Are you trying to improve the number of people that visit your location based business, but have no idea how to execute the marketing? Fortunately, you can advertise your business digitally and increase footfall to beat the competition. The cost and effort poured into these marketing strategies can be worth it by generating extra sales.
80% of users indicate that they want location-based alerts, which shows that most people would be receptive to location-based marketing. Therefore, you need to let people know about your business who are in the local area, and you could see a large sales increase. Continue reading to learn more about the various marketing strategies for location-based businesses.
What Is Location Based Marketing?
Location-based marketing relies on having access to the location of local mobile phone users, but it works on other devices too. The idea is to optimize your business in the search results for users who are looking for your services.
You’ll compete with other location-based businesses trying to rank in the search engines. Users will browse the results and choose a suitable option by considering factors such as distance, review score, price, pictures, and more.
Understanding how Google ranks businesses will help you optimize for the correct factors.
How to Optimize for Ranking On Location Based Search
Now let’s take a closer look at what factors you should optimize for when ranking your business higher in the search engine results pages. The process of improving your rankings also leads to a better customer experience, which increases the odds of conversion even further.
Images: think of images as comparable to the look of your storefront window. People walking in the street may decide if they should enter by looking through the window, whereas online it’s all about the images.
There should be a variety of images that show your storefront, and the view inside. Also, you can take pictures of your products. For example, if you’re running a restaurant, showing off some of your best meals with professionally taken photos makes sense.
Description: make sure the business description is concise and descriptive. This ensures customers are not confused and can immediately figure out if they are looking at a service matching their needs.
Reviews: businesses that have more reviews of a higher rating will win against the majority of the competition. Therefore, your goal should be to please customers so they feel happy to leave a review.
You could also encourage customers to leave a review to increase the count. There are different ways to nudge them toward leaving a review. For example, by putting up signs at your physical location or including messages in the product packaging.
Stand Out From the Crowd
It’s important to do market research and determine the competition in your local area. Ideally, your products and services will offer something unique, so you have an edge. This could be better quality products, lower prices, and better customer service.
In some cases, adding a theme to your place of business is enough to stand out from the crowd. Location-based businesses can theme the name, interior decor, marketing, and much more.
Not sure how to theme a business? Look at what competitors in a different industry are doing for inspiration. You can take some ideas and make them your own to get results.
Complete Google My Business Profile
It’s important to complete your Google My Business profile with accurate information. This allows you to rank higher in the search engine results pages, leading to a better customer experience.
You’ll need to fill out information such as the business name, location, working hours, website, how to contact, business category, and more. If you don’t fill out this information, Google will attempt to estimate this information. However, it may not be accurate and will confuse customers.
Spend on Location-Based PPC
Pouring money into location-based PPC ensures that your business can be on the map quickly. This is effective for new businesses struggling to generate reviews and interest.
Make sure to target the correct neighborhoods to avoid wasting money. Customers that notice your ads from too far away, may not be interested in traveling such a long distance. You’ll need to optimize PPC campaigns by monitoring the ROI and weeding out keywords that are too costly or have a low conversion rate.
Provide Deliveries
Nowadays there are many delivery services you can take advantage of to provide customers with a convenient way of receiving products. These deliveries operate by taking orders and connecting a delivery person immediately. Most orders are delivered within 60 minutes, which is convenient for customers and will increase your sales.
If you don’t sign up for the delivery services, you might be losing out to competitors who have taken the step. Customers usually buy from businesses that keep up with the latest technological advancements and features.
You could use in-house delivery drivers since it gives you more control over the process. However, it can also be more expensive, since if there are no orders, you’ll have delivery drivers that need to get paid.
Final Thoughts
To conclude, getting the basics right with your marketing strategy for location-based businesses could be enough to dramatically increase sales. By following the advice in this article, you can be the talk of the town with more footfall than you know what to do with – it’s a good problem to have.
Also, you should match the experience portrayed online with what customers will receive when they arrive. The continuity ensures customers are not confused and will be satisfied with the shopping experience.
