What is Local Marketing?
Local marketing is more relevant than ever, particularly due to the pandemic forcing local businesses to go online.
However, even before COVID-19, nearly half of Google searches had local intent, and a third of consumers checked local businesses online daily.
We’ll look at what local marketing is, some examples of effective local online marketing strategies, and how you can use local marketing to promote your company in this guide.
Let’s get started.
Let us define more about marketing locally.
Local online marketing is a marketing technique that focuses on potential consumers within a 50-mile radius of a company’s physical location. It’s also known as community marketing, local store marketing, or location-based marketing.
Any brand with a physical brick-and-mortar location, such as shops and restaurants, as well as any locally-based companies that travel to a customer’s location, such as plumbers and electricians, will benefit from Local marketing.
To attract buyers, Local businesses may employ a variety of outbound and inbound marketing techniques, such as:
- Google My Business, Local SEO, social media marketing, and so on are examples of inbound marketing strategies.
- Display advertising, attendance at local events, community engagement, and so on are all examples of outbound marketing.
Local Marketing vs. Global Marketing
Marketing on a Local-level differs from marketing on a national level.
The majority of marketing guidance, such as that for a software service, focuses on global (or general) marketing. On the other hand, local companies do not need global reach; instead, they must concentrate on their local market.
One of the drawbacks of local marketing is that you might overthink it and spend time and resources on the wrong place and target audience.
If you have a dental clinic in Doha, for example, you can use the phrase “dental clinic in Doha” rather than the generic term “dental clinic” to reach people in your area.
Consumers say they won’t drive more than 20 minutes from home to make a regular purchase, according to 93 percent of respondents. As a result, make certain that you focus all of your attention on the right person in a specific geographic region.
Local Marketing | Why is it important?
Small and medium-sized companies that depend on customers visiting their physical location to buy products or access a service, such as stores, dentists, physiotherapists, bars, restaurants, and car dealerships, should emphasize local marketing.
Consumers use referrals and the internet to locate local businesses:
- 85 percent of business owners depend on referrals from friends and family.
- 90% of people have used the internet to locate a local company.
- Every day, 33% of customers look up local businesses on the internet.
The good news is that Google’s search algorithm considers a searcher’s location when viewing specific local businesses, even if the user doesn’t mention a location or uses the word “near me” in their question.
If you type in a generic word like “burger shop,” for example, the first results Google returns are burger joints near you:
This is a huge benefit for local businesses or companies, and it’s not difficult to put in place.
How to Promote Your Business With Local Marketing
We’ll break down digital marketing strategies and channels into three sections in this section:
- Local search engine optimization or Local SEO
- Content Marketing
- Paid advertising or an advertisement that is purchased
Local Search Engine Optimization or SEO
Local SEO aims to make local businesses more visible in search results, location pages, and online maps. It’s a significant feature of local advertising:
- The local aim is present in 46 percent of all Google searches
- Over the last two years, smartphone searches for “near me” have increased by 500%
- A local pack appears in the results of 29 percent of all Google SERPs
Map Set (Local Pack)
The “Map Pack,” also known as the “Local Pack” or “3-Pack,” would be familiar to anyone who has done any local searches. It’s the three local business results and map at the top of the search results page. If you type in “burger shop,” for example, you’ll get results like this example:
The most significant local marketing ranking factors
Local SEO is very similar to “normal” SEO. Google, on the other hand, employs a different set of ranking factors, including:
- The location that the person is searching from
- NAP citations
- Presence of Google My Business listing
- Keywords used in Google My Business profile
- The sentiment of online reviews
- Keywords used in online reviews
- Number of “check-ins” at that location
- Shares on social media
- Google Maps star rating for that business
If you’re in Qatar, promoting your products and services is so much easy. Check out the free classified ads in Qatar to boost your local business strategy.