Everybody dreams of being his/her own boss. But it’s not a cakewalk! So if you showed the guts and capability to fulfill that dream of entrepreneurship, the chances are that you will not stop here. You want to promote and upscale your enterprise to ensure it remains a profitable venture.

If you own a local business, you can use a combination of offline and online marketing tactics to scale your business. Your tactics must be customized to the type of business and the preference of the demographics you serve.

Turn Your Local Business Into A Big Player With These Tips

 

Go through the eight local business expansion and marketing ideas given here. These are curated for people like you, who want to create a different identity amongst their counterparts.

1.      Study Your Competitors

One way to promote your local business is to keep an eye on what your competitors are up to. This is not a suggestion to copy them. On the contrary, look at what they are missing. But before chalking out any strategy, gather the data to understand the condition of the market. Once you identify the gaps in the marketplace, you can fill those gaps with your expertise, products and services.

2.      Put Together a Realistic Plan

You need a realistic action plan to operate and promote your local business. Naturally, you have a limited capacity of resources, finance, people, and other essential components for expansion. So, use these resources wisely.  Look for opportunities specifically designed support local businesses in your area.

3.      Run Offline and Online Marketing Campaigns

Local businesses require a different marketing strategy than online businesses. You need to feel the pulse of your existing and potential clients and market your products/services accordingly. Remember, whoever is in charge of your marketing should be an expert in offline and online marketing, as a local business can employ a host of offline marketing activities to get in front of the right people.

4.      Utilize Social Media

What do many people do when they look for local products and services? They turn to Google and search for <insert product or service> near me. Social media can support your local marketing efforts because it provides you with an algorithm to target those people who live within the vicinity of your business location, your real potential customers. Even if they don’t immediately use your services, social media ensures effective local branding and publicity.

5.      Delegate the Responsibility

“Micromanage the process, not the people.” Chalk out a framework where the responsibility of each employee is clearly defined. You can take as much time as you want to create this structure. Afterward, you and senior team members should move ahead to more significant tasks. Delegation might seem difficult at first, but it needs to happen in order for you to grow your local business.

6.      Get More Local

One of the best forms of local business marketing is to get more involved in local communities and events. And if these events happen to be charity, then there is a golden opportunity for you to create a reputation. Sponsor a charity game, marathon, music festival, or sports team. Don’t forget to have your branding all around so that people can recognize your business.

7.      Reward Your Customers

Running a loyalty program to provide discounts and other customer benefits is evergreen amongst all local business marketing ideas. These deals and discounts keep your customers happy and engaged. It provides you with an edge over your competitors, as you are cultivating raving fans who become loyal to your business. When creating a loyalty program, it is imperative to fix rewards that are best suited for your customers.

8.      Be Technology-friendly

You can’t consider growing your business in the 21st century without tech support. There are various kinds of software out there to help you manage your operations perfectly. For example, field service software is gold for the local service industry. You can manage your customer relationship management, billing, customer feedback, time tracking of employees, and many other operational tasks.

Take Away: Fundamentals First

These 8 tips presented here are fundamental for any local business to grow. You may also have other ideas in your mind depending on your individual business circumstances. But all these ideas need you to be dedicated and hardworking 24/7 to make them work. Are you and your team ready for the challenge?

Ciao,
Miss Kemya

 

This is a guest post from Akhil Rajan, a Customer Success Specialist at Zuper, an intelligent workforce management platform for service-oriented businesses. Working with customers on a daily basis, he has a deep understanding of their needs and pain points and so he is able to contribute to the marketing strategies for Zuper with the content he writes. He writes on topics like how to increase workforce utilization, how to reduce the service turnaround time and increase workforce efficiency, customer adoption, cost reduction strategies, etc – to name a few. He is often found buried in books or playing chess in his free time.