Check out this list of ten great hyperlocal marketing strategies, by Carlo Pandian, that can help to drive local consumers to your site.
Local marketing techniques can also improve local SEO and help increase search traffic volumes from your own town. Whatever the type of business you happen to be running, having a hyperlocal strategy in place can prove enormously beneficial.
Wait…
A hyper-what now?
Hyperlocal marketing is a genuine business term, and one that everyone should become familiar with. Companies has been thinking global ever since the advent of the WWW. Now it’s time to remember that you've got customers closer to hand too.
It is like a microscope that can focus right down on a city and even a particular neighbourhood to promote products more effectively.
There are online and offline strategies available that use local search terms for generating internet traffic along with establishing local community connections. Let’s take a look at a few top strategies that can be used by anyone to help promote customer relationship creation.
On busy shopping days you can use email built around a theme to drive traffic. These can incorporate maps to give directions to your 'real world' store and click-to-call buttons.
Emails should be optimized for mobile devices like tablets and smartphones, as around half the people opening them will be using such devices (David: This number is set to increase too).
The best way to do this is to use on of the leading email marketing services as these come with built in mobile support for emails along with guaranteed, high delivery and open rates, plus email analytics to help you understand how well (or poorly) emails perform at driving conversions and meeting your marketing objectives.
When you have items that are not selling quite as well as you'd hoped, offer real-time discounts to help offload them. This can be done using SMS messages to customers in the afternoon, after you've seen how things are selling throughout the morning.
Alternatively, start offering surplus stock for free with purchases meeting specific criteria. For example, "Buy one, get one free -
today only".
Holiday shopping periods can be capitalized on by customizing mobile sites. Adding a special page to the website that highlights time-limited offers can be a child of the homepage, and in fact such pages are available for small businesses in the form of convenient plug-ins.
Send targeted messages to customers shopping nearby using geo-fencing tools on busy shopping days. These can highlight the advantages of buying local and tell them about your special offers.
In the US, Black Friday is the be all and end all of shopping bonanza days. So create your own 'Black Friday' not only to drive sales but also to create and build on customer relationships.
For example, offer time-sensitive coupons and then ask for feedback after the holiday period is over.
Use social media to inexpensively promote your brand - especially over holiday periods. Run contests to connect with new customers to promote savings and discounts.
Additionally, you can use competitions to lure people to your store. Get them in the door. The more foot traffic you can generate, the more sales you'll make.
Offer deals to local customers using Twitter, Facebook and SMS. Focus on getting them in early on - only locals would be able to make it before, say, 10am. This can help start your day off with a bang and get stock turning over.
Even off-time advertisements on local TV and radio stations will help promote your brand to a local audience.
The rates may be cheaper than you imagine, and you'd be surprised just how many people still listen to the radio. This might help to reach out to a much wider demographic for very little cost and effort. Make an effort to show locals that you're really offering them the best deals to garner additional goodwill - possibly hand out a verbal code that local listeners can use to get an in-store discount.
Offer your brand and support to a local non-profit organization desperate for funds and this will effectively plug you into their network. Not only that, but genuinely helping out a local charity will buy your business a lot of good will - and that is worth a lot.
It's a good idea to incorporate good causes (especially local ones that are meaningful to local customers) into your ongoing local marketing campaigns.
Create a blog and focus it on local news and events that relate to your niche industry. Building up a local network of loyal readers is incredibly valuable for generating support for sales and other events that can help increase profits - it's worthwhile keeping sales funnels in mind when creating blog content.
Do you have any other ideas on hyperlocal online and offline marketing? Leave a comment below with your thoughts or some example of creative campaigns.
Carlo Pandian is a keen observer of the start-up world and is currently writing an eBook on QuickBooks by Intuit, an accounting software for small businesses. He has previously published for several business and marketing magazines from the Internet Advertising Bureau to Naked Blogging.
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