What is one growth strategy to increase local market share for a small business?

To help small businesses increase local market share, we asked consultants and small business owners this question for their best insights. From intentional hiring to customer retention, there are several growth strategies that may help your small business increase market share and drive new conversions. 

Here is what 15 thought-leaders had to say:

• Be Intentional With Hiring
• Treat Customers as Special Guests
• Invest in Social Media Presence
• Get Publicity in Your Local Media
• Competitive Pricing 
• Partner With Other Locals
• Advertise Locally
• Networking
• Refine Your Brand Image
• Grow in Conjunction With a Partnering Business
• Develop a Positive Reputation
• Engage in Local CSR 
• Collaborate With Micro-influencers
• Optimize Your Google My Business (GMB)
• Prioritize Customer Retention

Be Intentional With Hiring

While it is important to stay nimble, be innovative, and be diligent in strengthening your relationships with your clients, small businesses can increase their market share through smart hiring practices. Being intentional and focused on the roles you are looking to fill and crafting the job descriptions to include the competencies required for each position will help to attract the best candidates. Another useful tool is to use a competency-based assessment tool, like Reveal, to help strengthen your hiring efforts and your teams.

Linda Scorzo, Hiring Indicators

Treat Customers as Special Guests

Treat every customer you come across as a special guest, which they are for visiting your business. You need to make them feel like their presence, and not just the money they spend is valued. This attitude of friendliness and gratitude can lead to repeat visits, and word-of-mouth referrals from these customers to others they know. By building up a satisfied, loyal customer base, you’ll be able to steadily increase your local market share.

Henry Babichenko, European Denture Center

Invest in Social Media Presence

You can grab a significant piece of the local market share pie with your social media presence. Awareness is a key stage of the sales funnel, and local consumers are more likely to visit a local business they know is in their area. Use your social media accounts to build a local following, highlighting your integration with your community and participation in local events. You’re bound to be rewarded with more business and repeat customers.

Randall Smalley, Cruise America

Get Publicity in Your Local Media

Publicity is called ‘earned media’, advertising is called ‘paid media’.It is earned for a reason – because you (or your publicist) write a good enough story to get (free) coverage from a journalist. This is sometimes called ‘traditional PR’, (but all goes digital now) and it is still the most powerful way to reach your audience because this type of publicity creates credibility where advertising does not. 

Some tips to do it yourself:
First research the media outlets you want to be in. Find the journalists that write about your industry or topic. Write what is interesting about your company and be sure it would be interesting to their audience. Send them a pitch with a great title, personalize it to them specifically. Follow up four days later with an email or even phone call if you can find their number. Happy pitching!

Ellie Lowney, Creating Buzz Public Relations

Competitive Pricing 

Flexible, competitive pricing can be a very effective way to increase your local market share. Take a look at your competitors, and see if your prices are competitive. If not, don’t be afraid to adjust if you feel that’s what it will take to have an edge in your field. Price-matching can be an incredibly effective tool to win over customers, keep them coming back, and grow your business.

Chris Abrams, Abrams Insurance Solutions

Partner With Other Locals

While most of our training can be done virtually, we are also localized in the Atlanta market. Over the years, Atlanta has grown in the tech space so increasing market share here is important. One of the strategies we’ve used to increase our local market share is by partnering with companies and organizations like the Atlanta Tech Village, Boys & Girls Club, and Terminus, to name a few. By increasing our local network of partners we are able to increase business through referrals and other great opportunities.

Nick Santora, Curricula

Advertise Locally

If you want to increase your local market share, you have to advertise locally. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to do this. You can just go door to door, leaving flyers or business cards on people’s doors. Even if you don’t grab direct conversions from your efforts, you may get referrals from those who heard about you and mentioned you to others.

Vanessa Molica, The Lash & Sugar Company

Networking

One growth strategy to increase local market share for a small business can be something as simple as introducing yourself and your business to other local businesses and local people. If you’re in the restaurant business it’s grassroots getting out there and saying hello, offering a coupon or a flyer.

If you’re in the consulting business it can be networking, guest blog posting, or being interviewed by a podcast or local radio station.

Amanda Russo, Cornerstone Paradigm Consulting, LLC

Refine Your Brand Image

Sometimes your brand image can be what makes or breaks your market share. One way to improve sales and encourage growth is to refine your brand and focus your advertising capacity.

