Are you seeking guidance for advertising? Thinking how to promote your business in the community? We understand your urgency. Without promotions, you won’t get any customers, and without customers, your business will eventually collapse.
Relax! Just as I understand your dilemmas, I have got solutions as well. Here in this article, I am going to discuss 10 creative ways (both online and offline) to market your business locally.
So, without further ado, let’s start exploring!
7 Effective Online Strategies to Promote your Business in the Community
The 21st century is founded on cutting-edge technology and the internet. Therefore, when you invest your time in planning how to promote your business in the community, a large portion of it will be focused on online tactics. Let’s check out some online strategies:
Get the Benefits of A Website
Your website is your virtual property. Even if you actively manage your business on Facebook or other social media platforms, your virtual presence is incomplete without your very own website. Embedding your website’s URL on your social media posts builds credibility and helps the process of load generation.
Okay, now that you are thinking about getting a website, the next step is to organize it. A well-organized website attracts visitors and encourages them to click on the Call-to-action button. Hence, leveling up the sales. The following steps will help your website flourish:
SEO
Do you know that in 2021, 77% of people searched Google while looking for information about a business? Yes, thanks to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), your business can be on Google’s top page as well.
Making your website SEO-friendly could be a tough act, but it is worth it. People mostly click on the top 5 search results. So, it’s extremely important to rank your website on that. Short-tail keywords are too competitive, therefore, long-tail keywords will be helpful for ranking your website on the SERP (Search Engine Result Page).
Ranking on Google’s first page is not permanent. You will need a constant strategy to retain your position. Your business is more likely to be found if your keywords are specific. Though, few people search with long-tail keywords. So, here, balancing is the key!
Content Optimization
There is a famous quote from Bill Gates that goes like this –
“Content is the King”
Well, that sums it up, totally. Your website won’t attract visitors if you do not have proper content for them. For example, you can create blogs that are relevant to your community while still fitting into your niche. If they find what they’re looking for, they’ll read it and keep coming back for more.
A well-written informative blog is fun to read and free to create! You can add videos, infographics, charts, and statistics to make it attractive. Finally, you can encourage your visitors to purchase your product by enlightening them about your service.
Backlinking
Now that you have made your content plan, the next step is to create a backlink profile. Backlinks happen when another website links to yours. Google views you as more trustworthy if you have a larger number of backlinks. However, backlinking only counts from trustable sites.
The major way you can get backlinks is through outreach. It is a way to reach other niche-relevant websites or marketers to get a backlink from them. Also, you can do guest blogging through outreach. It will help you develop relationships with industry leaders and introduce your brand to a new audience.
There are basically two types of backlinking I would like to mention here:
Dofollow
Dofollow links are known as original types of links. Using the dofollow links, you simply point to Google that your mentioned website should rank higher in SERP. Google uses these links to boost the PageRank value of the linked page. It requires no HTML changes on your website.
Nofollow
Nofollow links are different from dofollow links, as they need to be changed in the website’s HTML code. The nofollow feature was created to allow links to a website while blocking the origin page from providing PageRank value to the destination page.
Leverage the Power of Social Media
In 2022, there are about 4.74 billion social media users. Well, yes, that includes your potential customers too. Facebook has the largest customer base due to its users. Also, LinkedIn, Youtube, Instagram, Twitter, and most recently, TikTok, have grown to be popular platforms.
Different businesses require different types of social media tactics to reach their customers. No matter how busy we are, we never get tired of scrolling through the newsfeed in our short breaks. So, you can make bite-sized content that is fun, informative, and promotes your services.
Now comes the communication part. You are going to need a complete strategy of simultaneous Organic and Paid promotion to reach and present your service to the local community.
Organic Promotion
Organic promotion techniques include free methods such as posting photos and videos related to your content, messaging customers in your inbox, responding to comments, using hashtags, and more. Live video is one of the most popular organic promotional methods in recent years.
Paid Promotion
Paid promotion allows you to create custom ad campaigns, e.g., Google Ads, and Facebook Ads. Before paying for ads, I would recommend researching your customer base thoroughly. Analytical tools like Google Analytics, and Facebook Audience Insights will give you an enormous amount of data about your customer’s behavior, buying patterns, and current market trends.
Now, all you have to do is make campaigns targeted as per your customers’ demography – their age, income, interests, and other relevant attributes. You have to keep in mind your competitors’ strategies too, as they are already working with your niche market.
CPC (Cost Per Click) and PPC (Pay Per Click), are both effective strategies for running online campaigns on different social media platforms. It might take some time to grasp the techniques for running a successful online campaign, but eventually, you will get benefit from them.
