Looking for local business marketing strategies that actually work to grow your business? Welcome to the club. The internet is chock full of shallow marketing tactics that leave business owners wanting more.
Today, we’re going to share some rock-solid tactics you can start applying now to almost guarantee your business succeeds. While there are hundreds of strategies you can employ, we’re going to look at three of the most powerful methods available today.
In a nutshell, they are:
- Get crystal clear on your messaging.
- Improve the value of your offers.
- Intentionally create word-of-mouth marketing.
Let’s take a deeper dive into each one to understand why it works so well and how you can apply it today. Here are the three local business marketing strategies you need to it use right now:
1. Get Crystal Clear Messaging
“If you confuse, you lose.” – Donald Miller
It is surprising how many small businesses don’t have a clear brand story. Meaning, they do not understand the “why” behind their own business and how to clearly convey that to their potential customers in a way that benefits them, not the company itself. As such, their websites talk all about themselves, and it is difficult to understand exactly what problem they solve for the customer.
Maybe you have a website, but as of right now, it doesn’t do much for your business. Odds are, people visit your site, only to leave quickly. They aren’t clear on what exactly you do and how it helps them. So what can you do? Clarify your message and simplify your marketing.
Start with these simple steps:
- Create a one-line headline on your website that simply states what you offer and how it helps your customer.
- Change any language that talks about your company and make it about the customer instead. Do this even on your “About” page.
- Use only one call-to-action on your home page and remove any other options. Tell the customer precisely what they should do to work with you.
Make a small investment and read Building a Storybrand by Donald Miller. You’ll learn how to clarify your website copy, write emails, and social media posts that convert, and dramatically increase conversions on your marketing channels without having to increase traffic. When it comes to local business marketing strategies, this book is a gold mine.
2. Increase your Value Offerings
“Ultimately, the business that can spend the most to acquire a customer, wins.” – Dan Kennedy.
Whoever can spend the most money to get a customer and still remain profitable will own the market. So, how can you increase the amount of money you spend to get a customer? You do it by increasing the value of your offer, which, in turn, can increase the average customer value. You’ll make more money per customer by being able to charge more while increasing customer satisfaction..
A common temptation in just about every market is to lower your prices to attract new customers. This works to a degree, but it only attracts customers who are shopping based on price. The problem is that you’ll always have to offer a special deal or keep lowering your prices to keep competing. There is a strategic advantage to being the lowest priced offer in your market, but none in being the second-lowest priced. You don’t want to get stuck in a constant race to the bottom.
The ultimate advantage, however, is being the highest-priced offer in your market. As long as the value far outweighs your product’s cost, customers will happily pay a higher price.
What does this mean? It means if you’re a dentist, you can increase the value of basic dental work by including free teeth cleaning, teeth whitening with any procedure, and other extras. If you sell home cleaning products and services, you can provide a satisfaction guarantee and include a free floor deep-clean. Whatever you sell, you can increase the offer without dropping your prices, and customers will be happier.
This is one of the best local business marketing strategies because you can make more money right now just by increasing the perceived value of what you already offer.
3. Be Intentional About Creating Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Over 90% of people will believe brand recommendations from a friend.
With all the advances in digital marketing, word-of-mouth marketing still reigns supreme of all local business marketing strategies. If you stick around long enough in business and have excellent customer service, word-of-mouth marketing will be a natural result. However, if you’re just starting, word won’t spread about your company quite as fast.
That is, unless you are intentional about it.
Here are some simple steps you can take to increase word-of-mouth marketing around your brand:
- Ask EVERY customer for a review. Give them a link to easily leave it online and showcase the best ones on your website’s homepage.
- Encourage user-generated content. Incentivize customers to create videos, write social media posts, and share photos related to your business. Utilize a unique hashtag for your brand. A great way to do this is by creating contests for sharing and leaving reviews.
- Create a referral program that rewards customers for bringing in new customers.
- Connect with industry leaders and influencers. Get high profile people to talk about your brand.
Take some time to build up a strong word-of-mouth campaign and watch your business grow for a long time.
Note: word-of-mouth marketing will only work FOR you if you provide an excellent customer experience. If you don’t, word-of-mouth marketing will work against you, and you’ll fail quickly.
We hope you’ll test out these local business marketing strategies starting today and see how they can take your business to the next level.
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