Welcome to the post 50,000 Foot View on How to Advertise Your Local Business.
Show off yourself. Don’t wait for customers to find you.
Maybe you own a retail store or a restaurant. You understand that customers are your lifeblood, and you could always use more, right? That is where we come in 🙂
As easy as it is to reach out to new customers in the current era, many local businesses find it challenging to generate sales using online marketing tactics.
According to a recent study, almost 50% of small businesses fail in the first five years of launch.
Reasons are enormous: high competition, saturated industry, inflation rate, and old marketing tactics, to state a few.
We do not want you to be one of these 50%s!
And that is why we will help you combat all the challenges and establish a successful business you have always wanted.
1. Begin with Knowing Your Customers
The first thing that needs to be done is to understand consumer behavior.
- Who are your customers?
- What do they need?
- What do they expect from a business?
- How do they want to be treated?
Find answers to these questions and then start advertising to the relevant market. Marketing is not about selling instead building trust among customers. To better understand developing marketing strategy, consider Nike’s example. Nike became famous not by selling shoes but by selling the idea that their shoes fulfill the fitness freaks’ needs. They approached their customers with a solution. Moreover, Nike does not demonstrate the features of products in ads. Its primary focus is on connecting with the customers emotionally. Believe me; this is how the customer wants to be treated.
2. SEO
Search engine optimization is a free method to get organic ranking on the Search Engine Result Page (SERP). SEO needs consistent efforts and a period of at least 4 to 6 months to show results. Along with other strategies of SEO, keyword strategy helps people to find your website easily. You can use this strategy by adding high search and low competition keywords in your web content and post blogs with trending topics related to your website.
3. SEM
SEM has the same intent as SEO, i.e., to enhance your visibility in search engines. Search engine marketing is a paid strategy in which your website gets a place in the search engine’s ads section. You bid on a keyword, so whenever a person does a search using that keyword, your ad will appear in the ad section of SERP.
4. Social Media
Nothing works better than social media marketing when targeting millions of people and building long-term relationships with them. Social media platforms, if utilized correctly, give your ROI a boost that you have been striving for so long.
In the beginning, you can build free profiles on platforms like Facebook and Instagram; with time, start using their paid ads option too, for better reach, engagement, and conversions.
People also use other platforms like Linkedin, Twitter, Pinterest, etc., depending on the business type (B2B or B2C) and potential customers’ availability.
Most small businesses interact with their customers through social media daily. It does not mean you will get conversion out of every potential customer, but it will keep your business on their radar whenever they think of purchasing something you also sell.
To find great images we like to use Canva. Check them out here!
5. Use Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is a relatively new marketing strategy where a business collaborates with an influencer (a famous person who can influence an audience). The influencer speaks about your brand in the audience. As more people get to know you, your brand recognition increases which eventually results in boosted ROI.
Word of mouth has always been the most successful strategy to convert a potential customer into a buyer. Millions of people follow influencers. You can leverage their fandom for your business.
6. Email Marketing
An opportunity that should not be missed!
According to research, almost half of the world’s population has email access. This stat suggests that even the smallest business in a developed country must make use of email marketing.
You can use a tool like Mailchimp to get started. To encourage people to subscribe for email notifications, offer one time discount or other benefits.
Some More Tips
In addition to the described strategies, you can choose from other strategies too. Some examples are business cards, running a contest, supporting other small businesses, using print media, etc.
Just remember this, if you want to target a huge market, then digital ways are far more effective than the traditional ones.
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