The importance of local marketing.

These days many more business owners realise the importance of focusing on what their local area has to offer, whether that be through locally sourced products, people or service providers.

The use of hyperlocal marketing campaigns is growing with large corporations sometimes branching out or even disguising themselves as smaller, home-grown companies to appeal to the growing local-focused consumers.

Starbucks is a great example of this.

They opened a new coffee shop in Seattle in 2011 but instead of putting up the well known Starbucks signs, they rebranded the store 15^th Ave Coffee and Tea. Their incognito experiment was quickly discovered and they put the traditional Starbucks signs back up. 15^th Ave’s short-lived existence shows that Starbucks understand many dislike their generic feel and the fact they all look exactly the same. They were experimenting with a new concept and although this may have backfired, it did lead to them designing new Starbucks stores in ways that link with their local environment, each store looking at least a little different to the next.

Shouldn’t I be internationally focused?

Not necessarily. As I have mentioned many people these days like the idea of locally sourced products, people and producers. Local companies are not competing within different geographic locations, so why change this? You can target your local area and gain custom through local marketing and make a name for yourself within the community.

How can I do this?

• You can network with local companies, send out flyers to local people and businesses to get their attention.
• You can also target local users on social media. Both Twitter and Facebook let you target local users with their advertising services.
• You can also target local search engine users with keywords in your domain name and on your website.

What about other customers?

Just because you focus locally does not mean you ignore or turn away other customers. You can still attract custom from further afield. This is just one marketing approach that may be useful for community based or smaller companies. Although as the example of Starbucks shows, even large companies see the advantage in local marketing and branding!

Here at Squibble, we understand the importance of marketing your company and website. Contact us for more information on how we can help market your website.

Alternatively, read our earlier blog posts to learn more about how to create an engaging brand or to learn more about how to grow your business with a marketing plan.