Creating a local brand strategy for your SEO company in Orange Country can be difficult, but if you follow these proven steps, you can scale the profits quite easily.

First, you must have a deep understanding of the scope of your local market and what potential customers are looking for in your specific geography. You may rival against the traditional approaches like foot traffic and referrals and possibly be the first one to face competitors with a more innovative approach. 

In this case, not all digital marketing methods will work for you perfectly. You will need a local brand strategy that focuses on where your potential customers are and where they find your service online and in person.

Below is a seven-step method to get more local traffic for your SEO company in Orange County or your client’s business. 

Conduct a local market survey

When developing a marketing strategy, the first step is always to understand the actual needs of the target market. If you don’t, you will miss every opportunity, and your marketing efforts will be all in vain.

This may look different for local marketing because you also have to consider the location of your audience. But before you start investigating your audience, you need to answer some core questions about your business structure and goals. These include:

• What is the geographic area you serve?
• If you have an office, how far are people willing to go to get your services?
• How big is your local market?
• How many competitors do you have? What is their unique selling point?

Answering the above questions will lay the foundation for market research because you will know where to start. Starting too broadly can waste time with people and competitors that are not relevant to your business.

Master the brand message

Your market research should tell you what your audience values ​​and needs the most.

You can position your brand to appeal directly to them and say, “Hey. This is what we have for you, this is why you should buy from us.”

Larger brands do this by creating brand style guides that are revisited when creating marketing or website content. This ensures that the information is consistent and your audience always knows what to expect.

Your brand message will include the following:

• Brand value: What do you represent?
• Your unique selling point: What makes you better than your competitors?
• Tone: Is your audience looking for professionalism? Humor? Directness? Quirkiness?
• Benefits: What benefits does your service provide?
• Call to action: When people see your brand, what effect do you want it to make?

Address all of these points and use them whenever you create website content or launch a new campaign. This will help you address the right audience at the right time, in the right direction, with the right message.

Implement local SEO

Because local positioning is precise, local SEO is significant for local brands. It is the best way to generate targeted, sustainable traffic to your website.

What better way to get traffic than by ranking terms that users are actively searching for locally?

For local SEO, most SEO best practices still apply, but the focus is on specific geographic locations. This is usually done by using localized keywords, local references, and link building.

Your local SEO strategy should include:

• Mobile-friendly and attractive website design.
• Fast website loading speed.
• Page SEO for localized keywords.
• Citations in local and niche-related directories.
• Optimized Google My Business profile to get traffic from local and map searches.
• Link building to high-performing websites in your niche market and the local area.
• Localized content for your essential keywords and attractive to your audience.

Although you have a complete guide on local SEO, the above steps are enough to get you started. Keep in mind that SEO is a long game and will be tested and further optimized over time.

You must focus on the needs of your local market and what they are searching for in search engines.

Establish a strategic partnership

Local marketing is especially difficult if your audience is not engaged online. That being said, they may turn to traditional methods, such as newspapers, or rely on recommendations from family and friends.

So how do you enter the market if they are not online?

Let’s say there is a building materials manufacturer in Denver. They can establish partnerships with local contractors to encourage them to use their materials and conduct their business in their way.

In return, they can offer discounts on construction materials and refer clients to contractors for their projects.

Share targeted content on social media

If your market research determines that your audience is active on social media, and you know what these significant platforms are, it’s time to create content that grabs your audience’s attention.

Many brands are too concerned about cracking algorithms and sharing content across all social media platforms. You don’t have to do this. 

You just want to share the content that makes listeners say, “wow, that sounds like me!” 

You want to focus on:

• Rich content
• Accuracy
• Relevancy 
• Timely content
• Well written content
• Participation
• Brand (tone, value, style)

Participate in social activities

It’s easy to stay in our own little bubbles, even online. Although, the fact remains that people still value relationships. This makes online and face-to-face marketing very useful.

Attending local social events will not only help you build these strategic partnerships, but you may also become more familiar with some of the biggest companies in your industry. Through introductions and frequent conversations, they can become potential customers.

Being active in your area is a competitive advantage in itself. It would be even better if you could host a seminar and speak at an event. These can be valuable sources to find potential customers.

Run a PPC campaign

If you want to expand your marketing efforts for search engines further, you can use pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns.

The leading platforms for doing this are Google Ads and Facebook Ads. Your market research will help you determine the positioning parameters.

PPC is a platform you can use to generate more leads for your business or customers. If you have a budget, this could become an essential part of your local brand strategy.

Although some components of local marketing may be more difficult than others, there are still many ways you can generate traffic to your local brand. However, before focusing on these technologies, you need to have a deep understanding of local market needs and geographical searches for these services. 

Complete these seven steps to develop a local brand strategy for your SEO company in Orange County that works well and keeps your customers coming back.