The local presence defines the area surrounding where you conduct business. For most small businesses, it involves the neighborhoods in the area and possibly the entire city. When you zero in on local customers, you eliminate some of the nationwide or international competition.
Only you know the impact you might have on your community. A foreign entity won’t be as familiar with the area and won’t know how to tap into the goodwill of your area. For a lot of small businesses, local presence means improving the world closest to them. What do you give back locally that is most notable?
Focusing on a local presence can spur your website traffic and business growth. The supply chain challenges of the last couple of years have caused more people to turn to local searches to see if stores have items in stock.
At Growth Hackers, we have helped dozens of local-focused businesses strengthen their digital presence and capture nearby demand, leading to increases in qualified local traffic and conversions by up to 65% as more users rely on online searches to find nearby solutions.
Think With Google surveyed customers around the globe and found that 36% of people go online to mitigate supply shortages. If people now start their hunt for a product online, your digital presence must meet demand.
How Can We Improve Our Local Presence?
If you run a service-based business, it’s vital that you help local residents find you so you can help them with their related pain points. Your best approach involves both online and offline efforts.
Here are some of our favorite tips to boost your local presence and reach people in your area who might not yet know you exist.
1. Embrace Mobile Responsiveness
A recent look at mobile usage trends shows about 63.22% of all internet traffic comes from mobile devices. If your site isn’t mobile-friendly, you could lose out on quite a bit of local traffic you’d otherwise gain. Make sure everything adapts well to a smaller screen.
Check that images and text appear as they should. Does your navigation bar resize or turn into a hamburger menu? How do forms work on smartphones?
Ideally, your site looks similar on a small screen as it does on a big one. However, if you want people to stay on your site and not bounce away, you should focus on form over function. Make sure every element works as expected.
2. Ask for Referrals
You likely have some loyal customers or family and friends who love what you do. One way to expand your local presence is by asking them to refer you to people they know. You can tie a referral program into a rewards system, but the key is to choose the best referral program for your business model and stick with it.
Once a customer recommends you to others, they’re also more likely to stay. It’s not easy to sing someone’s praises and then admit you’re using another company. Offer them the best customer service possible and you’ll likely have a fan for life.
Your loyalty program can be easily tied to referrals. Offer customers points for purchases, for sending others your way who purchase something, and for talking about your brand on social media and other venues.
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3. Keep Your Listings Consistent
Have you ever looked up closing or opening times for a business only to arrive and find them closed? Often, companies list their hours and address on various local directories and then completely forget to ever look at them again.
Keep a list of where you’ve posted information about your business. Whenever you do an update, update it everywhere so they’re the same. Don’t forget things such as your Facebook business page, Google Business Profile (GBP), and your website.
Avoid frustrating customers who want to spend money. Make sure all hours-of-operation listings are correct. Include your website, address, and phone number. If you update anything, update all sites where you have a listing.
In our client engagements at Growth Hackers, we have encountered a local HVAC business losing potential customers due to outdated hours and mismatched contact details across directories (especially on their GBP), and once we standardized and synchronized all listings, customers experienced fewer frustrations and engagement with the HVAC contractor became noticeably more reliable.
4. Geotarget your Audience
Have you ever stopped in front of a store and suddenly received a ping from them about a sale or new product arrivals? Geotargeting works in a variety of ways, but using it for apps is one of the most common.
The pandemic threw online shopping into hyperdrive. In the last year or two, people installed 55% more retail apps on their Android phones and 32% more on their iOS devices. Look for ways to remind people you’re there and what you have to offer.
Before using geotargeting, one of the plastic surgery practices we helped with often relied on broad, untargeted messaging that missed high-intent local audiences, but after implementing precise location-based strategies with Growth Hackers, they were able to engage nearby patients/customers in real time and turn proximity into measurable conversions.
5. Localize Content
If you want to drive traffic to your webpage, you need fresh content. However, you can choose to come up with some local pieces pertaining specifically to customers in your area. Localize your content by thinking through the specific pain points your customers experience.
We approach localized content at Growth Hackers like tailoring a conversation to your neighborhood, where the message reflects the environment, challenges, and priorities of the people you are speaking to, making it far more relevant and impactful.
For example, if you run a heating and cooling company, you might write a piece about how to winterize your system in a cold climate. If your business is in Florida, however, the topics might go more toward how to check an outside unit for damage after a hurricane or how to get through if your air conditioning goes out.
