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Lead generation is crucial yet very challenging for any size of businesses. 65% of businesses agree that it’s a challenge to generate quality leads.
Regardless of the size of your local business, you likely face challenges to generate quality leads as well. Limited knowledge of the local culture or lack of local insights are some of the challenges faced by local business.
Do you own a local business and are struggling to generate more quality leads?
If so, here are the most effective tactics to generate high-quality leads for your local business.
#1 Focus on Local SEO
One of the most effective ways to generate quality leads for your local business is to focus on local SEO. If you want to dominate the industry with your services and product, you need to optimize your website and content for local searches.
But how you can optimize for local?
a) List Your Business in Local Online Directories
To make a strong web presence, you need to leverage online directories and market your business. It will help you to boost your rankings on the search engines and drive organic traffic to your website.
A lot of people might visit your website via online directories like Google Business Pages. So you can’t afford to ignore them.
For example, if you do a Google search for a wedding planner in Los Angeles, you see the top websites on the list.
b) Optimize Your Website Content with Local Keywords
It’s very important to share the exact location of your business, especially if you are selling services and/or products. You can use relevant keywords to describe your location. This can help you to gain some high-quality leads. It will also help you improve your rankings in search engine results.
Just be careful that you don’t use too many keywords. Too many keywords and keyword stuffing will make your website look spammy. Make sure that your content still flows well, even with your keywords.
For example, the Focus Booth is a leading photo booth in Toronto. They have highlighted the location of their business right at the center of their website’s landing page.
Generate Positive Online Reviews
Did you know that 73% of consumers trust local business when they have positive reviews listed on their websites? There’s nothing wrong if you ask for reviews after you give exceptional service.
Always make sure to provide high-quality service to your potential customers. The more positive reviews you have on your website, the more quality leads you can generate.
#2 Work with Local Influencers
It’s obvious that local experts have a better knowledge and understanding of the local market and culture. Local experts can bridge the gap between you and your target audience. It can be helpful for you to collaborate with one or more local experts or influencers to gain more leads and grow your business.
Local experts will have valuable insights which can make your website’s content more relevant and local. All you need to do is listen to their insights and incorporate them into your local business. This will help you to sell your services or products more effectively.
You can also ask your local expert to translate your brand’s message into the local language. This will help you to connect with your prospects on a personal level.
For example, a chain of pizzerias, Pizza Pilgrims from London, partnered up with local food bloggers. This helped them to successfully promote their brand and get more customers.
To manage your influencer collaborations effectively, you can use influencer management tools like Grin. This will help you manage all your influencers under one platform—delegate tasks, make payments etc.
#3 Run Contests or Giveaways
Another effective way to generate quality leads is to conduct giveaways or contests. Creating offers is one of the 7 steps you need to implement to build a lead generation system for your business. Organize some campaigns to attract quality leads for your business. This is also a great way to increase awareness and engagement within the local community.
Here are some tips to run efficient contests or giveaways:
- Always make sure to choose a prize which is exciting and relevant to your business. This will motivate your target audience to participate. And as a result, it will maximize the impact of your contest. Giving away a relevant prize will also encourage your prospects to visit your website.
- After the contest ends, make sure that you follow up with the participants. It’s a very effective way to nurture your leads. You can create an email drip campaign for the participants to nurture them into leads.
- Add a social sharing action to your contest. You need to encourage your local participants to share and refer the contest to their family and friends. But make sure you provide incentives to those who share and refer. This will multiply the generation of quality leads by many folds.
#4 Use Pop-ups
Businesses use pop-ups to notify their prospects about new offers or promotions. You can also use them to invite your potential customers to subscribe to your business newsletter. Local businesses can use pop-ups in many other ways to encourage their potential customers to take certain actions.
You can add pop-ups on the landing page of your website. Or you can add exit pop-ups which encourage visitors to take an action when they are leaving the window. You can also add timed pop-ups. These will appear on your webpage after the visitor has spent a predetermined amount of time.
Click pop-ups are also a great way to encourage actions from your potential customers. When done correctly, all of these types of pop-ups can help you to generate more leads.
But make sure to add pop-ups based on your objectives and goals. The structure of your website also affects the placement of pop-ups. Make sure that the messages in your pop-ups are to the point and quickly highlight the benefits of your offers.
The screenshot given below is from Leesa, a mattress company. The pop-up is eye-catching, to the point, and clear.
To make pop-ups more enticing, we recommend you come up with a great lead magnet. Having a quality lead magnet is one of these tactics that will help you improve your lead generation strategy.
#5 Partner with Related Businesses
Creating a partnership with another local business is a creative and interesting way to get your business more leads and it's often neglected by business owners. You can collaborate with other local business to generate leads. You can leverage each other’s strengths to increase sales and revenue.
You should partner with a business that offers complementary services or/and products to your own. This will also help you to expand your reach and target the audience of your partner business.
Make sure to partner with a business who is an ideal fit for your products or services. You need to make a logical choice and nurture a long-term partnership.
Remember, you are not competing with each other. Instead, create a mutually beneficial relationship. To run the partnership smoothly, make sure to maintain transparency in communication. Create a win-win situation, and help each other generate more leads and grow.
For example, big brands, Apple and Nike, have been working with each other the release of the first iPod in 2000. The partnership started with an objective to introduce Apple's music to Nike's workouts. The collaboration also led to the creation of fitness trackers and shoes to track every parameter of fitness activity.
It's one of the most genius and strongest collaboration with an aim to cater and satisfy both the brand’s customer. So, if big companies can leverage this strategy, then you can also take inspiration and use this strategy to generate more leads.
#6 Be a Part of the Local Community
To get more quality leads, you need to be a part of the local community. You need to take part in their local festivals, and stand by the community in their tough times. It’s important to put a message across the community that you are more than just business and that you actually care about them.
You can collaborate with local self-help groups and/or NGOs and contribute. You can leverage the rich local culture and adapt it to your products or services. As a sign of thanks to the community, you can also create job opportunities for the youth of the community.
This will surely help you to gain the trust and respect of the locals. This will also help you to establish a strong connection with them. And more importantly, it will generate high-quality leads for your business.
For example, McDonald’s has more than 35K branches in over 100 countries, but the menu is not the same. They tailor their menu based on the country so, the menu is different for each and every country. The menu for McDonald’s USA is very different from McDonald’s Japan.
McDonald’s is not a local business, it’s a worldwide chain of fast food. But you can take inspiration by McDonald’s and implement something similar for your local business as well.
Final thoughts about how to generate leads for your local business
Regardless of the size of the business, it is not easy to generate quality leads. And it is even tougher for local businesses. You need to build a strong online and offline presence to be able to generate quality leads.
To generate more leads for your local business, try one or a combination of the tactics above.
Do you know any other ways to increase leads for a local business? If so, feel free to share your suggestions in the comments below.
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