Do you know that there was a time when all advertising was local? In the days of our forefathers, when they traded a clay pot for their neighbor’s sheep or yam, they only needed to rely on physical proximity to their target audiences to spread the word.
However, innovations such as the printing press, broadcasting technology, and, most recently, digital marketing tools have all made it easier to advertise our business across broad geographic areas. It’s so easy that small business owners might be tempted to forego local advertising altogether.
Well, you have to resist that urge, though. Whether you’re a small e-commerce or brick-and-mortar business, local advertising still plays a critical role in your business’s marketing strategies. In this article, I will explain all you need about local advertising and provide the best 10 free and paid local advertising ideas for your small businesses in 2024.
Key Points
- Local advertising is the strategy of targeting audiences close to a business’s location with messages reflecting the local market.
- Local advertising is essential for small businesses and brands producing perishable or fragile goods in 2024.
- Social media is the best form of local advertising. It is popular among small businesses because it’s cost-effective and allows precise audience targeting.
- Some effective social media platforms for your local advertising are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
- You should invest in local advertising because it encourages local market dominance, offers highly targeted possibilities, increases brick-and-mortar store foot traffic, and provides audience insights.
What Is Local Advertising?
Local advertising is the strategy of targeting audiences close to a business’s location with messages reflecting the local market. It is a marketing strategy to boost local point-of-sale traffic within a specific demographic region. The demographic region is where most of the outlet’s customers usually come from, within a town, a region, etc. Its outline is influenced by distances, access times, attractiveness, and competition.
This can be a purely local advertising campaign for one or a few outlets in a specific geographical area or a national advertising campaign with customized ads for each outlet. Generally speaking, local advertising media allow you to geographically target their physical or online distribution. This is very important for your company, enabling you to optimize your physical and online visibility.
The networks know how difficult it is to coordinate their strategies so that they combine consistency in the image conveyed and adaptation to the local specificities of a city or region. Especially since today’s customers are increasingly looking for a personalized experience and to consume locally. Fortunately, local advertising is here to help.
Understanding Local Advertising: Why Is Local Advertising Important?
According to GoGulf, 46% of Google users search for local information. Imagine how many clients you will be able to attract with a strong strategy focused on people who live nearby. This fact highlights the necessity of local advertising. Below, I will explain further why it is so important and how it influences companies’ growth.
Local advertising is essential for small businesses and brands producing perishable or fragile goods in 2024. It allows them to generate more leads and ensure consumers visit their store. Such a strategy is often cheaper because business owners don’t need to spend much money to reach a wide audience. Local advertising focuses only on consumers nearby who are more likely to buy your products.
Also, the local promotion allows companies to discover more about their clients and interact with them better. You can gain more insights into the needs, preferences, and behavior of people who live in a certain area. Moreover, concentrating on a specific audience helps businesses provide a better experience, increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Finally, local promotion allows companies to get more word-of-mouth referrals. Semrush Blog states that 90% of consumers are more likely to trust a recommended brand; consequently, positive reviews can help you save money on advertising and significantly increase the number of clients.
Now you understand why local advertising is a powerful tool to boost your company and generate more sales. Let’s discover free and paid local advertising ideas for small business promotion.
Top 10 Best Free and Paid Local Advertising Ideas for Small Businesses in 2024
Let’s start with the best free local advertising ideas to get seen by new customers:
#1. Claim and Optimize Your Google Business Profile
Your Google Business Profile is a free local advertising tool that can help you get found on Google in several ways: It determines how your business appears on Google Maps, Google Search in the 3-pack, and Google’s Knowledge Panel.
But that’s not the only way your Google Business listing can help you win over local customers. You can seed the Q&A section of your Google Business Profile to highlight important features and increase customer confidence.
You can also post promotions, events, photos, and products to your profile to encourage customers to do business with you.
This gives searchers instant information that can drive them to take action (which they can do directly from your Google Business listing!), leading it to be an effective local advertising strategy to focus on.
#2. Get Reviews
Your Google Business Profile has another benefit: It allows you to collect reviews, a critical component of a successful local marketing strategy. This makes it an impressive local advertising idea for your business to implement ASAP.
Reviews can act as free advertising for your business because they rely on your happy customers promoting your business and sharing the top reasons people should choose you over the competition.
Plus, people rely on reviews. We know that 93% of people read reviews before making a purchase, and 84% trust online reviews as much as they trust recommendations from friends or family.
