5 Tips for Establishing Local Brand Awareness: Your Essential Guide

5 Tips for Establishing Local Brand Awareness: Your Essential Guide Today’s all about starting and growing locally, establishing local brand awareness is critical in winning over customers and establishing a well-rooted business.

Before you can take on the world and expand your venture into the international scene, you first have to conquer your local market. That said, many business leaders are nowadays capitalizing on the trend of running small local businesses without intention to expand beyond their local region – and for a number of lucrative reasons. Whether you have international aspirations or you want to preserve a small business that will rule its local market, there is no denying that you need to boost your website and your digital presence in order to improve brand awareness.

Building visibility is the best way to boost brand awareness in today’s oversaturated online market, but it’s not enough to keep customers coming to your site. Instead, you have to combine visibility with brand dissemination through content campaigns and a meticulous approach to building brand authority in order to win over the hearts and minds of the local consumer group. Let’s break all of this down and give you the blueprint that will help you boost local brand awareness.

Build a unique brand identity

First things first, you have to make your brand marketable in order to execute an effective dissemination strategy and improve brand “stickiness”, making it memorable and recognizable. After all, a big part of building brand awareness is making sure that your brand is not only visible but that it never fails to get recognized or recalled on a moment’s notice. This will also make it infinitely easier to execute your brand integration strategy when you want to weave your brand into a commercial, movie, or any other visual art.

Start by defining a set of cove brand values that directly resonate with the values of your target demographic. This will incentivize the consumer to establish a deeper relationship with your business. Next, make sure that your brand uses a unique tone of voice that your audience uses, because speaking their language will make your brand more relevant and recognizable. And of course, make sure to weave your values and brand personality into your visual identity to make your business stand out in a sea of competitors. 

Localize your SEO efforts

One of the most effective ways to build brand awareness is to improve your brand’s visibility and relevance in the search results. People trust the brands and websites that Google trusts, so if you manage to get constant first-page rankings in the local SERPs, you’re pretty much guaranteed to get a flurry of new traffic, quality leads, and of course, long-term customers to your doorstep. This is why local SEO is so important, and why it should be at the forefront of your strategy.

You can start with a thorough keyword analysis, marking all of the primary and supplementary keywords that you need to rank for. Next, weave your location into these keywords to tell Google that it should display you in the local searches. Don’t forget to claim your Google My Business page to show your customers and Google that you are a legitimate business, and provide as much information on Google and Google Maps as possible such as work hours, prices, reviews, detailed location and directions, and more. 

Leverage your website copy and content

The two key objectives of your local brand-building strategy is to get more people to your website and to bring potential and past customers to your physical place of business. To do this, you need to leverage the copy on your site as well as all of the online and offline content to show your local audience that you have something truly unique to offer that will satisfy their needs. After all, tapping into the pain-points of your local market is the best way to get ahead.

A prime example of tailoring your offering and content to your local audience is Australia’s Youi car insurance company that goes the extra mile to uncover the unique needs of every local market, and tailor their services and products to accommodate their needs – such as offering insurance premium relief during the COVID-19 pandemic. Whatever your industry may be, use this mindset to optimize your operation for your local consumer group and then create relevant content to maximize your visibility and relevance. 

Become an authority in your market

If you want to ensure long-term success in your local market, then selling more shouldn’t be your primary objective. Instead, it should be to become an authority figure in your industry, and to build a trustworthy brand image in the eyes of the public. After all, people are constantly searching for reputable sources of quality information, and they are much more likely to buy from the brands they deem authoritative and trustworthy. To that end, make sure to attract the right customers by publishing relevant and informative content on a regular basis, hosting webinars with prominent actors in your industry, and sharing valuable insights through your eBooks and newsletters.

Become an active part of the community

And finally, always remember that the most recognizable brands are the ones that take an active part in building a better local community. If you commit to helping local causes and charities, and aid the local way of life in any way, you are guaranteed to elevate your brand’s visibility, awareness, and reputation with the local demographic. It seems like a substantial investment at first, but the long-term rewards will far outweigh the initial expense.

Wrapping up

Building brand awareness is one of the primary ways companies can get ahead in the competitive business world, and it should be a key element of your growth strategy as well. Use these tips to elevate your standing in the online and offline worlds, and ensure long-term success.

by Chris London of Pixel Productions Inc. The Everything Design Company