If you want to survive and grow your local business, you need customers.
But, in order to get customers, you need to promote your local business first.
According to a recent survey, only 33% of small businesses reach the 10-year mark.
The rest? – They fail.
Put it simply, promoting your local business is a must if you want to survive & grow in today’s competitive market.
Now, back in the good old days, promoting a local business was only a matter of deciding between postcards, flyers, or an advertisement in the local newspaper.
But in today’s digital world, things have changed. The possibilities of promoting a local business have become simply endless, which is sometimes quite overwhelming for business owners.
If you’re struggling to find the most effective ways to promote your local business online, there are two things you need to know.
First, you’re not alone.
And second, you’ve come to the right place.
In this post, I’ve shared 10 effective ways to promote your local business online.
So without any further ado, let’s jump in!
[lwptoc depth=”3″ toggle=”1″]10 Effective Ways to Promote Your Local Business Online
Whether you’ve recently launched a local business or you’ve already been in business for years, it is necessary to adapt the modern ways of marketing to get ahead of the competition & remain successful in the future.
Below are the 10 effective ways you can promote your local business online and stay profitable for years to come.
1 – Create a Google Business Profile
Google captures more than 92% of the market share on the internet today.
This is why creating a Google Business Profile for your local business is one of the best ways to get in front of your potential customers, especially those who are actively searching for solutions online.
Your Google Business Profile, which is also known as your Google Listing Page, basically allows your local business to show up in the local section of Google search results, Google Maps results, and also in the right-side knowledge panel in search results.
And the best part is, creating a Google Business Profile or Google Listing Page is absolutely free!
All you need to do is, sign up on Google My Business, enter your business details, and verify your ownership.
Once your ownership is approved by Google, you can optimize your business listing to show up higher in search results for relevant searches.
2 – Build a Website:
In this digital era, every business needs a website, no matter how local or old-fashioned your business may be.
More importantly, a good business website can not only serve as a promotional tool, but it is also essential for tracking & improving the success of your other online promotional tactics.
For example, when you run Google Ads (more on this later), you’ll need landing pages to redirect your potential customers to, which ultimately live on your website.
In fact, even when you post information on social media platforms, there should a link to redirect users to your website.
In a nutshell, all of your online marketing channels should flow back to your website so that you can easily measure which strategies work best by using analytics & gain valuable insights about your customers.
And as far as the cost is concerned, there are a variety of free solutions available to build a website.
But, if you’re serious about promoting your business online, you’ll eventually have to move to some form of a paid website.
I strongly recommend buying your own domain name, web hosting, professional design, and implement features that are essential for growth in the future from the beginning.
3 – Implement SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and it is one of the proven & highly effective ways to promote your local business online and get more customers.
SEO is basically a set of practices that help to align your business website with Google’s ranking algorithm.
And since Google’s ranking algorithm is evolved to use machine learning and learn users’ behavior to return the most accurate search results, optimizing for search engines is just about optimizing for the searchers.
Specifically, you need to keep in mind the following to implement SEO:
- Add relevant (industry & location-based) keywords to your website.
- Consistently produce original, high-quality, helpful content with images.
- Maintain uncompromising security & high page load speeds.
Once you consistently implement SEO, your business will eventually rank high in search results, and Google itself will promote your business for you.
4 – Start Blogging
Although blogging is a part of SEO practices. But content is such an important driver of SEO that it deserves to be recognized as an individual promotional strategy.
According to HubSpot, small/local businesses with a blog can get 55% more visitors, 102% more Twitter followers, & 126% more leads.
A blog can basically help to attract the right audience and convert prospective visitors who are interested in your products into paying customers.
To get the most out of your blogging efforts, focus on creating educational content in your brand voice & around questions as well as in terms your target customers are using to search in Google.
Besides, blog posts are a great place to add relevant keywords that your prospective customers are searching for when browsing online.
Here are some of the types of blog posts you can consider creating:
- How-Tos & Step-by-Step Guides
- Tutorial posts
- List of strategies, tips, & resources (Top 5…, Best 5…, etc.)