By focusing on collecting reviews, you can increase your chances of appearing for searches containing “best” on Google (Google shows listings with 4 stars or higher) and let your satisfied customers do the advertising for you.
#3. Run a Customer Loyalty Program
A customer loyalty program is a great way to reward your current customers and incentivize them to keep coming back. Make your loyalty program work for you by determining what incentive you’ll provide customers, how often they can earn rewards, and how you’ll keep track of it all.
Many businesses use a punch card or stamp system, an easy way to show customers how many visits to go until they receive their next reward.
Customer loyalty programs act as free local advertising because they keep your business in mind and reward repeat purchases. And we all know it’s way more cost-effective to retain an existing customer than attract a new one.
#4. Respond to Reviews
After getting reviews for your business, it’s also important to respond to them. While responding to reviews is important for increasing customer satisfaction, addressing complaints, and building trust with prospective customers, it can also act as free advertising for your business.
In your responses to positive reviews, you can highlight points made by your customers to further call out the pros of your business to prospective customers reading your reviews.
Also, by responding to negative reviews (the right way!), you can show people that you value your customers and work to correct issues while calling out any positive aspects about your business the negative review may have mentioned.
#5. Win (And Promote) Local Business Awards
Is your business award-worthy? Of course, it is! Winning awards can increase awareness of your business, entice new customers to try you, and instill greater confidence in your offer.
Lucky for you, there are many ways to win awards for your business (many of them free!) and gain additional local advertising.
First, check with your local news outlets to see if they run any “best of” awards. Then, you can also check with community magazines or websites to see if they compile reader awards.
Then, you’ll want to build excitement for your business around these awards by asking your happy customers to nominate or vote for you. You can share this on social media and on your website.
Once you’ve won (yay!), you can promote your business award across your website, social sites, and business with signage and other marketing materials. Many publications will also feature these awards on their sites and in print so you can get some additional exposure (and free local advertising!).
Paid Local Advertising Ideas
The best marketing and advertising strategies combine multiple channels. To build on the success of your free tactics, try these paid local advertising ideas:
#6. Position Your Business as an Expert With Branded Content
Another way to get in front of consumers visiting their local news publications is by investing in branded content. Branded content allows you to create and promote educational, informative, or entertaining content directly on a local news publication.
This positions your business as an expert, increases awareness of your business and can entice consumers to do business with you over the competition.
Watch how this garage repair company used branded content to educate their community here:
#7. Billboard Advertising
Billboard advertising involves posting advertisements on sizable billboards or signs in busy streets and places with significant traffic. By doing this, you can ensure that the local clients who are most likely to be interested in your goods or services will see your ads.
Finding high-traffic areas in your neighborhood and acquiring a billboard or sign to display your advertisement are the first steps in beginning a billboard advertising campaign.
To get the attention of onlookers, your ad language and graphics must be exciting and eye-catching.
#8. Host an Event
Events are a great local advertising idea because they promote people visiting your location, which helps you sell your products or services.
Your event can be pretty much anything you want it to be. It could be a party, demo, festival, workshop, anniversary sale, charity event, or webinar. The endless options don’t have to cost an arm and a leg.
Your event could also coincide with a promotion–the first 50 visitors get a free coffee with a purchase or 20% off a service or product. It doesn’t take a lot for people to enjoy themselves. Sometimes, they just want a good deal and some free snacks.
So spread the word about your event. Use bold signage to let people know. If possible, hold your event out in the open to attract more attention on the day of.
#9. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
In pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, you are charged for each click on your ad. To begin PPC advertising, you must set up your campaigns and create an account on a platform like Google Ads or Bing Ads.
This includes choosing the keywords you want to target, creating the wording and graphics for your ads, and deciding on your spending limit and bid strategy.
Read more: PAY PER CLICK ADVERTISING (PPC): Costs And Top 7 Agencies
#10. Affiliate Marketing
In affiliate marketing, you must collaborate with other companies or people to market your goods or services. You can reach a larger audience and increase sales using these partners’ influence and network.
The first stage in affiliate marketing involves finding prospective partners with an audience related to your target audience.
The next step is to design a partnership agreement that spells out the conditions of your association and offers incentives for your partners to advertise your goods or services.
How Can I Advertise in My Local Area?
