What is local marketing?

Local marketing means promoting your business to the people who live or work near it. That way, they find you when they look for what you sell in their area. It suits businesses with premises or a service area, such as restaurants, hair salons, medical practices and plumbers. If you run an Italian restaurant, you want people nearby to pick it when they go out for dinner.

Local business marketing includes online tactics, such as your listings, your reviews and your website, and offline ones, such as flyers and partnerships with other businesses nearby.

Why local marketing matters for a small business

When someone searches for a business or place near them, Google shows them local results on Google Maps and Search. It tries to find the nearby places that best match what they searched for. Local marketing is about making sure your restaurant is among those places, with the details that make people choose it.

Running a local business, you might feel like a small fish next to national chains. In local results, that isn't really the case. Google ranks local results partly on distance from the person searching, so you're up against the restaurants your diners can reach, chain branches nearby included. With accurate details and good reviews, a small business can hold its own there.

Local marketing strategies that work

A good local marketing strategy mixes local online marketing with marketing that happens face to face. You don't need every tactic at once. If you run a restaurant, our restaurant marketing ideas go into more detail.

Set up your Google Business Profile

A Google Business Profile is the listing that shows your business on Google Maps and in local search results. Adding or claiming your business costs nothing, and you can do it if customers visit your premises or if you travel to them. You need a Google account to add or claim your business. If your restaurant already shows on Google Maps, you claim that listing, or ask its current owner for ownership if someone has already verified it, and if it doesn't, you add your business to Google.

Google says businesses with complete and accurate information are more likely to show up in local results. So fill in your full address if customers can visit your premises, your opening hours, your business category and details such as parking or Wi-Fi. Google asks businesses to appear the way they do in the real world, on their signs and stationery, and to keep one profile per business.

Then verify the profile, which tells Google you're allowed to represent the business. Google shows you the verification options you can use, such as a phone call, a text, an email or a live video call. Which ones you get depends on your business type, your public information, your region or your opening hours. Google then reviews what you've sent, which takes up to five working days and occasionally longer. Once the profile is live, add photos of your dining room and your dishes, and set special opening hours for bank holidays in good time.

Google ranks local results mainly on three things:

• Relevance: how well your profile matches what someone searches for.
• Distance: how far your business is from the person searching.
• Prominence: how well known your business is. How many websites link to you and how many reviews you have count towards it.

There's no way to pay Google for a better local ranking, so complete details and real reviews are among the things that can move you up.

Keep your listings the same everywhere

Your business also belongs on the review sites and local directories your customers use, such as Tripadvisor for a restaurant. Write your name, address and phone number the same way on each of them.

If keeping your listings up to date by hand takes too long, Uberall, an add-on we offer, lets you manage your location listings and your reviews in one place.

Ask for reviews and reply to them

Reviews are social proof: before choosing a restaurant, people read what other diners say, and good reviews make a business look trustworthy. On Google, your reviews appear beside your profile when people find you on Maps or in Search. As part of your prominence, more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking too.

Google lets you share a link or a QR code that takes customers to where they can leave a review. You can print it on the bill or add it to a booking confirmation, and ask for reviews on the other sites where you're listed as well. Reply to customer reviews, the negative ones included. A calm, helpful reply shows other diners that you take feedback seriously.

Never offer anything in return for a review, such as a free dessert or a discount. Google treats it as fake engagement and doesn't allow it.

Make your website easy to find locally

Your website can show up in local searches too, as part of local SEO, the work of getting found by people searching nearby. On your website, that means using the words local customers search with, such as "Italian restaurant Bristol", in your page titles and text. Keyword research shows you which searches people actually use. Links from other local websites help your local SEO as well, such as a mention on a local food blog or a guest post on a Bristol events site.

Your website is also where diners check the details before they visit. Give them your address, your menu, your opening hours and a way to book a table or get in touch. A restaurant website at luccasquaybristol.co.uk can answer all of that, and a hair salon website or a medical practice website does the same for their customers. You can build a website without coding or design experience.

Our Aida AI Website Builder creates your pages, text and images from a short chat about your business. You change what you like, then publish when you're happy.

Use ads that target your area

Paid ads put you in front of local customers while your profile and reviews build up. With location targeting in Google Ads, you choose the places your ads target, such as Bristol, one area of the city or a radius around your restaurant. The broader setting is called Presence or Interest. With it, your ads can also reach people outside those places who have shown an interest in them, such as visitors planning a trip to Bristol.

In Google Ads you set an average daily budget per campaign, and knowing what Google Ads costs helps you decide on it. Social media ads are another option. Run them on the platform your customers use most, and aim them at your area as well.

Work with other local businesses

Local networking means teaming up with business owners nearby who aren't your competitors, so you each send customers the other's way. You could leave your cards or flyers at the dental practice down the road and keep theirs by your till.

Look for businesses that serve the same customers as you. A wedding planner might suggest your restaurant to couples who need catering for their wedding, and a shop nearby might hand out your flyers. You both reach the same people without competing for them.

You can also bring local people together online, for example in a group for Italian food lovers in your area that your restaurant runs. It gives you a place to share news and events. Keep it a local group rather than a global one. Ask members to keep posts about the shared interest rather than adverts, and to treat each other kindly. Our guide to social media for your business covers the rest.

Which local marketing tactics to start with

When time is short, start with your Google Business Profile and your reviews. Both feed into how Google shows you in local results, and you can look after both yourself without paying for them.

Once those are in place, make sure your website answers what local customers ask, then get your details right on the directories your customers use. Ads and partnerships come after that, when you know which customers you want more of.

How to tell if local marketing is working

You can see what works without complicated tools. Ask new customers how they found you and keep a tally, alongside your bookings, calls, walk-ins and new reviews. If bookings go up after you complete your profile or start running ads, you know where to put more time.

Enquiries are easier to count when your website gives people one clear place to contact you. If you don't have a website yet, you can build your website with our Aida AI Website Builder and add your menu and opening hours.