Digital marketing for a local business is inarguably a topic that any entrepreneur today has to be well-versed in. The world has gone digital in almost every aspect.
The COVID-19 pandemic saw more people go online than ever before.
People have changed the way they get information and make purchases. For instance, ecommerce market size grew from $517 billion to $768 billion in just 2 years.
Image via Statista
Digital marketing is therefore important for any local business that wants to increase its revenue.
It is clear that local businesses need to try digital marketing, but why is this crucial, especially today?
Let’s find out.
Why Digital Marketing is Crucial for A Local Business
Customers prefer businesses that meet their needs at their convenience, and the internet has made that much easier. People discover local brands online before they can visit them.
So, let’s take a look at some of the reasons why digital marketing is crucial for a local business:
1. You’ll Have A Wider Reach
More consumers than ever before are reading online reviews for local businesses. The number stands at a staggering 77%.
This is an audience that is enough to change the curve of any local business’s bottom line. So, by leveraging digital marketing tools, you can reach out to more local customers and attract them to your store.
Some mobile-friendly digital marketing methods include social media marketing, email marketing, and text message marketing. All these are meansyou can use to grow your audience and create brand awareness.
Similarly, you can create your website and optimize it for SEO to start ranking higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). You can do so by conducting keyword research using tools like Semrush or Ahrefs, and incorporating those into your website content.
That way, you’d be able to reach the vast audience that searches for local businesses through Google. In fact, 35% of consumers search for local businesses multiple times a week.
Also, you must make sure that your website is customized for mobile devices. This way, mobile users can easily navigate your website when they find you online through searches.
2. It’s a Flexible Option
For most local businesses, finding a digital marketing tool that will attract clients is where the challenge lies. However, there are many options your business can explore before settling on what’s most effective.
You can start small and scale up as your business grows. Some digital marketing strategies, like optimizing your website for organic search, practically cost nothing if you can do them yourself.
Traditional marketing avenues, on the other hand, rarely have cost-effective options, and they do not guarantee any return on investment either. For instance, if a marketing event campaign does not yield results, there is little that can be done to reduce costs and save money already spent.
In contrast, digital marketing comes with tools that give you a real-time analysis of your ad performance. You can use these to identify where there’s a need for adjustment, and you can do this on the go to get the most out of your marketing budget.
With digital marketing, it is possible to track and correct marketing mistakes. In doing so your business does not have to incur unnecessary losses.
Additionally, you don’t have to stick to a single channel. You can engage the same customer on social media or hire the best influencer marketing agencies to promote your brand or leverage email marketing platforms to communicate with them through emails.
There’s also an element of feedback with digital marketing. Clients can leave reviews, comments, and testimonials, and you can use this information to improve your services and customer experience.
Once you appeal to your potential clients and make them click on your ads, engage with your posts, or go to your website, you are on an upward growth trajectory.
Digital marketing enables you to communicate directly to your target customers, thus helping you build personal connections with them.
Additionally, social media platforms can track consumer patterns and preferences. For instance, with Facebook marketing, you’ll know what your audience likes and this can help you tailor your ads and conversations with them.
This targeted nature of digital marketing is drastically different from traditional marketing, where you try to cast a wider net without targeting specific audiences.
This targeted method means greater conversions and increased sales.
What’s more?
With digital marketing, you can spread your reach beyond your local audience by enabling ecommerce. This makes it easier to interact with your clients who are not within your location and even deliver their purchases to them.
And the best part?
You can even engage the services of full-service agencies to get the most out of your marketing efforts.
4. Builds Consumer Trust in Your Business
Having an official website and social media presence helps boost your customers’ trust in your local business. As mentioned above, consumers search for businesses online, and if your business doesn’t have a digital presence, you’ll fail to make an impact on them.
For example, you need to create an effective profile on Instagram and react to messages on IG regularly to get good leads for your business and it also hello you boost your brand awareness.
What’s more, with social media, you’d be able to show what goes on behind the scenes in your business. This increased transparency also boosts consumers’ trust in your local business.
Additionally, an online presence also makes your business more approachable. As a result, your consumers will be able to communicate with you directly for all their questions and concerns.
Think of it this way — they’ll be able to message you in addition to calling or visiting your business. It just improves your accessibility drastically.
The insights you gather from this, in turn, can help in improving your service and offerings.
And doing so can help in driving even more sales and boost customer loyalty. a
5. It Levels the Playing Field
Most industries have their leaders and are very saturated. As a local business, getting into the market and making yourself visible can be a major task, especially with a limited budget.
But digital marketing levels the playing field for marketers in that they all can effectively use it to reach their audience, irrespective of their budget. So, if you’re a small business, you don’t need to break the bank to get your product in front of your audience.
Large companies may have the money and the resources, but they don’t directly translate into reach, traffic, or engagement.
The only way to be at the top of the search engines, or to get the most engagements, etc, is by increasing your relevance, and you can do this even without massive budgets.
Any good use of digital marketing tactics will see even a local business edge out the big players and earn a spot on consumers’ screens.
This makes it possible for anyone in business to compete globally and even gain a large following from consumers. As a result, you can take your local business to the next level with digital marketing.
6. Digital Marketing is Affordable
Another one of the many benefits of digital marketing is that it’s affordable.
Traditional advertising methods are generally expensive. For instance, placing an ad on TV can cost as much as $104,700 for a 30-second ad. This is very high for a local business and can easily discourage them from marketing altogether.
However, digital marketing is cheaper, and most marketers have been reducing their traditional marketing budget for the same reason.
For a business to gain traction, it just needs to be seen by the right audience — and it doesn’t necessarily have to happen through traditional marketing modes. There is a wide range of budget-friendly options a local business can explore with digital marketing.
For instance, you can dedicate a small budget for paid ads and use the rest on organic content. This can help you make the most of your marketing budget.
Additionally, the lack of targeting options in traditional advertising means that you won’t be using your budget in the most effective manner.
What’s more?
Digital marketing offers a lot of free opportunities too. For instance, you can launch your social media account for free and start publishing content on it to drive engagement and awareness.
7. Customers Can Easily Find You
Most (99%) product and service purchases from local businesses start with an online search, according to BrightLocal.
For instance, searches like “restaurants near me” are done with local intentions. Your business could show up on the Google Maps pack or Knowledge Graph for such searches if your Google My Business (GMB) details are up to date.
Be sure to provide your name, address, and phone number (NAP) details too, and maintain their consistency everywhere.
What’s more?
Consumers don’t necessarily have to rely on searches to find your business. They could even search for it on social media platforms and reach you. This ease of accessibility makes digital marketing critical for local businesses.
Ready to Leverage Digital Marketing for Your Local Business?
Digital marketing is crucial for a local business because it gives businesses an affordable way to market themselves, besides providing more visibility.
From building a website and optimizing it for SEO to launching paid campaigns on social media, there’s a lot that you can do to promote your local business online.
You could even partner with local influencers to spread the word about your business among your town’s residents.
Ultimately, you should choose the marketing mode depending on the nature of your business to drive the most conversions.
Digital marketing also helps you keep track of your progress in real-time so that you can optimize your approach regularly to get the most out of your budget. All the best in building your digital marketing strategy.