Whether you’ve recently launched your company or have just celebrated your 10th anniversary, local ads are a great marketing strategy. They can help promote your brand, reach your target audience, and, not to mention, increase sales.
This article was originally published by Ideas Plus Business.
Want to advertise locally but don’t know where to begin? We are here to help! Here are our top tips and go-to’s for advertising locally. But first, let’s discuss some benefits of choosing to go local.
Advantages of Local Advertising Over National Advertising
While you might not have the vast resources and budget of a larger business, your small company can use local advertising to gain an edge over your competition.
Local advertising is a powerful tool that provides a range of advantages over national advertising. To help you, we’ll talk about the specific benefits of using local marketing strategies.
1. Targeted Advertising with a Local Focus
To grow your customer base, you have to start targeting your market at the local level. Most small businesses don’t understand the impact of local advertising.
National advertising can indeed reach a wider audience, but this form of marketing doesn’t target consumers as precisely as local ads. You probably know this already, but the more targeted an ad is, the more effective your marketing campaign will be overall.
This is why local advertisements can be so powerful for SMBs. You create ads with a local focus on your exact audience. And, geotargeting and other digital marketing tools can be utilized to aim your ads at specific demographics that will be interested in your products and services.
Ads can also be sent to highly specific locations during the best time frames. As a result, you’ll maximize the potential of your advertisements in your local area.
2. Cost-Effective Advertising Campaigns
Local advertising campaigns cost less money in comparison to national advertising efforts. Since you’ll be focusing your ads on a smaller group of people, you won’t need to purchase as much advertising space. Instead, each ad is customized to directly reach your smaller target audience.
In general, local ads are a more affordable option for small businesses. And, since your ads will be pushed to specific demographics that fit with your brand, you can increase your sales and get a return on interest much faster.
3. Increased Exposure to Your Intended Audience
National advertising promotes your brand to a larger audience. However, these far-reaching ads don’t always reach your intended audience. This is where local ads might be preferable.
If you want to connect with a specific group and make sure they are exposed to your ads at a higher rate, then advertising locally will be ideal. Local advertisements target customers who are most likely to engage with your small business.
National ads can do this, as well, but local ads improve accuracy by honing in on a smaller group of customers, which can increase your ad exposure to your intended audience.
4. Enhances Mobile Advertising Efforts
Finally, local advertising is ideal for SMBs that are targeting shoppers on the go. This is great if you are using mobile ads as a part of your marketing efforts. Targeted mobile ads in local regions are highly effective. They can be aimed at customers who are out shopping.
In addition, as a local small business, you have an advantage over larger businesses. Not only are you closer to your target market, but you can reach your consumers directly because of your location and your connection to the local community.
Local Ads: Not Just for Small Businesses
The benefits of local ads aren’t limited to SMBs. Larger corporations and brands can improve their marketing campaigns and save money by advertising locally.
Again, national advertising is important for widespread brand awareness. However, to target customers in local markets and drive growth, you should be investing in local ads.
No matter what type of business you own, local ads are a must. Especially for larger companies that are interested in creating hyper-focus campaigns that cater to customers in specific areas of the country.
Five Ways to Successfully Advertise in your Region
As you can tell, local ads have their own set of strengths that may rival that of a national campaign, and even more for growing businesses. But what good is a campaign without some creative ideas on how to go about advertising regionally?
1. Geotargeting
When advertising, you want to make sure you are reaching your desired audience. Geotargeting makes this possible by advertising to people based on their location.
By focusing on consumers in your area (whether that be your city, county, etc.) you will not only effectively reach potential customers but also save money. Want to get even more specific? Zip code targeting can be used to promote your company to people in particular zip codes to streamline advertising.
We spend more time scrolling through websites and social media than we’d like to admit, so why not take your advertising digital? Even if you aren’t a huge company, utilizing social media as a platform to promote your business and advertise locally has its benefits.
You can grow brand awareness, track analytics, and increase website traffic if your company is digital. Your business can even geotarget these platforms and pinpoint potential customers in your area. If you are already advertising via print, try expanding your reach digitally and get a lot of value via a cost-effective platform.
3. Offer local discounts
What better way to draw attention to your company than a sale? Better yet, an exclusive sale to the community. Offering local discounts is a great way to capitalize on free local business advertising. When companies offer local discounts, people spread the word. Everybody loves a deal.
Not only do local discounts increase sales, but they also create business exposure– for free! As people tell their friends and family about the discount, your company gains recognition and notability in the communities that matter most to your sales. People will remember your company and frequent your business even after the discount has ended.
4. Build relationships
To effectively advertise locally, you need to create strong relationships with other companies and corporations. Whether that be the local newspaper or a Facebook group, get active with other businesses.
Join relevant groups and build connections; it is all about who you know! Creating brand awareness by forming relationships with other companies is a great way to promote your business to other business owners. These connections could lead to partnerships or even joint promotions.
5. Connect with the community
Similar to tip number four, connecting with your community is a great way to promote your company at the local level and cultivate brand notability. Whether that be donating to a fun run or participating in a holiday fair, forming relationships and building connections with those right in your neighbourhood is a great way to advertise your business.
Again, it creates brand recognition and humanizes your company, making it more likely people will utilize your business and recommend you to family and friends. It is a great way to advertise your business within your community.
Other Local Marketing Channels or Platforms for SMBs
To wrap up this post, we’ll talk about some other local marketing channels and platforms SMBs can use to expand their business. There are a few options to consider when planning your local marketing strategy.
1. Local Business Directories
Small businesses can take advantage of free advertising options. You can list your local business for free on local business directories. This includes Google, Bing, Yelp, Foursquare, Mapquest, and many other choices.
Customers in your area are already looking online for places to shop and spend their money. This is a great way to locally advertise and increase your web traffic and sales.
2. TV Advertisement
TV advertising can get a little pricey, but at the local level SMBs can purchase TV ads for a reasonable price. These types of ads are highly cost-effective as they widely expose your business to the local region. Best of all, you can get creative with television advertisement campaigns!
3. Radio Advertisement
Social media and other forms of digital marketing are important for local advertising. But, you might want to expand your reach with the power of radio advertising.
Radio ads are great at targeting people in a local area and your ads can be aimed at specific demographics within this platform. The cost of radio advertisements is lower than TV ads, and you reach a similar amount of people.
4. Local Newspaper Advertisement
Finally, consider using your local newspaper to advertise your small business. Newspaper ads aren’t as effective as other marketing channels. However, for an affordable price, you can build up more trust and rapport with your local community by advertising in the newspaper.
The Art of Local Advertising For SMBs
Your local marketing strategy plays an important role in the success of your small business.
SMBs might not have the same resources as large companies, but you can plan an effective local advertising campaign to hit your target audience and boost your sales and customer engagement.