6. Invest in a High-Quality Sign
When people drive past your place of business, do they know it’s there? Outdoor signage is vital to establishing a local brand presence and pulling people into your store. Your outdoor signs should match the tone of your business. When people pass by, they should instantly recognize your brand.
Pay attention to how well the sign performs from different angles and distances. If people drive past, will they be able to see what the sign says? If they’re up close, is it still clear?
7. Seek Inbound Links
Talk to other business owners and ask if they’d like to share links. You can benefit from traffic from their customers and vice versa. You may even want to team up and offer specials. For example, a local restaurant and movie theater might each offer 20% off with a receipt or ticket stub.
Such partnerships and joint promotions can expand your network of local customers by exposing you to others in the area. However, be careful not to team up with a competitor, as it may result in a loss of business. Other brands should always be complementary to yours.
Examples include:
- Wedding planner and a bakery branding partnership
- Hair stylist and fashion advisor
- Mary Kay consultant and bridal dress shop
- Restaurant and entertainment venue
Finding like-minded small business owners shouldn’t be too difficult. Attend meetings of your local Chamber of Commerce and reach out to the businesses around you.
At Growth Hackers, we have helped a local law firm build high-quality inbound link partnerships with complementary local businesses (e.g. Fintech, insurance and banking), improving domain authority and driving referral traffic growth of 37% within 7 months through strategic collaborations.
8. Ask for Feedback
Talk to your most loyal customers about adding online reviews and telling others what they love about your brand. Many people use Yelp to gather information about local businesses. If you want more reviews on the platform, ask people to add their thoughts.
Other places they can add a few words include Facebook, Google Reviews, and your website.
9. Advertise Offline
Surveys of business owners show only 22% are satisfied with their online marketing conversion rates. Online might seem like it makes the most sense for targeting local consumers, but offline still has some advantages. What are some old-school methods that are still effective?
Support a Local Sports Team
You’ll get your name and logo on shirts and usually a banner at the ballpark. Parents and kids will appreciate the support and think of you when they need a product or service you sell. If you can tie what you do to a particular sport, that’s even better.
Set Up a Booth
Nearly every community has a small art festival or some type of event with vendor booths. Go ahead and set one up and pass out free items such as pens, fans, or whatever else ties into your advertising efforts. You’ll create goodwill and meet some of your potential customers.
Hang Door Flyers
Invest in some good, old-fashioned legwork and walk the neighborhoods surrounding your business. Hang door flyers or place them in newspaper boxes. If you can add a special offer to the flyer, you may have more success getting the initial attention of your audience.
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Give Talks
What are you an expert in? If you want to establish yourself as the authority in your industry for your area, offer to talk about something they’d find interesting. If you sell medical equipment, put on a how-to workshop for local medical professionals.
Pay for Print Ads
Do you have a local free weekly newspaper? Invest in an ongoing ad to attract local business. You could also place ads in your high school newspaper or yearbook. You’ll build goodwill with the local school while getting the word out.
Host an Event
Host a fun family event for your local community. Give out snow cones and hire some bouncy houses. Invite everyone to come to your “open house” and learn more about your business while munching on free snacks.
10. Pay for Local Keywords
Google’s share of the internet search market is greater than 92%. Businesses can tap into the power of Google ads to get their page listed at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs).
Before investing in local keyword advertising, one of our local clients struggled with low visibility in competitive search results, but after implementing targeted Google Ads strategies with Growth Hackers, their listings appeared at the top of SERPs, capturing intent-driven traffic and driving more consistent conversions.
For example, if someone searches for “restaurants in Louisville,” you can pay to get your results near the top of the page. The key is to target the right keywords at the correct rate so you have a solid return on investment for your advertising dollars.
Your Local Reputation
Even more important than how strong your local presence might be is your reputation among the community. Are you known for excellent customer service and being a good citizen? If you anger half your customer base, you can be sure they’ll tell family and friends and all will run to your competitor. Take the time to really connect with your local patrons and you’ll be ahead of the game.
Growth Hackers is without a doubt one of the best small business SEO companies helping businesses from all over the world grow. There is no fluff with Growth Hackers. We help entrepreneurs and business owners strengthen their local presence, increase their productivity, generate qualified leads, optimize their conversion rate, gather and analyze data analytics, acquire and retain users and increase sales.
We go further than brand awareness and exposure. We make sure that the strategies we implement move the needle so your business grow, strive and succeed. If you too want your business to reach new heights, contact Growth Hackers today so we can discuss about your brand and create a custom growth plan for you. You’re just one click away to skyrocket your business.
