Local Marketing: What is Local Marketing and how can it help me?

Local Marketing – how to make a real impact in your local market

For many small and medium sized businesses, local marketing is what it’s all about.  One of the biggest search areas in Google is local marketing with over 40% of all searches made being for local businesses.  If you are based in a specific location and need to get business from either visiting you directly, or through you providing a service at the customers location, focusing on local marketing should drive your business plan.

Local Marketing is key for small and medium sized businesses that are geographically limited.  It’s truly a different discipline to ‘mass’ marketing and paying attention to how you can drive business on a local basis through the existing (and new) channels needs a different mindset and approach.

Local Marketing – I use Yellow Pages…

Traditionally, the old yellow pages were the fundamental business driver for local marketing, as consumers scanned the pages for a local supplier.  Nowadays things have changed massively and local businesses need to understand the best way to leverage their business through a variety of different channels.

Today, there are primarily 3 different channels that local businesses must understand and utilise to make their local marketing efforts work – traditional channels, online and mobile.

Local Marketing – the traditional routes

Just because the internet dominates marketing discussion nowadays for many businesses, it doesn’t take anything away from local marketing activity in the tried and trusted methods.  Yellow Pages and other directories may have reduced in size and frequency as more people go online to find suppliers, but they still exist and are worth considering.  There are also many other traditional marketing techniques that can be adopted to drive business.

Leaflet distribution for certain types of businesses can be appropriate, but can also be very untargeted and a more strategic approach may deliver better results.  One of the fundamental marketing statements is that it costs much more to acquire new customers then to keep existing customers.  Working on maintaining relationships with existing customers through direct mail will help businesses on an ongoing basis and for many the delivery of product catalogues are essential.  Again, understanding the customer and what drives/motivates/interests them underpins everything in local marketing.

Online – Where It’s ‘At’ for local marketing

Nowadays, if you asked most people how they’d find a local business most would suggest the internet.  As mentioned previously, over 40% of searches on Google are to find a local business – something which Google have understood and subsequently develop an effective solution to help people quickly find the most relevant (and best) local supplier – Google Places.  Having an effective listing on Google Places, fully completed and then encouraging customers to leave reviews will undoubtedly help your business in local marketing.

Like other forms of marketing, having a website which is up to date and clear will always help your business on a local basis, and the effective use of social media to drive your business forward will give a push in the right direction, as will using email marketing to cultivate known customers.

For vertical channels there are specific listings engines which can drive trade – an obvious one is trip advisor which rates hotels and restaurants.  Being aware of how popular these listings are means effort can be focused in the right area.  There are also many ‘local’ internet listings which can have an impact on customer engagement.

In addition, many discount offers are now regularly available through the internet, be it on places like groupon, kgbdeals and living social, which can be considered to support local marketing.

Mobile – when local marketing becomes location based marketing

As smart phones become more prevalent, more and more people are using the internet when they are out and about.  Although still in it’s infancy, this location based marketing will undoubtedly become more and more important when discussing local marketing.  Using the GPS chip that exists in smart phones, people can call up all the local suppliers of a particular product in the local area with ease, whilst they are out and about.  This means that listings on internet services like Google Places and efforts on social media have an even greater impact on potential customers as both are ideal for mobile viewing.  In addition, the importance of a mobile optimised website becomes paramount.

Technology is already pushing the next step forward, with customers having the option of ‘checking in’ at their location.  Both Google and Facebook allow this to happen, but it is being taken to the next level by suppliers such as GoWalla and Foursquare, both which have now taken hold in the USA.  They allow users to check-in at their location, and allow for them to get offers based on them checking in.  As with most new technology, the younger age group have been quick to adopt.

Of course, there is also the opportunity to engage in some local ‘smart phone’ marketing as well by using a QR code to generate interest and business.

Local Marketing – don’t miss out

Now more then ever the need to focus on local marketing is essential.  As more and more smart phones hit the market and become more and more affordable, coupled with the improvement in data coverage for the phones, local businesses need to pay real attention to how they can generate business through local marketing and work hard to keep it.