The definitive guide to hyperlocal digital marketing 

What is hyperlocal digital marketing?

In short, hyperlocal marketing involves targeting prospective customers in a highly localised area. Often, the aim is to reach people searching for businesses ‘near me’ on their mobile devices. This can be done through search engine optimization, Google, and social media advertising.

For example, if you own a coffee shop, you would want to target users searching for nearby coffee shops. There’s no point in targeting users in a different part of the city from where your business is based. Using a hyperlocal strategy allows you to reach highly motivated prospective customers actively searching for your products or services in your local area. 

Benefits of hyperlocal digital marketing

46% of all Google searches have local intent, so it’s more important than ever to ensure that your business is optimised for local searches. Most users now expect their location to be considered when searching for businesses, products or services.

Here are a few of the key benefits of using a hyperlocal marketing strategy:

High return on investment

People conducting ‘near me’ or location-based searches usually have a high purchase intent, making them likely to convert. Optimising for business for hyperlocal searches is also much less competitive than competing with businesses nationwide.

For example, if someone is looking for a bookstore nearby to buy a book they have just remembered they want to read. They might search for a ‘book store near me’, and your business might appear in the search results or as a Google ad. 

Cost-effective

Hyperlocal advertising is incredibly budget-friendly for businesses with a physical location (or locations) - you’re not wasting money on customers who are too far away to visit your store. Instead, you can focus on customers within a small area, which could be as small as a few streets in a large city. 

Easy to create targeted and personalised ads 

Hyperlocal ad campaigns are easy to set up and run. easy to set up and run. They can also be personalised and targeted towards your local area, resulting in higher conversion rates and more traffic for your business. 

Hyperlocal ads work in real-time

You can also use hyperlocal advertising to advertise deals on products and services you are currently running to help entice prospective customers into your business. 

Hyperlocal SEO

When it comes to optimising your site for hyperlocal SEO, you should use local-focused keywords throughout your site and keep any business information up-to-date. Here are a couple of the best ways to ensure your business is featured in location-based search results:

Google My Business listing

One of the most important steps you can take is to create a comprehensive Google My Business listing. This is where Google gets most of the information it provides users in Google Map results and localised searches. Your Google My Business listing should include as much information as possible, such as opening hours and address. If your business offers any third-party services (like reservations through OpenTable), this can also be displayed. 

Local directories and online citations 

As well as Google My Business, you should list your business on other relevant directories such as Yelp or Yellow Pages. You can also add your site to review sites and third-party websites to help increase your business’s credibility. 

Customer reviews

When it comes to hyperlocal marketing, reviews and customer testimonials are incredibly powerful tools. They’re also believed to be one of the most significant ranking signals in local SEO. Reviews could be those directly left on your Google Business profile, from third-party sites, or first-party reviews from your website.

Hyperlocal advertising 

You can also run hyperlocal ad campaigns to help support your business. 

Hyperlocal Google Ads

You can use ‘radius targeting’ and use the physical location of your business as the central point to create your hyperlocal ad campaign. Using 1 or 2 miles around your physical business will create a small area to target where prospective customers can easily reach your store. You'll likely need a wider radius if you’re in a rural area. 

When creating your hyperlocal ad campaign, consider conducting location-based keyword research. Consider what neighbourhoods or areas are encompassed in your targeting radius - you should target these in your campaign. However, you might want to add negative keywords for the areas that are too far away from your target radius, 

Google Maps ads

You can also run ads on Google Maps to reach local prospective customers. You’ll just need to enable location assets for your Google Ads account and then use location targeting and bid by location. Ensure you optimise your keywords to mirror what local users are searching for. 

Geofencing advertising

This is a relatively new hyperlocal marketing tool, which can be incredibly powerful. This involves setting up a virtual fence around your business’s location and targeting users with relevant location-based content, ads or push notifications. This could include current offers and deals designed to entice potential customers into your store. 

Hyperlocal social media marketing

You can use hyperlocal marketing tactics in your organic social media and run hyperlocal ads on your social channels. Using geotags and local hashtags is a great way to ensure you're connecting with your local audience. 

Social media channels can also be a great place to run competitions and connect with your local community. Responding to comments is important to keep your audience engaged and answer any questions they may have.

Local awareness ads

It’s simple and easy to run local awareness ads on Facebook. This ad format is designed to help businesses increase foot traffic to their physical locations and raise brand awareness. You can choose the area you want to target (much like Google ads) using a radius feature. Facebook allows you to target everyone in that specific location, people who live in that location (which is great if you’re hoping to attract repeat customers), people travelling to and within that location or people who recently visited that location. 

Need help with your hyperlocal digital marketing strategy?

Creating a comprehensive and effective hyperlocal strategy can be a powerful way to increase foot traffic for your local business, but this doesn’t mean it’s simple.  

Ensuring your site is optimised for local SEO terms, that your business appears in local directories, checking you have enough customer reviews, running hyperlocal Google and social media ads, and engaging with your target audience through blog posts and social channels… 

Getting some outside help could be the solution to transforming your marketing strategy and helping you see some real results. Why not take advantage of our free digital marketing audit to get started?

We’ll look at your current marketing performance, see what your competitors are doing, and make some suggestions for how to increase traffic and sales. Contact the team today to learn more about what we do and what’s involved in our free audit. 

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