Local marketing refers to the way your company will target prospective customers in its region. Depending on your niche, this could refer to neighboring customers or customers in your country; in modern economies, "local" can encompass a large area.
Local marketing is most effective for businesses with a physical presence, such as restaurants, boutique retailers, and professional advisors. Many businesses may miss out on customer development and loyalty if they do not prioritize local marketing efforts and strategies.
Local marketing focuses on geographically specific marketing campaigns. These strategies can facilitate consumer loyalty and engagement. Local marketing also enables you to develop new relationships with other local businesses from which you can both benefit; for instance, if you make cakes, they could be sold through a local cafe that offers bespoke cakes to its customers, which your business would supply. This form of partnership can strengthen the reputations of both parties in the local community.
The most effective form of offline and online marketing is still word-of-mouth advertising. The ability to rely on word-of-mouth advertising, the simplest form of marketing, is made possible by establishing a solid reputation in the local community.
Being seen locally
Your company's logo, business name, and website URL should be printed in various locations depending on its market sector.
Your logo and website's URL should be displayed first on your own apparel and vehicle. This is a comparatively inexpensive endeavor, and you can begin with a few t-shirts and caps that you would be proud to wear. Obtaining vehicle decals is also relatively inexpensive.
A basic T-shirt will suffice until you have the funds to do more.
Place your logo and website URL on the sides of your vehicle(s) if you own a local business such as a roofing company, maintenance service, restaurant, or anything comparable. If you can come up with a humorous bumper decal, it will attract people's attention and stand out. People typically glance at your bumper when they are bored in traffic, and if you offer them a smile, they will become interested.
Numerous start-ups "invest" in pens, keychains, and other small items emblazoned with their insignia, but there is little evidence to suggest that this is a worthwhile endeavor, and any extra funds would be better spent elsewhere.
If it makes financial sense, you can promote your local business or URL on a billboard if you own a local business. The billboard will have contact information for the company that owns it, so you can inquire about the cost of a billboard advertisement and attempt to negotiate a reasonable rate.
It is much more effective to use billboards near your business as opposed to costly billboards on the local interstate. A small billboard at a local bus-stop or train station informing people that your location is nearby can be very effective, and if you are going to invest in this type of advertising, observe how McDonald's places small ads around each location stating that their outlet is "100 yards this way" – this has proven to be a highly effective method of local advertising for many businesses.
Flyers
Despite the fact that most people roll their eyes when they receive a flyer or even cross the street if they see someone handing them out, they are a fairly effective form of advertising, particularly if there is a financial incentive for redeeming any coupon.
You will be astonished at how often your flyer will be read if you include the word free.
"Baker Street Diner – the home of free donuts with every meal"
"Bill's Tires – Affordable tires and complimentary wheel balancing"
"Stan's Roofing – Tiles replaced and your gutters cleaned for free"
"Mrs Brown's Cakes: When you buy a box of six cakes, you get two more for free"
It is prudent to pause for a word of caution. Flyer distribution is acceptable for some businesses but utterly ineffective for many others. The problem that many business owners face is that they do not know for which types of businesses this strategy will work, but they attempt it anyway because it is one of the first marketing strategies that comes to mind.
If you do not have something unique to offer, spending money on flyers will amount to overflowing the local trash cans. Flyers are only effective if the reader peers at them and sees something that compels him or her to continue reading; telling them that you are a new cafe in town will elicit the response "so?"
Few types of businesses genuinely benefit from the distribution of flyers. Use your money elsewhere if you do not have something immediate to offer.
Nevertheless, if you do have something to offer, you should consider the following:
Determine what your proposition will be. A small discount on an item they need is considerably more thrilling than a large discount on an item they do not. A 10% discount on a July 4th cake is acceptable in June, but a 50% discount on the same cake in August is not.
Make the proposition appear exceptionally valuable. The key to any flyer is its ability to attract attention; in fact, attracting attention is the only purpose to produce a flyer.
Make your offer the primary focus of the flyer's text.
Ensure that the individual distributing the flyer is wearing your logo or other identifying attire.
Ensure that the person handing out flyers is personable, animated, and audible enough to encourage people to accept the flyers and give them serious consideration. Consider employing a local performer who is accustomed to performing in public; the additional cost will be well worth it.
Loyalty marketing is a strategy focused on acquiring new consumers and retaining existing ones through incentives such as free gifts, discounts, and/or exclusive access. Customers are rewarded for their continuous engagement with and loyalty to the business as part of a loyalty marketing campaign designed to foster trust.
This is a particularly effective strategy for local marketing and should be incorporated into your offline marketing plan. Loyalty marketing for e-commerce stores operates through the store software and is typically performed automatically; however, offline, some effort is required.
Locally, offering complimentary gifts and accessories is one of the most cost-effective and enticing loyalty marketing strategies. Consider how frequently McDonalds and Walmart use loyalty marketing. McDonalds has developed its relationship with children by including "free" toys in happy meals – one of the most successful loyalty marketing schemes the world has ever witnessed.
The simplest way to accomplish this is by utilizing slow-moving inventory and giving something away to repeat customers every few purchases. All cafes and restaurants have surplus food at some point, but so many simply discard it when there are returning customers present. If you anticipate not being able to sell the excess cake by the end of the day and you are serving a repeat customer at your cafe, why not add a free extra cake to their order if you believe you will not be able to sell it?
Working with other local businesses is another really cool way to manage loyalty marketing; for instance, if you offer free balancing when you install tyres, let the gas station know and let your customers know about the offers the gas station has. As I've repeatedly stated, word-of-mouth marketing is the most effective form of advertising. You'll quickly become very popular with other local businesses.