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Definition of Local Audience
The local audience represents a group of potential customers who live, work, or frequently spend time in close proximity to a business. This concept becomes particularly relevant for offline companies, such as cafes, dental clinics, salons, and other establishments that attract customers for in-person visits. Marketers of each company define their target local audience based on the nature of the business. For example, for a grooming salon, the target audience would be dog and cat owners living in the area. In the case of an election campaign, the target audience may include residents of a specific neighborhood, city, or even country, depending on the scale of the campaign.
Importance for Local Businesses
When analyzing the local audience, a business is primarily interested in geographic location and the availability of infrastructure, as well as competition in the area. For example, a shoe repair workshop located near a subway station will attract customers who live or frequently visit nearby stations. Conversely, a dental clinic may attract clients from several neighborhoods or even the entire city if it employs a specialist with rare qualifications, such as a periodontist.
Effective Marketing Strategies
An interesting fact is that the local audience can be gathered with high accuracy, down to the IP address. For instance, in 2019, the marketing agency Dewsweb used Wi-Fi radars at the "MosBuild-2019" construction exhibition to collect unique MAC addresses of visitors' mobile devices. Over the three days of the event, the team gathered 56,063 contacts, which were later used for targeted advertising in services such as "Yandex Direct," MyTarget, and Facebook Ads.
Content for Local Audience
One of the simplest and free ways to attract the attention of the local audience is to fill in information about your business in geo-services such as "Yandex Maps" or "2GIS." According to SocialMediaToday, 46% of all queries in Google are local, confirming the significance of this approach. Having a quality profile with photos, prices, and links for quick booking increases the likelihood of attracting customers.
It is also worth noting that browsers use location data to determine the geolocation of devices, allowing them to offer users nearby options in response to their search queries. Additionally, marketers can set up targeted advertising in search engines and social networks by specifying particular regions for displaying their ads. Advertising can also be placed with owners of regional channels and accounts that are popular among locals.
It is important to remember that content for the local audience has its own characteristics. In our studio, we often advise local businesses against implementing content marketing on large platforms, as it may not yield the expected results. For example, in Izhevsk, advertising local businesses should be conducted on portals and classifieds specific to the region, rather than on general resources like RBC. This approach will help attract exactly the audience you need.