Hey guys!
Marketing a local business is quite different from marketing any other type of business, and a lot of the marketing content you read on the net doesn't actually apply to your biz.
E.g. you don't need to overkill your social media game, publish hundreds of SEO blog posts, or do crazy PR stunts to get attention for your business.
It's actually a LOT simpler than that. All you have to do is apply cookie-cutter marketing tactics, and in 99% of the cases, you'll be generating a profit from your marketing very, very fast.
So - here's a list of the most effective marketing tactics for a local biz (that worked for me / my clients):
Unless you're a seasoned digital marketing professional, you'll have a difficult time picking which marketing channels to focus on.
Here's what I recommend you do per channel:
Every single local biz website I see have one thing in common (whether the business is based in NYC, or Tbilisi):
The website is really, realy bad.
From my experience, if you just make your website not suck, you're going to get a huge edge over the competition.
Here's how you can do this:
Did I miss something super important? HMU, will add it to the list.
Got any questions about how any of these apply to YOUR biz? Drop me a comment and I'll give you a detailed reply
Marketing a local business is quite different from marketing any other type of business, and a lot of the marketing content you read on the net doesn't actually apply to your biz.
E.g. you don't need to overkill your social media game, publish hundreds of SEO blog posts, or do crazy PR stunts to get attention for your business.
It's actually a LOT simpler than that. All you have to do is apply cookie-cutter marketing tactics, and in 99% of the cases, you'll be generating a profit from your marketing very, very fast.
So - here's a list of the most effective marketing tactics for a local biz (that worked for me / my clients):
30 marketing tactics for local businesses
- Run Google Ads on your direct-intent keywords. If you're an accounting firm in Boston, run ads to your home for all variations of the "accounting firm Boston" keyword
- Optimize your homepage for the respective keyword via YoastSEO or RankMath.
- Create a page for every location you run, and optimize it for the keyword [location] + [service].
- Create a page for every service you offer, and link to them throughout your website. Optimize each page for the keyword [location] + [service], e.g. "photography nyc"
- If your website is getting 1,000+ traffic per month, set up Facebook Remarketing and run lead generation ads to everyone that visited your website.
- Run location-based Facebook ads, targeting your city or a specific district. Advertise an offer (e.g. free consultation call, dessert, whatever) instead of just advertising your business. This will let you track people who came to your business via ads, and will let you know whether you're generating an ROI or not.
- Optimize the hell out of your Google My Business (GMB) account. This plays a big part in local SEO, and thousands of potential customers will see it every month.
- Submit your website to directories in your region. E.g. list of businesses, Yelp, Airbnb experiences, TripAdvisor (if it's tourist-friendly) and whatever else is relevant.
- Avoid experimental ad platforms. E.g. Quora, Reddit, etc. For a local biz, the basics work best. From my experience, the best performing ad channels are: Google Search, Facebook Ads, Google Display manual placements (e.g. placing banner ads to your website on websites popular in your area).
- Find roundup posts about your services and get featured. E.g. if you Google "law firms vancouver," you might see a directory of best law firms in Vancouver. See if you can get featured on the list (it's probably going to cost you, though).
- Partner with businesses that aren't direct competitors and exchange clients when relevant.
- Leave your flyers in hostels, hotels, etc. This is relevant mainly if you're a tourist-friendly biz (e.g. tour, restaurant, etc.)
- Create the right social media profiles. The must-haves are: LinkedIn (mainly for B2B businesses like accounting firms, law firms, etc.), Facebook (must-have for any business), Twitter (relevant for any US biz), Instagram (Relevant for businesses where you offer an interest / aesthetic product, service, or experience. E.g. restaurant, barbershop, tour, etc.)
- Keep your social media profiles as up-to-date as possible. Either hire a freelancer on UpWork to actively manage your account (expensive option), or give one of your employees who has an eye for aesthetics a raise and put them in charge of this. Honestly, social media (for small business) isn't rocket science, so I'd recommend the latter.
- Don't follow the buzz. Just because everyone's talking about TikTok doesn't mean it's relevant for your business. I remember how Gary V was promoting Snapchat as THE BIG BIG OPPORTUNITY even though it was "meh" and irrelevant for most businesses.
- If you're a restaurant or someone that really relies on aesthetic to sell products, get a pro camera and take some quality pics and upload them on your social media pages.