As cheesy as it sounds, people still judge books by their covers. When comparing two small businesses, your average consumer is more likely to choose the brand with which they feel aligned. There are small but effective methods for improving your business face as simple as being cleaner-looking than your competition.

Your advertising efforts make a huge impact on how many consumers you can reach. One way to gain the edge over competitors is to simply produce more, or better, advertising for your business. You are guaranteed, at minimum, to be reaching more potential customers which is the name of the game.

In the end, it is a sort of game to be played to win out over the competition. With a professional look and some solid effort, you can secure your share of the community.

Zach Goldstein, Public Rec

Grow in Conjunction With a Partnering Business

We began our business in conjunction with Tony Robbins’ upcoming book on health. We share a passion for maximizing good health and we wanted a brand that could help us raise our profile. Tony gives us exposure. He is familiar around the world. It was a perfect marriage.

That works well for small businesses, too. So many businesses work in step with existing companies. Find a business that is adjacent to yours and exploit that partnership as much as you can.

You want to sell your brand of tartar sauce? Get it in restaurants, grocery stores, retailers, seafood stores, and more. If one business dominates a particular market in a space that you don’t directly compete in, look for strategic ways for it to help your business. The exposure potential could be immense.

Joel Jackson, Lifeforce

Develop a Positive Reputation 

In order to grow your local market share as a small business, you have to get your name out there and prove that you’re worthy of people’s attention and money. You can do this by providing excellent products or services on a consistent basis. Stay the course, develop a reputation for quality and consistency, and more business will come to you. This is the best way to sustainably increase your local market share.

S. White, Novus Maintenance

Engage in Local CSR 

For small businesses and solopreneurs, word-of-mouth referrals happen quickly by engaging with your community. In a business capacity, when you support local fundraisers and events or help out in community projects, it shows your customers that your brand cares about them and the place in which you all live and work. And when community members share your efforts on their social media channels, they validate your good works and provide the social proof that can influence potential customers to like and trust your brand and purchase your products. This helps to grow your audience and drive more foot traffic to your business.

Daniel Tejada, Straight Up Growth

Collaborate With Micro-influencers

While small businesses may face competition from larger corporations when it comes to working with online influencers, collaborating with micro-influencers is an option to consider. According to my observations, influencer marketing is growing more popular than ever… Micro-influencers will be the ideal alternative for small businesses because they are less expensive and more willing to collaborate with them. Growth will not be difficult in 2022 with a couple of these tiny influencers assisting [your firm] in reaching specialized audiences.

Rameez Usmani, PureTuber

Optimize Your Google My Business (GMB)

Google My Business (GMB) is a free local business directory provided by Google. You’ll need a GMB profile if you wish to appear in Google’s local search results as a local business. Consistency is crucial when it comes to developing and enhancing your GMB profile. Because Google uses your GMB profile data to populate search results, everything you provide in your profile must match the information on your website as well as your NAP citations around the web. When your information is consistent, Google will recognize you as a real company. Your profile will appear better in search results if you submit more information.

Salvador Ordorica, The Spanish Group

Prioritize Customer Retention

One understated way of increasing local market share is by maintaining the market you already have. By prioritizing Customer Retention Rate (CRR), you’re feeding customers through the steps of the marketing funnel and creating advocates. Sometimes, for small businesses, aggressive techniques to increase market share are overstated, and organic growth is your most consistent and cost-effective.

Michael Williamson, Hoist

Terkel creates community-driven content featuring expert insights. Sign up at terkel.io to answer questions and get published.

How do you actually get people to show up for a webinar? Please share one off your best webinar marketing tips.

To help you attract an audience for your next webinar, we asked marketing professionals and business leaders for their best advice. From encouraging speakers to promote the webinar to making the most of your “Thank You” page, there are several tips to boost attendance at your next webinar.

Here is what 10 thought-leaders had to say:

• Encourage Speakers to Promote the Webinar
• Send at Least One Reminder
• Focus On a Captivating Title
• Keep It Fun
• Provide a Bonus Solely for Live Listeners
• Offer Prizes and Giveaways
• Promote In Your Email Signature
• Use a Remarketing Strategy
• Provide Referral Incentives
• Make the Most of Your “Thank You” Page

Encourage Speakers to Promote the Webinar

Emails, social media campaigns and landing page optimizations can all generate buzz to increase attendance. But to connect with a wider audience, encourage the featured webinar guests to promote the event on their sites and social channels. The amplified promotion can boost attendance which benefits both you and the speakers.

