The world evolves in cycles; hyperlocal marketing and advertising are one of them. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines hyperlocal as “limited to a very small geographical area.” Therefore, hyperlocal marketing is defined as “marketing to a very small geographical area.” In this article, I will break down 5 different tactics and approaches to marketing your business in a hyperlocal area(i.e., your city, county, or neighborhood).
The 5 Most Effective Tactics to Increase Local Sales
Why is Hyperlocal important?
A hyperlocal approach will be mandatory for most service-based businesses, such as Mechanics, Realtors, Restaurants, Medical Offices, and many more. My business required hyperlocal advertising because I ran a catering company, which meant my advertising radius was limited to your delivery radius.
The first step to hyperlocal or geotargeted marketing is to define your radius. The most challenging part will be assessing how far your customers are willing to drive. Living in the Phoenix area 5 to 10 miles is a safe bet, and most people will opt to go to a location closer to them even if it means a decreased quality of products and services.
If you have a limited budget, start with a 5-mile radius; if you can afford to spend more on advertising, add 3 to 5 miles. Improve your strategy by asking your existing customers how far they live. It’s a great topic to build rapport. Are you willing to take it a step further? Start a reward program and ask for your customer’s zip code or address in exchange for discounts or freebies. Even a tiny 10% or 20% offer can get the ball rolling. Here are a few CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software programs to start your reward program.
2 Popular Affordable CRM Systems: Mailchimp, Constant Contact
1. Google Ads
2. Direct Mailers or Print Advertising
3. Facebook Advertising or local platform apps
4. Micro-influencers and collaborations
5. Public Relations and Community Events
Google Ads
My personal favorite. Google ads work for nearly any geographic region. Domestic or international. They can be used for most businesses. Whether you’re a franchise owner of multiple locations or e-commerce or a small business, you started yesterday.
The downside is it’s 100% pay-to-play. Bigger budgets will create more significant returns. However, you must strategize and optimize your ads for higher ROI. Google ads populate at the top of Google when you search for anything. If you Google “Mechanic near me,” you will see all the mechanics closest to you and mechanics who are paying for Google Ads to pop up at the top of this search inquiry.
Google ads have a learning curve but don’t require content creation. Just a website and an add account. If you have a small budget, it’s worth considering. Here’s a couple of YouTube channels I used to learn how to create Google Ads
Direct Mailers or Print advertising
Direct mailers are the junk mail you get for local businesses. Are they annoying? Yes. Do they work? Also, yes. If you’re a more established business or franchise, creating a mailer with an offer that is ‘almost too good to be true’ is advantageous. Sticking with the mechanic example… An ad for a $50 oil change might not move the needle, but an advertisement for a one-day-only $5 oil change, or with the tiny print “when you buy a $35 air filter,” might get people in the door. It all depends on your desired outcome. A loss leader could be a good idea for creating regular customers.
If this is outside your budget, consider pounding the pavement with flyers, door hangers, and coupons. You can order 1000 brochures and leave them at local businesses, door to door while taking advantage of an opportunity to network. As mentioned, your discount offer must be unique or too good to be true. For example, suppose you’re a mechanic who can work on German cars. In that case, you should highlight this feature in your marketing materials because it sets you apart.
This tactic works because it’s direct. Here’s a recommendation on a couple of places where you can affordably print brochures and flyers.
Griffon Printing
USPS EDDM
GOTPrint
Facebook and Social Media Ads
The two previous strategies are great for straightforward people who lack creativity. These two tactics are great for people who are okay with coloring outside the lines and being direct.
The strategy here is to avoid creating viral moments for FB and IG posts because that won’t happen.
For the first $100k my business made, we never had a post with over 200 likes, which is typical for local or service-based businesses. Your strategy here is repetition and to be seen by the right people 5 to 10 times a month. The key here is to find people interested in your product or service. In the other two tactics, you are shotgunning your message to anyone in your radius. For example, you may target newlyweds, newly engaged, and new parents if you’re a realtor. If you have a small budget, this can be done via Facebook and Instagram Ads. You must decide who your ideal clients are and create ad campaigns based on their demographics and likes. Once again, this has a learning curve, but since your ads will essentially be paid posts. You have added opportunities for branding and crafty targeted messages to get leads.
