With advertising going online, if you are a brick-and-mortar store or service that serves a local market, you are probably looking for an effective way to reach your target market. While search engines limit some searches to local businesses (for example, if you are looking for a place to eat or need a dentist), sitting back and hoping your potential customers find your website online is a weak advertising strategy.
So, what’s the wisest way to spend time and effort to ensure you reach your target market? The fact is, even though the people who live in your community do most of their commerce locally, you cannot count on reaching them by hoping they drive by your business and see your sign, and traditional advertising methods like newspapers, direct mail, and billboards are losing their effectiveness. You need something more proactive. Whether you own a doctor’s office, a barber shop, or a local grocery store, reaching your local market is crucial to growing your business.
Why not try something different? At ADLocal Value, we specialize in helping local businesses like yours connect with the people in your community looking for what you offer.
Strategies for Reaching Your Local Target Market
For local businesses, being trusted within the community is everything. You rely on customers who will return time and again, recommend you to friends, and help your business thrive. But how do you go about building these relationships and helping to ensure your business is the first name that comes to mind when locals need your services?
Before talking about our top choice, here are some strategies that you can try to reach your local market:
- Leverage Social Media with a Local Focus
Utilize platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Nextdoor to post content directed towards to your local customer base. Engage with community groups and use geo-targeted ads to reach potential customers in your area.
- Partner with Other Local Businesses
Collaborate with non-competing local businesses to promote each other’s services. For example, a local coffee shop that partners with a nearby bookstore might offer discounts to customers who visit both.
- Host Local Events
Organize or sponsor events that cater to your target market. Whether it’s a health fair, a community clean-up, or a local market, these events allow you to engage directly with your audience and showcase your business.
- Optimize Your Google My Business Profile
Keeping your Google My Business (GMB) profile complete and up-to-date ensures that your business is easily found online. Encourage your best customers to leave online reviews and regularly update your profile to include new information and promotions.
- Implement In-Store Promotions
Use in-store promotions, such as local resident discounts, loyalty programs, or referral bonuses, to encourage repeat business and word-of-mouth referrals.
While these methods are clearly helpful, they are time- and energy-intensive, which makes them difficult strategies to implement when you and your staff are already busy running your business. While we certainly don’t dismiss these methods, what if we told you there was a better way?
Our Top Choice: Advertise on ADLocal Value Carousels
ADLocal Value is an advertising company that focuses exclusively on helping businesses that rely on local customers. Our motto is “Locals Helping Locals.”
We compose advertising “carousels,” which are simply rotating video displays featuring short, animated television ads in local businesses like coffee shops, doctor’s offices, salons, restaurants, office lobbies, gyms, and waiting rooms. In between the short ad spots that feature your business and other local businesses, the carousels offer entertaining content like jokes, quotes, and interesting facts. These carousels can introduce your business to a local audience much like a mini-billboard, but instead of having people drive by on their way out of town, your audience is watching the content as they wait for an appointment or sip a cup of coffee in a local business they already visit.
By seeing your business’s name in a place they know, your audience will develop an awareness of your brand, and you will benefit from being implicitly recommended by a business they already trust. ADLocal Value carousels not only feature your ad to a captive audience but also build trust through association with other respected local businesses. Your business will be top of mind the next time these customers may need your goods or services.
For a one-time start-up fee and a low monthly subscription cost, your ad can get up and running in record time. Your fee covers the cost of creating a professionally produced animated 30-second spot with your logo and a QR code for your website, so you don’t even have to design the ad yourself. For more information on how to advertise in businesses currently running carousels or become a carousel host, contact ADLocal Value today or sign up online.