Local Marketing: Attract Customers to your Business

Local marketing is a strategic technique that focuses its efforts on a specific area. specific geographic locationin order to attract potential customers to the area.. If you have a local business and want to direct more customers to it, we tell you how to do it, read on! This technique has not ceased to gain importance, and more and more searches are being conducted in which the consumer has a local intent. Approximately 40% of searches for products or services are for local products.60% of users use cell phones or tablets to make them, of which more than 50% of those who use mobile devices end up going to the store.

BENEFITS OF LOCAL MARKETING

How does this type of marketing benefit us?

• It allows us to direct communication with the public, which enhances consumer outreach and loyalty.
• Improves the creation of the buyer persona,which will allow us to have a more relevant audience.
• It is used to createcustom contentmaking the creative process much simpler and having a greater diffusion and relevance for users.
• Increases our influence and knowledge in the area.

STRATEGIES AND HOW TO IMPLEMENT THEM

Although there are many strategies that can be used to carry out local marketing, some of the most interesting are:

• Local SEOOne of the strategies where we must be more persistent. Create content very focused on your location, for example: "Tintorería Gamonal".
• Activity in Social Networking: It is essential to be active online and to make yourself known. They help to reach potential customers for free. 
• Google Ads and Facebook AdsThey can be the perfect way to reach people who have never visited your business before. The segmentation of these two tools will optimize your reach to potential customers. 
• Sponsors local eventsCaptures the attention of many people in person. Sponsoring any event can attract potential customers to your business. 
• Partner with neighboring businessesIdeal strategy if you have a low budget, recommending each other among locals is always a good option. 
• Organizes contestsYou will quickly increase your followers, it is always a very attractive action in social networks. The possibilities of the prize are endless, from a free hairdressing session to giving away an Iphone 11, you choose!
• Use the blogLoyalty to your customers and also does not require much training to be able to handle it. It works very well as a communication channel. 
• Post in Facebook groupsJoin local groups where your target market is located, posting content in them makes group members more likely to engage. 
• Influencers: Offer them a free service or product. You will gain a lot of local influence. 
• Local HashtagsUse them in your publications to attract more local customers. Its correct use will make the business easier to find for users.
• Location labels: Easily show where your company is located on the map. 

MAIN TOOLS FOR LOCAL MARKETING

As with strategies, we have many tools to help us reach our customers with local intent, in this post we will focus on Google My Business, Google Local Campaigns, local inventory in Google Shopping, ad customizer and Facebook.

Google My Business

It allows us to position our company for free in Google searches as well as in Maps. The higher the match with our local file, the smaller the user's distance customer service and more known the better our company is (the ratings we have count a lot), the better our positioning will be. But for this we must have a optimized cardThe more information and details we provide, the more relevant it will be to the users who see our listing. Verifying our locations, adding photos, answering reviews and keeping updated schedules will give us better visibility. Also in "Google My Business Statistics" you will be able to see how users find you, where they do it, what actions they perform after entering your listing and what are the hours and duration of their visits. A good idea is to linking My Business and Google AdsWe can add location extensions to increase the quality level of our ads and provide more information to customers.

Google Local Campaigns

These campaigns are focused on the offline conversions for given locations. They are based on Machine Learning for optimization. We can make them for Google Maps, Search Network, YouTube and Display.For its configuration we must set a target of store visits and local promotions. Location selection can be done from Google My Business or affiliated locations. Accept product feed for local products and must be previously uploaded from business data.

Local Inventory on Google Shopping

Promote on Google Shopping the physical store inventory nearest to the user. It allows the user to make the purchase online or to go to the nearest store to buy the product. For its configuration we must:

1. Linking Google Ads, My Business and Merchant Center accounts
2. Enable program in Merchant Center
3. Upload main feed
4. Upload local inventory feed
5. Request inventory verification
6. Enable local inventory ads in campaigns

It is important to note that for the local inventory feed the following attributes will be required: id, store code, quantity and price.

Ad customizer

Personalizers can use a user's physical location (or site they are interested in) to display calls to action, product availability and pricing specific to that location. They allow you to offer location-specific information using a single ad.To create them, we must upload in a feed the data of the customizer with the information associated with each location, if you have doubts about how to create the ad customizer, we leave you here anof our step-by-step training.

Facebook

Finally, Facebook can also help us to bring local traffic to our business. To generate traffic to the business we can use local siteswhere the page is customized by location and can be substituted for the main page. If what you want is to manage the stores or locations of the business,Facebook has its own "My Business". And to add stores, it gives us multiple methods like adding manually, adding multiple stores, connecting via API or connecting a page.

EXAMPLE 'SHARE A COKE

An example of a company that used local marketing is Coca-Cola, with the 'share a Coke' campaign, one of the best sales results worldwide. In Australia alone, 250 million bottles of Coca-Cola were sold. The product was individualized, using regional names to encourage customers to go into stores to buy their cans. It was aimed at consumers using social networks to share their experience.

CONCLUSIONS

Last but not least, before you start, you will have to keep these conclusions in mind:

• The planning is the first essential step
• The market study is of great importance
• Don't forget the constant updating
• Customize content will help your results
• Useseveral channels