Hyperlocal has become a marketing buzzword recently, but it’s really something that’s been used since marketing began. It simply refers to focusing marketing efforts on your local area, which could be a city, region, zip code, neighborhood or even city block.
Even as technology helps us connect and do business with people around the world, some trends have been moving toward more local marketing. Here are five areas that have either contributed to the rise in hyperlocal marketing or that you can use to help capitalize on the development.
Search
Search has been the driving force in the shift toward hyperlocal marketing. Between 2014 and 2015, Google found that search queries including the phrase ‘near me’ doubled.
This increase may partly be due to the growing proliferation of mobile devices. Consumers take their phones with them wherever they go and use them when they want to find a product or service. Since they’re searching for businesses that are located near them, this indicates that they’re likely to convert, or make a purchase, soon.
In order to help your business show up when people search for your products or services, fill out your Google My Business page completely. Find or create your page and claim if it already exists. Then fill out all the information, add high-quality pictures. Using keywords and phrases in your listing will also help it to show up higher in your results.
When optimizing the rest of your online content for search engines, you should include localized keywords and phrases as well, such as ‘near me’ and ‘in Colorado.’
Content
When you create content for your website or blog, try thinking local. Make content about topics that local people would be especially interested in. Write about happenings in your community, the lifestyle of people in the area, famous nearby landmarks or the history of your business’ hometown. For instance, CJ Pony Parts, a car parts dealer in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, writes blog posts about local car shows that include the names of local cities and nearby attractions.
Not only will this content engage local audiences, it will also help to boost your local SEO when you include localized keywords and phrases in your content.
Website
Your website’s content should, as you probably know by now, include localized keywords and phrases. Third Angle, a Colorado Springs-based marketing company, does this well by mentioning their home city multiple times on their homepage.
If your business has multiple locations, you might want to create a different landing page for each location. This will boost your search engine ranking and personalize your landing page to the people that navigate to it. Use local keywords on the page and talk about topics that might interest folks from the area.
Social Media
Social media can also play a role in your hyperlocal marketing. People may head to social media for recommendations from their friends on local businesses. Having a local social media presence may also help you to become a more integral part of your community.
Many social media sites, including Facebook, allow you to target your social ads to certain locations. Seeing a local business on their newsfeed rather than a far-off one may more effectively peak users’ interest and encourage them to become customers.
Social can also integrate with search because social posts can show up in search results. Twitter even has a deal with Google that allows tweets to show up as results, which makes those twitter posts even more powerful.
Traditional Methods
Digital marketing has been gaining more and more popularity, but when it comes to hyperlocal marketing, more traditional methods may also be effective. People might not respond to a newspaper ad from a business on the other side of the country, but they might like seeing a local business in their local paper.
Ads on local radio stations and direct mail may make sense for local businesses. Flyers might even work if you’re going for a hyperlocal audience. Because of your proximity, it takes minimal effort for people to check out your business. Attending and sponsoring local events may also help increase brand awareness and make you more a fixture in your community.
Monitor Your Hyperlocal Marketing Progress
An important part of any marketing plan is checking in on your progress to see what’s working well and what’s not and then adjusting your strategy based on what you find.
Be sure that if you’re monitoring search results, you’re checking the local ones. Don’t make the mistake of monitoring ‘mechanic near me’ for the whole United States.
If you’re running multiple hyperlocal campaigns, track each one individually. Different things might work in different areas, so you might find you need to customize your strategy for each location.
Engaging with the local community is crucial for businesses because the community is your customer base and they’re essential to your company’s success. If you want to grow your businesses locally, consider giving hyperlocal marketing a shot.
Author
Randy has lived in Colorado since moving there in 1977 while in the Air Force. He has been a business owner since 1999 and has mentored other business owners from around the country.His idea of a good time is having breakfast on the deck of a mountain cabin or out riding his Harley.
