Though many business owners would like to consider the world their oyster when it comes to their company’s potential reach, this theory’s credibility might not quite be borne out in practice. Some firms are tied to a specific physical location and therefore need to focus their marketing efforts on local people.
Still, some companies – like law and accountancy firms – might need to portray themselves as “local” when they wouldn’t fit this bracket as closely as, say, a retail store only a few miles away from the target customer. Fortunately, in this situation, you can still use what are dubbed “local” marketing techniques.
When exactly does marketing become “local”?
It would be understandable if you are still wondering exactly what “local” marketing is. Small Business Trends defines it as “marketing strategies and tactics that target potential customers locally within a certain radius of a business – typically within 50 miles”.
However, there can be situations where a business wants to promote itself to potential customers or clients based at least 50 miles away. Lawyers and accountants, for example, might be based “regionally” but seek to invite “local” clients to their offices for in-person consultations.
Add local landing pages to your company’s website
If you’ve got a long list of locations you would like your business to target besides any where it is physically based, you should heed advice – as shared on the Business News Daily website – that, for each of these locations, you create and dedicate an individual page on your company’s website.
Each of these location pages should include information specific to your business. So, if you run a digital marketing agency covering the Durham area, you could insert keywords like “digital marketing agency in Durham” rather than simply “digital marketing agency”.
Team up with other businesses that genuinely are “local”
This tactic can work especially well when the business with which yours partners has goals that complement – rather than directly match – your company’s own. For example, the previously-mentioned digital marketing agency could partner with a Durham-based firm specializing in print services if the agency itself doesn’t offer any.
Use – and advertise – a “local” phone number
This is more of a practical option than you might have previously realized. Let’s assume, for example, that you do have an office in Durham. There’s probably a local phone number attached to that office – a number which you have put on all of your corporate publicity materials.
However, what if you then opt to relocate your business away from Durham, perhaps in a bid to capture a wider market? Would you then need to create new publicity materials to advertise a new phone number? Not necessarily if you had implemented SIP trunking allowing number flexibility.
This flexibility could let your business keep its local “Durham” number even after moving away from the area and so help your company to keep regular custom it has garnered there. All the same, though, you should consult your telecoms provider beforehand to make sure such number flexibility would be possible in your case.
