With the advent of the internet and digital marketing, local businesses now have a competitive advantage over larger brands. Local companies are now enjoying a surge in growth supported by both the increasing consumer demand and easy ways to hit the target group.

SMBs (Small to medium-sized businesses) have always been considered as the backbone of a country’s economy. According to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau, companies with less than 20 employees come up to around 90% of all the businesses.

Where is it heading?

However, the marketers have a close eye on the future growth of this sector to develop strategies. Yolde, a local online market research firm, recently released a report by surveying 5000+ consumers. The primary findings are as below.

  • About 82% of the US consumers still access local businesses than they approach national chains.

  • Surprisingly, about 47% of the customers revealed that they use local businesses more and more each year, and 48% plan to access local businesses more during the next 12 months.

  • No one from the entire survey unit expressed that they tend to use local businesses lesser than 1–2%.

The future

This expectant growth in consumer money spent more locally created tremendous opportunities for the marketers to help small businesses grow. The future of local business marketing strategies revolves around SEO and digital marketing. Yolde’s study also found that 42% of the consumers now use online reviews and social media responses to research about local businesses.

With this key factor in mind, marketers need to devise their strategies well as a part of their overall search engine marketing approach. If you are confused about how you should proceed, here are a few strategies that will get you started.

Consider what customers value about a local business

Quality is the primary aspect that consumers value about a local business. With local businesses, they stand to gain personalized services, quality of work, customer friendly environment, and reliability.

Each of these traits can surely offer a competitive edge to local businesses. The primary approach is to highlight these valuable features in the local language in search results to communicate it with the consumers.

For example, if you own a kitchen remodeling business, try to include some key phrases in the company description. Some of these phrases may be “hand-cut stonework,” “customized designs,” “quality remodeling” and such. It will let the customer think of the importance of quality while assessing the worthiness of your business.

Another unique way to get benefited from the changing consumer perception is to emphasize that you own a local business. Since the modern consumers believe that the local businesses possess the qualities mentioned above, branding yourself with a local flavor will surely help you stand out.

SEO consultation services say that it is wise to put the same in the meta descriptions, business listings, and landing pages to emphasize your local presence. You should also include your store address, maps, neighborhood, and the area zip code in the business listings. Include the images and demographics of the local owners and staff, and use the same “locally owned” tag to be identified as local.

Request for positive reviews

The studies have also found that more than 75% of the local customers revealed that online reviews and feedbacks are crucial for them to evaluate the quality of a local business. 40% of the consumers expect to see the reviews.

The fact is that 90% of your satisfied customers may leave a positive review if asked for, but the local business owners do not do this frequently. Some of the businesses shy away from asking for online reviews due to the fear of negative reviews. However, this is not the likely case now as 90% of the satisfied customers are ready to share their positive experience with a business.

Always update website content and form

The LSA (Local Search Association) studies have shown that more than 50% of the consumers think that they would like to explore business websites while searching for local businesses. As of late, about 70% of the customers simply switch away from the non-mobile friendly websites. Therefore, having a website and making it responsive is essential.

The importance of a good business website as a source of information and platform for lead and sales generation is evident. The search results and online reviews about a local business contain only limited info, and the consumers those who want to know more will naturally land on your official website where detailed information is available.

Provided many of the local businesses still maintain the same old sites, the first thing to do is to make the site responsive and mobile-friendly. Local businesses too need to manage their sites properly to get the SEO value and acceptance. Inaccurate information and outdated content will only cause frustration among the users, and it will lead to instantly losing valuable customers.

The power of emailing

To increase website traffic, which can lead to an SEO boost and more business generation, you can effectively try email marketing campaigns. Email is the most ideal and acceptable mode of communication with the existing customers.

Keeping in touch by sharing all the latest updates and offers with the loyal customers will help to uphold the brand reputation. There are many reasons why email plays vital in local business marketing. It can be used for appointment reminders, notifying about deals and discounts, timely advice about seasonal service tips, event promotions and so on. You can also share latest news and updates through email.

All the above strategies will help a business to reach more prospective local customers, and it will also contribute to enhancing the local SEO value. The key to success in local SEO is to get the consumers to come back to you as well as to give a word-of-mouth boost to your business.

Author bio: Lesley Young is the owner of a reputed media house in the United States. She worked previously as a consultant for the top SEO Consultation Services. She has published many articles and blogs with SEO updates and tips.