There was once a time when marketing was purely a local affair. People advertised in front of their shops, or with nearby billboards, or in the pages of a regional newspaper. Since a business’ clientele was naturally restricted to a certain geographic area, and because a national or international marketing campaign was a prohibitively expensive and worthless endeavor, no business manager needed to look far from the office when marketing needs came to mind.
How the internet changed marketing’s reach
In today’s world that has all changed. Now, thanks to the internet, businesses are more global than ever before. Even a small storefront operation can easily ship a product or sell a service halfway around the world. Marketing campaigns have adjusted accordingly; for a company with any sort of internet presence, you are only hurting yourself by limiting your approach to a narrowly-defined geographic area. A digital marketing agency, therefore, will insure that your reach is as wide as possible.
This approach is an understandable one in most situations. But our current international mindset precludes us from taking advantage of local opportunities when they arrive – even when advertising in the virtual world. Oftentimes, a local marketing approach can be a highly beneficial and cost-effective one.
A locally-focused internet marketing campaign can benefit your business in the following areas:
Three ways to add a local focus online
-Social Media. You can’t have internet marketing without social media these days, and adding a local focus to your social media efforts can help boost exposure where it really counts. How can you do this? Start by “Liking” local corporations and non-profits on Facebook, Tweeting about updates in the region or community, and adding pictures to your Facebook page that contain a local flavor.
-SEO. Using SEO tactics to boost your page rank and visibility can be difficult, especially if you don’t have the resources needed to pepper the internet with your intended search term. But if you add a local modifier to the terms you seek to backlink – say, for example, “home furniture Chicago” rather than simply “home furniture” – you can begin placing links in a cheaper and more effective manner.
-Advertisements. In an increasingly-cluttered internet world, buying ad space on a given website – even one with solid traffic numbers – can often be expensive and fruitless. Websites with a local focus, however, will often charge much less even if their traffic numbers are similar. These sites also allow you to target potential consumers closer to home – people who have a higher probability of loyalty.
These are just a few of the ways an internet marketer can look local when planning their next campaign. Doing so is a worthwhile consideration for many businesses. After all, even though technology has given us the ability to easily advertise in the furthest corners of the globe, we ultimately can usually expect the greatest benefits and loyalties when we look closer to home.
Summary
This article contrasts marketing’s shift from a purely local, pre-internet approach to today’s global reach, and argues that a locally-focused online strategy can still be highly effective and cost-effective. It sets out three tactics: adding local flavour to social media posts, using local keyword modifiers such as a city name for SEO backlinks, and buying cheaper, more targeted advertising on locally-focused websites with loyal audiences.
Questions this article raises
- How much of a ranking boost does adding a city name to a keyword typically give?
- Which social platforms work best for building a genuinely local following?
- How do you measure whether locally-focused ads are outperforming broader campaigns?
