How much of your day is routine? If you’re like most people, your days are pretty similar. You stop at the same coffee shop, take the same route to work, and grocery shop at the same market every day. That means on a day to day basis, our exposure to new ideas is limited.
So as a small business owner, how do you reach your target audience — the people who check all the boxes as an ideal customer?
Get as close to their daily routine as possible.
Hyperlocal marketing helps small businesses do just that. Hyperlocal marketing targets a single micro-community. It’s super-targeted, niche marketing on steroids.
When you focus your local target marketing in a smaller geographical area, your chance of appealing to customers increases. You can then apply any number of creative hyperlocal marketing strategy ideas to achieve your goal.
Who knows, your ideal prospective customer could be just a few steps from your front door.
As a small business, it’s crucial for your business to be searchable online. Many small and midsize businesses are optimized for statewide and citywide searches, but that may not be enough.
To grow bigger, think smaller: hyperlocal marketing and SEO can help your small business grow faster.
What is Hyperlocal Marketing?
Hyperlocal marketing may be a new buzzword, but it’s one of the oldest methods of marketing around. Long before internet, tv, radio, and print, business owners had to rely on hyperlocal markets to keep their businesses up and running. The only thing that has changed over time is the technology available to analyze and market to micro areas.
Hyperlocal marketing is the process of targeting prospective customers in a specific geographic area. This marketing approach has the intention of targeting people conducting “near me” searches on their mobile device.
The primary goal for hyperlocal marketing for small businesses is to drive traffic to your storefront. Nearly ⅓ of all mobile searches are related to location. In fact, the demand for “near me” searches has grown so fast that between 2015-2017 hyperlocal searches that do not include “near me” have increased by 150%. This works great for local companies with primarily in-person services. Restaurants, clothing boutiques and gift stores, salons and spas, plumbing services, and laundromats are great examples of this.
Hyperlocal marketing is an excellent strategy for small businesses because they have an advantage. They use the area they know best to bring in more customers to their business.
Is Hyperlocal Marketing Right For You?
Companies of all sizes can benefit from hyperlocal marketing because it offers a low cost per target and allows for time-sensitive promotions. According to Google Data, “near me” hyperlocal searches grew 130% between 2014-2015. This shows that users are searching for products and services out of immediate convenience through their mobile devices.
The biggest e-commerce trend this year is Research Online, Purchase Online (ROPO). Nearly 96% of local searches were conducted on a PC, 79% used mobile devices, and 81% used a tablet. While many local searchers are looking for “name in mind” information, a substantial number doesn’t have a specific business in mind.
So if you are a local storefront, hyperlocal marketing will be great for you.
What Factors Contribute to Hyperlocal Marketing?
As with anything in SEO and Google, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly how to optimize hyperlocal searches. But there are a few techniques that seem to work well.
Maintain a Solid Google My Business Listing
When it comes to maximizing visibility in local search results, crafting a comprehensive Google My Business Listing will make it possible. Google My Business Listing is where Google sources its nformation to users in local searches and Google Map results. Customers will be able to find your business hours, location, popular “busy” times, contact information, and products and services.
Customer Reviews
As the shift of power continues to lean toward customers, reviews matter more now than ever. Many small business owners have experienced first-hand how effective word-of-mouth marketing can be. When it comes to hyperlocal marketing, reviews and customer testimonials can be one of the most effective tools.
According to the 2018 Moz Local Search Ranking Factors, review signals account for 13% of how google decides to display local search results in the “Local Pack” results, the small list of businesses displayed beneath the Maps result in some searches.
The more reviews and testimonies your business has, the more likely your business will pop up as a “Local Pack” result.
Proximity
It’s worth noting that proximity, the distance between the user and a local business, is considered an important My Business ranking tool. This isn’t very black and white, as Google appears to provide local results in clusters, even if some results are actually closer to the user than others.
Google will sometimes display a shorter local pack of results with only two businesses listed rather than three. If the location of a relevant business is determined to be too far from the user, then even more businesses will show up in the local pack results.
A business that is closer may not show up because of other factors, so proximity actually appears to be influenced by other factors like reviews and the quality of your Google My Business Page.
Catering to a specific area can be challenging but very rewarding when done correctly. Hyperlocal marketing in Reno is an excellent way to integrate your business into the surrounding area and establish your business as a staple in your community.
Let’s Get Hyperlocal!
Does your business show up in a “near me” search? Our Bareknucklers will help dial-in your location and let your business be known.
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