Digital Marketing spans a wide range of tools and tactics, from email marketing to paid ads, SEO (search engine optimization), social media, and content marketing. You don’t have to do it all, especially when you’re just starting. A few well-considered, creative digital marketing strategies can help drive traffic to your new local business.
Here are some of our favourite digital marketing tactics to include in your marketing plan.
Set-Up Your Google My Business Listing
If you haven’t already, setting up and optimizing your Google My Business listing should be your first step. An optimized and active Google My Business listing is one of the easiest ways to appear in search results – sometimes more often than websites! “Optimized and Active” means ensuring all of your business details (location, address, hours of operation) and attributes (take-out and delivery, accessible) are accurate and complete.
After setting up your profile correctly, it’s essential to make sure it stays active. There are many ways to do so: share updates, respond to reviews, add photos, reply to questions, and more. Keep feeding your profiles and, in turn, your (potential) customers.
Run Facebook Ads
Facebook (and other social media) ads have the benefit of not only increasing sales but also increasing your brand awareness. You benefit from increased exposure when someone is actively searching for your product or service and when they’re scrolling through their feeds. As a new local business, increased exposure is critical to generating traffic.
Like Google AdWords, Facebook Ads allows you to choose your audience and ad objectives. You can also re-target those who visited your website already at a significantly lower cost than running ads to new audiences.
Ask For Reviews
You won’t get any if you don’t ask! It’s okay to ask happy customers to leave reviews, and the more you have, the more likely you are to make sales. Did you know that 72% percent of people won’t take action before consulting online reviews, and 15% of customers will not trust a business if they don’t have reviews to consult?
In addition to asking for reviews, be sure to respond to the ones you do get – positive and negative. Responding to reviews lets Google and potential customers know you are an active business. Responding to negative reviews, in particular, can let consumers know you will do your best to fix any wrongs. Especially as a new company trying to generate new customers, this is very important. Check out our complete Customer Reviews Marketing Strategy to get started on yours
Host a Giveaway
One sure way to generate interest in your new local business is to give away free stuff! Options for contests or giveaways are almost endless:
- First XX number of customers in the store receive a free item
- Sign up for our newsletter to be entered into a draw for a free item
- For every $XX amount spent, be entered into a draw
- For every $XX amount spent, receive XX% off
- Tag us on Instagram for a chance to win a gift card
- And so on
Promote your giveaway on social media, your website, in your email marketing campaigns, and in-store using flyers or coupons. If it’s within the budget, you can also work with local influencers to share your business and giveaway online.
Use Hashtags and Locations Tags on Social Media
Social Media is an excellent tool for new businesses. Due to the global nature of most platforms, you have to take steps to ensure your posts target a more local audience. Using hashtags and location tags is a great way to do this.
When posting, look for the option to “Add location.” You can enter either your business name or current city. When it comes to hashtags, smaller is better. Use niche hashtags to narrow down your audience to your ideal consumers. For example, instead of #pizzashop use #montrealpizzashop or #montrealveganfoods.
The ways you can use digital marketing to generate traffic for your new local business are virtually endless if you get a little bit creative! If you’re looking for more ideas, check out our blog!