- Don't overthink your marketing tactics. You don't need to go viral on TikTok, do a PR dance-fest in city center, or whatever most people think of when they hear the word "marketing." Tried-and-tested marketing always works better.
- Done something interesting? Launched a cool new product line? Opened an innovative boardgame-bar-esports-place? Let your local media know. Reach out to the journalists who've covered similar events before via email, and pitch them your new product/service/experience.
- Encourage your customers to leave reviews on Facebook, Google Maps, TripAdvisor, and whatever else is relevant for your biz. Don't bribe them with freebies - that's against the rules. Instead, focus on providing an A++ product/service, and then ask for a review.
- Are you a restaurant or a bar? Give out flyers near the main street. Give away a free drink if they bring the flyer to the restaurant.
- Keep your Google My Business updated. Treat it just like you'd treat your Facebook business profile. A TON of people use GMB to decide on what to do / where to eat / where to go, etc.
- Take advantage of Facebook's insane ad targeting options. Here are some ideas:
- Advertising something for tourists? Directly target people "Traveling to [location]"
- Want to target local business owners? That's literally a targeting option on Facebook
- Do you organize birthday parties? Target people with a birthday coming up the following month.
- Target micro-influencers in your area (mainly relevant for B2C). Find people with 1,000 - 3,000 Instagram followers, and offer them something free for a shout-out. Unlike regular influencers, they don't get a ton of paid gigs.
- Attend networking events in your area (if you're B2B)
- Use LinkedIn outreach software to reach out to B2B prospects in your area at scale.
- Don't buy offline banner ads. They're very overpriced and mostly relevant for big brands. You'll get a LOT better bang for your buck via online ads.
- Organize contests and giveaways on your social media profiles.
Best marketing channels for a local business
Unless you're a seasoned digital marketing professional, you'll have a difficult time picking which marketing channels to focus on.
- Do you do SEO or Search Ads?
- Are Facebook ads relevant for your biz?
- Do LinkedIn ads even work?
Here's what I recommend you do per channel:
- Social media - stick to social profiles that are relevant for your business. You don't need a pimped-out Instagram page for your accounting firm. If you're B2B, social media in general should be an after-though (no one's going to follow your law firm's Facebook page anyway).
- SEO - relevant for most local businesses. If you're a bar/restaurant/any other type of venue, make a Google My Business profile and optimize it, you don't need a website. If you're anything B2B, you need a strong, optimized website.
- Search ads - also relevant for most local businesses. If there's someone looking for your services, you definitely want to run ads. Unless you're in a super crowded niche in a big city, you'll be able to make these ads ROI-positive.
- Google maps ads - relevant for businesses w/ venues. E.g. bar, restaurant, tour, experience, etc. Albeit, it's better to focus on getting a lot of reviews for your GMB page than to do this.
- Social media ads - Facebook ads can work for most local businesses if done right. LinkedIn ads are too expensive and mostly not relevant for small brands.
How to make your website not suck
Every single local biz website I see have one thing in common (whether the business is based in NYC, or Tbilisi):
The website is really, realy bad.
From my experience, if you just make your website not suck, you're going to get a huge edge over the competition.
Here's how you can do this:
- Make sure you have all the essential web pages. This includes homepage, about us page, contact us page, and a page for each service you offer.
- Use WordPress to make your website - don't bother with having someone code it from scratch. The latter is very expensive AND honestly, useless. WordPress, on the other hand, allows you to make a website in the snap of a finger + let's you customize it to your heart's content. Need to capture emails? There's a plugin for that. Optimize your images? Snap, done! Add a blog to the website? Takes several clicks.
- Don't have the budget to hire someone to dev your website? Use Elementor Drag & Drop builder. There are other builders, but after trying a bunch, imo this one's the best out there. You can also try Wix or SquareSpace, but they're generally bad for SEO.
- Use Smush (WordPress plugin) to compress all images on your website. Most websites I've seen on the net don't do this, which makes your website super slow.
- For all web pages where you describe your services, add a call to action. E.g. "Book a Call," "Book a Table," "Contact Us," etc. This helps measure performance of your marketing initiatives, as well as makes the user more likely to use your product/service.
- Install Google Analytics so you know how your site visitors interact with the website.
- Install Search Console to keep track of how well your SEO is performing.
Did I miss something super important? HMU, will add it to the list.
Got any questions about how any of these apply to YOUR biz? Drop me a comment and I'll give you a detailed reply