Local marketing is a highly targeted and intensive form of marketing that focuses on a specific geographical region in order to generate relevant results for the audience. Advances search engine algorithms and social media platforms make it even more important for brands to be explicit about their local area, in terms of where they operate, the geographical availability of their products and their delivery systems.
Local digital marketing Dubai strategies are increasingly adopting local marketing strategies by using local SEO, My Business listings, video reviews, live events, and Facebook referrals.
One thing is for sure if you want to have a successful strategy for local SEO before embarking on a realization try to find out how to plan and implement the whole process. There is a lot of valuable content on this subject like this handy guide.
1. Local SEO
Local SEO is not exactly a new marketing idea as it has been around for several years now. What is different now is the importance of online reviews in determining local SEO ranking for any website. Under relatively new algorithms like Google Hummingbird and Pigeon, Google’s search program now evaluates your site’s content on the basis of local reviews posted on them.
This means if your website specifies your geographical location and there are reviews on it from consumers situated within that location, then chances are that your content is more relevant to the search engine user. This would increase the ranking of your website within that particular region.
2. My Business listing
In 2020, your local marketing strategy would be incomplete without getting your business listed on the local Google My Business listing. For the uninitiated, My Business is a service by Google that is a repository of online businesses based in different regions. This makes it a very useful tool for your brand’s local marketing strategy.
Users are increasingly using mobile Internet to search for services and products around them while commuting, traveling or simply on the go. By having your business on My Business, you can increase your chances of getting discovered by these mobile audiences.
3. Video reviews
Online reviews are an excellent local marketing strategy that every brand should follow to succeed in 2020. While online reviews in the form of text are popular around the world and are a staple of many local marketing strategies, video reviews have become huge in the past couple of years, especially with the rise of platforms such as Facebook videos, YouTube, Instagram, and the more recent TikTok.
To make your brands accessible to an ever-growing audience, you have to produce online reviews for these platforms by using influencers from the local community.
4. Live Events
The Live Events feature on Facebook is probably the most well-known. Other platforms like Instagram and TikTok are also becoming popular vehicles for byte-sized videos about live events. These platforms can be used to host your brand’s participation in trade events, seminars, and shows hosted locally.
It is true that a lot of effort has to be invested in making these shows success and in order to keep them relevant for a highly distracted online audience. However, if planned well, these events can generate instantaneous engagement with brand audiences without having to create a customized program.
5. Facebook referrals
Despite being the granddaddy of all online social platforms, Facebook continues to lead in terms of relevance for local marketing. The year 2020 is probably going to witness steady growth in the popularity of Facebook as a means of generating online referrals for your brand. It is the biggest social media platform that influences users’ opinions while offering access to a wealth of information.
This has become possible through the use of Business Pages that brands can use as a low-key website for their products and services and also to generate leads. Advanced search options also help customers and potential buyers to discover your brand while carrying out product or image searches.
Which brands succeed in 2020 will be determined largely by the above strategies but this is not an exhaustive list by any means. The year has only begun and the best minds in digital marketing are abuzz with new ideas and out of the box strategies to make brands stand out more prominently in the limelight. What is needed is for digital marketers to keep an open mind and be updated on the most relevant local marketing methods for their brands.