In every market niche and industry there are big players that rule the roost, and small hatchlings that are at the bottom of the pecking order.
This doesn’t mean that the status quo is always unassailable, and in fact we’re now in a particularly significant period when digital tools and techniques can quickly enable up and comers to compete successfully against incumbent companies.
To show how it’s done, here are some effective and actionable strategies that really do work – and should certainly be applicable to your own small business operations if you’re keen to take the fight to the titans that tower over you.
Leveraging Local SEO to Beat Out Bigger Rivals
Local SEO is a crucial tool for small businesses aiming to outshine multinationals in their community. Google reports that “near me” searches with clear buying intentions increased by 500% in just two years, with even greater spikes seen for product categories like clothing.
This indicates the potential of local SEO to drive physical foot traffic and enhance online visibility precisely where it counts.
So, here’s how you can elevate your local SEO game:
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Claim and Optimize Your Google Business Profile: An up-to-date profile increases your visibility in local search results and Google Maps. Provide comprehensive information including address, phone number, business hours, and photos. SEO tools like Moz Local can automate this process across multiple platforms.
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Gather High-Quality Reviews: Encourage satisfied customers to leave positive reviews on your Google Business Profile and other relevant platforms like Yelp or TripAdvisor. Positive reviews boost your credibility and attract more customers.
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Use Location-Based Keywords: Include keywords that reflect your locality in website content, meta descriptions, and tags (e.g., “vegan bakery in downtown Denver”). Keywordtool.io offers a specialized feature for finding location-specific keywords that can help tailor your content effectively.
For example, let’s say you run a small coffee shop in Boise, and you’ve optimized your Google Business Profile listing with updated photos of new seasonal drinks and collected customer testimonials after each visit.
When locals use search queries like “coffee near me”, they’ll stumble across your venue near the top of the results, and your foot traffic will increase in line with this – even if you’re also in the vicinity of a generic Starbucks outlet.
Building More than Just a Basic Social Media Presence
Brand loyalty and community involvement go hand in hand these days, which means crafting a vibrant collection of followers via social media can significantly amplify a small business’s reach and resonance.
What’s more, the stats back this up, with a survey finding that 90% of consumers have made purchases from a brand they actively added to their social feeds.
So, here’ you can transform your social presence into a thriving community:
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Engage Regularly and Authentically: Responding to comments, asking for feedback, and sharing behind-the-scenes content helps humanize your brand. Management tools like Hootsuite and Buffer enable scheduling posts and managing interactions across multiple platforms efficiently.
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Create Valuable Content: Offer more than promotions; provide tips, insights, or entertaining content that aligns with your audience’s interests. Canva and Adobe Spark are excellent tools for creating visually appealing graphics and videos that capture attention.
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Leverage User-Generated Content: Encourage customers to share their own stories or photos using your product or service, which increases authenticity. Featuring this content not only engages the original poster but also shows potential customers the real-life application of what you offer.
As another example of how this strat could play out, let’s say you own a local bookstore. In this case you could start a weekly book recommendation thread on Facebook, inviting participants to share what they’re currently reading, along with reviews.
This initiative will increase engagement and also enhance your store’s reputation as a central hub for literature lovers in the community.
Harnessing Online Delivery for Local Restaurants
As the appetite for home-delivered meals continues to grow, local restaurants have a golden opportunity to expand their customer base. The market in the US alone is worth $353 billion, indicating that there’s more than enough room for location-specific eateries to get in on the action.
Here are some strategies to effectively incorporate online meal delivery as part of your operations:
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Partner with Established Delivery Platforms: Services like UberEats, Grubhub, and DoorDash can drastically increase your visibility among local customers. These platforms handle logistics, allowing you to focus on what you do best – cooking delicious meals. And it’s not just for restaurants in big cities either. For instance, since you can get Factor 75 meals delivered at your home in NYC, the same strat works in smaller communities across the country.
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Optimize Your Online Menu: Ensure that your online menu is easy to navigate and visually appealing. Tools like Menu Maker or MustHaveMenus can assist in designing professional-looking menus that entice orders.
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Promote Special Offers: Encourage first-time orders by providing introductory discounts or special combo meals. Offering exclusive deals through your social media channels can also drive more traffic and conversions.
It’s impossible to overlook the fact that lots of local restaurants were forced to make the transition to accepting online orders during the pandemic – but that doesn’t mean they did this in an efficient or effective way.
So it’s worth reviewing your methodologies and processes if your eatery has the ability to serve customers digitally, ideally weeding out issues that haven’t been spotted, and ameliorating them to start reaping even more benefits.
The Bottom Line
These strategies can be applied broadly to all sorts of small businesses – but that doesn’t mean that they will automatically work as intended from the moment you implement them. The real hard graft comes afterwards, as you have to review and revise any changes to keep them on the right track.
The last point to make is that you can always take inspiration from bigger rivals in managing any of your digital strategies, because even if what they are doing looks out of your grasp, the scalability of digital platforms means that the playing field is far more level than it seems at first glance.
