If you’re a small business owner who’s trying to extend their reach locally, you need to be creative with your marketing methods and use a good mix of them. You cannot put all your eggs in the same basket as some methods may stop working overnight leaving you scrambling for new ideas. Keeping an open mind when it comes to marketing could also help you cut costs. Let’s take a look at some of the techniques all small, locally based businesses should consider trying.
Direct Mail Marketing
It’s surprising to see how many small businesses completely overlook direct mail marketing. But you should know that it is still one of the most powerful marketing tools you can use as a small business, especially if it’s local or hyper-local. As a matter of fact, studies have shown that open rates for direct mail have increased over the last few years, and a lot of it may have to do with online marketing oversaturation. You still have to know what makes for a good direct mail campaign, however, and closely monitor your results to see how efficient your campaigns are so you can make adjustments if needed.
If you want to get the best direct mail response rates possible, you should check out the resources on Lob’s website. They explain exactly what good direct mail response rates should look like and how you can measure them accurately. They also teach you how you can gauge the quality of your responses and a few tips on how you can improve them too. One of the things you can do to improve your response rates is to always include a special offer with your mailings. You have to make it front and center and try to keep your mailings as simple as possible too. Using colorful and unusual formats can also help.
Local SEO
Local SEO is more than a marketing method for small businesses; it should be a prerequisite to having a small business period. You cannot afford to not have a good local SEO strategy as a small local business. Most people look for online reviews before they look at anything else, and not having your listing high in the business section means that you will be invisible to a large portion of your local audience. Not only that, but your competitors who are using local SEO properly will end up eating from your plate. This is why you need to ramp up your efforts if you’ve been neglecting local SEO.
Everything starts with your Google My Business listing and your NAP (name, address, phone number) information. Your NAP information must be consistent everywhere it’s posted online or else you will confuse Google’s bots and your listing will be penalized. So, check your social media, website, blog, and any directory where you’re listed to see if your information is the same everywhere.
The next thing you have to do is try to make your name known in your community. This will increase organic mentions of your brand, which will have a direct impact on your business listing’s visibility. You also need good reviews if you’re just getting started or try turning things around if you have a lot of bad reviews.
Depending on the state of your ratings, you might have to do a complete rebrand. If the situation is still salvageable, look at what people are complaining about. Then look at your competition and see what people like about their products and services. You could even visit their establishment in person and gauge the customer experience. You’ll then be able to make changes and try to generate fresh reviews through outreach.
PPC
PPC could be one of the most efficient and powerful marketing tools any small local business can use. What makes PPC so powerful is that you can bid on specific terms directly related to your business and have one of your ads appear right on the first page of Google next, over, or under organic search results. You’ll only have to pay for when people click on ads too, unlike with banner ads where you have to pay per impression.
PPC only works if there’s not too much competition, however. This is because high competition could drive the price per click way out and price you out for most or all main keywords. Competition shouldn’t automatically deter you, however. The bid price might still be worth it, but you need to have your customer acquisition costs and customer lifetime value down so that you don’t go overboard.
These are all techniques that you should be using as a small business that mainly serves clients locally. We suggest that you look at all of them closely, learn as much as you can about them, and start with small steps so you don’t end up burning yourself.
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