02 Aug Reasons Hyper-Localized Marketing Works for SMBs

Marketing can be conducted on a wide basis – like the blast from a shotgun; or narrowly aimed – like a round from a rifle; or sharply focused – like a laser beam. The most effective strategy, as you might imagine, is the laser precision. In marketing, this strategy goes by another name – hyperlocal marketing.

Here are several reasons hyper-localized marketing works for SMBs…

Attracts Local Customers

If you have a brick and mortar furniture store and site you’ve constructed with a local website builder, you could still do quite well drop shipping products all over the country. However, your profit margin will take a hit because you’ll have to give a percentage to that third party.

When you optimize your SEO for the local market, you’ll pull in more people in your immediate area. This will lower your shipping costs and free you from paying a larger percentage to the manufacturer for drop shipping the product. In some cases, local customers free you of the burden of shipping altogether.

Captures “Near-Me” Searches

Google has observed a sharp increase in search queries with the predicate “near me”. The search engine titan also notes users have become so accustomed to seeing local results that the phrase is being dropped from search terms. In other words, even though local relevance is not overtly requested, it’s still expected.

According to Lisa Gevelber, Global VP of marketing at Google, “People increasingly assume they’ll receive relevant information with fewer explicit inputs. In essence, people are saying ‘don’t make me exert extra effort when you should already know exactly what I want.’”

She goes on to say, “Nearly two-thirds of smartphone users are more likely to purchase from companies whose mobile sites or apps customize information to their location. A focus on capturing and using as much contextual information as possible is key to understanding people and delivering on their expectations.”

Hyperlocal marketing plays right into this.

Inspires Customer Reviews

Marketing professionals worth their annual bonuses will also tell you that word of mouth is the single best form of advertising. This is another of the benefits of hyper-localized marketing. Whenever you research a business, one of the first things you do is go to one of the peer-review sites to get an idea of the reputation of the firm—yes?

Those reviews are considered one of the most important ranking factors in local SEO. Hyperlocal marketing efforts generate more local reviews, which in turn help your business appear higher on local search engine results pages. This exposes you to even more customers, who also write reviews about you.

Ultimately, this is a marketing strategy that feeds into another marketing strategy, which in turn drives more customers to your business, who attract more customers and so on and so on and so on. It becomes a perpetual motion machine.

These are but a few of the reasons hyper-localized marketing works for SMBs. But here’s the best one of all. Substantial results can be derived from a relatively small investment. Said differently, a budget barely capable of moving the needle in a national campaign could well make you king of the hill in a hyperlocal campaign. If this is your first foray into the concept, you’re in for a very pleasant surprise.