How Content Marketing Helps Local Businesses Drive Revenue
Local marketing has changed over the last couple of years. Before, you would take out an advertisement in a local newspaper, phone book, penny saver magazine, or other local publication. This was the only way to market your business to a local audience without fighting for space online.
Today, this type of marketing gets recycled or opted out of more often than it is viewed. People don’t look at print ads as much as they used to. Even if it is a popular publication, people are so used to blocking out ads, it is like they aren’t even visible anymore. And if you can make an ad pop and grab the attention of a reader, you aren’t sure that the reader is even interested in your product or service.
Instead, there is a way to produce online digital marketing efforts that are aligned with your business and will attract the attention of your target audience. Let’s look over a few of these ways.
Local Business Listing
Google My Business, Apple Maps, and Bing Places are some ways to have your business show up online in front of customers when they are looking for you. People do more and more searching for businesses “near me” and claiming these listings ensure your business pulls up and makes customers aware that you exist when they are looking for you.
Not only does your business show up, but it also provides information to your potential customers about your business. Hours of operation, days opened, busy times, reviews, etc. are all things that you can show off to your customers.
It also allows you a way to showcase upcoming specials, projects, events, or even featured products directly to people searching for your products or services without even having to go to your social profiles or website.
Other ways to have your business profile show up are on online directories such as Yelp, Trip Advisor, Nextdoor, and even Alignable are all great places to have your business listed available to people looking for you. All these online listings give you a place to work your profile and show up-to-date content to your potential audience.
One of my best examples right now as to why this is so important is on a recent road trip, my family and I stopped off in Savannah GA. We wanted to go to an antique store and had been recommended one nearby the coffee shop we were at. We walked down and found the antique place only to find that on a Friday at 2 pm the door was locked. There was no sign on the door showing their hours, and when I looked on Google for more information, they didn’t have their profile completed; therefore, we had no idea when they were open. This is a loss of a potential sale by this business and could be for yours as well.
Blogging
Blogging is another great way to present information to your potential customers and have your business found online. This right here is a blog. It provides you with information on how to do local marketing for your small business.
Without tons of these blogs online, information wouldn’t be shared in the same way. Sales and business owners would hold all the cards and consumers wouldn’t be able to make an informed decision on why your business is better than the next. Sharing this information doesn’t give away all your secrets, it makes you a thought leader and provides you with more authority over the next company.
Blogs can share stories, show product or service benefits and details, showcase studies, or teach something. Blogging also shows why you are different from other companies like you. What makes you stand out. What differentiates you.
Since you control your site and the information that is shared on your social media profiles, you can find ways to showcase the information you want to share. Then sharing this information out on your various channels will ensure that your potential customers have this information, no matter where they are looking for you.
I don’t have a personal example of a small business blog. I read many in my industry. One of my favorites is Neil Patel; however, unless you are in marketing, this wouldn’t resonate with you. Instead, check out this great post over at The Content Panel and see the list they comprised of various blogs across many industries. Maybe your next inspiration will come from there.
Social Media
Social media has been changing the way we communicate and interact with companies. We judge them on what they post, how they post, and what they stand for. If there is a cause or side your business vibes with, putting your business out there will make sure that you attract like-minded people. This can be both positive and negative depending on who you are trying to reach.
Social media also doesn’t show everything you do to every one of your followers. You may have 10K followers, but only 1% of those people will see the information. This doesn’t mean don’t post on social but share things that your audience will find interesting, valuable, and can share with their people. The more people interact with your social posts, the more visible the posts will be.
If you have little to no interactions, that doesn’t mean to give up. That means change tactics, step back, ask for assistance, and try again. There aren’t many people who get social media correct on the first try, but seeing what works and what doesn’t, both for your profile and others will allow you to craft the perfect setup.
One of my favorite small businesses on social media was Purple back when they were starting out. The content they would post, their ads, and the odd marketing campaigns they would run would really make their company and what they were doing stick in your mind. We have seen a lot of other companies, not only mattress companies, follow suit trying to get their share of the market as well. Oh, and Purple isn’t out of the content game, they just got a little quieter than in the past.
User-Generated Content
One of the best ways to entice other people to come to your business is by showing them other satisfied customers. This can easily be done by setting up processes for your customers to showcase why they love you and your products or services by allowing them to post to your profiles online.
This can be in the form of reviews, photos, case studies, links, and so much more. Allowing your customers to tag you in their content will give you something to show others and provide that additional wow factor that people look for when looking for a new local business.
For example, I posted a photo of one of my favorite restaurants. Within a month, I had over 10K views on my photo and review. That means the content I curated for this restaurant was shown on search results for people looking for a local restaurant over 10K times, without the restaurant even lifting a finger. This is the best type of marketing any small business could hope for.
In the end, using content marketing in your local business will help you drive revenue by showing your business off to those who are looking for your product or service. Showing up on search results is the first step, then wowing potential customers with all the relevant information and curated content will show them why you stand out from the crowd. Then your marketing will be on track to bring in more customers and drive revenue in ways you never thought possible.