If you have no budget or want to double down on another strategy, you will need to turn on the charm and join dozens of Facebook groups and Instagram pages. Get in the comments, answer as many questions as you can, and provide as much feedback as you can. If you find a Facebook group for Arizona Newlyweds, join and start networking. This is a great tactic if you have time but no money.
Micro-influencers and collaborations
Micro-influencers are the journalists, food critics, and news analysts of our modern social media world. Micro influencers are social media pages with less than 60k followers specializing in a specific niche. Any page over 100k followers will be a macro influencer. Less than 25k followers will be a nano influencer.
Micro influencer marketing is easy, because they are all across the internet, there are thousands of pages on social media that speak on super niche subjects. Personally I love working with micro influencers, because it allows for creativity, branded content.
You’re probably asking how to find micro influencers for an effective marketing micro influencer campaign. For example, you might be looking for an Italian restaurant to try. Whip out any of your favorite social media apps and type ” Italian food phoenix ” in the search bar.” You will instantaneously be blessed with posts and pages from people bragging about whatever Italian restaurant they tried recently. Like the critics or blogs, magazines, or newspapers of the past, influencers are curators.
You can take 3 approaches to build an influencer marketing campaign, and I will list them from easy to hard.
Easiest—make a small list of micro influencers to partner with, 10 to 20, reach out to them, and ask them to review your service. Most will charge you a fee. Communicate with them your goals and what you want to get out of their review. Many of them won’t even ask to use your service; they just want to be paid for their reviews.
Medium—This is the same approach as the previous, but you will need a bigger list of 30 to 40 micro influencers. Ask them to review your service for free. It’ll be an exchange of service for service. This method is more difficult, and most influencers will tell you NO. It’s okay; expect it. You can sweeten the deal by giving them a percentage of your sales.
Hard – The product of a micro influencer is content, and they can seldom have too much product. If you’re creative enough to develop various content ideas, reach out and pitch them on their idea. Here is the collaboration part: you provide ideas and resources (venue, props, money, etc.), and they offer the audience the chance to receive your specially curated messages. This method is more advantageous because you know most of the influencer’s followers are within your niche and are potential customers. Additionally, be prepared for lots of NOs; if you can pull it off, be prepared to partner with micro influencers. Check out our follow-up article on how to reach out to micro influencers.
*Bonus Tip – A high quality micro influencer will speak to their engagement rate, target audience, and engage audiences. User generated content always resonates better with a highly engaged audience.
Public Relations and Community
This strategy is great because people will basically do your marketing for you. The trade-off is that you need to stand out and give people something to brag about, and you also need to be an established business (most of the time)—at least, you need to look like a trustworthy business.
The best examples are Diner, Drive-in, and Dives. A local restaurant creates a buzz in the city. The owner –and customers reach out to the Food Network to tell them how great this local restaurant is. Then, a chubby guy with spikey hair comes by and talks about the restaurant on national television for 10 minutes. The following month, the restaurant will be flooded with customers. If the food and service are good, then it creates enough repeat business to keep them afloat for a few years or enough to expand. But it doesn’t have to be the Food Network. It could be your local newspaper, a popular social media page with 100K+ followers, local radio, a local church, or regional and niche blog pages like mine.
These institutions are looking for expectational and unique businesses to highlight because it builds their reputation. In Phoenix, we have a local magazine/blog called “The Phoenix New Times.” They gained popularity by highlighting and reviewing local restaurants and upcoming events and speaking on local news. When someone reads about a great restaurant in the New Times, and they try the restaurant for themselves, if it’s excellent, they will check the New Times every time they want to try a new restaurant. Everyone involved wins.
This is PR in your local community. The advantage is cost effectiveness, brand awareness, and word of mouth marketing.
You need to reach out to as many local media press as possible weekly or monthly and ask them to visit your business. Offer them free services, ask what kind of businesses they seek, and try to create a relationship. It will be fruitful for years to come.
Feel free to organize local community events like giving out free turkeys for Thanksgiving, hosting art events, a pizza-eating contest, or a charity event. People thrive off a sense of community; if you can give them a sense of community, you will become a pillar of the community and a business with a killer reputation.
