking Locally Online

First let’s look at what customers are doing locally, and they appear to be doing a LOT. The average business is found in over 1,000 search results per month with 84% of these coming from “discovery searches” (i.e. they didn’t know who they were looking for!)

And about half of all businesses get over 1,000 views to their listing per month, with 5% of these views resulting in a click, call or direction request. That is 50 enquiries per business! Not to be ignored and it is getting still more interesting, with the search volume growing at 38% in the last year alone.

You do not want to be sitting on the side lines!

Google My Business is a Preferred Search Result

Just look at the results pages on google searches. To get to organic results you have to get past the 4 Ads and then the Maps with another 3 – 4 listings in them BEFORE you get to organic results. At present the map listing (called the 3-pack, soon to be 4-pack) is free, so make hay while the sun shines and do what you can to get in there!

Tips To Dominate Local Searches

There is no silver bullet here, but complete and consistent focus will ensure your listings in online services rise to the top. Use these tips to get there faster.

1. Your website – make sure it is mobile responsive (works properly on mobile) and is fast to load. Google dominates mobile search and rewards those that do this, penalising those that don’t.
2. Your message – be clear about what you do in 3 lines or less. On a mobile screen (and on a PC) you only have a moment of a user’s attention, use it! Hit them between the eyes with what makes your business amazing. And be sure to mention your location in blog or social media posts and keywords. It all helps and be sure to monitor social reviews and be ‘professionally familiar’ with people you know to show you are a part of the community.
3. Your business details – let local customers know your location (der…), but also your opening hours, multiple contact methods and REVIEWS!
4. Call to Action for Locals – give them a reason to shop locally with a Local’s Discount, mention community groups or schools you like to support with better services or pricing and of course because you are local you are convenient and fast to get to.
5. It isn’t JUST digital local marketing – use other location based marketing too: get involved in your community and get links to your site from them, link to other local businesses and reach out to your local community in local newspapers, good old flyers/postcards and of course any business or car signage.

Tools You Can Use

Google My Business (https://www.google.com/business/)

The undisputed king for local digital marketing.

If you haven’t checked out your business listing then head here via the Google My Business login where you set up your Google Account: https://www.google.com.au/business/sign-up/index.html

Note you will need a Google account, most of us have one by now, but if not you can get one during the process of go here as a shortcut:  https://accounts.google.com

You will need to sign in and ‘find and manage your business’ with a quick search. Your business will either not be claimed yet (good, but we have work to do!), or it has been claimed (and you may want to refresh some details).

If it hasn’t been claimed you will need to VERIFY MY BUSINESS and typically collect a mailed out code to verify it is your premises. You can also do this by phone or email, but this is only for some businesses. If you get stuck you can go here for help https://support.google.com/business/answer/7107242?hl=en

How We Can Help

We know there are a lot of moving parts. But hey, that keeps us in a job looking after them for you.

Areas we find we help clients best with Local Marketing Strategy and Targeting Local Customers are mainly around;

1. Doing research on how you compare to your local competitors. This makes sure you know where you stand compared to them, how they might be stealing your customers now and what you can do to stop that or beat them to the punch.
2. Finding your focus – it is SO important to be clear about who you are, what you do and why people should buy from you. It impacts everything you do and we make sure this is as strong as it can be before you spend any of your hard-earned cash in any advertising.
3. Making your Google My Business Listing stand out and punch above its weight. Given the number of searches being done, you simply have to be doing all you can to get into the map listings for as many searches as you can.
4. Locally targeted advertising and marketing options – we set up Google and Facebook ads all day and have a number of techniques that work well to improve the effectiveness while reducing the cost per click.
5. Content Marketing – writing blog and social media posts that appeal to local customers, and reach back out to past customers (by email for example) to remind them to buy from you.

 

Get in Touch

If any of the above sound like they might help your business then reach out to the team. We are local too, so it is always quick and easy to jump on a call and have a chat about what you need and how to help your business get in front of more prospects and win more customers.