As a digital marketing agency in Orange County, we offer plenty of ideas to get your local business booming. Here are ten of them.
1. Work with Local Influencers
Influencers have become more plentiful these days, and partnering with an influencer in your area is a great way of promoting your business. You can find local influencers in a variety of ways. You can comb through your list of followers and look for those with a substantial number of followers. Since they already follow you, there’s a high chance they’ll agree to partner with you! You could also Google local influencers in your area and relevant keywords and hashtags on social media to find the most popular influencers around. If that’s too out of your league, you could always get social listening software like Google Alerts and SEMrush to do the work for you. Once you’ve built a list of influencers, draft a mutually beneficial proposal that will help them create content while advertising your brand to their followers.2. Create Stories Around Your Brand
Growing up, a particular advertisement that stuck out to me once was a Valentines-theme commercial based on a true story. A man noticed that a woman he liked loved a particular restaurant’s burgers and decided to gift her plenty of them as a token of his affection. In the end, the two got together and continued to eat those burgers even as a married couple! Cute and sentimental stories like this tend to be very memorable. Consider gathering anecdotes from your customers, researching local history, and creating fictional narratives!3. Prioritize Local SEO
You should create content that’s specific to your local area and promote your business in articles. This way, you can attract nearby customers both online and on foot! For example, you can write an article on cute date ideas and mention your restaurant. You could also write about useful gifts for Mother’s Day and list your product as an option. These types of articles make for an entertaining read, have good local visibility, and advertises your brand without being too blatant. If you’re looking for more help on SEO, Drive Traffic Media can help you out. We are an Orange County SEO expert that can get the job done!4. Join Local Facebook Groups
Joining Facebook groups in your area is a good way to learn more about your customers and promote your business at the same time. However, take care not to be too in-your-face with your promotions. They’re viewed as spammy and may even turn people off. Instead, try to engage with the members by posting something related to your brand. For example, ask about what their plans are for Christmas eve. Casually name-drop your restaurant’s name and say you’re ordering food from them. Or, you could also say you’re hosting a reading club at your bookstore.5. Emphasize Your “Localness”
People love getting products and services quickly and easily. Make sure to drop in the full address of your physical store and its distance from the city center so the locals know your store is easily accessible. Furthermore, having that “localness” factor is advantageous over big brands and corporations as they may already have stores in nearby towns or cities and can’t target your local area.6. Follow Tags and Mentions
Whether it’s good publicity or bad, you should always respond to any reviews your local customers may have. Responding to good reviews can be a great future marketing opportunity while responding to bad reviews shows you care about customer feedback. Use apps like Google Alerts and Tweetdeck to monitor your mentions.7. Utilize Local Media
Almost all towns and cities have their own forms of media whether it be a local newspaper or a city website. Try and get connected with journalists and publishers to get some publicity for your brand. Whether it be giving opinions on community matters, sharing your brand’s vision-mission, or promoting an upcoming sale, advertising through the local media is a good way to get your name out there.8. Organize Local Events
If you’ve got the resources to do so, we highly encourage organizing events. This can be a physical or online event. As much as possible, try to center your planned event around a goal. This encourages people to take part, especially if it’s for a cause they believe in. If your store sells art supplies, for example, you can organize an art gallery with lots of local artists. This way, you can advertise your products, bring some business to other small business owners, promote your brand through social media and word-of-mouth, and do some networking with other attendees.9. Host Contests and Giveaways
People love free things. People also find it hard to spend money on things unfamiliar to them. So, a good solution is to give people freebies to let them get a taste of what you have to offer and encourage them to buy more. Good examples for small businesses include a raffle, where a like and share counts as one entry; first-come-first-serve, where the first number of customers gets a product or service for free; or a free sample included with every purchase.10. Partner with Other Businesses
We strongly encourage collaboration with other businesses. Doing so can help you get a wider reach by promoting your brand to their customers and expanding the scope of products and services you offer. You can also develop a strong support and networking system—in such a competitive world, having more people on your side is super helpful.