How To Promote Your Business Locally To Skyrocket Your Sales
When you work in the contracting industry, your business relies on local clients. This means that whether you're cleaning homes or helping people move, you need to know how to promote your business locally. Check out these tips for local business marketing to help you make the most of your advertising strategies.
Make the Most of Google
Become familiar with Google and its practices to ensure your local business marketing meets its guidelines.
1. Claim and Update Your Google Business Listing
More than 97% of consumers search for local businesses on the Internet. Google creates lists of the most reputable ones via its free business listings. This is the first step you need to take when considering how to promote your business locally. By claiming your listing, you can ensure your company's address and phone number are correct, as well as add directions, hours, and a link to your website.
The listing also allows verified businesses to upload photos, respond to consumer reviews, and receive a star rating. You can even set up Google Alerts, which allows you to monitor what people are saying about your business. Receive reports directly to your email and respond to both positive and negative feedback promptly to develop a more professional reputation.
2. Learn How To Promote Your Business Locally With the Best SEO Practices
Search engine optimization, often shortened to SEO, allows you to set up your website and social media profiles with keywords and phrases that help your company rise to the top of the search engine results pages. Some simple SEO tips to help you start include using different titles for each page on your website, using keywords and phrases with your location in them to help locals find you, and including your business name, location, and phone number on each of your website pages and social media pages. Google does change what it considers the best SEO practices often. If you won't have time to keep up with any changes, it may be more feasible to hire someone who knows how to promote your business locally.
Learn How to Use Social Media Effectively
According to an article by Hootsuite, a popular social media management application, nearly 3.5 billion people use social media, and more than 40% of them use social media to research new brands. Your company's social media presence is more important than ever.
1. Set Up Your Social Media Profiles
If you don't already have social media profiles set up, now is the time. In addition to LinkedIn, which is a more networking- and business-focused social media platform, you need to set up accounts on the main social media platforms that consumers use. Start with the big three: Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. If your product or service is one that fits into the crafting or DIY world of Pinterest, it's also a good idea to create an account there.
2. Upload Content Often
It isn't enough to simply sign up for social media as a means of knowing how to promote your business locally. You need to use it! This means posting regularly to create engagement. Facebook and Instagram do best when you post 1-2 times per day, but you should use Twitter 5-10 times a day and post up to 30 pins per day on Pinterest. Because LinkedIn is more business-oriented, expect to use it less. About one post per business day is enough.
Using the correct content is important as well. Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest are all picture- and video-heavy and rely on strong images. Twitter likes micro-bits of text, and LinkedIn posts should focus on the business side of your company. When creating content, be sure you're engaging with your own posts as well. React to the responses you get and respond via comments or private messages when appropriate.
Get Out and About in the Community
Of course, local marketing isn't all about the internet. You need to put yourself out there literally as well.
1. Give Back to Your Community
Consumers love to support local businesses that give back to the local community. In fact, many of them will want to know how to promote your business locally for you if they feel you are a strong community leader. Being active in your neighborhood, town, or city not only gets your company's name out there but also provides you with a favorable reputation.
Ways to help include supporting holiday food and toy drives, paying for lunches or snacks for school-age kids, hosting community days, and much more. If you aren't sure what your community needs help with most, ask your local government officials for suggestions.
2. Speak at Local Events
When you speak at local events related to your industry, you position yourself as an expert that your community can trust. Libraries, schools, and local business groups often need speakers for these types of functions. You can also consider industry conferences, community events, and volunteer organizations.
Offer Incentives to Your Current Customers
People love incentives. If you offer the right ones to your current customers, they will be more likely to introduce new customers to your business.
1. Create a Customer Loyalty Program
If you've already established a loyal customer base, reward them by teaching them how to promote your business locally. This marketing ploy has double benefits. First, it will provide an incentive for current customers to spend more money. Second, if the loyalty program is good enough, those customers may tell their friends (potential new customers) about it. It can be as simple as providing a free service or product after a certain number of visits or as complex as a tier-based loyalty program for your big spenders.
2. Implement a Referral Program
This is another tried-and-true method of bringing in new customers via your current ones. Whether you're cleaning carpets or building decks, you can offer discounts based on referrals. Perhaps your current clients can receive free deck refinishing while your new ones earn a 15% discount if they provide the name of who referred them. This works for many industries:
Knowing how to promote your business locally takes time and effort that goes beyond Googling "how to advertise my business locally." However, if you are willing to put in the work, you'll soon begin to see success in bringing in new customers, retaining current ones, and creating a more favorable reputation among your community. Check out Billy.com to learn more about networking within your community and industry.
