Some businesses enjoy a geography-agnostic existence. A marketing firm or website designer can work for just about anyone in their own country. Yet, not every business enjoys that advantage, such as the around 1 million restaurants in the US.
Restaurants get most of their business from people who live or work within a few miles of their location. In fact, most brick and mortar businesses depend almost entirely on local customers for their survival. That makes local business marketing an essential element in their business plans.
Of course, proximity isn’t the only reason why local business marketing matters. Keep reading for more reasons why local marketing matters and ways you can improve your local marketing efforts.
Cost
Marketing costs can run your business into the ground if you attempt too much too soon. For example, a regional TV ad campaign will cost you an arm and a leg. One of the major benefits of local marketing is that it typically costs you a lot less.
For example, you can often run a local radio ad for a few hundred dollars.
Targeted
Local marketing for small businesses also lets you target extremely specific customers. For example, let’s say you run a high-end jewelry business. You don’t want marketing that reaches every person in a 50-mile radius.
You want marketing that reaches the small percentage of people who can afford your goods. You can get a mailing list of customers who buy luxury products in your area and send only those customers a direct mail piece.
Marketing Specificity
One of the major challenges in marketing to a wide audience is that local tastes and needs vary so wildly. With local marketing, you can tailor your marketing to the culture, needs, and wants of people in one community or one suburb.
Let’s say you own a custom woodworking business. If you live in rural Pennsylvania, you might run an ad in a local paper for custom hope chests or gun cabinets. If you live in Los Angeles, you might set up a website that details your high-end custom kitchens in Carbon Beach.
Offline vs Online
The offline vs online debate has lost a lot of steam in recent years as smartphones connect more and more people to the internet.
In reality, most brick and mortar businesses should run a website that embraces local SEO tactics. Rural businesses, however, can still glean some advantages of more traditional print marketing options. Radio can benefit businesses in rural, suburban, and urban areas.
Local Business Marketing and You
Unless you run a geography-agnostic business, you must consider the potential benefits of local business marketing for your business. At the very least, it helps you get your business top of mind for your most likely customers.
You limit the costs by limiting the scope of your marketing efforts. It lets you target specific customers, such as luxury buyers. It also lets you craft marketing that appeals to local tastes.
Buzzhive Marketing specializes in local marketing and local SEO. For more information, contact Buzzhive Marketing today.