5 Local Store Marketing Ideas to Help Your Foot Traffic Surge

When you run a brick-and-mortar store, focusing on customers in your area is key to growth. With a strategic local store marketing (LSM) plan, you can reach your target market and build long-lasting relationships with the right people every time.

In this guide, we’ll explain what LSM is and how you can successfully implement strong marketing techniques at a local level.

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What is local store marketing?

Local store marketing—sometimes known as neighbourhood marketing—describes the combination of strategies used to target customers within a specific area. This area is typically no more than a 5-mile radius around your physical store, as the goal of LSM is more so connecting with the community than achieving a broad reach.

When planning an LSM strategy, business owners are challenged with identifying what makes their local community unique. It requires a strong understanding of the people who live in your surrounding neighbourhood(s), so you can cater your messages directly to them and increase sales.

Though LSM is frequently used by small businesses, it’s also an incredibly effective technique for franchisees and large-scale businesses with brick-and-mortar stores. By reaching out to potential customers on a local level, your message becomes far more personalised. This can not only help you gain more foot traffic, but it will also help you gain repeat customers who see you as a critical part of the community and spend 67% more than first-time visitors.

5 local store marketing strategies

Building an effective local store marketing plan requires you to blend your hyper-local market research with strategies that help you build relationships, rather than just expand your reach. In doing so, you can build a brand that your audience can fully relate to and they become loyal customers.

We’ll introduce you to some strategies you can use to boost your local marketing efforts and community presence below.

1. Engage on social media

Storefront signage may be able to draw in some new customers, but odds are, your audience is spending more time online than passing by your local store. With most internet users using social media for over two hours per day, social platforms provide endless opportunities to engage directly with consumers in your area.

Maintaining an active social media presence for your local store or stores gives community members the opportunity to connect with you, even when they’re not physically in your area. As you engage with them more, your customer interaction will increase, and loyal followers may also become loyal in-store shoppers.

Social media advertisements are also great tools for targeting customers in specific areas with localised content, allowing you to engage with potential customers beyond your immediate following.

Some businesses may find it useful to create Facebook groups for their local customer base. As long as you have a team member who can serve as a strong moderator, this is an excellent way to showcase your leadership in fostering community while delivering value to locals.

2. Create a customer loyalty program

Re-engaging shoppers is extremely important in local store marketing. To compete with the convenience of online stores, you need to provide ongoing value that encourages customers to return to your physical location after their first visit. Customer loyalty programs can effectively achieve this.

As much as 77% of consumers will take part in loyalty programs. To encourage them to do so, you need to offer ongoing rewards that demonstrate they can get more value from shopping with you than any other brand. Examples of great reward systems can include:

• A café offering a complimentary drink once every 10 visits
• A car repair shop offering a discounted service once every five oil changes
• A supermarket with a tiered loyalty system that allows customers to increase ranks and receive better freebies the more they spend

3. Collaborate with locals

Collaborating with local businesses and entrepreneurs is an excellent way to foster brand awareness within existing customer bases. Not only do local collaborations demonstrate your commitment to supporting your community first, but they also help you establish trust from the get-go.

Collaborations can take various forms. For instance, a local bakery and ice cream parlour might join forces to create a limited edition dessert. A gym and medical spa could come together for a social media giveaway. Professionals in the wedding industry often cross-promote on each other’s websites.

Of course, it’s crucial to choose your collaborators wisely. The most beneficial collaborations occur when you partner with trusted local brands that share your core values, target similar audiences, and can consistently refer customers to your business. For example, it would be more logical for a luxury hair salon to partner with a high-end nail salon rather than a budget tattoo parlour, even though both fall under the beauty industry.

Your city’s chamber of commerce can be a valuable resource when searching for like-minded brands to collaborate with.

4. Get involved in local events

Your potential customers don’t just want to hear that you’re involved in the community—they want to see it in action. Participating in community events, both nonprofit and for-profit, can provide a fantastic opportunity for local store marketing.

By having a booth or simply engaging with people at local events, you give them the chance to connect your face with your brand, making your company feel more relatable. In fact, 84% of business leaders attribute a significant portion of their brand’s success to event marketing. When it comes to neighborhood marketing, the power of face-to-face connections is still unrivaled.

Sponsoring events can further demonstrate your commitment to the community beyond your brand. It can also serve as a great alternative to physically attending an event when your team has limited time to spare.

5. Contact local media

The majority of Australians trust their local news sources to provide accurate information. This high level of trust means that receiving positive media coverage—which can reach thousands of local customers—can generate a significant increase in foot traffic to your store.

A large part of gaining press coverage is sending out press releases whenever your business has something noteworthy (or appealing to a mass audience) to report. However, building relationships with your local journalists can have the greatest impact in the long term, as you’ll continuously be considered for local listicles, expert quotes, and other online mentions.

The more frequently your site is mentioned and linked on news sites, which typically have strong page authority on Google, the higher your search engine rank can be for relevant local searches.

Lead your local area

Great local store marketing strategies are essential for any company with a brick-and-mortar store. While it requires quite a bit of market research and commitment, the results can be far superior to those you’d get through general marketing techniques. As you boost your community presence and become a staple part of local customers’ lives, your business will be more sustainable and experience improvements to your bottom line.

As you continue mastering neighbourhood marketing, you can start pairing your localised marketing efforts with enhanced relationship-building techniques to drive further loyalty. Get our relationship marketing tips to create the strong customer base you need.