3 Critical Digital Strategies for Local Marketing
Struggling to get your brilliant local business noticed in a sea of online noise? Fear not, fellow entrepreneurs of delightful cafes, charming boutiques, and thrilling zip-lining parks! While you might be dreaming of global domination, sometimes the shortest path to success is right outside your door – or more accurately, right on your customers’ screens. Get ready to ditch the “if you build it, they will come” mentality, because we’re about to unleash three essential local marketing strategies that will help your business practically pull customers off the street and into your welcoming embrace.
Let’s review three essential DIY strategies to dominate the digital landscape for brick-and-mortar businesses. From local SEO mastery to leveraging Meta Ads Manager and Google Ads, these tactics have been optimized with the latest trends and tools to help you stand out in search engine results and build meaningful connections with your audience.
1. Local SEO and Google Maps Optimization
When online searchers are seeking out local businesses, you want yours to stand out. Local SEO tactics are relevant for companies with retail locations, such as restaurants, attractions, and hotels. Appearing on the first search page with the map can be a game-changer.
What does local SEO success look like? If someone searches for a service, product, or type of experience using the name of the area (like “Asheville”)—or they are already in the area and search for a generic term (like “tacos”)—then a Google Maps image appears. The organic spaces (non-ads) beneath the map only list three businesses. Here’s an example: I’m in Asheville and just searched for “tacos.” The three websites for tacos with the best SEO show up below the map:
When potential customers are searching for businesses like yours online, the first thing they often check is Google Maps. Having a strong presence in local search results can help your business claim one of the coveted spots beneath the Google Maps results. Here’s how you can fine-tune your strategy for a higher local rank.
Keep Consistency Across Name, Address, and Phone
Ensure that the content and format for your name, address, and phone number are consistent across all sites, including social media profiles, free and paid business directories, and your website. Businesses that have more consistent information out there are likely to rank better on Google Maps.
This gets pretty nitpicky. Listing your phone number as “(800) 123-4567” on your website but “800-123-4567” on another platform may seem minor, but to Google, it counts as inconsistency because of the use of parentheses and dashes. The same applies to how your business name and address are listed. Edit it yourself or request the change so that all the information has the same format across all sites that list your business.
Solicit Reviews
Listings with more reviews, especially if they have accumulated steadily over time, will rank better on Google Maps. More reviews typically mean higher local search visibility. Gently request satisfied customers to leave reviews on platforms like Google My Business or Yelp. Prioritize authentic reviews and respond to them (yes, even negative feedback).
Be Thoughtful About Onsite Content
The content on your website also has a significant impact on your local SEO. Having your name, address, and phone listed in key places across your site is one element of this, but using locally relevant keywords (see Moz checklist below) across your website is also essential. For example:
- Use location-specific terms, such as “Best coffee shop in Los Angeles.”
- Include relevant local business terms in blog posts or landing pages.
- Double-check your title tags and meta descriptions for keywords.
Here are some recommended tools:
2. Local Facebook Advertising
Facebook advertising continues to evolve at a rapid pace every year. Meta Ads Manager provides hyper-targeted options to showcase your offerings based on precise demographics and geographic locations. Let’s go over some local targeting options for Facebook advertising.
Targeting by Geography
Known as geotargeting, targeting by geography is a great way to reach specific users based on their location. Facebook currently offers four options for geotargeting within the Audience Builder in Meta Ads Manager. When creating a Saved Audience in Meta Ads Manager, one of the first fields you must fill out is location. In this field, you can list countries, states, cities, zip codes, or specific latitude and longitude coordinates with a specified radius for targeting.
Directly above the input field where you can enter your geotarget areas, there is a drop-down menu offering four options that specify how Facebook will interpret your geographic targeting requests.
- Everyone in this location: This is the default option and will target tourists, as well as anyone whose home location falls within your target area, even if they are currently traveling elsewhere.
- People who live in this location: This will target only people whose home address is within the geographic areas that you select in your geotargeting. This will target them whether they are currently at home or traveling elsewhere. In other words, if you choose this option and then select a city such as Asheville, the ads will appear on Facebook for anyone who has Asheville listed as their home location, even if they are traveling elsewhere during the advertising period.
- People recently in this location: This option targets anyone whose most recent location is within your target area. This could include any tourists, as well as any locals who are not currently traveling elsewhere. Suitable for businesses that cater to both hybrid tourists and local customers. Largest combined audience you can target for a location.
