As a local business, reliance on the high street isn’t as effective as it perhaps once was some two or three decades ago. The introduction of the internet and the growth in online shopping have forced many local businesses to think digitally and establish a presence online, as well as offline.
Adopting a hybrid approach helps to have, as a business. You can do this by combining physical presence with a robust digital strategy.
By leveraging social commerce, local SEO and community-driven experiential marketing, high-street retailers and businesses can expand their reach beyond physical traffic.
Digital Presence and Establishing Local SEO
The first strategy that helps to boost visibility outside the traditional high street is establishing a digital presence and utilising local SEO. It’s this kind of digital PR and promotion that will help you to stand out locally.
First and foremost, make use of Google Business Profile. It’s considered the cornerstone of modern, local marketing. You want to optimise it with high-quality photos, active review management and accurate information to ensure prime visibility on Google Maps and search engine results.
You should also ensure you’re making use of ‘near me’ queries by creating location-specific landing pages like ‘dry cleaners in [location]’. AI is also an important part of modern search engine performance, so ensure your products and services are discoverable via AI chatbots like ChatGPT.
Social Commerce and Digital Community
Leveraging social platforms like Instagram, Facebook and TikTok is helpful to showcase your products through visual storytelling. It’s helpful to use social commerce to guide the entire purchase journey within one platform.
With that being said, look at ways you can improve your social commerce and bring together your digital community. Micro-influencer collaborations, for example, where you partner with local influencers, help to provide authentic endorsements, and that can help to build trust.
Short-form, authentic videos that show behind-the-scenes content or project walkthroughs are more effective when it comes to engagement than high-production, polished ads.
Experiential and Community-Powered Retail
In order to drive footfall, many local businesses are transforming the way their shops operate. Providing a community hub, offering live Q&As, and low-cost workshops are a great way to get people in and make use of community-powered opportunities.
Consider pop-up shops and markets, or community collaboration in the form of partnering with other local businesses. It all helps for joint promotions and cross-marketing to ultimately share customer bases.
The use of ‘phygital’ retail strategies is also important to maximise. Whether that’s click-and-collect or QR codes for engagement.
Data-Driven Personalisation
The benefit of data-driven personalisation is highly effective when it comes to getting people over the sales line. Offer loyalty programs digitally to reward regulars and to collect data for targeted email marketing.
Don’t forget to personalise the customer experience, using feedback and data to provide that human touch that competitors aren’t able to easily replicate.
With these strategies in place, you’ll hopefully encourage more people to visit locally in-store as well as benefit from the online opportunities that are present for even small, local businesses.
Feature image by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash.
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