Businesses that provide local services, such as restoration contractors, rely on generating leads within their service areas to grow their business.  However, to get more leads, local businesses have to advertise to get the attention of the local potential customers to demonstrate the value of their services.  Because businesses like this only service a specific local area, they just need to focus on local advertising to generate more leads.

Many businesses may engage in local advertising that includes TV and radio commercials or billboards.  These forms of advertising could be pricey, and many small local businesses simply do not have the budget.  So how can you advertise your local business without breaking your budget?

In this guide, we will cover a variety of local advertising strategies that are either inexpensive or can be done at no cost to your business.  Effective local advertising will help increase brand awareness within your service area and help generate more leads to improve your conversion rate.  Talking to the professionals at RestorationMaster about our lead generation services can also help you get more leads within your service area.

Local Advertising for Your Restoration Business

Successful local advertising requires a mix of digital and traditional marketing to improve your visibility in your local area.  The following are highly effective strategies for advertising locally.

Optimize Google Business Profile Listing

Google Business Profile, formally known as Google My Business, is a free business listing that appears within Google search results and Google Maps.  Any business can claim their listing for free and update it with the relevant information.

Your business must take advantage of your free Google Business Profile listing to appear in the local search results as well as Google Maps.  Make sure all of the business information, including the business descriptions, address, phone number, hours, and other information is added and accurate.  You should also optimize the content on your listing to include the main keywords for your business to help appear in more local search results.

Check Business Listings with Yext

There are many online directories with local business listings including yelp, and it is important for your business information to be consistent across all directories.  If there is a discrepancy between these third-party business listings and your website, that could negatively impact your SEO and your rankings in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

You can use Yext to scan the internet and find every listing for your business on third-party directories.  You will then be able to make sure that the information on all of these listings is accurate and consistent.

Attend Networking Events

Attending local networking events related to your industry will help you make professional connections and meet potential customers.  You can also increase brand recognition when making an appearance at networking events and stay current on the news and trends of your industry.

Speak at a Local Event

It is common for local events of all types to have guest speakers from local businesses.  If there is a popular local event in your area, look into being a guest speaker.

As a guest speaker, you can give an effective speech that helps establish your business as an authority in your industry which increases brand awareness and trust.  Any local event is a great opportunity, especially if there is an event you can relate to your industry.

Spread Flyers and Brochures

Print advertising like flyers and brochures are still effective methods of local marketing. You can ask to hang your flyers or leave brochures at popular places in your local area including coffee shops, retail stores, and other businesses.

You can make flyers and brochures yourself using PowerPoint and other programs, or you can work with a graphic designer to design them.

Geo-Targeted Facebook Ads

Facebook not only allows you to create targeted ads, but it also has the highest targeted advertising capability of any platform.  You can make ads within Facebook that target a geographic area and target potential customers by putting in criteria such as age, job description, income, and others.  Having a good idea of who your target audience is will help you decide on the criteria for your targeted ads.

It takes a small daily investment to run targeted Facebook ads.  You should also post regularly on your Facebook profile to help engage your audience and improve the effectiveness of your ads.

Direct Mail Campaigns

Direct mail campaigns can help you send marketing materials directly to potential customers that are in your service area.  You can also compile a local mailing list to have more control over who receives your materials.  Sending out mailers may not drive a lot of business, but it will increase brand awareness within your service areas.

Free Local Advertising

Some of the advertising strategies discussed above are of no cost to your business, while some of them will take a modest investment to be effective.  It may benefit your business to supplement these advertising strategies with a number of additional strategies that are completely free to your business.

Below is a list of local advertising strategies that will not cost your business any money:

• Writing guest blogs: A great way to build trust with your brand and attract more customers is to establish your business as an authority within your industry. Writing a guest blog to be posted on an established website within your industry will help build your authority and bring more traffic back to your website by including links in the blog.
• Write Quora answers: Quora is a platform in which users submit questions about a wide variety of subjects and anyone can post an answer to the questions. By answering questions related to the services you offer, you can further establish your brand as an expert in your field and generate quality leads.
• Post on LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a professional social media platform used to share business-related content, network, and create partnerships. Posting and promoting content on your business LinkedIn account will help increase your leads by driving more traffic to your website.
• Appear on industry related podcasts: Podcasts of all types are quite popular as many people would rather listen to a podcast than read articles. If there is someone in your industry that has a podcast, offer to be interviewed so that you can make an appearance on their podcast, especially if they have a large audience.
• Include website in email signature: This seems like a simple thing to do but putting the link to your website or social media profiles in your email signature is easy and can drive more traffic.
• Email newsletters: Email newsletters are a great promotional medium, and they have a high level of engagement. With email newsletters, you can send content including blog posts, special offers, and other information about your business directly to existing customers.
• Run contests or giveaways for free products or services: Giving potential customers the opportunity to win a free product or services will help spread your brand name and incentivize new customers to check out your business.
• Post videos on YouTube: Videos are the most consumed and shared content on the internet and videos made by businesses are highly effective at getting leads. You can create content that is informative, and videos can be as simple as a product description or a demonstration of a service.
• Value professional partnerships: If there is a local business that provides services that you do not offer, but complement the services you do offer, you can form a valuable partnership. With this type of partnership, you will get a high volume of the customers of your business partner.
• Social media posts: Take advantage of your social media accounts by posting engaging content regularly. This is a great place to share information about special offers, blogs, and video content.  Your audience will like and share engaging posts and including links in your posts will bring more people back to your website.
• Use video and photo platforms: People love visual content like photos and videos and posting this type of content can get good engagement. You can use platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest to share photos and video content and you can use Instagram Stories and Facebook Live to post live videos of jobs and demonstrations.
• Encourage customer reviews: Customer reviews make a huge impact on purchasing decisions as most people will read the reviews of a business before reaching out to them. Encouraging your satisfied customers to leave reviews will result in more positive reviews for your business which will help build trust in your brand among potential customers.

Lead Generation from RestorationMaster

When it comes to local service-based businesses and contractors, consistently generating good leads is important.  The above-mentioned tips will help you more effectively market your business within your service areas and build brand awareness and trust among your potential customers.  Many of the strategies mentioned are of little to no monetary cost to your business.

If your business is already employing local marketing strategies discussed above and would like to supplement these efforts to get more leads, consider working with RestorationMaster for lead generation.  We generate quality leads for contractors in the restoration industry with our geo-optimized website restorationmasterfinder.com.  You can expect exclusive water damage leads, fire damage leads, and mold remediation leads from customers within your specific service area.