Forget Trying to Reach Everyone. The Money Is in Becoming the Business Everyone Knows in Your Local Area.
Here is the wonderful thing about owning a local business.
You don’t need the entire country to know you exist.
You don’t need 100,000 Instagram followers.
You don’t need a viral TikTok video.
And you certainly don’t need to spend a fortune trying to become famous.
You need customers.
More specifically, you need customers who live close enough to actually buy from you.
If you’re a plumber in Nashville, someone searching for a plumber in Seattle is completely useless to you.
Local marketing is about putting your business in front of the people who matter.
Here are ten ways to do exactly that.
1. Own Your Google Business Profile
When somebody needs a local service, Google is often the first place they look.
So your Google Business Profile deserves attention.
Complete every important section.
Add your services.
Upload good photographs.
Keep your hours accurate.
Make sure your phone number and website are correct.
Then keep the profile active.
Too many businesses create a Google profile and treat it like an old filing cabinet.
Don’t.
It may be one of the first impressions a new customer gets of your company.
Make it a good one.
2. Get More Google Reviews
Suppose a homeowner finds two plumbers.
One has 23 Google reviews.
The other has 287.
Which looks like the safer choice?
Exactly.
Reviews are powerful because they are not you telling people how wonderful you are.
They’re your customers doing it for you.
Make asking for reviews part of your business process.
Finish the job.
Make sure the customer is happy.
Ask permission to send them a review request.
Send the link directly to their phone.
Make it easy.
Then do it again tomorrow.
The secret isn’t occasionally getting ten reviews.
It’s consistently getting new ones every week.
3. Dominate a Small Area Before Chasing a Large One
Many local businesses make the mistake of trying to cover enormous territories.
Why?
Start smaller.
Choose the towns, cities or neighborhoods where your best customers live.
Concentrate your advertising there.
Create content about those areas.
Build reviews there.
Become familiar.
It is far better to be extremely well known within 20 miles than vaguely recognized within 200.
Own your backyard first.
Expand later.
4. Turn Your Everyday Work Into Marketing
You already have marketing material.
You probably created some today.
Completed a landscaping project?
Photograph it.
Installed a new roof?
Show it.
Fixed a plumbing disaster?
Explain what caused it.
Built a garage?
Show the before and after.
Real projects demonstrate that you actually do what you claim to do.
And they give potential customers something far more interesting than another stock photograph of somebody wearing a hard hat and smiling.
Document your work.
5. Stop Posting Boring Social Media Content
Nobody is waiting breathlessly for your next post saying:
“Quality service at affordable prices. Call us today!”
Every competitor says the same thing.
Instead, teach people something.
Show them something.
Tell them a story.
Try:
“This tiny $12 plumbing part caused $4,000 of water damage.”
That’s interesting.
Or:
“Here are three signs your roof may not survive another winter.”
Now you’ve earned some attention.
And attention is where marketing begins.
6. Use Local Facebook Groups Without Becoming Annoying
Most towns have Facebook groups containing thousands of local residents.
That represents an enormous opportunity.
But don’t join and immediately start selling.
You will be ignored remarkably quickly.
Answer questions.
Offer advice.
Recommend useful resources.
Become known as the electrician, plumber, contractor or business owner who actually helps people.
Then when somebody asks:
“Can anyone recommend a good electrician?”
Guess whose name has a better chance of appearing?
Familiarity compounds.
7. Stop Forgetting Your Existing Customers
Businesses spend astonishing amounts of money finding new customers and then completely ignore the ones they already have.
Madness.
Build an email and SMS database.
Keep in touch.
Send useful advice.
Seasonal reminders.
Special offers.
New services.
Customer stories.
Referral requests.
Someone who trusted you once is considerably easier to sell to than a complete stranger.
Your customer database is an asset.
Treat it like one.
8. Ask for Referrals
Sometimes marketing isn’t complicated.
Sometimes you simply have to ask.
When a customer tells you:
“You did a fantastic job.”
Say:
“Thank you. If you know anyone else who needs our help, we’d really appreciate you passing our name along.”
That’s it.
People trust recommendations from people they know.
And local businesses are particularly well suited to referrals because neighbors talk to neighbors.
One excellent customer can introduce you to five more.
9. Create Local Website Content
If you want customers from certain areas, create useful website content for those areas.
Don’t create hundreds of rubbish pages where you simply change the town name.
That fools nobody.
Instead, produce useful content.
A roofing company could write:
“5 Things Charlotte Homeowners Should Check After a Major Storm.”
A plumber could write:
“Common Plumbing Problems in Older Nashville Homes.”
A shed company might create:
“What Evansville Homeowners Should Know Before Buying a Storage Shed.”
Now you have content that is both relevant to your service and relevant to the people you’re trying to reach.
That is considerably more useful.
10. Measure Sales, Not Applause
This final point will save you a great deal of money.
Stop judging marketing by likes.
Or followers.
Or impressions.
Or whether someone told you your Facebook post looked nice.
Ask one question:
Did it produce business?
Track where enquiries come from.
Track calls.
Track form submissions.
Track appointments.
Track sales.
If $500 of advertising produces $5,000 of profitable work, you may have found something worth expanding.
If $500 produces nothing except 92 Facebook likes, you haven’t.
Marketing is an investment.
Demand a return.
Become Famous to the People Who Matter
You don’t need everyone in America to know your company.
You need the people in your market to keep seeing you.
On Google.
In Facebook groups.
In search results.
In their inbox.
On their street.
In their neighbor’s recommendation.
And in the reviews they read when they’re finally ready to buy.
Do that long enough and something very useful happens.
Your name becomes familiar.
Then trusted.
Then remembered.
And when somebody needs exactly what you sell, they don’t have to spend half an hour searching through your competitors.
They already know who to call.
That’s local marketing done properly.
Not chasing followers.
Not chasing fame.
Becoming the obvious choice in your own backyard.