Claire Routh, Markitors

Send at Least One Reminder

We’re all busy, so it can be easy to skip an optional webinar when bigger priorities loom. Even when a webinar is on someone’s calendar, it’s far from a guarantee that they’ll attend. Stay top of mind and make yourself a priority by sending one (or more) energetic emails that remind your attendees about your event and reinforce the benefits of attending. For example, “See you tomorrow at noon for our insider Q&A!” sounds a lot better than “Reminder: Webinar tomorrow, 12:00pm.”

Elliott Brown, OnPay Payroll Services

Focus On a Captivating Title

In my experience, the title of the webinar plays a huge role in attracting the right crowd. Usually, business webinar titles tend to include a lot of jargon and are unnecessarily long with a few colons or dashes thrown in. Titles that are short, pointed, and ask/answer the right question tend to grab more attention.

For example, instead of saying “Navigating the Post-Covid Workplace: A Guide for Businesses to Ensure Safety While Employees Return to Work” can be compressed to “How to Get Employees Back Safely into the Workplace” or something more intriguing, like “Employees are beginning to come back to the office. Now What?”

Joe Flanagan, VelvetJobs

Keep It Fun

Webinars should be fun. When we do live webinars, we make sure to start with our story, showing old photos when I first began the business and showing blooper reels.

I also start with upbeat music and encourage people to keep their camera on. To get people to sign up for the webinar, make sure you have an email campaign with a giant sign up button.

Trevor Rappleye, CorporateFilming.com

Provide a Bonus Solely for Live Listeners

So many people register for webinars but then forget (make sure you have good email followup) or choose to listen to the recording and then never get around to listening.
I find it works really well to provide a special offer, special price or special additional content, that is only available for those who attend live. Stop the recording and provide some great value content only for those present live. And make sure in your promotional emails and website copy that you point this out, and provide testimonials from people that the bonus live content is the best and worth taking time out for.
Dale.

Dale Reardon, Travel For All

Offer Prizes and Giveaways

A great way to get people to actually show up for a webinar is to give away some prizes throughout the webinar to the attendees. These prizes can be given out at random and are simply there to encourage people to show up and participate in the webinar. People love free giveaways, so if you incorporate one into your webinar, you will drive attendance up and have a more successful webcast.

Darren Litt, MarketerHire

Promote In Your Email Signature

Including your webinar’s landing page in your signature is a great, non-intrusive way to generate leads outside of your normal audience. For example, if you have outbound sales reps who send lots of cold emails, having them include your upcoming webinar in their email signatures can interest more people in your event — people who wouldn’t have been on your normal subscription list.

Another tip, when promoting a webinar through your signature, include an eye-catching graphic and tagline to intrigue more people.

Jason Brandt, Podopolo

Use a Remarketing Strategy

Remarketing is a great strategy because it lets you reach out to an audience that’s already familiar with your brand and, quite likely, interested in what you have to say.  The messaging in your ads can also be a lot more direct, exciting, and informal. A key factor is being mindful of where you place these remarketing ads since you don’t want to advertise on a website that doesn’t align with your brand values.

Larissa Pickens, Worksion

Provide Referral Incentives

Don’t be afraid to ask those who join up to invite their friends and family. Please give them a cause to do it (apart from making the world a better place) by offering referral bonuses. You might give out an eBook or some incentive. If you’re feeling generous, try launching an affiliate scheme where people who sign up get rewarded based on the number of others who sign up using their unique links and other factors. It’s also a good method to promote the worth of your webinar subtly.

Steve Scott, Spreadsheet Planet

Make the Most of Your “Thank You” Page

There’s nothing worse than being stood up when it comes to hosting webinars. Among many valuable tips on increasing your attendance, I recommend paying attention to the “thank you” letter. Don’t make it a simple recognition of registration but a cover letter that allows people to get to know you a little better, engage deeper with your product, and build trusted relationships. As we know, people tend to stand their friends up less. Your letter should ideally include a video explaining your expertise and what you’re going to cover with exclusive information. Don’t forget to add in what people need to do (share on social media, leave a comment, download your workbook), the time and date of the webinar, as well as the day of the reminder letter. Don’t forget to add your customers’ reviews and a Google calendar reminder. Make it the most efficient thank you page ever!

Rimma Serheieva, Giggster

Terkel creates community-driven content featuring expert insights. Sign up at terkel.io to answer questions and get published.