Create Local Marketing Success with These 6 Essential Elements

By Raubi Perilli

Jan 9, 2020 Solutions

While it may feel like mega national and international brands seem to get bigger by the day, that doesn’t mean that there’s no chance for local businesses and brands.

With the right local marketing efforts, boutique brands and regional businesses can survive -- and thrive!

If you’re a small or local business trying to reach nearby customers, you can successfully build a loyal following and customer base. You just need to know-how. To help you get what you need to succeed at local marketing, here is a list of six critical elements every good local marketing strategy needs.

Critical Elements for Local Marketing Success

Focus on each of these six elements to find local marketing success in 2020 and beyond.

#1) Location Landing Pages

A location landing page is what it sounds like. It’s a page on a business’s website that shares details about a specific storefront and its surrounding area. While the rest of the website has information about the brand as a whole (about page, blog, product information, etc.), the location page shares information that is unique to one specific store.

Here’s an example location landing page for the Chicken Salad Chick.

These pages are extremely important for franchise and regional brands who want to find local marketing success. Each page gives users information they need about the particular property (address, phone, hours, etc.). The page also sends local SEO signals to search engines, helping the page show up when nearby customers search for terms related to the business.

#2) Google My Business Listing

A Google My Business (GMB) Listing is a free directory page created through Google. The information added to a GMB page is what controls the information that appears as a rich search result on Google when people search for terms related to a business.

Here’s how a GMB listing for Chicken Salad Chick appears in search.

For local marketing success, you must create, control, and regularly update your GMB page. Having a listing helps your brand show up in local searches. Not having or controlling your page can result in misinformation on the page (such as wrong address or hours) and losing customers who actively looking to visit a business like yours.

#3) Business Listings

A Google My Business listing isn’t the only directory site that a business should be on if they want to find local marketing success. Business listings help Google (and other search engines) associate a business with a specific region or area. They also show that the business is a legitimate and trustworthy brand given that it has a large online footprint. The association and verification leads to higher visibility on search engine results pages.

Brands should build profiles on relevant local business directories as well as social sites. They also need to focus on NAP consistency as they build their profiles. NAP consistency refers to the business name, address, and phone number on each account. It’s important for each listing to have exactly the same information to help search engines recognize and verify the brand details.

#4) Local Area Sites

To tap into local marketing, brands also need to create a profile on MyArea Network’s Local Area Sites. Local Area Sites are community websites organized by area code. Each area code is represented with their own site, such as 813area.com for the Tampa region.

Here’s an example of the profile for one of Chicken Salad Chick’s locations.

To connect with local customers, brands should create a page for each location on the relevant Local Area Site. With regional “best of” articles, event listings, and community pages, Area Sites are a great way to get in front of an engaged local audience who is looking for the best things to do, see, and eat in their area.

#5) Reviews

When it comes to choosing which local business to visit, many customers rely heavily on reviews. People look to both their friends and other locals to tell them the best places to go. A survey by Bright Local found that “82% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses.” To succeed at local marketing, brands must focus on collecting and curating reviews.

By creating business listings and social media, Google My Business, and MyArea Network pages, brands can start this process as most platforms have a review component. Then, it’s on the brand to reach out to customers to encourage them to leave authentic reviews about their experiences to build the brand’s authority and trustworthiness.

#6) Local Influencers

The final element to pay attention to if you want to find local marketing success is local influencers. Local influencers are people or social media accounts that are popular with residents and visitors of a specific region. They have large followings on their blog or social media accounts and regularly share content about local places.

Brands should build relationships with local influencers if they want to help spread the word about their business in their local area. Local influencers can be a key element in letting locals know about your business opening, special events, and new products and services.

Find More Local Marketing Success

There is plenty of room for local brands to succeed. They just need to know-how.

If you are looking to find more local marketing success, pay attention to the elements listed in this post. And, if you really want to prioritize local marketing, sign up for your free account on MyArea Network.

MyArea Network is your source for all things local. When you sign up, you get a free business profile on your local Area Site as well as access to mySuite marketing tools that can help you launch and manage local marketing campaigns with just a few clicks.

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