- People traveling in this location: This will only target people whose most recent location where they accessed Facebook is within your geotarget area; however, their home must be at least 125 miles away. If you are targeting a city like Asheville, this option will display ads to people who are currently visiting, and whose home location is at least 125 miles away from Asheville.
While choosing between these four options can be confusing, picking the default is rarely the best option for tourism or retail businesses. If tourists almost entirely support your company, then the best choice is People traveling in this location, and if you want to target both locals and tourists, then it is best to choose People recently in this location.
Direct Page Promotions
If you’re not comfortable using the Meta Ads Manager, there are also options for beginners to target people near your business directly from your Facebook page. You can click the “Promote” link, located near the bottom of the left sidebar, on your Facebook business profile. After you click “Promote,” you will be presented with a graphical menu of options, including “Promote your Business Locally,” which allows you to run Facebook ads from your page to people who are currently near your business. It skips a few steps and can be handy if you’re new to Facebook advertising. This is similar to using the People recently in this location option in the Ads Manager.
3. Google Ads
Google Ads remains the bedrock of high-impact digital marketing campaigns. But to make it work for your local audience, don’t rely on a “set it and forget it” mindset. Tailor strategies for targeting both locals and out-of-town planners.
Local vs. National Searches
With Google Ads, most tourism and retail businesses need to deploy different types of campaigns to capture the two main types of searches that are important to their businesses:
- People doing research before they travel
- People doing research locally (This includes folks who live there or tourists who are already in town on their vacation.)
To target people before they travel, you must set up a campaign that geotargets locations where residents are likely to visit your city. These can be specific neighboring cities or entire regions, states, or, in some cases, the entire country, excluding the local market. For these non-local campaigns, it is essential to run only localized keywords, meaning they include your city name in the search.
For example, if you operate a zipline tour in Asheville, your campaigns for people planning their trip would all include the city name or a word defining the local region, such as “Asheville outdoor activities” or “WNC zipline courses.” These keywords should be either a phrase or an exact match so that you don’t appear for people searching for a zipline or adventure closer to their location.
If the zipline business above wanted to capture people who are local or already in town on vacation, they would need a second campaign, only geotargeting areas close enough for a day trip to the business location. This local area campaign can use broader keywords such as “zipline” or “things to do” because it will only run locally. This local campaign may get some impressions for people locally who are planning their trip to visit somewhere else, but as long as your ad clearly states that your business is in Asheville, it should not get many errant clicks.
For example, someone in Asheville searching “outdoor adventures in Costa Rica” may trigger your local ad for the keyword “outdoor adventure.” As long as the ad text says “Asheville Zipline Course,” they are unlikely to click on it unless they are specifically interested in learning more about the local options.
Geotargeting by County or Zip Code
In Google Ads, it’s possible to target by individual county or zip code. This can be very helpful when setting up local campaigns. Restrict targeting to zip codes within driving distance or your local vicinity. Broader terms like “outdoor activity near me” would suit this type of campaign.
Whether targeting by zip code or using comprehensive Performance Max campaigns (aided by keywords like “storefront-nearby”), remember to optimize for both mobile users and desktops.
One Final Word on Ads
If you are setting up two campaigns—one to target locals and one to target people planning a visit to the area—it is essential that the geotargeting does not overlap. This would apply, for example, if you wanted to set up an ad to appeal to people who live in Asheville and another ad (with different keywords) to show up for those who live elsewhere in the country. Let’s say you own a pizza restaurant. For locals, you want them to be able to find your site by searching with Google keywords like “pizza” and “restaurants,” with “Asheville” implied as the location.
However, if someone in California who plans to visit Asheville next month searches using those exact keywords, they will not be able to see your ad. This calls for a second ad/audience that covers the entire country, excluding Asheville. Keywords used for those ads would be “Asheville restaurants,” “Asheville pizza,” and many others. It would rightfully exclude people who are currently in Asheville because they would fall into the first audience.
Implement These DIY Tactics to Reach the Right People
Learning how to target both locals and visitors is a key skill for tourism and retail marketing professionals. Gaining a solid understanding of how to optimize the benefits of Google Local Listings, Facebook Ads, and Google Ads is a great place to start. We hope the strategies shared in this article and webinar will help get you moving in the right direction.
FAQs
What social media platform performs best for local businesses?
Facebook and Instagram have a geographical component tailor-made for reaching local audiences, but don’t overlook TikTok for younger demographics.
What is the primary goal of local marketing?
The primary goals are to cultivate visibility in “local intent” searches (think real estate agents or plumbers), increase foot traffic to storefronts or brick-and-mortar locations, and expand your online presence on platforms focused on organic traffic, such as Yelp.