Local marketing can have its challenges, but that doesn’t mean your business can’t experience success. At Signature W Studio we’ve partnered with clients nationwide on many hyper-local campaigns.
As a local Charlotte marketing agency, we know first-hand how challenging it can be to break through the local noise and stand out from the crowd.
To help local businesses strengthen their marketing strategy, we’ve put together a few key points that have helped us grow and access new clients. While these strategies are geared towards marketing businesses in Charlotte, they can easily be applied to any business anywhere.
How to Market Your Business Locally in Charlotte
Marketing your business locally in Charlotte first requires you to have a thorough understanding of the region.
Not only do you need to understand cultural and socioeconomic factors as they relate to your brand, but you should also have a firm understanding of how Charlotte appears in the digital landscape.
These tactics highlight just a few of the key areas that companies should consider when developing their local Charlotte marketing strategy.
Learn Local Hashtags and Tag Your Location
If your business is not currently active on social media, it’s time to set up a social media marketing strategy. Once you’ve identified the channels that matter most to your audience, you’ll need to further increase your reach to the right people at the right time by researching local hashtags.
Hashtags offer a great way for people to easily connect to and interact with the topics and content that matter most to them. By including local hashtags (especially on Instagram), audiences will be able to find your content through the Explore feature, expanding your reach to locals that already have an interest in related content. Some of the most widely used hashtags in Charlotte include:
- #clt – 2.7 million mentions
- #exploreclt – 286K mentions
- #queencity – 1.5 million mentions
- #weloveclt – 85K mentions
- #discoverclt – 71K mentions
In addition to researching local hashtags, you’ll also want to tag your location in any social media posts you publish. Even if you just put “Charlotte, NC” as your location, it will help others find your content if they search the location on the social platform.
If you’re working with any local businesses, it’s a good idea to tag them in your post as well. Especially if they have an established following, this can help boost brand awareness and increase your followers.
Provide Local Commentary
Content creation is one thing, but it’s important to also be engaged with the local online community. Doing so will strengthen your brand’s reputation as a thought leader within the local landscape, giving you increased visibility with existing publications, readers, and consumers.
The following are just some of the ways in which you can provide local commentary to increase brand awareness:
• Create content that provides commentary on local events and topics
• Follow local publications and brands online and start a conversation
• Comment on social media posts from local publishers and content creators within your space
Not only will this signal to users that you are an active thought leader in your industry, but it will also help strengthen consumer relationships and the overall customer experience.
In fact, 32% of mainstream organizations are prioritizing social media engagement and analytics in an effort to talk to consumers on the platforms they use.
By making it easier for customers to have conversations with companies, brands can dramatically improve their consumer experience.
Find Local Citations
A local citation is a listing on a local directory that verifies your business. The listing will usually include the brand name, phone number, address, and website. Google and other search engines use these citations to validate your business so it’s important that your local citations are accurate. If there are discrepancies in your business’ information, the search engine may devalue your business in their index.
One easy way to keep your local citations up-to-date is by creating a Google My Business profile. These are often the first interactions that customers have with a local brand, so it’s important to ensure the listing is accurate and timely. The following tips can help you better optimize your Google My Business profile:
- Post pictures to your page to highlight your business’ culture, products, and services
- Keep information (phone numbers, address, name changes, etc.) accurate and up-to-date
- Create posts to showcase events, specials, announcements, and more (Google likes to highlight businesses that post regularly)
- Get reviews from customers to help validate your business
Create Strategic Partnerships
Cultivating partnerships with local businesses is a great way to expand your brand’s reach. By partnering with like-minded businesses in the area, you’ll be able to tap into their audience and increase your business’ visibility with the right people.
In general, the best partnerships to create are between local publications and influencers. Whether you choose a publication or influencer partnership, it’s important to first research their audience demographics and the type of content they create to ensure each align with your brand.
Some publications may have detailed demographic analytics to provide that can help brands make more informed decisions with media buys and article placement. This same information should also be available from social media influencers: Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter all provide free demographic analytics for business pages and verified user accounts. Request this information prior to entering into the partnership to ensure you reach the right people.
Create Local Page Content
Separate from social media, it’s important to ensure your website has content that is locally optimized by referencing the areas you services and making sure your content speaks to the locality.
Localized content should appear on the home page, contact page, and service pages. If you have multiple service areas, you should have geo-targeted pages for each area you serve. When creating these pages, ensure you’re using Schema Markup and structured data to adhere to search engine optimization best practices. All pages should contain unique content to avoid SEO penalties for duplicate content, and should follow the proper data structure to ensure optimal visibility and user-friendliness.
Signature W Studio: Your Charlotte Area Marketing Team
While these tips will help you to get started, they are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to getting the most out of your local marketing strategy.
There are many other factors that go into optimizing a local marketing campaign to yield the best results. At Signature W Studio, our Charlotte-based digital marketing agency has had first-hand experience navigating the challenges associated with local marketing.
