Unlike running campaigns on a national or global scale, local online marketing requires a more specialized strategy. Reaching audiences in specific communities requires doubling down on geographic data and tailoring your message to suit the needs, wants, and attitudes of the people living there.
If you are looking to reach new digital audiences in New Jersey, here are some 10 marketing campaign essentials that you need to generate the results you’re looking for:
1: Begin with Your Desired Outcomes in Mind
At NJ Digital, we abide by the motto “begin with the end in mind.” Without identifying specific goals for your campaign, you cannot roadmap the journey.
What are your goals for your own local marketing campaigns? Knowing these will also influence the products and strategies you know to achieve them.
For example, if you want to generate more B2B sales leads, you might want to pursue a strategy that combines targeted display and PPC advertising with a paid social campaign on LinkedIn and SEO. These all reach desirable audiences through a variety of tactics that ensure your brand’s visibility covers a variety of high-traffic spaces online.
2: Local Intel
What’s the best way to reach local communities? We believe that involves truly understanding the audiences you’re targeting and tailoring your messages to the available intel.
As you’re planning your local digital campaign, gather as much information about people in the geographic areas you’re targeting. For example, you might want to collect data on:
Demographics - marital status, age, number of children, education levels, religious affiliation, etc.
Economics - largest local employers, average household income, number of commuters, etc.
Geography - coastal, urban, suburban, rural, mountainous, etc.
Local competitors - How close are they to your business? How are they marketing themselves?
Create a detailed dossier that contains these types of insights. You can draw from them as you’re planning your targeting strategies and developing your message.
3: Location-Based Targeting Strategies
Location-based targeting tactics will make or break your local marketing campaign. Reaching the right people in the right locations at the right time ensures that your ads are being served to the most ideal audiences possible.
Some location-based targeting strategies you may want to consider include:
Geo-targeting - Targeting a specific city, town, county, state, address, etc.
Geo-fencing - Building a virtual “fence” around a specific address to serve your ads to people who have visited that location.
Local keywords - Add the names of municipalities to your target keywords to find people searching for local businesses like yours (i.e., “doctors office Toms River”).
Location-based social targeting - Reach social media users who live in desirable communities and have an interest in your products or services.
Local OTT Advertising - Deliver your message to people using over the top (OTT) applications like Hulu who you might not see your ad on traditional cable.
4: Use a Multi-Channel Strategy
Holistic digital marketing strategies enable you to reach as many target audience members as possible by meeting them where they are online. Someone with no social media presence will not see your paid social ads, but they will likely discover you on a search engine.
Use local intel and marketing expertise to determine the best channels to pursue. If you want to pursue a social campaign and the local economy mostly employs office workers, you can synthesize that information and determine that LinkedIn is a promising option.
5: Keywords that Generate Results
Keywords are specific terms that you want your campaign content to align with. However, not all channels use them the same way.
As an example, SEO strategies often involve integrating keywords into the copy on your website’s blog and on core pages. PPC campaigns, conversely, bid on keywords that you determine prior to launching your campaign.
With local online marketing, select keywords that align with your business and the areas you are targeting. If the user has their smartphone’s location services turned on, they can search a term like “restaurants near me” and find a list of all nearby establishments. Search engines like Google take information from your business’s Google My Business listing and website information to determine if your location is close to where the user is searching from.
6: Killer Campaign Content and Creatives
Across all channels where you’re deploying your campaign, engaging content and creative elements must take front and center. Does the content align with your creative visuals? Do they both reflect your brand’s message and unique value?
7: Clear Calls to Action (CTAs)
Either within your digital ad or on a landing page, having clear calls to action (CTAs) that inspire engagement can drive conversions for your business. Do you own a landscaping business and want new leads? Consider a CTA like “Schedule Your Free Estimate Today”. “Free” is the value proposition to the potential customer and adding “today” creates a sense of urgency to the reader.
8: Excellent User Experience
Digital campaigns like display, social, and PPC are tied to specific pages on your website. When users click through your ad onto these pages, a great user experience will help keep them on the page and inspire them to engage further with your brand. This helps increase the number of conversions, form fills, or whatever other intended action you have in mind.
What makes a great user experience, though? Here are some simple elements you should be aware of:
Website pages that load in less than 3 seconds
Responsive, mobile-friendly site design
Clean, easy-to-read copy that speaks to users’ needs
Calls-to-action to guide the visitor through the funnel
Engaging creatives and visuals
High-opportunity keywords that align with user search intent
9: Make Data-Based Decisions to Improve
Over time, the platforms you run campaigns on generate performance data. These metrics will tell you what is working, what isn’t, and where the audience engagement proves strongest.
Review this data with an open mind and prepare to make decisions during the campaign to improve it. This may include investing more of your budget into a specific platform that proves
successful, pausing on another platform that is generating the least engagement, altering your messaging or creatives, and a variety of other options.
10: Don’t Set It and Forget It
After you have deployed your campaign, the job is far from “done.” Be sure to continue engaging with your audience. Some ways you can do this include:
Creating rich organic content to complement your paid materials
Retargeting ads to re-engage with users who have clicked through previously
Expanding the campaign onto new platforms to grow its overall reach
Maintaining ongoing communication can help you build relationships with your audience members. In turn, this generates a more positive brand recall. When these users see your ads in future campaigns, they are more likely to engage.
Better Local Online Marketing for NJ Businesses
At NJ Digital, we’re passionate about helping our neighbors reach more of our neighbors. That’s why we are 100% committed to serving the Garden State! If you are a New Jersey business owner looking to launch a new local online marketing campaign, connect with us anytime to learn more about how we can help you reach the right audiences.