Consider the fact that over half (58%) of senior marketers think local marketing is essential. That’s reason enough to look at these 10 local advertising ideas you’ve never thought about.
Josh Turk is the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) for Blitzbet.com. He provided some ideas and one good strategy to start with.
“When classic traditional advertising strategies aren’t delivering, you send in the “Guerrillas,” he writes. “They implement killer tactics, in warfare context, guerilla strategies depend largely on the element of surprise.”
Local Advertising Ideas
Flash Mobs
Turk suggests you can use friends and staff at locations like the local community theater.
“Be sure to setup a few fold-out banners and wear t-shirts with your logo and a creative slogan.”
Traditional Local Media
Newspapers are still a great way to get the message out in smaller towns. Alerting the local editor is a perfect method to get free press for a publicity stunt.
Chalk Sidewalks
Turk also suggests you can use a high traffic sidewalk in front of your brick and mortar location. A message written in colorful chalk will draw customers in.
Car Video Streaming
This is a great way to make your message both local and mobile. Grabb-it is a car video streaming service. Create an advertising video, place it in a backseat window, and drive to a high traffic location.
Car Wraps for Gig Drivers
Know someone close who drives a fair bit and is looking for a passive income? Wrapify places small business ads on vehicles. Drivers get paid to drive around town with them displaying your goods and services.
Rideshare Advertising for Uber and Lyft Drivers
Viuer is a good side hustle for local rideshare drivers and an advertising platform for your small business. The drivers earn some extra cash for displaying ads and you get the word out. Best of all is the Geofences feature that targets ads to specific city zones.
Apps
Getting the word out about your goods and services requires a consistent blogging and posting effort. You can spread the net too wide on the Internet if you don’t focus. There’s a great app for local campaigns that helps.
Brad Ormsby, the owner of Colorstone Marketing in Modesto, CA explains.
“One of the best things I’ve seen small business owners using is an app called Nextdoor,” he writes. “With this app, you can post locally and only people within your neighborhood are allowed in. This gets you local people, often neighbors, who are interested in your service. I’ve worked with companies who pull several jobs per week just by posting on it.”
Google My Business
Using the big search engines can help you get good local advertising results too. Remember, potential customers use online searches to look for goods and services right at home.
“Get local advertising with a Google My Business listing for your location,” writes Tyler Horvath from Tyton Media. “That way, when people are searching for you online, your business shows up in Google Maps, Places and local searches.”
Join Facebook Groups
Stacy Caprio is the founder of Growth Marketing. She says good local leads can be found on Facebook by joining targeted groups there.
“Make your own profile and bio clearly displaying your business and how it helps people,” she writes. “Then engage with others in the group and post your own mini-wins and stories. People will start to notice you and you’ll be able to network and gain customers.”
Buy Space on a Digital Billboard
Finally, here’s a new way to localize advertising on electronic billboards. Blip allows you to buy the time and space you need on their digital rotating billboards. You set your own budget based and locations and times. Purchase a little or as much as you want.
Image: Depositphotos.com