If you’ve been running your own marketing campaigns for a while, you’ve probably read countless articles about getting better results with local marketing. There is plenty of great advice out there, but it can be overwhelming trying to sort it all out.
Do you want better results but lack the time to dive deeply into complex marketing strategies? If you’re looking for simple ways to start getting better results with your local marketing campaigns, here are four things to implement right away.
1. Run pay-per-click (PPC) ads
You’re missing out on revenue if you’re not taking advantage of local paid search ads on platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn. Running PPC ads is an essential ingredient for success.
Once your ads are created, you can launch a PPC ad campaign quickly and start seeing results almost immediately. Granted, you’ll need time to optimize your ads to improve results, but they’ll start generating traffic immediately.
You might already know that paid search is highly competitive. Keywords in certain industries come at a high cost, which makes it impossible to compete on a small business budget. However, as a local business, you have an advantage over the competition. Local paid search is slightly different strategy that will generate leads for a lower cost per click (CPC).
You have the advantage as a local business because Facebook and Google know where users are located based on their IP address. This means you can serve your ads to a smaller section of people and you won’t have to compete with the multi-million-dollar marketing budgets.
2. Start with one PPC platform
Diving into a massive, cross-platform PPC marketing campaign can be overwhelming if you’re not a professional marketer who does this for a living. If you divide your attention among multiple platforms without being able to manage them all, your efforts will become diluted.
To keep your local marketing efforts manageable, start with one platform and branch out from there. For instance, start with PPC ads on Google and then once you get that down, start running ads on Facebook. Develop a workable system with the first platform so that you know exactly how to manage any additional platforms you use.
3. Use local print ads
You may have heard some marketers say that print advertising is dead, but that’s not true. Print ads aren’t dead, they’re still widely used, and you might be surprised to learn just how effective they are.
Print ads have a significantly higher brand recall rate and elicit 20% more motivation from consumers. There’s also less competition for print ads considering most companies stick with digital methods. This is great news for small businesses looking for new marketing channels.
However, local print ads aren’t just effective; they’re trusted by 82% of people. That’s a big number considering trust is one of the most critical factors in advertising. Print ads also require 21% less brain power to process over digital ads, making the content easier to absorb.
All of this means that print ads automatically have a more powerful potential just because they’re printed. Knowing that, you’ll have an even bigger advantage by using print advertising in your local marketing campaign.
4. Ask for reviews
One of the easiest ways to boost your marketing results is to start asking your customers to leave reviews on sites like Google and Yelp. Getting reviews will help you in several ways.
· Get more clicks from Google. When your Google business listing comes up in search results, your star rating and total number of reviews will be visible. The more positive reviews you have, the more likely people will be to click on your listing over other businesses.
· Build trust. Positive reviews will help you build trust, which is essential for getting sales and conversions. Sometimes people need to research companies before doing business with them, so you’ll want to have plenty of positive reviews for them to find. A great way of doing this is with a conversational chatbot.
· Display your reviews on your website. Some review platforms, like Trustpilot, provide widgets so you can display your reviews on your website. This can be a great addition to your marketing efforts since people will see those reviews right on your website.
Get bigger results over time with a marketing agency
At the end of the day, you’ll get decent local marketing results on your own. However, you’ll get even better results by working with a digital marketing agency. You can get professional marketing services even if you’re working with a small budget. However, once you see more ROI, you can increase your marketing budget to get even bigger results.