Who recognizes your business better, people around you or people away from you? Even though the answer looks simple, these things are the ones which most businesses often miss. It's like shouting out loud and failing to whisper it to someone close by. So, start local first and go global later. Here are some marketing tips for accelerating your local business growth:
Hit local directories and search engines
Most small businesses miss this easy and effective marketing tool; in fact you will be amazed by the kind of responses that would pop up once you get these listings to show up. Apart from being cheaper these listings mostly strike at the right place and time, giving the right exposure and some cool business for you. Get listed in Google places and pin your business today.
Telemarketing and personal visits
Targeting the local and immediately available prospects is what you should be really doing in the initial stages of your business. As these prospects can relate to you more, due to the geographic closeness, you stand a better chance at creating an impact with even cold calling, which otherwise is a tough proposition. Once you build your brand awareness you can personally visit them due to the closeness factor. This will do a world of good as you can directly gauge their tastes and preferences and also design and deliver better products and services.
Conduct, sponsor, or participate in local events
Branding is another aspect of a successful business. And what better way than to conduct relevant social and businesses based events to create an impression in minds of your local prospects. Word of mouth marketing will turn viral with these kinds of events, if properly conducted. If you are not ready yet for these than you also have an alternate option of sponsoring similar events and getting similar benefits at lower costs. And as these events are local the costs remain quiet low in comparison to other bigger marketing initiatives.
Associate with similar businesses for common benefits
Associating and partnering with other or similar businesses for common benefits in your local area may prove extremely beneficial for you and your associates. As you connect locally it creates a great platform for you to offer allied business services, exchange ideas, know customer preferences, explore product/service ideas, and so on. However, you need to take extra care while entering into these types of associations, as there is a good chance of misunderstanding and negative competition creeping in among associates.
Display ads in local dailies and magazines
This is another trump card that you can use as a means of effective and cheap marketing. These dailies and magazines are mostly read by denizens, which improves your brand visibility by huge margins.
Distribute brochures during local gatherings
You can put this marketing technique just behind conducting events or sponsoring them. You can directly target local events or gathering where your kind of prospects are more in number, you can distribute your product/service brochures by setting up stalls or just pass it on hand-to-hand and instantaneously make them aware about your product.
Engage local marketing agents or virtual assistants
If you are extra serious on rapid growth, hiring a local marketer or a virtual assistant could be a bull's eye hit for you. These marketers by virtue of their profession are more aware of the nuances of marketing and can give you lot more options based on your budgetary constraints. And with their experience they can get you a better ROI than what you may achieve doing it on your own.
To sum it up, locally marketing your business is definitely a smart idea especially if you are a budding businessman.