Having a strong Local Marketing Strategy is so important if you are going to win the hearts and minds of new and existing customers.
97% of consumers use the internet to research products or services in their local area FIRST – so you need to have a strong online presence.
But also: 80% of local business comes from people who live/work within 5 miles of your location – so you need a varied offline presence too.
Since the 1980’s I have been helping small businesses with their local marketing presence. Doing business in your local area gives you the greatest advantage over the big competitors. Why? Because you can build a personal relationship with your customers – not just via email but face to face; something the larger organisations find difficult and expensive to do.
As a local business you have to be the best at what you do and make sure that your market knows why you are different.
80% of local business comes from people who live/work within 5 miles of your location
At the Kelsey Group they found that when people are looking for goods or services, they will search locally first.
97% of consumers use the internet to research products or services in their local area FIRST.
So the need to get your customers’ attention is vital so that you can be heard through the mass of other advertising messages.
Back in the 80’s the leading edge technology for targeting customers was the ”Socio-demographic” profile of A,B,C,C1, C2, D and E which was used by CACI to create their ACORN system. This became the backbone to what became Database Marketing which I introduced to my clients at the time – the local car dealer markets – predominantly VW and Audi. I even wrote a marketing plan to increase car fleet business sales which was presented to Ford at a new business seminar which they subsequently used as a master template for their system.
This profiling has developed enormously over the years and not only covers demographics but also geographics and psychographics (lifestyle and interests).
It is now possible to pinpoint your market directly and as you build your customer database, this too can be used to profile your customers covering:
- Life Time Values – what a customer is worth to you
- Best/Worst customers
- What they buy and How often etc.
You can then use this information to invest in other lists as you expand your business.
Being able to pinpoint your marketing means that budgets can work harder as you can easily track how successful a particular campaign is through easy to set up monitoring methods. So a campaign can be adjusted very quickly if it is either going well or not so well.
With technology of the internet and mobiles; and with traditional marketing such as direct mail and promotions, the time is right to make your mark in your local area and keep local business – LOCAL.
Call me on 07786 228553 or contact me here if you would like to talk further about this and other ideas.