Today’s world of business is largely globalized with the advent of the internet, multi-location companies, and the ease of international shipping. Many companies serve entire countries and ship their products and services nationwide.
But what about your local market? With such an emphasis on globalization, local markets are often overlooked and I am here to help you re-connect with your roots. In this article, I explain the importance of dominating your local market and look at two specific strategies that can help – local SEO, and local PPC.
Why Your Local Market is Important
The premise of local marketing is simple – you are advertising directly to people in the physical area surrounding your base of operations i.e. a town, city, or state. But why is this important?
Surely it’s better to simply concentrate on a national market and appeal to more potential customers? Not necessarily, your local market has many benefits including:
- Public familiarity.
- Cheaper, quicker, and more efficient deliveries.
- Increased reputation.
- Word-of-mouth benefits.
- Less competition in the local area.
Firstly, as you have a physical presence in the local area, it’s much easier to build your reputation, make relationships, and appeal to people on a more personal level. This simply isn’t possible on a national or global scale.
Secondly, your overheads and total costs are often much less due to shorter shipping distances and more efficient deliveries. You can also typically offer better delivery dates and turnarounds.
Lastly, competition in your local area is often much less than on a national or global scale. For example, there may only be one other competitor in your city for your particular business whereas there could be hundreds nationwide. This means that you can gain market dominance with much less effort.
Local SEO
Search engine optimization is incredibly important in business today and local SEO is simply a more targeted process where you use keywords and tactics to boost your rankings for local terms and SERPs.
For example, a garden center in Louisana might utilize key phrases relating to their specific location such as “gardening tools in Baton Rouge” as opposed to more generic terms. This allows the company to appeal to customers who are located in the same vicinity and only want to travel to Baton Rouge for their gardening supplies.
You are appealing to a more targeted audience – an audience that has a much higher percentage chance of needing your products/services.
Tips and Tricks
There are many tools and platforms you can utilize to enhance your local SEO including business listings, local directories, and localized keywords. Some simple tips include:
- Register with local business listings.
- Create a Google business listing.
- Join local social media community groups.
- Create content that is specific to the local community.
- Use local language, slang, and terms.
- Utilize localized keywords and phrases.
Creating a Google business listing is a brilliant starting point as this will show up in search results and when people browse for businesses on Google Maps. Keyword research is also highly important and you may want to concentrate on long tail keywords that include specific geographic snippets like the city or state your company is located.
Local PPC
Pay-per-click ads on platforms like Google Ads are incredibly beneficial and have been proven to yield consistent results. Oftentimes, these ads are generic and aim to appeal to the widest possible range of customers.
Local PPC takes a more direct and refined approach and uses ad copy and keywords that target a specific demographic such as a city or state. An SEO and PPC agency can help craft local PPC campaigns and like local SEO, they allow you to tap into an audience who are more likely to use your company due to the physical location.
For example, a car mechanic in Washington DC could create PPC ads advertising their services to their specific area within the city such as Arlington or Alexandria, as opposed to using more generic ads that use keywords relating to the city of Washington, or the state of Maryland.
Tips and Tricks
When creating local PPC content you have to take a different approach and think on a smaller, more personal scale. You must get in the mindset of local customers and think about what they would search for and the ads they are more likely to click on. Some tips include:
- Utilize location extensions to include your address and contact info in your ads.
- Use geo-targeting functions to target your local area.
- Incorporate local dialect and slang where appropriate.
- Be specific in your ad copy and focus on your local niche.
- Utilize local keywords and phrases.
- Look at competitor keywords and ads for inspiration.
- Optimize your landing pages to reflect the local nature of your ads.
Google Ads has many features specifically built for localization but you must also make sure your ad copy is localized and relevant to the audience within your local area. Keywords of course play an important role too and it’s also vital to keep track of your results for calculating PPC budget going forward.
Don’t Neglect Your Local Niche and Start Your Local PPC and SEO Campaigns Today
By dominating your local market first, you can then look to expand nationwide and globally. It’s the ideal starting point and by using local SEO and local PPC you can make sure that your company is the number one option in your region and that you shine above other local competitors.
