In a digital world where giant brands dominate the market and use innovative strategies to get more market share, local brands have a powerful edge. Their brand stories, unique voice, and community ties cannot be replicated.
That being said, local brands face intense competition and to truly stand out, must build an identity that resonates with the local community. In this post, we have practical ways to make your brand unforgettable and grow your revenue.
1. Understand Your Target Audience
Learning about the target audience is the first step to building a strong local brand identity. Dive into local surveys, online reviews, and demographic insights to understand who your target audience is. Details related to their psychography like values, pain points, and aspirations, can help you build and shape the buyer persona of the local audience.
Research local events on social media, cultural nuances, purchasing power, and community priorities to craft brand messages that resonate with the audience.
For instance, a suburban home cleaning service provider must consider the purchasing power of the local neighborhood. To offer competitive pricing, they must consider factors like materials, hourly labor, operational costs, taxes, and insurance. Knowing which self-employed house cleaner tax deductions apply will also impact how they price their services.
Categorizing your local audience or demographic segmentation according to age, gender, income level, education, and occupation can help you create relevant local marketing campaigns. Check out how War Paint for Men, a men’s make-up brand, leverages gender marketing through strong imagery and content.
2. Craft a Unique Brand Personality
Building a recognizable brand identity can help you stand out from the local competitors, influencing how customers perceive your brand and defining your market presence.
Start by determining your brand purpose, core values, and brand voice. Highlight your brand priorities and emotional appeal in your brand communication.
Similarly, for brand voice, determine if you want it to be friendly and playful or professional and sophisticated. Are you focusing on values like sustainability or environmental responsibility?
Regardless of the path you choose, make sure you are consistent with your tone and messaging. This allows customers to recall your brand and builds trust.
For instance, a local cafeteria with a friendly brand persona could use smart blackboard quotes like ‘Expresso yourself’ or ‘You are just a sip away from a good mood.’ A similar tone should be adopted through Instagram captions, loyalty programs, and other marketing campaigns.
The brand voice will determine how you communicate with your audience across channels. It builds the foundation of all social content and marketing campaigns. Thus, every post, tweet, and brand update must reflect the personality for consistency.
3. Leverage Local SEO
Local SEO is central to attracting local leads, driving relevant traffic, and elevating brand awareness in communities. It also optimizes visibility in unpaid, location-based search results on Google Search, Google Maps, and Google Search Knowledge Panel.
Start by optimizing your Google Business Profile by verifying the business ownership and offering up-to-date information on your products and services, location, and payment methods. Include brand logo and images related to brand events and special offers. Further, encourage customers to share and respond to Google reviews.
Next, claim your business listing by building local citations on websites like Yext, Manta, and Bing Places, among others. Update your NAP (business name, address, and phone number), business description, and website link.
Keyword research is critical for a local SEO campaign. By weaving in location-specific keywords and phrases that local customers search for to find businesses.
For instance, ‘organic bakery in New York City’ or ‘24/7 laundromat in Austin’ can help search engines connect relevant local queries with your business page. Incorporating these keywords in the blog content about neighborhood events and guides will further influence the brand relevance.
Location-based website pages and blog posts will help demonstrate authority, target local keywords, rank at the top of local search results, and encourage purchases from local customers.
Leverage tools like Ahrefs, KeywordsFX, and Semrush can help you uncover such keywords and phrases. They also offer insights through metrics like monthly search volume, cost per click, and competition. Make sure you focus on long-tail local keywords that not only lower the competition but also make it easier for your business to rank.
4. Maintain Visual Consistency across Platforms
Visual consistency is critical to building brand recognition and trust. Select a distinct logo, color palette, and typography that defines your identity and appeal. Stick to a cohesive design across platforms and touchpoints like the website, blog, social media pages, flyers, packaging, brochures, and signage.
Your offline brand elements like vehicle wraps, staff uniforms, and event banners must echo the same design elements. For instance, if an earthy tone and handwritten font go with your brand personality, make sure you apply it on your storefront, Instagram grid, and online advertisements.
Consistency in visuals helps customers and prospects recognize a brand, creating a seamless experience and improving recall when local buyers are ready to make the purchase.
5. Narrate a Relatable Story
A compelling brand narrative builds a deeper connection with the local audience. We discussed identifying your brand purpose一the reason why you started the business, the challenges you faced, the pain points you identified, and the mission that drives you.
It could be a family tradition, a passion to deliver quality products, or a desire to serve the community or the environment. Sharing a story makes your brand authentic and relatable. The story must be shared on your website’s About Us page, social media page, and local press opportunities.
For instance, a local bakery could share real moments of baking or what inspired them to pursue their dreams, just like what the owner of The Pink Crumbb has done.
The more personal and specific the story, the more memorable and human the brand is. It shows the real people behind the brand and their lives. They are better able to connect with the brand.
6. Participate in Local Events
Sponsor local events and collaborate with local influencers to increase your brand visibility and build trust and goodwill in your community. For instance, you could participate in a local festival or fair to market your new store opening.
