10 Proven Ways to Attract Local Customers to your Business

Contrary to popular belief, attracting local customers for your business grows it faster than when you pool all your resources together to attract customers globally. It can be daunting though; given that you are restricted to one location and one target audience, plus a lot of competitors concentrating on this audience also.

Getting local clients is very important to every business, whether big or small, but most especially the small businesses that produce local products. They have to compete with big companies, superstores, and the likes daily. And without proper knowledge on how to attract local customers, they might find that their business is not growing.

But don’t fret. In today’s blog, we will be looking at 10 tested and trusted tips to make local clients notice your brand. So, let’s get right into it!

What is Local Marketing?

Local Marketing, also called neighborhood marketing, refers to when a company or organization focuses on customers who live in the same location where the business is located. It is a marketing method that is often overlooked by small businesses but has proven to be very effective. Oftentimes, the best way of carrying out local marketing is getting the buyer personas of your local audience. This involves getting information on their needs, preferences, and profiles generally, to get a feel of your target audience to be able to plan your marketing strategy on how to attract them to your brand.

Proven Marketing Techniques to Attract Local Customers

Select a Domain Name

Start with selecting and registering your domain name. A domain name will help your business to be found more easily and will help to set it apart from other brands. It will also enhance your brand image and build customer loyalty. With a local domain, customers get a sense of satisfaction that they are contributing to the growth of a local business thereby building loyalty between your brand and customers.

SEO

Search Engine Optimization is a way of marketing that includes ways to gain organic traffic on your website and a higher ranking on search engine result pages. It helps with giving good awareness to your brand and can help in bringing local visitors to your brand. It has proven that search engines have been used by consumers to find information about businesses in their locality so it is important to brush up on your SEO skills. You should ensure that when a search is done online, your company is listed on the search engine result pages. You have to ensure that your business is found easily because the earlier you appear on result pages, the better your chances of attracting more customers to your business.

SEO involves using targeted keywords on your website, including local addresses, the experience you create for visitors on your site, backlinks to local online entries, and even the way your website is structured and if the information on it is very detailed, informative and easy to understand. All of these help boost your position on SERPs.
Set Up Free Listing with Google

About 97% of customers search for products or services that they want online and about 73% of them trust the feedback from online search results. So as a business owner why don’t you list your business on Google which is the largest and most used search engine?

Google Business Profile is a tool that allows you to create a business profile to appear in Google search results and on maps, and it is free! You can optimize your online rankings just by signing up on GBP. To list your business on Google you need to include this information:

• Your business name
• Your business category
• Address
• Hours (open and close)
• Phone number
• Website link
• Photos
• Directions to your office or shop

There is also a review section for customers to leave reviews and for visitors to read reviews before venturing into trusting your business. Your clients are even allowed to add photos in this section which can build more brand trust and customer loyalty, thereby helping to grow your business organically. If customers are very satisfied with your services and their star rating is good, it will help in bringing in more customers to you. Because of all these, it is important to list your business under Google.

Google Alerts

Google alerts are for alerting you whenever someone gives you a review or is talking about your business online and you can react to it instantly. You will also get notified when any keyword related to your business is published on the internet. It will help in keeping you updated with all the latest news about what you do.

If someone comments positively or negatively about your business online, it will alert you immediately so that you can take action on that. You can also share good comments on your social media platforms to even attract more local customers.

Build Relationships with other Local Businesses

Having a cordial relationship with other local businesses provides a way for networking and partnership. You get to even refer clients to each other. The more extensive your network in the local area the easier it will be to get in touch with a local audience and attract local customers. You could even team up with other local brands on giveaways and other marketing campaigns, to build each other’s brands.

Community Networking

This is perhaps the easiest way to get in contact with your target audience and build the gap between the brand and its customers. Attending local events and taking part will put you in direct contact with your ideal customers, and you can also build a cordial relationship with them. Ways to boost community networking for your brand involve sponsoring local events, arranging workshops for local businesses and community members alike, and joining local clubs and groups in your niche.

Social Networking

Social media platforms are one of the most powerful tools for reaching out to your target audience, especially for small businesses. These platforms put you in direct contact with your potential customers and allow you to market your products and services in their comfort zones. Facebook for example provides you with opportunities to introduce and advertise yourself on local community pages. Be sure to offer discounts and incentives that will make customers want to try your brand out. Personalize your offers too.

Rebranding your Marketing Campaigns

You might need to repackage your marketing campaigns in a way that puts out your company as a small community-centric organization, to bridge the gap between local customers and your brand and to fully focus on the local aspect of your business. Designing a separate campaign for this is not a bad idea too.

You can achieve this by making advertisements that feature local attractions, local celebrities, and local trends. Physical advertisements are also great in this scenario. Billboard adverts, flyers, banners, and so on are good ways of reaching out to local customers. You can also use real customer testimonials.

Offer Mouth-watering Incentives

Who doesn’t like free stuff? Everyone does! Take advantage of this and offer very good deals that will attract new customers and also keep the old ones with your brand. Offer discounts on some products and services e.g., ‘50% discount on purchases made in August!’. You can do this to keep old existing customers too. For example, if someone gets two or three products at a time, you can offer them 20% off their purchase. This will encourage them to buy more and also come back to your brand in the future. Offering free products or services to first-time customers is a good idea too. You can also offer anyone who refers you to someone else a free item; this is also a good way of growing customers organically.

You can run giveaway contests with very attractive prizes to be won. It will help in increasing the popularity of your brand and help increase your social media following and audience.

Have the Best Customer Service

After taking all these steps, having the best customer service to offer will make it a huge success. Treat your local customers like they are the best thing to happen to your business. Connecting well with them is very important, as any negative word-of-mouth can spoil all the efforts that you have taken to draw them close.

One important tip to draw them close to your excellent customer service is to include how great the customer service is when you post on your website and social media accounts, for example, 24/7 available to contact, 3 days return policy, on-time product delivery, and so on. Tips like this will make them always want to patronize your brand and refer their friends and family.

Conclusion

Following these 10 tips will ensure that your brand gets more awareness and attract customers locally. Be sure to have a very good marketing team, an online presence on social media platforms, and a functioning and well-built website. Once you have all these, you are good to go. And if you don’t, don’t worry, the Dik3n Team is available to attend to your needs! Contact us here for a consultation with one of our professionals.