As we face an economic crisis with energy bills set to skyrocket for many people this winter, it is not surprising that many businesses are worried about struggling to stay afloat. With consumer confidence at an all time low, Matt Hall, personal trainer and founder of MH Studio founder, is outlining his tips for how to harness the support of the local community to maintain sales. 

For consumers, supporting the local economy after the devastating effects of Coronavirus is of utmost importance. Businesses in the local community are a part of the fabric of a town or city who help the local economy thrive in many ways.

Local businesses generate jobs for local people as they typically hire in the nearby area, thus providing a path out of employment for new and existing residents. Additionally, sales at local businesses ensure that the consumer’s money is being invested in the local economy, thus resulting in improvements in the community through avenues such as wages, goods and services, profits and donations.

Buying locally also has an enormously positive environmental impact. For example, purchasing from businesses located in a walkable residential area reduces traffic congestion, resulting in better air quality. Offering products that are produced locally reduces the business’ carbon footprint and subsequently, buying local products ensures this is able to continue.

The million-dollar question is: how do business owners ensure they receive support from local consumers? 

Bringing in a profit is what’s going to keep your business afloat, and you can do this by building awareness via digital marketing. In simple terms, digital marketing uses the online space to amplify name and business to your target audience. Social media is a commonly used tactic with good reason. You can use social media to update your followers, promote new goods and services, and even jump on trends to keep your brand relevant. With regular posting, you can keep your business at the forefront of people’s minds and promote new offerings to draw customers in.

In addition to social media, SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is essential for ranking highly on Google for industry-related searches and is an important part of digital marketing. Because organic search is the most prominent way for people to discover and access online content, a good SEO strategy is essential for improving the quality and quantity of traffic to your business’ website. When a user types or speaks a query into the search box, the search engine uses complex algorithms to pull out what it believes to be the most accurate and useful list of results for that query. These organic results can include web pages full of text, news articles, images, videos, local business listings, and other more niche types of content. For example, if you own a bakery in Solihull, you want your digital marketing team to use SEO to ensure that your bakery’s website appears when a user searches for ‘bakeries in Solihull’ so local residents can be aware of what you do.

Local presence can also be enhanced using the Google My Business tool. This enables you to manage and optimize your Business Profile on Google. Your Business Profile is Google’s term for your Google business listing and appears in Google Maps and in the local results of Google Search. You can use your Google My Business account to engage back with customers by responding to reviews, answering questions, enabling direct messaging, and setting up associated alerts. You can even use Google My Business to publish posts to your Business Profile, much like you would with social media. Additionally, you can provide hours, a link to your website, products and pricing, attributes, and other details that make your business stand out from the local competition. 

Essentially, putting all of these practices together is going to strengthen your relationship with existing customers and create ones with new customers. In the local community, word of mouth is still essential to boosting your business’ credibility and if your customer relationship is good, this will help to propel your business’ success even further.