How Do You Sell Products to a Local Audience?
Having a local-focused business means you need to target local customers, but how do you sell your products to them?
Video transcript:
David: So, I’d say these are both kind of similar questions. They are: how do we write for a local audience, and how do we use the blog to reach that local audience? Is that a pretty good way of summarizing the questions, LaVonya?
LaVonya: Yes.
David: Yeah. So, first of all, I love your data-driven approach here. I love the idea of looking at what’s working and doing more of it. And so, I want to commend you for approaching it that way. It’s not always the first instinct for people, but that’s a good instinct. But you’re right; blogs generally tend to reach a very big audience, especially if for asking and answering questions, other people ask. That’s not necessarily related to a particular geography. For instance, I have a client that does landscaping. If you do landscaping, you’re in a very specific area, right? You can’t even work on the other side of your own state; you really are really limited. So, their highest performing content is like, “How much does it cost to build stone steps?”
They get tons of visitors from literally all over the world. Does that really help them? No, because they can’t help someone on the other side country, let alone the other side of the world, build stone steps. They are not that big of a company. But the proof is in the concept. If people want to know how much stone steps cost, presumably, they will want to know how much other things cost. And in the case of cost, it is one of those things that is very specifically based on the region, right?
To do something in North Carolina, it might cost very different to do something in Wyoming or California. So to look at the data, we see that’s the most important post. If we were to then take that and turn it around and make it very locally focused, it would be, “How much does it cost to build stone steps in this area?” Now, we know people want to know the answer to the question. We also know we’re reaching our customers. So absolutely, the direction I’ll give my writer is don’t just tack on a name of a town to the content. Make sure whatever you write is inseparable from the location. In other words, whatever you write about, how to build stone steps in Atlanta, for instance, should be so fundamentally about Atlanta that it doesn’t help someone in New York, right? Maybe there’s something different about Atlanta. Maybe some different codes or laws or materials or minimum wage laws or something distinct about Atlanta would only be true in Atlanta. Make sure you write it that way – about whatever it is that the products are.
LaVonya: Okay. So you’re saying something like, maybe do some statistics within the local area based on the product that she’s selling.
David: Yes, or, you know, why does she want to reach her local place? Is it because her products are very local-specific? Let’s say they are coffee mugs for Atlanta. Well, maybe some people out outside Atlanta want to buy a coffee mug, but her target audience is here. Then it’s easy. But what if it’s I’m a business owner, and I don’t want to ship my products across the country, which costs more money, which is legitimate. Right?
LaVonya: Yeah. I think that’s part of it.
David: Well then, the answer is to make sure you feature that as a bonus. Like, “This is really inexpensive if you are local to me because the shipping is really cheap.” Make that a selling point of your product so that people see the advantage of buying from you as opposed to buying from any old person who sells the same product anywhere else.
LaVonya: Okay.
David: But yeah, in writing blog posts, make sure that the location is inseparable from the content. Statistics are great, but also the little things like making sure that the location is in the title of the article.
LaVonya: Okay. So she would have to add the location in the title?
David: Yeah. I would not go backward and change URLs, but you can change titles and headlines without changing URLs. Right?
LaVonya: Right.
David: It doesn’t have to be repetitive and shouldn’t be repetitive. Right? Just make it front and center, and then you will find that there are other advantages of this strategy. Number one, as you think about what’s unique about your product as it relates to the area, it might open ideas for you to publicize it locally as well. So, for instance, in the Charlotte area, there are a couple of big Charlotte area blogs. And this might be an opportunity to connect with one of those blogs. To say, “Hey, did you know that these products are being produced in Charlotte? And it’s really easy to get them if you’re local.” And maybe there’s something interesting about the story behind why this person started this business. Like, maybe they lost your job at the pandemic, and they wanted to start over, and what a great human interest story. These blogs will read about it. So now, you can kind of pitch them the idea, and they might write about you and feature you in their local blog, which gives you a good link. And it really reiterates to your customers that you are local, and because the blog is very locally focused, it reiterates to Google that this is where that blog is. There are a lot of advantages to this. Does that help?
LaVonya: Yes. That’s really great. I like that idea. I didn’t think about that. To look for other local Charlotte bloggers, talk to them about your product and see if they may write something up about it.
David: Yeah. And you could use the guest blogging process as part of that. You can use the word Charlotte as your keyword: Charlotte write for us, Charlotte guest blogger, Charlotte guest author. You know, and look for blogs that are local that are looking for writers, and then you can get included on those websites.
LaVonya: Thank you.
David: You know, on a side note, it’s not SEO-related, but if you’re selling products especially, getting minor local celebrities on social media on Instagram to talk about your product. You won’t affect your Seo.
LaVonya: Right.
David: But it really could get your product in front of local people.
LaVonya: Thank you.
David: You might have to pay for that, but if you’re selling products, great.
LaVonya: Okay.
David: Excellent question, thank you for asking.