Effective advertising in your local area requires a well-thought-out strategy and a mix of traditional and digital methods. Below is a comprehensive checklist guide I have provided to help you through the process:
What Is the Difference Between Local and National Advertising?
Local and national advertising are different approaches to promoting products or services that target different geographic audiences. Here are the key differences between the two:
Social Media
One difference between these two advertising strategies is the way social media is involved in advertising.
When it comes to local advertising, social media is an excellent resource. This is because social media can allow you to interact closely with your customers. Making references to local events or news in your posts will attract customers’ attention within your community. Employees of a local business understand the community’s culture and how to keep the content relatable.
Social media strategies are different for those trying to reach a national audience. Instead of focusing on local events and happenings, these social media managers create more generic posts. Likewise, managers only refer to national events relevant to the product or service in their marketing. While local companies can respond to most of their customers, national companies can only reach a small percentage.
Advertising Methods
Local and national companies use quite different advertising methods. In most cases, national companies focus more on promoting their brand and getting their name out there. They want their target audience to know their brand and logo in any way they can. This helps create trust between the company and its customers.
Local companies focus on marketing their products or services and providing excellent customer service. They use small business marketing tactics to promote their brand to their local target audience. For example, they participate in local events and build a solid reputation through word-of-mouth advertising.
Types of Mediums
The most effective mediums for national companies differ from those that work best for local companies. Advertising locally relies heavily on local TV stations, radio stations, and small-town newspapers. These businesses also depend on their customers recommending their products and services to their friends, neighbors, and co-workers.
National businesses have access to much larger mediums to ensure they reach all their customers. While they advertise on TV or the radio, it is when a popular show or significant event occurs.
The Cost of Advertising
Advertising costs vary considerably between national and local companies. National brands pay thousands for ad spots on national television and often advertise at events like the Super Bowl. Meanwhile, brands use less expensive mediums like the radio or newspapers to advertise to a local audience.
National marketing campaigns must reach their target audience nationwide. Therefore, it makes sense for their marketing efforts to be more expensive. Advertising on a local TV station or using other local services, such as billboards, is much more affordable and can provide the same effective results for small businesses.
What Is the Best Form of Local Advertising?
Social media is the best form of local advertising. It is popular among small businesses because it’s cost-effective and allows precise audience targeting. For example, if you own a retail store, you can use social media advertising to target certain demographics in your local area.
Only people who fit certain criteria near your store will see your ads. Here are some effective social media platforms for your local advertising:
- TikTok
- Pinterest.
Choose the platforms most relevant to your company goals and target demographic to boost your advertising performance.
Why Invest in Local Advertising?
Like national advertising, local advertising can help businesses increase brand awareness, boost website traffic, and increase sales. However, local advertising offers some unique benefits by comparison. Here’s an overview of a few reasons to invest in local advertising:
#1. Encourages Local Market Dominance
Local advertising can allow you to outpace the competition in a targeted geographic area. For instance, becoming the No. 1 name in garden supplies nationally is likely a cost-prohibitive goal for many small businesses, but ranking top in garden supplies in Brainerd, Minnesota, might be within reach.
#2. Offers Highly Targeted Possibilities
Targeted advertising focuses on reaching people with certain traits or characteristics, including location. Because local advertising targets a smaller target audience than a national ad campaign, businesses can leverage the knowledge of local slang, customs, and habits to craft and distribute highly effective local marketing messages.
#3. Increases Brick-And-Mortar Store Foot Traffic
If you have a brick-and-mortar store, advertising near the store can increase brand awareness in your region and bring in more local customers, helping you increase sales and build customer relationships. National ad campaigns are a less effective means of driving traffic to a local storefront because most of the customers you reach won’t be located near your storefront.
#4. Provides Audience Insights
Building relationships with local customers can help you gain better audience intelligence, or insight, into how your customers use your products, what they value, and how else you can meet their needs. Although you can also use customer surveys to gather this information from a national customer base, building ongoing in-person relationships can provide more specificity and support ongoing learning about your customer base. You can then use local audience information to extrapolate information about your national audience and make changes to your products or services to better meet customer needs.
Bottom Line
In conclusion, when done strategically, local advertising is a potent tool for driving business growth within your community. Understanding your ideal customers, leveraging the right mix of digital and traditional channels, and continuously optimizing your campaigns will attract new customers and solidify your place within the local landscape.
Try out these ideas I have provided above and see the wonders of local advertising.
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