How important is your local market for your business?
In the digital age many businesses can serve the world, and their market can be located anywhere and everywhere. However, for some of you the vast majority of your market is also part of your community. When it comes to presenting what you do online, in your website look and content, and your digital marketing, too often it is forgotten that people value community.
What does your website design focus look like? Likely it is product or service focussed, if you provide a professional service it could be focussed on yourself or the solution you provide. In our experience, clients often do not possess the imagery required to make their website appeal to the range of trigger points in their potential customer. This leads to the use of stock images and therefore a generic presentation of their products, service, or solution on their website. This is not entirely bad, it can still look great and the stock image range is huge, but the downside is that your competitors are doing the same thing.
One really effective way of differentiating your business from your competitors, is to localise your website. By this, we mean to present a local flavour not only to your content, but also in the design and calls to action in the use of imagery, copy, and campaigns.
- Is there a local charity you can support? (you can find one at NFP Connect here)
- Are there unique landmarks in your community you can feature in your website?
- Are there examples of your products or service in iconic regional settings?
- Can you have staff shots taken somewhere clearly identifying the community which you serve?
- Are their local organisations and events you can become involved in?
These are just some of the ways you can integrate local feel in your website, develop local marketing content, and show your community you are committed to serving them.
One client recently, had his introduction video shot on Redhead Beach with the iconic Shark Tower, another larger scale example is Out of the Square Media, who have used local content video in their content marketing to showcase their own video production capabilities. They have made this one promoting Newcastle itself, and this one about the recent visit of the cruise ship, Celebrity Solstice, they have quite a few other examples.
One of the most memorable local marketing campaigns was Newcastle Permanent’s This is Our Town. We can still remember the songs and the visual aspects of Newcastle and Hunter life that was featured in the ad, it screened throughout 1980s. That just shows how powerful hitting community touch points can be.
So we think it is a great idea, in the multitude of ways you can stand out from your competitors, to look around your backyard and capture ways you can show your customers you are part of their neighbourhood and ready to serve the many that want to shop local. If you need a hand with a community first strategy get in touch and we can share ideas with you and help your business increase your market share.
