Email Marketing + Local SEO = a formidable combination for growing your local business

Businesses of all sizes are working on their digital marketing to reach their target people.

Social media, paid ads (Google Ads for example), email marketing, Local SEO, personal branding, video marketing… There are many areas to consider.

Business owners know that some activities have more value than others.

They are getting better at recognising what’s useful for them and what isn’t.

For small local businesses, a combination of Local SEO and Email Marketing can produce significant results.

By using these two strategies, you can gain more local customers, build brand loyalty, and grow sales.

For example - Organic Food Store Simply Organic based in Tauranga.

Simply Organic use Local SEO strategies to get customers to come in for the first time, then use strategic Email Marketing to build the customer relationship for the long haul.

Understanding Local SEO

Local SEO is a strategy for improving a business's visibility in local search results.

When a potential customer searches for "best cafe in [your city]," you want your business to appear at the top of the search results. To achieve this, you need to:

Fill out your Google Business Profile Listing: Ensure your information is accurate. Encourage customer reviews and respond to them.

Build Local Citations: List your business on local directories like Yellow Pages, Google Maps, Yelp, and Fyple.

Optimise Your Website for Local Search: Use location-specific keywords, such as "Tauranga electrician" or "Auckland chiropractor," in your website content, meta descriptions, and title tags. You might even partner with local businesses to write guest posts for each other's blogs, to help Google find you.

Learn more about Local SEO in our recent article HERE. This article details things that help local SEO for example Google Business Profile optimisation, social media content, and citations / directory listings.

Power of Email Marketing

Email marketing is a direct way to reach your target audience.

By building an email list and sending regular newsletters / emails, you can:

Grow Relationships: Build relationships with your customers by providing content and special offers.

Drive Sales: Promote products, services, and special promotions directly to your subscribers' inboxes.

Increase Brand Awareness: Keep your brand top-of-mind with consistent email communication.

Track Performance: Use email marketing analytics to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns and make data-driven decisions.

If we look at another example, Budget Car Sales in Auckland.

Their local SEO efforts bring customers in the local area to them. People see their cars on their Google Business Profile, Facebook, and Instagram locally.

The email that goes out keeps customers in the loop for new deals, new releases, which helps the business sell more to existing customers, and get referrals as customers do send these on to friends and family.

Pairing Local SEO and Email Marketing for Maximum Impact

Combined, Local SEO and Email Marketing can create a useful marketing strategy. Here's how:

Collect Email Addresses: Use your website, social media, and in-store promotions to collect email addresses from customers and prospects.

Segment Your Email List: Divide your email list into segments based on location, interests, or purchase history. This allows you to send emails that are likely to resonate with your audience.

Leverage Local Events and Promotions: Send email to promote local events, seasonal offers, or promotions.

Encourage Reviews: Use email to ask satisfied customers to leave +ve reviews on Google.

Track and Analyze: Use analytics tools to track performance of your campaigns and make adjustments as required.

Checklist for Implementing a Local SEO and Email Marketing Strategy

Claim and Optimize Your Google Business Profile Listing.

Build Local Citations / local directory listings.

Optimize Your Website for Local Search.

Create Quality Content.

Build an Email List.

Segment Your Email List for relevance, usability, and impact.

Create Engaging Email Content that gets opened, shared, and acted upon.

Track and Analyze Your Results so you can constantly improve.

By combining Local SEO and Email Marketing (we’d suggest you hire professionals for this, for example Tiffany Digital NZ, you can create a marketing strategy that will help your local business thrive.

This guest blog article was written by Corey Hinde of Good Oil Marketing. Corey Hinde and the team at Good Oil Digital Marketing will use SEO and Local SEO to help your business get more sales from Google Search.