This is the second part of our series about the key marketing instruments for local businesses. You can find the first part . here Channel #7 – Content marketing for a local business promotion This item is a logical continuation of the previous one – if your business can write for media, it can become one itself. Share your company's expertise in the blog, give your potential customers value before they come to you – and they will vote for you with their money later. Some of the content ideas we mentioned earlier, here are a few more: You worked a lot in your industry, know some ins and outs – share it, make customers' lives better even before they come to you. Reviews of tools, blogs, and media that could be of use to your customers. People love stories, that's why TV shows are so popular. Share your customer stories, how you helped them – that's a tried and tested way to attract new clients. Customer cases. Analyze current trends and major events in your industry. Make it regular – do it monthly, for example. Trends. For example, if you have a hotel, you could write a tourist guide for your city or list some services that your customers can attend nearby. Additional value of your product. For example, you have a hotel in a ski resort – write posts about types of skis, possible traumas, how to choose ski instructors, and so on. Detailed answers to the most common questions your customers ask. Memes, fun, or impressive videos are always getting a lot of attention. Think of all funny situations that happen in your industry, create memes that describe them. Also, you can always "steal like an artist" from websites like 9Gag. Entertaining content. We listed some basic ideas for your blog which could be used for other content channels like Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, etc. Here are – you will have enough to keep you going. 95 more ideas for content marketing Channel #8 – Social Media Marketing Social Media are a mandatory channel for local business promotion because if people want to find updates, this is where they go. Three major networks that local businesses can find useful are Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Here are some tips on how to make your SMM effective: Don't start with a lot of channels, begin with one or two that are relevant to your industry and location. If you take too many from the start, there is a big chance you will not get sensible results. Invest money not only into content creation but also into its promotion, especially at the start. It's one of the most popular mistakes new brands make. If you invested a lot of effort into writing a post but have too few followers to see it – all your effort is wasted. In contrast, if you promote your content, you will see a far quicker growth. Especially if you leverage the microtargeting we discussed in paragraph four. Find local hashtags and use them – that's how you can get to the local top. Launch remarketing campaigns for all website visitors. If you show ads to those who have already visited the website and call them to follow your pages, your followers base will grow in leaps and bounds. We listed some content ideas in the previous paragraph, but here is another good article with 1 for social media posts – you could get more inspiration there. 89 more ideas Channel #9 – YouTube for local business marketing If you started writing articles, shooting videos would be a logical continuation. For example, you could write articles, collect stats about the most successful ones, and then create videos based on that topic. That will ensure you invest in videos that are interesting to your audience. Starting a vlog doesn't require bags of money. You can start shooting videos with your smartphone and if you see traction – then invest more in equipment and hire a professional videographer. What topics to cover on your Youtube channel? We listed them in the content marketing section, but here is another useful approach to use – "Hero, Hub, Hygiene" framework by Google. The main idea is to divide your content into three main categories: **Hygiene.**Everything that users google and ask about your business: working hours, reviews, how to use your products, FAQ, and so on. **Hub.**Periodical content that is easy to produce and has proven itself as a trusted source of traffic and views. An experimental content that requires a lot of resources and risks, but could bring you a lot of traffic and customers. For example, some collaborations with local celebrities or creating comics about your industry. Hero. , if you would like to learn more about this framework. Read Brendan Gahan’s acticle Also, make sure to take into account these Youtube-specific common practices: Right titles are very important for the success of your videos on Youtube. Make them engaging enough to awaken your potential customer's interest. Also, they should be SEO optimized and have the right keywords, so you maximize the amount of organic traffic to your video. Each video has a keywords section, so make sure you insert the most relevant ones. Try to combine high and low-frequency keywords. Low-frequency keywords usually are easier to win (take the highest spot on search results). High-frequency keywords are harder to win but once you do it – you will get tons of traffic from organic searches. Youtube covers are another important factor that catches the audience's attention, so make sure to hire a major league designer for this kind of job. Always promote your videos via your other marketing channels just after the publication. If a video gets a lot of views just after publishing, the Youtube algorithm will deliver it to a broader audience via the "proposed videos" section. Channel #10 – Event marketing for local business promotion What resource does a local business always have? Right – location. You can use it as your "free" marketing asset – host events. There are two ways to use this channel: This way you receive more public influence and form a community. But take into account that it also takes more resources to organize. Host your events. It takes less effort, new people still see your location, but the marketing result is less than it'd be in the case of your event. Host events organized by someone else. What types of events could you organize? Host events where people close to your industry can meet each other and find new connections. If you host such events regularly, it will get you more connections and clients. Networking events or parties. For example, you have a legal business that specializes in commercial law. So, every two weeks you host a lecture about different aspects of it. Restaurants can host cooking lessons, financial services – financial literacy meetups, and so on. Educational events about your industry. Channel #11 – Local influencers for promotion of your business There are always some influencers that specialize in a certain city or area. Those could be photographers, social activists, politicians, or other entrepreneurs. Leveraging their social capital to get more customers to your location is one of the best ways for your local business marketing – social proof is still one of the most reliable ways to advertise. **How to persuade an influencer to promote your local business?**The simplest and most effective way is to pay him for posts on social media. If you don't have such resources, you can propose some quantity of your services for free or come up with a collaboration idea that will be profitable to both sides. How to find a local influencer? We bet you know some of them just by living in your city. Don't be shy to write to them directly – they are also people. Being public is just a way for them to get income and influence. Also, you can google something like "influencers London", etc. Another way – check local hashtags on Instagram and Twitter, like #London, and so on. Also, you could check authors in local media – usually, they have quite a big followers base. Channel #12 – Networking, personal brand, and community building for local business marketing Instead of asking an influencer to post about your business, you can become one yourself. A personal brand is a major league marketing tool whose importance only grows in the modern world. How to nurture it and use it to promote your local business? **Networking.**Attend events where your target audience can be found. Establish contacts, but don't start to sell immediately. It's better to meet people in person: think about how you can help your new acquaintances, how to develop deeper relations with them. The power of personal communications is strong – when your new contacts will need your services they will remember you. There is a good book about networking – "Never Eat Alone". Read it – there is a lot of great advice on leveraging this instrument. **Personal Social Media accounts.**People like personalities – that's why celebrities, not companies, have the biggest amount of followers. Start to write or shoot videos about your life, hobbies, business. This way your account and brand can become the main source of clients. Richard Branson is a good example of personal branding, his books, and social media reinforce all his businesses. You could read some of them to get the idea and start blogging by yourself. We live in the age of modern "tribes", and your local business could start its own. Your clients have something in common – use it to unite them. Start a closed chat around a specific topic or a hobby. As an example, one advertising agency started regular table tennis meetups, then created a chat around that, and as result started to receive a steady flow of clients from… playing table tennis. Think about what personal hobbies you could extend to your business and further. Community building. Today we’ve covered six more channels that can be effectively used by local businesses of any size to increase brand exposure, namely content marketing, social media, youtube, events, influencer marketing and a good old networking. In the final part of the series, we’ll mention a couple of more less obvious choices and draw a conclusion by showing which strategy works best in which scenarios. Originally published . here

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