March 2019, by Julius Abendan
5 Strategies Every Local Retailer Should Follow to Improve Their Presence
You should’ve known by now that maintaining a solid presence in the eyes of your target market is essential. After all, how will your customers buy from you if they don’t know that you are even there, waiting for them to come to your store?
To guide you along, here are 5 strategies that you should follow to the dot, if you want to enhance your presence in your local market.
Know Your Market
First off, knowing and understanding your market’s needs is crucial. You must know what interests are prevalent among a majority of your customers in that specific location, for instance. With that information, you’ll be able to create promotional offers that are tailor-made for the specific preferences of that certain locale.
Let’s take Lifeline Repairs for example. Their Boise, Idaho ran a limited promo that lets people borrow bikes from the shop itself FOR FREE! That’s because their research has shown that people in Boise have an affinity for riding bicycles. This has made Lifeline Repairs successful at simply telling people that, “Hey, we’re here! We care!”
So, do your research, and you should be fine.
Know Your Market’s Needs
This deserves its own section because this is different from simply organizing a promotional event in line with your market’s specific interest(s). In this case, you’re looking out for people’s specific needs, so you can poise yourself to provide for those needs so they won’t have to go to your competitor.
The rationale behind this is that the needs of one location vary significantly from the needs of the other. That’s why, if you’re a well traveled person, you’ll find that a Target outlet in San Francisco would have different items on display compared to a Target in New York.
So, find out what your market needs, and stock accordingly.
Negotiate for Exposure with the Local Press
The local press is one of the best outfits to approach if you want exposure. People in the area know and trust their reputation, so getting featured by them will definitely be a boost to your PR! People will want to check you out once you’re featured in a local news show or in a local publication.
There’s a caveat though - you’ll have to convince the press that you and them both can benefit from the exposure. Reach out to them, talk to them about your company, tell them what’s in store for them if they’ll share your story.
Start a Locally Targeted Web Presence
Augment your efforts at being more exposed in your locale by boosting your online presence. These days, people almost fully rely on the Internet to find stores and outlets that they can buy from. For example, if somebody wants to buy from a Nike store in Toronto, they’ll go to their search engine and type “Nike store in Toronto” or any variety of that keyword.
Take advantage of that by setting up your business’ page in services like Google, Bing, Yelp, Foursquare, Facebook and many others.
Publish Content Through Your Website
Links are the lifeline of websites on the Internet. You need to build links to your website, including links from within that point to certain landing pages on your site. You can do this by starting a blog, which you should update regularly with relevant, helpful and fresh content.
You can also reach out to influential websites, including the local press’ websites, and get them to feature you so you can gain backlinks with high PR.
