Local marketing targets an audience based in the same town or region as your business. It is geared toward people who are within a certain radius of your physical location – generally based on a reasonable driving distance – who might realistically purchase your product or service at any time. Digital Marketing Local

For example, if you run a restaurant in Red Bank, New Jersey, driving website traffic from Sacramento, California, is not going to do you much good. Instead, you need to employ local marketing tactics to ensure that the majority of your audience is indeed located near enough that they could conceivably drive to your restaurant or order delivery. Digital Marketing Local

“The biggest approach people should be taking is really understanding who they’re trying to sell to … what benefits people can get from the product or service, and then relay that information upfront,” said Travis McKnight, senior content strategist at Portent Inc.

That’s true in all marketing, but especially when it comes to a local marketing strategy, he added. Part of the key information you should relay to your audience is where your business is located. Digital Marketing Local

The goal behind a local marketing strategy is to spend your marketing and advertising budget more efficiently. Digital marketing is an effective tool for businesses of all sizes. However, if you are a local business and you fail to gain traction with a local audience, your marketing expense is all for naught. Not all traffic is created equal; a local marketing strategy ensures that you are targeting an audience that might patronize your business. Digital Marketing Local

Optimize your website (and localize it)

Website optimization is key to driving traffic, but is your website optimized for local users? Not only should you follow search engine optimization (SEO) best practices, such as employing keyword research to inform your website content, but you should also guarantee that your website offers a top-notch mobile experience, said Heather Lodge, chief marketer at Click and Mortar.

“More than half of traffic coming to websites is from mobile devices,” she said. “If you have a website that’s nice and streamlined, with large text to read on a small screen and large buttons to easily click, you’ll have an easier time attracting local business.”

In addition to these recommendations – which are key for any digital marketing strategy – your website should also be localized, Lodge said. That means determining keywords and key phrases based on local SEO – ask yourself, “What is the local market searching for on Google?” A good rule of thumb is to frequently mention your community or nearby communities. If you’re targeting a regional audience, consider adding language to your website like “serving the tri-state area,” for example.

You can improve your local SEO insights even further by leveraging free keyword research tools like Google Analytics, Google Trends, and Google Search Console to inform precisely what local terms you should incorporate. The more you optimize your website for local search, the more local customers are likely to land on your web pages.

Update title tags and meta descriptions

Another SEO consideration to keep in mind, McKnight said, is whether your website’s title tags and metadata are up to date.

“There are a few different parts of metadata, but the majority of people only have to worry about meta description and title tag,” he said.

The title tag refers to the 60 characters that search engine users see on the search engine results page (SERP). Keeping a title tag relevant to your brand and location, but shorter than 60 characters is optimal, McKnight said.

The meta description is less likely to factor into search ranking, McKnight added, but it can improve click-through rates by signaling to users precisely what type of information they might find on the webpage.

“Data shows that a quality meta description … can help click-through rate. On the flip side, for a business like a restaurant that wants people to call, having a phone number in the meta description is huge,” McKnight said. “Meta descriptions should always be 160 characters or less.”

The title tag and meta description can be edited in the administrator’s tools of the web hosting platform you use. For many small business owners, McKnight said, WordPress offers an easy-to-use SEO function.

Set up local landing pages for all your business locations

If your business has multiple locations, you should create an individual page for each location on your website to further your localization efforts.

“There will often be companies with a lot of different locations, but they don’t include pages with information on those different locations on their website,” Lodge said. “These pages should include each location, directions on how to get there, and what store hours are.”

Lodge added that these pages should include specific content about your business. For example, a real estate agent based in Nashville, Tennessee, shouldn’t just list on their website that they are a “real estate agent.” Instead, including the key phrase “leading real estate agent in Nashville” signals to search engines where the agent is based and helps serve results to a local audience. It also considers how people are searching for real estate agents; they don’t just want anyone, they want “the best” or “leading” real estate agents.

Claim your Google My Business listing

One of the easiest and most effective local marketing strategies you can employ immediately is claiming your Google My Business listing. Google My Business provides search engine users with information like your location, store hours, directions, contact information, and more directly on the SERP.

“Claim your Google My Business knowledge panel and make sure that it is updated,” said McKnight. “Especially during COVID-19, make sure it reflects current store hours and accurately explains any restrictions, such as takeout or delivery only.”

Lodge added you should also claim local listings on other third-party sites, such as Yelp. The more places users can find your business (along with location information) the better off your local marketing success will be.

Optimize social media pages

Social media marketing is critically important when it comes to local online marketing. Much like your website, your social media pages should be optimized and localized. This means providing up-to-date information, such as your business’s location, contact information, and store hours. It also means maintaining an active social media account. You can preschedule social media posts using tools like Hootsuite.

“From a small business perspective, social media revolves largely around communication about deals, reopenings, or promotions,” McKnight said. “A lot of it is just reputation management.”

Encourage positive user reviews and engage online

Encourage your satisfied customers to leave you positive reviews online, whether on Google Reviews, Facebook, Yelp, or elsewhere. You could even incentivize them to leave positive reviews with discounts or promotions, such as a raffle or giveaway.

You should also spend time responding to the reviews your customers leave online. Always be sincere and avoid copying/pasting generic responses, McKnight said.

“For the most part, respond to people with authenticity, humility and honesty – whether it’s a negative review or positive one,” McKnight said. “Set an hour per week just to go through, respond and make sure it’s not just a generic cookie-cutter response. Users are turned off by that and feel they aren’t listened to.”

Host or sponsor local community events

Digital marketing is all well and good, but building a real-world bridge between your audience and your brand is invaluable. Consider sponsoring or hosting a local event whenever possible to increase brand visibility in your local community.

This is also a great way to land local press coverage, which improves your odds of being found online by a local audience.

Utilize localized email marketing

Email marketing strategies have some of the lowest costs among many of the marketing strategies available to you. The bulk of the cost is associated with obtaining valuable email addresses. Unfortunately, there is nothing in an email address that will tell you where the user is located; there are email-gathering techniques you can begin using that filter user by location.

The easiest technique is to have a sign-up sheet in your store – ideally by the register – or at booths or events that you sponsor so that interested consumers see it and sign up to receive updates and promotions from you.