- Case-studies posts
- Q&A posts
- Seasonal milestone & events posts
Remember, the more content you produce targeting relevant keywords, the more opportunities you’ll create for your local business to show up in search results.
5 – Leverage Social Media Platforms
Social media has become deeply ingrained in our lives. And therefore, you must leverage social media platforms as one of your marketing channels.
Social media platforms are great for a lot of things such as:
- Make new product announcements
- Spread your blog posts
- Share upcoming offers/discounts/sales
- Inform customers about reopening schedules
- Run contests
- Share upcoming events
- And so on…
In general, being active on social media platforms, especially where the majority of your target audience is, can help a lot in connecting with your audience one-to-one and establish your brand as a thought leader.
6 – Run Google Ads
Although, SEO can most certainly help you get noticed by your prospective customers on Google. But, SEO is a long-term game and it requires massive patience to reach top search results.
If you’re looking for immediate exposure online, more importantly, if you have the budget, then you can definitely consider Google Ads.
Google Ads ads basically show up on the very top of search engine results, above local as well as organic search results as shown in the screenshot below.
And the best part is, Google not only controls the largest share of search engine traffic, but it also provides high-level flexibility, important ad building features, & precise performance metrics.
Although, mastering Google Ads takes hard work and plenty of trial & error, which is why you should consider hiring a digital marketing consultant especially if you’ve never run Google Ads before.
Remember, an optimized Google Ads campaign is far more worth the investment than wasting time & money with trial & error.
7 – Try Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing has caused a massive buzz in the digital marketing space lately.
A study by SproutSocial also found that influencer marketing delivers 11x higher ROI compared to other digital marketing strategies.
In case you don’t know, influencer marketing is a type of online marketing where businesses partner with influencers of a specific niche to market their products & raise their brand awareness.
An influencer is basically an individual who has gained a massive following on the internet and established trust & reputation with their audience.
They help businesses spread the word about their products to a broader market and make more sales.
A survey also revealed that 76% of businesses are going to start investing in influencer marketing campaigns.
The bottom line is, influencer marketing can definitely help to promote your local business. And if you have the budget for it, you should really consider trying influencer marketing for your local business.
8 – Collect Online Customer Reviews
Collecting online customer reviews is incredibly important, especially for small & local businesses trying to get more attention online.
You see, word of mouth is definitely the most powerful way to promote a business. But, reviews on official platforms like Google, Yelp, & Facebook are also equally effective.
They not only help to convince other prospective customers to purchase your products, but they also increase the exposure to your Google Business Listing as reviews are a major ranking factor for local search results.
Therefore, I highly recommend you to collect as many online customer reviews as possible.
9 – Set Up a Customer Referral Program
A customer referral program is one of the proven ways to attract new customers without doing any work.
And whether you believe it or not, but referrals still work.
A survey also found that 86% of consumers admitted their close friends influence their purchasing decisions.
The idea behind a customer referral program is simple. – You just need to get your current customers to start referring your products to their friends, family, & people in their network.
Although, for your customer referral program to work, it is necessary to offer incentives to both parties.
For instance, you should reward your current customers for each successful referral. The reward must be enticing enough to get them to refer your local business to as many people as possible.
As for the referred customers, you also need to offer some type of incentive to get them in the door.
But once they’re satisfied with their purchase, they can also start referring to other people as well.
This can ultimately turn into an extremely profitable recurring cycle for your local business.
10 – Offer Seasonal & Holiday Discounts
Last but not least way to promote your local business online is by offering seasonal & holiday discounts.
Throughout the year, you can take advantage of all seasonal as well as holiday-related opportunities to entice your existing as well as potential customers to make new purchases.
This will ultimately help you to promote your business in unique ways, appeal to bargain customers, and boost sales multiple times a year.
Concluding Thoughts…
Promoting your business locally may seem difficult, especially when you’re doing it for the first time. But it doesn’t have to be.
As you just saw in this post, there are now a plethora of options to effectively promote your local business.
So, stop worrying and start implementing at least some of these strategies based on your business needs. I promise you that all of these strategies are sure to pay off if you regularly review & revise them.
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