In today’s mobile-driven world, one of the most challenging issues for business owners is to stay relevant. If your brand doesn’t show up on a search when people are looking in a specific area, you will miss out on a large number of potential customers. This is where hyperlocal marketing or hyperlocal targeting can significantly help brands re-focus their efforts.

What Is Hyperlocal Marketing?

The primary goal of hyperlocal marketing is to target an audience within a local area. This marketing tactic focuses on a small number of consumers who want to buy from businesses near them. Hyperlocal marketing aims at increasing foot traffic to a brand’s physical location.

A simple example is when you are looking for a pet shop in your area, you would Google “pet shops near me”. Any pet shop that has implemented a hyperlocal marketing strategy would appear on the search results page. Hyperlocal targeting not only helps online businesses but also those with an offline presence.

It is the ideal choice if you want to increase in-person sales and boost brand awareness. Have a look at this video on ‘Google going hyperlocal’.

5 Hyperlocal Marketing Tactics To Help Your Brand

Google wants to increase “near me” and “nearby” searches which are a direct result of the immense growth in hyperlocal search on mobile devices. According to research, 94% of people search for local information using their mobile phones. For that reason, it becomes essential to optimise your business for mobile and local.

Here, we look at some of the most common strategies that will help improve your hyperlocal marketing results. These marketing strategies aimed at getting more local audiences to find your business from a Google search. While they may focus on hyperlocal results, these tactics will also ensure that your business is optimised for an online search in general.

1. Google My Business And Hyperlocal Marketing

A vital first step is creating (and optimising) your Google My Business listing. As the name suggests, this tool helps businesses show up on “near me” search queries. When you create or optimise your GMB listing, there are some critical things to keep in mind.

• Adding relevant keywords in the business description section
• Including detailed business info (contact details, email address, business hours, physical location and directions)
• Posting high-quality photos to make your listing appear more professional
• Increasing your visibility by choosing categories that best describe your business and business goals

The most important element of a Google My Business listing is location so optimising it accordingly is your best answer to local search success. When optimising your GMB listing properly, you increase the likelihood of being ranked higher for local results pages.

Related: ‘Beginner’s Guide: How To Use Google My Business’

2. Hyperlocal Marketing Is All About Accessibility

Being accessible includes making your contact information on your website easier to find. If you have regional offices or locations, create dedicated location-based landing pages for each one and link it to your GMB listing for better local search results.

Business pages on social media platforms should always link back to your website and vice versa. Remember to provide your physical location and include all the relevant contact information. Many people look to social media when searching for shops, restaurants and other businesses so if you’re not prominently featured, you will lose out.

Top Tip:

If your business is located near a popular landmark or tourist attraction, add that to the description of your business. It will help target customers who are looking for businesses near attractions and these particular keywords will expand your reach.

3. Optimise Your Website For Mobile And Local Search

When was the last time you looked at your website from a customer’s perspective? Does it render well on mobile devices? Is it optimised properly for SEO and local search results?

A general rule is to optimise your website to the same standards as your GMB listing and should have the following characteristics:

• Easy to navigate so first-time visitors can also find their way around
• Informative URL structure relevant to search queries as it’s the first thing Google sees, for example, a digital marketing agency in Gloucester should have a URL structure that includes the keywords “digital marketing company,” and “Gloucester”
• Good use of language on your website which will emphasise the locality and relevancy of your business to a search query
• A local-based website structure with hyperlocal keywords (tourist attractions, landmarks, airports etc) to help improve the chances of locals and tourists finding your business on Google

4. Create Quality, Hyperlocal Content

Making language on your website hyperlocal is one thing but creating hyperlocal content is a different challenge altogether. Any business who has a local marketing plan will have the advantage of leveraging content ideas for that locality. Local content can help improve the ranking of pages that concern locations.

Start by looking at your current content marketing strategy and whether your current efforts are working or if it can be improved. If your best content is already location-focused, how you can modify previous or future content to have the same effect?

A good place to start is for local businesses to make content around local events. This can be a new shop opening, a local festival or a pop-up restaurant. Write a short blog about the history of the festival or the new restaurant. For brand awareness on social media, take pictures of your business participating in local events.

5. Get Reviews

Customer reviews are incredibly powerful at helping improve your local search rankings. It goes beyond Google reviews as several other platforms with different ranking systems can have a positive impact on your local search rankings.

To increase the number of reviews you are getting, offer an incentive, like a discount or a free product, to customers who leave a review. Just don’t turn it into a ‘paid review’ as these are not fair representations of a product, service or brand in general.

Ask your customers to leave a review as you want genuine feedback from your customers and appeal to their altruistic side. Whatever you do, NEVER write fake reviews and respond to positive AND negative feedback in a timeous manner.

Recommended: ‘5 Biggest Mistakes To Avoid With Online Reviews’

Top Tip:

Make it as easy as possible for visitors and customers to leave a review by including step-by-step instructions on your website or social media pages. Several tools can help simplify the review process, including OptinMonster, GetSiteControl or Thrive Leads among many others.

In Summary

You can view hyperlocal marketing as a magnifying glass to focus on a particular city, county or neighbourhood. It’s all about improving your business’ chances of appearing on someone’s local search. A properly optimised website, social media profiles and GMB listings using the right tactics and hyperlocal keywords will improve search results for “near me” queries.

While it may be easier for a local business selling local products online to relate with local customers, it’s different for regional, national or international brands. The best way for creating relevant, quality and authentic content for the location is to hire locals to create it.

We hope that this hyperlocal marketing guide has highlighted the importance of an optimised website, GMB listing and good social media presence. As always, visit our website or call us on 01453 542761 for more information or if you need help with your marketing efforts.