Start by identifying events in the neighborhood that align with your brand purpose and values. For instance, an organic food store can participate in a local farmer’s market or seasonal fair. Similarly, an environment-conscious brand could participate in a neighborhood cleanup drive or sponsor a booth, or offer a giveaway contest at a local fundraiser. Such personalized event-based campaigns can introduce your brand to a highly relevant audience.
Collaborating with local businesses is also effective in amplifying brand reach. For instance, a local chocolatier could team up with a popular cafe to run a special promotion that attracts people to try coffee with a chocolate brownie. This introduces the brands to a new customer base and builds goodwill.
Local brands can also improve their visibility by supporting local causes. For instance, donating a percentage of sales to community funds or hosting a donation drive for the underprivileged segment of society. Later, the brand can share its involvement on social media or in the local press to build trust and foster positive associations.
7. Personalize Customer Experience
Curating end-to-end user journeys as per customer preferences and past behavior is no longer a bonus but an expectation. A global BCG survey of 23,000 consumers reveals that four-fifths of customers expect personalized experiences. When brands tailor experiences to individual needs, customers feel valued, driving repeat business and referrals.
Invest in a customer relationship management (CRM) tool to track customer preferences, purchase history, and special days like anniversaries or birthdays. Such information can be used to delight customers.
For instance, a local boutique sending a personalized thank you note after a purchase or a discount coupon on the customer’s birthday can make the receiver feel valued and seen. Similarly, the boutique can alert loyal customers when their favorite brand is on promotion or back in stock.
Planning a loyalty reward program for loyal customers is another way to strengthen relationships. When communicating with this set of customers, avoid generic messaging and use the customer’s name in emails or reference past purchases. This level of personalization can go a long way in creating a memorable and emotionally resonant experience, thus setting your brand apart in a crowded market.
8. Focus on Agility
Being consistent with your branding is important to build trust, but being agile keeps the business relevant. For building a successful brand in a dynamic local market, you must strike a balance between consistency and agility.
Your core brand identity一values, mission, tone, visual style一should remain stable as it helps customers better connect with the brand. However, being rigid about the messaging and not changing as per the emerging trends can make your brand feel outdated.
Keep an eye on the emerging trends, customer reviews, seasonal changes, and competitor activity to inform your strategy. For instance, a local courier or logistics business would market itself on price and reliability. During the holiday season or a back-to-school rush season, they may decide to emphasize speed and flexibility in their promotion. Hence, they must tweak their ads, banners, and website to highlight their express courier services to appeal to the time-sensitive demand during the season.
Besides, customer feedback through reviews and testimonials can point to new features customers expect in a product. 73% of customers expect brands to understand their unique needs. Hence, it is critical to analyze customer feedback and learn what customers want or what they struggle with. Customer feedback analytics will help you consider small pivots to address those pain points.
The ultimate goal must be to stay agile and evolve with the audience’s changing preferences while not straying too far from the brand identity.
9. Share User-Generated Content (UGC)
User-generated content is a potent tool that helps make brands more approachable, likable, and sellable. While reviews are critical, adding product photos, videos, and stories from customers is the best advertising no marketing budget can buy.
Encourage your audience to share their experiences through glowing reviews, videos while using the product, or a story about the service. Incentivize the participation through giveaways and small rewards like discount coupons or social shoutouts.
The participation can be made easier by sharing questions or short surveys in social media captions. For instance, a local beauty salon can spark engagement by running a ‘transformation of the month’ campaign where customers can share before and after makeover photographs.
Once such user-generated content is shared, publish it on your social channels, website, or marketing emails after seeking permission from the customer. UGC not only creates authentic social proof but also proves that your business values the community.
Moreover, when people see real customers sharing their positive experiences about the brand, they are far more likely to trust your brand. After all, UGC influences purchase choices of 70% of Gen Z and 78% of Millennials.
10. Measure Progress
Tracking relevant metrics and leveraging analytics for your local marketing campaigns is critical to understanding the impact of your strategies.
Several tools like Google Analytics offer accurate data to reveal how users interact with your website. On the other hand, tools like Synup are designed to track and measure local listings and reputation. Local SEO software is also handy to track keyword performance and visibility in nearby search results.
Run A/B tests on elements like ad copy, headers, imagery, and call to actions to experiment and identify variations that resonate most effectively with your audience. For instance, a local stationery store can test whether a playful tone or a professional one drives more engagement and traffic to the homepage or social media ads.
A data-driven approach towards your local marketing strategies will ensure your brand remains relevant and aligned with audience preferences and emerging trends.
Summing Up
Building a strong brand identity in the local market means creating and nurturing genuine connections with the audience. A local communities evolve, brands must learn to listen to their customers and adapt to their evolving needs.
Your next move must be to review your present branding and identify areas that have scope for improvement. Use the information shared in this post as a starting point to make your brand stand out in the local marketplace.
