Are you worried that your marketing strategy isn’t producing enough results? Unfortunately, you’re going to fall behind if you continue using unreliable marketing strategies.
Reports show that 47% of companies use marketing as a primary method for business growth. If you aren’t out there competing, you’re going to lose customers to your competition.
The good news is that you can do a few things to help grow a local business. Follow the tips below to make growing your local small business a breeze.
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Use Customer Loyalty Programs
One of the biggest struggles of small local businesses is acquiring new customers. It costs a lot of money to market to people. Because of this, it makes more sense to try and get more business out of the customers you already have.
A customer loyalty program helps by rewarding people for continuing to shop at your business. If you want to stay local, use something like a stamp card to reward visits. If you’re online, you can use reward cards to keep track of your customer’s purchases and rewards.
Create a Blog
People use the internet more than ever to search for local information. The question is, where do they start their search?
Many customers start their search for products and solutions straight from a search engine. If you want to take advantage of free traffic, creating a blog will help you get in front of these people. Figure out the common questions in your industry and use your blog to answer those questions.
Start Social Media Accounts
You can’t count on people strolling by your store to find it anymore. People spend much of their time online looking for the things they need. If you want to get in front of these people, you need a presence where they hang out.
Starting social media accounts provides you a way to connect with local customers. As you build up your fan base, you can send them content and deals that help them connect more with your brand.
Start an Email List
If you’ve already spent the money and done the work to acquire a new customer, why would you let them leave without getting their information? It’s costly to rely on a continuous stream of new customers to stay afloat, so reaching out to old customers is essential to keeping your business profitable.
An email list helps you keep in touch who bought from you in the past. You get a direct line of communication that lets you send business marketing emails. You’ll only pay your email list provider a monthly fee based on how large your list is.
Apply to Local Directories
It isn’t enough to get a few rankings in search engines. Many consumers rely on directories to find businesses near them. If you aren’t in those directories, your chances of being found are significantly reduced.
Your best option is Google My Business. An account with this service will put you on Google Maps and show you for its search users. Learn more about this local business directory service to figure out how to manage your listings with the other directories out there.
There Are More Ways to Grow a Local Business Than You Think
You can’t afford to take it easy when competing in a local market. Your competitors are spending their days finding new marketing channels to find the customers in your area. Use the tips above to improve the marketing for your local business.
Do you want to learn a few tips that will you run your local small business? Find our latest advice by heading back to our blog.
