Top 10 Benefits of Local Marketing

In today's digital world, it is common to get the vast majority of your customers through your Local Marketing strategy. Go to any bar or restaurant and talk to the folks vacationing in Hayward Wisconsin, and ask them how they found out about that particular restaurant or bar - they will say they Google'd it. They found it on Google. The reviews were good, and they had to try it. Very few will say, we saw it in the Visitor Guide, the Travel Guide, or the newspaper.

In 2022 and beyond, it is very important to go where the people are, and in today's digital world, that is the internet - specifically Google. Yes, you can find people on Facebook or Instagram, but the majority of them are going to Google to find their dinner spot, breakfast spot, retail shops or other "must sees."

Let's take a look at the Top 10 Benefits of Local Marketing.

1. Driving Quality Traffic

The majority of our clients see an average of 73% of their website visitors coming from Google. 16% are googling the business name. 6% are coming from a Facebook link, and 5% are coming from "other sources" which can include Yelp, Chamber of Commerce, TripAdvisor, or other sources. Driving Qualtiy Traffic refers to people that will make a buying decision based on the content of your website. This includes the story you're telling, the images, the menu items, the customer reviews, and the list goes on and on.

2. Creating Awareness

Your Google Map, website, articles on your blog, social media pages, directory listings, and press releases in online news sources are all ways to create awareness for your establishment and business. These are pivotal for a couple of reasons. 73% of all buyers have made a decision on 2-3 choices before reaching out to the business. This means, that 73% of their research has already been completed through your website, google map listing, articles on your blog, social media pages, and directory listings to determine that you're who they want to do business with. This is the process of creating awareness.

3. Using Google Maps

The Google Map section is the most underutilized tool for any business. In reality, the map section generates the most clicks in any Google search. Your Google Map includes your business name, address, phone number, website link, hours of operation, menu items, products or services, and customer reviews. It's the ultimate local to find out about a business in comparison to others in the area. Use your Google Map to generate more calls, clicks and customers.

4. Better Conversions

Comparatively speaking, you are likely to generate greater conversions from Local Marketing, than you will from any advertisement, promotion or visitor guide listing. The digital experience is part of the process, a simple website that looks beautiful on phones that has all of the information they're looking for, and some additional information they can consume or an online offer are all great methods to increase your conversions without spending thousands upon thousands on a paper publication very few people will pick up and read. The great thing about Local Marketing is that everything is digital, and anything that is digital can be tracked right down to the $0.01. You can identify how many visitors came to your website, create an online offer, and track the amount of offers redeemed and compare it to the revenue for the duration of that offer. It's very simple, and very effective.

5. Cost-effective

Unlike digital advertising, where you can spend upwards of $1000 - $5,000 per month to get customers into your business, Local Marketing is a very simple strategy to generate the same amount of calls, clicks and customers through the usage of Google, Social Media, Online Directories, Email Newsletters, Text Messaging, etc. All of these are tools that can be included in your Local Marketing strategy. Local Marketing can run you anywhere between $500 per month to $1,000 per month, depending on the level of service or the package you choose. The average Hayward Wisconsin business spends $12,000 per year on paper ads in newspaper, visitor guides,

6. Manage Customer Reviews

Like it or not, everyone is reading customer reviews. You're reading your customer reviews for your business. You're reading the reviews of a business you're considering visiting in your next out of town outting. You're reading the reviews of your competitors. Everyone is reading reviews. It is highly recommend to respond to every single review that is left for your business.

7. Tell Your Story

This is a great opportunity and great time to tell your story. Your customers and clients are looking for an experience, and telling a story about a great experience by coming into your business will provide greater returns than those who do not tell a story. A great story could be, "Enjoy a night out with us in our northwoods lodge style restaurant, our Italian-inspired dishes are unique to the area and can only be found at (insert your business). Don't forget to try out one of our famous Wisconsin Old Fashioned recipes. Our quiet and casual dining experience is family friendly and perfect after a great day of fishing on (insert lake)." Painting a picture of the experience can go a long way in creating an image of the experience they can expect to havfe.

8. Long-Term and Sustainable Results

Just like real estate, a website only improves in value with age and by adding additional content. Writing content in your blog is a great way to build value for your website and increase in rankings. The beauty is that those blog posts will live on forever. Unless running ads, those ads stop running when you stop paying. That means that any traffic or customers viewing those ads will no longer see them. Conversely, Local Marketing is long-term and sustainable.

9. Measurable and Data-Driven

That may sound really technical, but it really isn't. When you run Local Marketing campaigns, you can truly measure every single activity that happens. If you're a coffee shop, you may want to offer a free scone to those that buy a large 24oz specialty drink. Specialty drinks come with high margins and scones cost under a dollar to make. Creating a page for customers to take advantage of an online offer affords you invaluable data. You will be able to measure the number of customers coming to that page, the number of offers redeemed in your store, and track the number of redemption offers that resulted in a sale. In result, you'll see the total number of website visitors, total number of offers claimed, total number of offers redeemed, and compare it directly to the amount of sales. You have your ROI (return on investment). You can measure that against your Visitor Guide ads, newspaper ads, radio ads, and determine which marketing campaign was more successful. 9 out of 10 times you'll find that your Local Marketing campaign was more successful.

10. Social sharing

Social sharing is a big deal. It is recommended to utilize your Facebook page, Facebook groups, personal pages of your employees, and other loyal customers. Ask that they share your offer to spread the word. The more clicks you generate from a Local Marketing campaign, the more you will increase your website ranking in the long-run. This is a ranking factor - customer engagement. Social sharing is a great way to leverage the audience of your social media pages, your community group pages, your personal page, and your employees pages.

Final thoughts

Local Marketing has many benefits, these are the Top 10 that contribute directly to your top line revenue. After all, your primary goal with any marketing is to generate more calls, clicks, and customers. Running offers through a Local Marketing campaign is a great way to measure your return-on-investment, determine your increases in revenue while keeping your costs low, and helping improve overall efficiency of your business. Local Marketing helps create an almost-auto-pilot experience. When you write great content, publish high quality images, simple promotional videos combined with a great offer - those digital channels will do the work for you at nearly zero cost.