How To Promote Your Local Business

2020 was a difficult year for many industries, but the more data that is coming out, the more it is confirmed that small, local businesses are among the hardest hit. This is true across the world, from Philadelphia to Phuket (where 1/3 of all hospitality businesses have gone bust). For those small businesses that are surviving, the key to recovery will be in promotion, so they can spring back and be more than ever in the minds of their patrons, many of whom will care about their survival. This guide is here to offer some ways that you can efficiently promote your local business to ensure you continue to grow and excel in the future.

Stand Out

The first step to promoting your local business is to make sure that you are as visible as possible. If nobody knows where you are or how to find you, then any other form of promotion you do is ultimately useless. You can do this by using outdoor banners and signage. To ensure you get the highest return on investment, you need to make sure you choose a material that will withstand the weather, such as PVC banner material. This means that you keep giving the right impression over time; a weather-beaten washed-out sign gives a bad impression of a business. You want to show your patrons that you are standing strong despite 2020. A good idea is to use a front-lit or backlit banner if you can afford it, so your business is more visible at night, and your name stands out.

 

To ensure that you get the best return on your sign or banner, make sure that you are using a recognizable logo and consistent branding to properly nurture your brand awareness.

 

Create a Google Business Listing

Gone are the days where people would find a local store by taking a walk in search of the goods they need most. Research has found that 85% of consumers use the internet to find local businesses. If you want to be found in the digital realm, it is vital that you come up on local search results. One of the best ways to ensure this happens is to create a Google business listing. Not only does Google business make it easier for customers to find you organically on the internet, it means you have visibility across search engines and Google Maps combined. It also allows you to showcase your business hours and contact information, as well as reviews and ratings. If you encourage your patrons to rate you highly, you will stand out to anybody looking for your products or services.

 

Create a Yelp Listing

According to the Online Reviews Survey, 45% of people buying a product or visiting a business will check reviews on the site Yelp before they part with their cash. Yelp is the second most used website (to Google) in a business context, so you can be assured that creating a Yelp Listing is not a waste of your time. Yelp caters to a high amount of traffic, 178 million unique visitors every month. Like Google, Yelp allows you to add your address and contact information, as well as a description of what you do, but the most important aspect of Yelp is the customer reviews, which your potential clients will likely check before they visit you.

 

Update Your Website for Mobile

 Nearly 50% of internet users are on mobile, and this is only expected to grow in coming years. If your website is not optimized for mobile users, you are potentially losing out on a large portion of potential customers. Creating a mobile-friendly site does not mean completely redoing your current website. It involves making changes to ensure it functions as intended over a range of different devices, otherwise known as making a dynamic mobile site. Other factors that really help are improving loading speed (53% of mobile users leave a website that takes more than three seconds to load), breaking up large blocks of text so that they’re easy to read, and enabling accelerated mobile pages.

 

Offer In-Store Collection

Some shoppers will want to shop at your store but won’t want to pay for any shipping costs if they can just pick it up in person. To cater to these local patrons, which are likely your bread and butter, you should consider giving them an option to pick up their order in-store. This will also give you more footfall and increase the opportunities of a customer finding something else that they like in your store. This is easier than offering a delivery option, and it allows customers to continue shopping safely in a pandemic. If you want to expand your online presence but do not want to pay for the development of an e-commerce store, you can just offer an option to pick up in-store. You can also use a specialized software to offer the service via email. The customer gives details of their order, and then you arrange a collection time while factoring in fulfillment time.

 

Give Back to the Local Community

Giving back to the local community is a great way of promoting your business while doing something good at the same time. You can use social media to promote your cause and gain more brand awareness at the same time.

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