“Near me” marketing is on the rise. In fact, 78% of consumers in 2021 conducted “near me” searches to find information about local businesses more than once a week. The frequency and volume of “near me” searches continue to increase, implying that more and more consumers are looking for local businesses to buy from. Whether your business has one flagship store or multiple locations across the country, leaning into this growing trend and pivoting your marketing efforts toward local customers is the wise thing to do. In this post, we’ll dive into the details of “near me” marketing, how it can benefit your business, and what strategies you can use. 

‍

What is “Near Me” Marketing?

“Near me” marketing, also called local marketing, targets potential customers within a specific radius, usually about 25-50 miles, of your business’s physical location. Since people conducting “near me” searches typically have a higher intent to purchase, local marketing draws in qualified leads much more effectively than generalized marketing strategies. 

‍

How Can Local Marketing Benefit a National Brand?

Studies show that 93.2% of consumers travel 20 minutes or less to make their everyday purchases, with 87% of consumers actually traveling 15 minutes or less. Incorporating “near me” marketing into your marketing strategies makes your brand more visible to those customers looking to make those purchases, even if you’re a national brand. Because let’s face it, very few customers are going to travel half an hour or more out of their way for your product on a regular basis, especially if there’s another competitive product closer to them. A name can only take you so far. Being easily accessible and popping up on those “near me” searches will have folks coming through your doors much more regularly than your brand name will.

‍

Types of Local Marketing

Local marketing is a broad term for a set of strategies that help generate local customers. These strategies can be categorized as inbound and outbound local marketing.

Inbound

Inbound local marketing looks like registering your business under Google My Business, developing a strong social media marketing strategy, and improving your local SEO. These inbound strategies are great for generating leads that are already demonstrating interest in your business or product by conducting searches.

Outbound

Outbound local marketing includes display ads, attending or hosting local events, community involvement and sponsorships, and more. These outbound marketing strategies serve to generate leads that might not be actively looking for your product but are open to connecting with businesses in their communities.

‍

5 Local Marketing Tools & Strategies to Drive Sales

1. Google My Business

Google My Business is perhaps the most important tool for any brick-and-mortar business. Your Google My Business profile is often the first impression potential customers have with your brand. Consumers view a brand’s GMB profile to find out store hours, read reviews, check out pictures, and more, often before visiting the website. A regularly updated GMB profile also boosts local SEO and makes your business more likely to appear in location-based search results. Customers can easily get directions to your business through your GMB profile as well, as it’s already integrated with Google Maps.

Google Review Campaigns

It’s worth noting that a strong review campaign for your GMB profile will improve your local marketing efforts. Consumers are more likely to visit and buy from businesses that have several authentic reviews of at least 4 stars. Include an insert when customers check out at your store, prompting them to leave a review for your business on Google. Better yet, send out an email blast to new users (who have opted in) asking for a review based on their most recent visit. Be sure to include a link to the review page to make the process easier.

2. Local SEO

Optimizing your website content is a cost-effective way to make your local marketing efforts more effective. Strong local SEO usually means that your business website will likely appear organically in “near me” searches without having to pay for ad space. This strategy works best for businesses with singular locations but is also beneficial for businesses with a handful of locations as well.

Often, improving your local SEO looks like adding more location-based keywords to your website headers, title tags, and meta descriptions, as well as incorporating them into the main content itself. If you want to get more customers to visit your brewery in Charlotte, North Carolina, for example, you might change the wording on your website to reflect that yours is the “Best Brewery in Charlotte” or “Charlotte’s Favorite Brewery.”

3. Social Media

Social media is one of the most important channels for marketing to the modern consumer. In the US alone, the daily time spent on social media is just over two hours, meaning businesses have many opportunities to reach their audiences. Local social media marketing is effective when you use local keywords and tags specific to your area. It is especially effective when customers post content about your store and tag your business. User-generated content is invaluable to social media marketing, but even more for “near me” marketing efforts.

With social media marketing, it’s important to share authentic and relatable content. Social media isn’t the place for dry, “salesy” content–users see right through that. Instead, showcase your shop decor, your best employees or customers, and highlight your products. Keep a conversational tone and don’t forget to engage with your followers.

Learn more: How to Boost Alcohol Sales Using Social Media

4. Paid Advertisements

Utilizing paid advertisements for local marketing is a must. With Google Ads, you can create ads specific to certain areas or within a certain radius of your store. Decide on specific keywords, like “winery near me,” and create an ad aimed at users most likely to search using that phrase. These ads will appear at the top of the search results page, and since many “near me” searches are done when consumers are in the mood to purchase something fairly quickly, they’ll likely click on your ad. 

In a similar fashion, you can also run ads on Facebook and Instagram by targeting users in specific locations. Be sure to keep your content on social media fresh and up-to-date if you plan to advertise on these platforms as well.

5. Store Locators

Store locators are enormously beneficial when it comes to local marketing. While visiting your website, customers can input their location into a store locator to find the stores selling your products nearest to them. This is not only convenient to the customer but also provides businesses with invaluable data. Store locators can show where the greatest interest in your product is, allowing you to increase local marketing efforts in that location to maximize sales. You can also identify gaps in your store or product availability by seeing the locations that have interest but no access.

The Grappos Store Locator is the best in the market. The app integrates seamlessly with all major website platforms, including Squarespace, Webflow, Wix, WordPress, and more. The Grappos app is incredibly easy to maintain, unlike other store locators, because customization, data management, and updates are all taken care of by our dedicated team. With Grappos, all you need to do is enjoy the benefits of having such a robust store locator at your fingertips. 

‍Check out:  Shopify Store Locator Apps - Which is Best? →

‍

Conclusion

Start earning those customers that are conducting the “near me” searches. These strategies should help you improve your local marketing so you can start seeing results. By optimizing your content for location and staying top-of-mind in your area, your stores are sure to experience a boost in business. 

Help your customers find your products online or nearby. Discover Buy Online Plus →

You might also like:

• 6 Proven Wine Marketing Strategies [+ Bonus Tools]
• 22 Digital Marketing Tools for a Successful Sales Team
• Your Brand Everywhere: Building an Omnichannel Strategy for Success