List your Business in Online Directories
Just like the good old days of the yellow pages, directories are still a thing. Only it shifted from offline to online. Listing your business in online directories is perhaps one of the most important components of promoting your business locally.
Local Listing
Local listing means registering your business with Google Business Profile, Yelp, or other business directories. For example, once you register your business with Google My Business with the proper information, you will appear on Google Maps, the local pack listings in search results, or the knowledge graph.
Here are some examples of other popular listing sites:
Local SEO
Local SEO is a variant of regular SEO that focuses on reaching more local searchers. It contains some unique features alongside traditional SEO features.
For example, once you list your business with Google My Business, Google will pull your business information from its database and show it on Google Maps, or it might get featured on the Local SEO 3 Pack. Also, you can create Google Local Services ads similar to PPC ads.
Use E-mail Marketing
Do you know that in 2020, global e-mail marketing grossed over 7.5 billion U.S. dollars? Yes, despite being an old method, email marketing is still considered a reliable marketing channel because of its enormous ROI.
Email marketing is easy and beneficial for small,local business. You can place email sign-up forms on your website, contents can ask customers to sign up to get a coupon. Once you have an email list, you can send automated promotional emails using software like Mailchimp, Sendinblue, MailerLite. Simple!
Collaborate with Local Influencers
One of the quickest ways to reach social media users is by partnering with a local influencer. Influencer marketing is extremely popular these days, as they have a huge fan-follower base and their followers trust them with recommendations.
Before collaborating with a local influencer, you need to go through their posts, likes, comments, carefully. Not every influencer will go with your brand, nor will their content. A successful collaboration will introduce your product to the public while also strengthening the image that your business is a part of the local community.
Conduct Webminer
Webminer has been widely popular since the time of the Corona Pandemic. Your customers will love to hear about another local customer’s experience with your product, your business stories and other insights if you present them in an attractive way. You can host webminer, podcasts, and other online events to reach out to the local community.
Get Online Customer Reviews, Video Testimonials
You know online reviews are important when 43% of customers agree that they regularly read online reviews of local businesses. So, yes, Google, Facebook, Yelp, Tripadvisor reviews are extremely important to establish your brand.
People who have had a terrible product experience are more likely to post a review. Therefore, you will need to motivate your consumers to leave positive reviews. You may also include video testimonials on your website to build customer trust.
3 Effective Offline Strategies to Promote your Business in the Community:
Now let’s discuss some offline strategies to promote your business in the local community.
Use the “Word of Mouth” Tactic
The real reason a business grows is that, as it serves better products, people start to talk about them and, hence, promote them. So, once you start making better quality products, the next step is to tell people about it!
You can join the local groups, arrange get-togethers. Always remember to share your business card at these events. Another important factor is providing the best customer support. People remember and continue to buy from brands that addressed their problems with grace and care.
Billboards, Brochures and Other Traditional Marketing
Billboards, brochures, street signs, television, radio, and print ads are all examples of traditional marketing that still works today. A wise decision will be to research which of these tactics are still acceptable to your target audience before implementing them. Also, you can turn your vehicle into a moving billboard by painting it with your logo.
Contribute to Your Local Community
You must have heard the quote –
“What you send out, comes back.”
Don’t get me wrong here. I am not encouraging you to do charity in order to benefit. The truth is, your valuable contribution will make your business more trustworthy and recognizable in your local community.
Charity
People love to purchase from a brand that supports a noble cause. You can donate your products or services to a local charity rather than money. Also, volunteering at charitable events, fundraising, or donating a portion of your profits will help you give back to the community while subtly promoting your brand.
Event hosting
Local event hosting is one of the cheap but effective ways to promote your business. You can host local events such as marathons, job fairs or sponsor a local sports team. Just make sure they mention your brand name on their website and social media posts.
Get the Most Out of Marketing to Promote your Business in the Community
Now that you know about these 10 awesome strategies for how to promote your business in the community, you must be excited to apply them to your business, right?
Great! I truly hope this will turn out to be your breakthrough in the local community. Too busy to work on it? Don’t worry. You can always get professional help to plan out and promote your business in the community on your behalf.
Conclusion
Okay, we have discussed both online and offline, tips and tricks on how to promote your business in the community. Now it’s time for closing words.
The truth is, there is not one specific technique that will always work to reach and win over local customers. Some strategies will work, and some might not. Understanding the local customers’ mindset and combining both online and offline strategies according to that will help your business survive in the long run. Good luck!
