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What does a local business need to succeed? Loyal, local customers!
But getting people from neighborhoods around your business to visit your website is easier said than done. So how do you use your business and local content marketing strategy to target local customers? One way of doing that is through content marketing.
You’re probably familiar with how content marketing generates online leads. 67% of marketers believe content marketing generates more demand and leads for their brands.
With local content marketing, you can target your content and marketing material to customers in a particular area. This can help attract local customers to your website, boosting sales and revenue.
In this article, we will go over some interesting local content marketing techniques that you can use to make your brand stand out in the local community! But first, let's understand what local content marketing is and why you should consider it for your business.
What is local content marketing and why is it important?
Content marketing uses different forms of content, such as blog posts, articles, videos, photos, ebooks, and infographics, to promote products and brands.
This could be in the form of “how-to” videos on YouTube or blog posts relating to your products or services. Such content is designed to keep customers engaged with your brand.
Local content marketing uses the same strategies but tailors them to appeal to local customers. It targets individuals in a well-defined geographical area.
Local content marketing is the process of creating unique and useful content to drive traffic from a specific geographical area to your local business website.
It involves creating content that is informative or entertaining to people in that area. For instance, if you sell shoes in Minnesota, you might want to create content around the state’s icy winters. Talk about how your shoes can help customers withstand the chilly weather.
Local content marketing will help you:
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Increase local traffic to your website
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Improve brand awareness
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Make ties to local communities
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Improve your sales
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5 Best local business content marketing tips
Communicating the advantages of your products and services to customers can boost your brand awareness in the local community and help build lasting relationships. Here are some tips to consider while designing your local content marketing strategy.
1. Define your local audience
You can only create tailored and strategic content when you know who your target audience is. You might need to spend time researching and collecting data about your local audience.
Some criteria you should consider collecting data around include age, occupation, income, needs, personality, and language. These parameters can give you a pretty good idea of the kind of content that will appeal to your target consumers.
An effective way to do this is by creating buyer personas. They are fictionalized characterizations of what your ideal customer would look like in terms of the markers mentioned above.
You can build buyer personas with names, interests, behavioral traits, goals, and feelings. Doing so can make it easier to tailor your content, branding, messaging, and customer interactions to suit these personas.
2. Choose content formats
Based on your buyer personas, you should choose content formats that appeal to your target customers. For example, if your local audience is young, you might want to focus on video content.
61% of Gen Z and millennials prefer videos over other content formats, preferably less than one minute long. This preference is reflected in their choice of digital marketing channels, with YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram being the most popular platforms among younger groups.
Here are some content formats you can choose from:
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Blogs and articles: Text content is particularly useful because it provides readers with useful information and helps your website rank higher on search results if you use keywords correctly. When writing a blog post, make sure to write about local topics and use keywords specific to your geographical location to optimize your written content for search engine visibility.
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Videos: People are spending more and more of their time watching videos. Online videos are expected to account for over 82% of web traffic in 2023. If there was ever a time to leverage video to market your products and get your brand message across, it is now!
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Photos: Images are an excellent tool to convey stories and engage customers in meaningful ways. Use plenty of images on your website, Instagram, and Facebook accounts to keep your customers visually engaged.
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Podcasts: Podcasts are becoming increasingly popular and are an excellent tool for brands to share interesting content about their products or services. For instance, if you sell eco-friendly products, you could use your podcast channel to host informative and educational conversations about social responsibility.
3. Define a consistent content schedule
Consistency is key to any marketing strategy. You can’t post one piece of content per week and forget about it. With content marketing, if you snooze, you lose! Make sure to upload something interesting several times a week across your channels on the internet.
Creating a schedule will help you plan your content better and build accountability in your marketing team.
4. Create social media content around local trends
Use trending audio, themes, and topics to create relevant content in social media platforms that can go viral in your local area. For example, if there is a new pop song around which loads of people are making TikTok videos and Reels, you could get in on the local social media trends and put your own spin on it.
Make sure to use local hashtags and geotags so your content appears before local customers.
5. Use local keywords to rank higher on search engines
Including local keywords in your content is important if you want your website to rank higher on local searches. Phrases such as “open now near me” are one of the most popular search terms, growing by an astonishing 400% year on year.
You can use this and related keywords to ensure your business shows up on the first page in local search results. Including the name of the local area in your content frequently can be helpful in this regard.
What are some examples of local content marketing?
Looking for some real-life examples for inspiration? Here are some awesome ones!
Downtown Milton's Instagram hashtag of choice
Why it works: The @dtmilton Instagram profile frequently uses the #dtmilton hashtags on all of their posts. Hashtags aren't always used effectively or even needed for some businesses. But knowing that #dtmilton has around 13,000 other posts using that hashtag allows them to reach Instagrammers who follow other local businesses in Milton that also use that hashtag and potentially have them visit the farmer's market.
Airtegrity Comfort Solutions' Reviews page
Why it works: It appeals to new customers by leveraging social proof. Specifically, awesome reviews and five-star ratings! As markets become more saturated and paid advertising costs continue to increase, what better way to win new clients than word of mouth?
Enviro-Loc Interlocking Ltd. lawn signs
Why it works: Local content marketing should happen offline, too! Lawn signs like this increase brand awareness with the ultimate social proof right beside it — a job well done. From neighbors to family and friends who visit, to strangers walking or driving by, an eye-catching lawn sign can result in new business.
Display Your Way's Projects page (and social media)
Why it works: Whether they share static images or behind-the-scenes video footage, Display Your Way emphasizes transparency. Some companies only share photos of finished jobs. But seeing before, during, and after a project is completed (and completed well) helps build trust for other local community members that they serve. Couple that with reputation marketing that gets them more reviews and it's no wonder they're a top-rated telecommunications contractor in the areas they service!
Local content marketing will set you apart
At the end of the day, local content marketing is about using your creativity to create content that strikes a chord in people’s hearts.
As local business owners, you know your community best and what works for them. So, it's time to get your thinking hats on and develop refreshing content ideas to get your local community members interested in your brand!
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