We are exposed to so many different means of advertising throughout the day. From word of mouth, to specialized ad placements, even paid promotions from a popular influencer.

For smaller, local businesses some of these avenues may be difficult to explore.

With a tighter budget, and fewer resources than that of a major corporation, you’ll need to find some creative ways to exercise marketing activities.

Here are a few ideas that can help you create brand awareness in a cost-effective manner. 

Form a Collaboration with a Local Influencer

Buying a promotional post from an Instagram influencer with 1 million followers might be out of the question, but there is bound to be a micro-influencer in your area that would fit the bill.

So, how do we go about finding a local influencer?

Using major search engines will likely point you in the direction of bigger, more expensive influencers.

An alternative would be to use a social listening software which can pin down local influencers given your refinements such as amount of followers, and certain topics they are known to talk about.

The next step is to find someone you think may be a good fit, reach out to them or invite them into your store. Offering them a free product or service in exchange for promotion is the best way to keep this transaction and relationship low cost.

Join and Engage with Local Facebook Groups

Tons of consumers are a part of Facebook Groups, especially ones that are locally oriented. When you join a Facebook Group you gain a different perspective of your clients, in turn learning more about them, and also get to promote your business further. 

• The approach should not be too pushy, or sales-y.
• Spam like posts are likely to turn potential clients away.
• Try to spark conversations in which your business may come up organically.
• You can either join the group via your personal account, or just with your business profile. Both avenues have their benefits.

The goal here is to initiate a discussion that is bound to draw attention, without being controversial.

Utilize Your “Localness” In Digital Marketing

An advantage that a local business has over major corporations is that those corporations tend to have a harder time targeting specific locations, since their locations are so spread out. Hyper-focused ads are the best way to benefit from this.

Some tips on creating ads aimed at people in your local communities include:

• Using Google Search Console to explore new ad group options based on the driver of search impressions.
• Include your Zip Code or Street name in the ad and make sure it's visible
• Talk about how convenient your location is within the ad.

Take Care Of All Reviews

Major review hubs like Yelp, or Google aren’t the only places that customers can leave a review about your business.

Outlets like social media platforms, blogs, and forum sites should get just as much attention.

In today’s social media world, everyone with an online profile has some sort of audience. That could be just a handful of friends and family, or hundreds of followers.

There’s always a chance a previous customer could post to their personal page about your brand.

If the user tags you, you’ll be able to see what they say about their experience with your business, and if it’s a good review you’ll be able to use that to your advantage by reposting, and possibly using it for further marketing endeavors.

On the other hand, if the review is negative, ignoring it could damage your reputation and business integrity.

There are several social media monitoring tools such as Google Alerts, and Tweetdeck, which allows you to notice when your company is mentioned.

Run a Social Media Contest

Everyone loves gifts, and while your customers are not necessarily your friends or family, it could be beneficial to hand out small presents to help promote your business.

Launching a contest is a great way to gain foot traffic, or boost followers and online engagements.

Say you hold a contest that states the first 10 people to enter your store on a certain day receive a free or discounted product/service. This is very likely to spread word about your business.

To up your online presence, you could hold a contest that states out of the first 20 people to like and share a post, one will be selected at random to receive a free product or service. This creates engagement, and allows others to market for you by sharing the post.

These are great starting points for any business. Utilizing your community and resources can be very effective in promoting your business.