10 innovative digital marketing ideas for local businesses
Local businesses come and go faster than we realize. It’s a competitive world we live in and having a quality product is simply not enough anymore. It becomes essential to properly market that product, otherwise, you might as well give up. Only by constantly pushing the margin and advertising your business in a variety of ways can you ensure long-term success. To help you along, Digital Dot offers the following list of innovative digital marketing ideas for local businesses.
Ten creative digital marketing ideas for local businesses
Digital marketing is all about drawing the attention of online users to your brand and your products. Unfortunately, a large number of businesses are competing over the same audience. It’s far from easy to get your small business to stand out. In order to help you develop an effective marketing plan, we are going to explore 10 innovative digital marketing ideas for local businesses.
#1: Host local events
One of the best ways for small local businesses to get noticed in their area is to host an event. However, not every business has the manpower and resources to put together an event on its own. If that’s the case for your business, you can consider supporting an event someone else is hosting. Take part in as many events as you can and connect with your local community. You can promote your events online and generate hype even before the event takes place. Post pictures and live videos from the event to build awareness and get users to interact with your profiles on various online platforms.
#2: Collaborate with other local businesses
A solid business strategy for any local business is to form partnerships with other local businesses. You can transfer your collaboration into digital spaces and work together on mutually beneficial cross-promotion. You can share each other’s content and contribute with guest articles. An added benefit of this strategy is the ability to build backlinks. Try to find a brand that supplements your business so that you can target a similar audience.
#3: Get help from influencers for your digital marketing strategy
There is a misconception that influencers need to be extremely popular to help your brand reach your target audience. Realistically, there is no doubt regarding the reach and popularity of macro-influencers. However, that kind of promotion comes with a hefty price tag. Sometimes, business owners who are on a budget are forced to look into innovative digital marketing ideas for local businesses. A strategy that is definitely worth exploring is getting local micro influencers to promote your business. Although these influencers might not have the level of global recognition that e-celebrities have, micro-influencers can still be popular with customers in your local area.
#4: Tell the story of your brand
One of the best ways to get users to care about your local business is to interest them in your brand’s story. People love hearing success stories. That story is going to be even more effective if it comes from someone in their own neighborhood. However, you won’t have a lot of time to tell a compelling story. User attention in online spaces is fairly limited. Therefore, you should partner with one of the best digital marketing agencies in New York to make sure that every element of your branding works together to effectively tell your story. Share pictures of your employees and team-building activities to connect to your users on a personal level.
#5: Connect with local online news outlets
Most communities have a local news outlet or digital newsletter that covers current events in their area. Connect with your local press and see if they would be willing to mention your business. Of course, it helps if you give them something interesting to write about. You could get them to mention one of the events you are hosting, or perhaps organize a contest and use their platform to promote the giveaway. Before you contact the local media outlets, make sure you put together a digital press kit. This should include basic info on your business as well as promotional images.
#6: Use social media
Plenty of real-life communities has online spaces where people who live in the area can gather and share information. Look up local groups on Facebook, use hashtags on Twitter, and create branded filters on Instagram. Unfortunately, if you are too promotional, you could easily alienate your audience. Make sure that most of what you post is genuinely interesting and informative. If you need help planning your campaign for social platforms, you can contact social media marketing NYC experts, they can suggest innovative digital marketing ideas for local businesses. The key is to connect to users in a natural way by offering them something other than just advertisements.
#7: Create specialized landing pages on your website
Regardless of where you plan to advertise, most of your marketing will lead users back to your website. For this reason, it is a good idea to create localized landing pages. This will help you improve your SEO and you will receive more organic traffic. If people in your community speak several languages, it might be a good idea to translate pages on your website for each of them.
#8: Use local phrases in your marketing
An integral part of any marketing campaign is doing keyword research. When you are putting together a list of keywords that you plan to use, make sure to include local phrases. Some areas have their own terminology or phrases, and including them in your advertising could give you the competitive edge you need. You can hire a New York SEO company to conduct research into which keywords are most important for your business niche, as well as what your competitors are ranking for. This will give you insight into which terms users are more likely to search for. Remember to rephrase the keywords so that they sound natural to users from your area.
#9: Encourage users to leave reviews
One of the benefits of having a small, local business is that you will be able to connect to your customers on an individual level. This means that if you kindly ask them to leave a review, they will probably oblige you. Reviews are a great way to stand out on Google maps, which can bring you even more customers. Try to respond to as many reviews and comments as you can, and engage users in conversation to further boost your SEO.
#10: Develop a loyalty program
Many local businesses rely on repeat purchases from their customers. You should develop a rewards program to show your most loyal customers how much you appreciate their trust. People generally trust word of mouth, and you can use that to your benefit. Offer rewards for referrals, and you will get more customers.
Rounding up
We’ve given you 10 innovative digital marketing ideas for local businesses which can help you grow your brand and build awareness in your community. These ideas aren’t mutually exclusive, so you can include all of them in your marketing strategy.