Connecting with the Community: 4 Ways to Advertise to Local Audiences

Do your advertising strategies rely on time-sensitive sales, bland guarantees, or overpriced celebrity features? One way to branch out from these standard marketing crutches comes through focusing on local advertisements. Local advertising taps into and fosters loyalty through personal connections and shared experiences.

Advertising to local communities gives marketing campaigns a hometown advantage. Think of an ad that reflects local scenery or mentions local events such as an unprecedented snowstorm or small-town music festival. These advertisements are relatable and meaningful to people in a way that broad spectrum advertising is not.

So, what local advertisements are most effective?

1. Vehicle Wraps

Especially in smaller towns, custom vehicle wraps can impact the entire local population. If you grew up outside of the city, you know how cars, even without wraps, quickly become identifiable by the people who drive them. Adding a car wrap to the vehicle you or your employees drive to work transforms it into a rush-hour traffic advertisement every day of the week.

If not a full vehicle wrap, consider getting car stickers, decals or a custom license plate. Although not quite as eye-catching as a vinyl vehicle wrap, any advertisement on a vehicle will make countless local impressions.

2. Wholesale Backdrops

A wholesale backdrop is a large poster designed to be the background for photographs. They give your customers an experience and photo to remind them of your brand and share with friends.

Experiential marketing has been an advertising buzzword for years now. Wholesale backdrops tap into this unique and effective marketing strategy while keeping installation and maintenance costs to an absolute minimum. Backdrops are most often used by local customers. Add local landscapes or themes to the backdrop design to boost local pride and share your loyalty to the community.

Adaptation: Trampoline parks, swimming pools or escape rooms might consider using a portable frame. Participants frame themselves for photographs at the end of the activity. These are perfect businesses that host birthdays, reunions, and holiday celebrations. Large scale building wraps on the outside of buildings can often couple as a photo backdrop, especially when placed near the buildings.

3. 3-Dimensional Graphics

Three-dimensional graphics range from larger than life food creations to entryway props and eye-catching wall art. Three-dimensional advertisements can serve as landmark features throughout a city, giving locals a reference point to use when meeting friends or giving directions.

Three-dimensional advertisements are pleasing from all angles, unlike large posters or monitor screens that need to be positioned with their backs hidden. Imagine a large carrot in a food market, a real sized cartoon character outside a children's store or a mural of a local mountain that protrudes from the wall. All of these will increase the draw of your business to locals and visitors alike.

4. Area Specific Online Presence

Many online advertisement schemes end up reaching huge amounts of potential customers who are not within the target area. Here are some key ideas to hone in on the local community:

● Local Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Assuming your business has a website, targeting local searches with location-specific keywords can make a huge difference in visitor numbers and sales. SEO techniques help your business appear first among competitors, especially if you incorporate local places and names into blogs, titles, and services.

● Google My Business

Have you ever wondered how Google Maps figures out your “fast food near me” request so quickly? Google My Business is a free resource any business can use to attract local visitors.

● Social Media

Most social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube allow you to target ads to a specific country, region, or even a certain circumference around a GPS point. Another way to be area-specific is by sponsoring podcasts that discuss local news and topics.

Is it worth creating both physical and digital advertisements?

The Wall Street Journal recently cited statistics suggesting, “Digital advertising will account for 64.4% of total advertising in 2021.” This statistic is significant since 2019 was the first year online advertising broke the 50% mark. Just two years later, digital advertising has catapulted up another 15%.

With those statistics in mind, some businesses may wonder whether they should focus entirely on online outreach and ads. This would be a mistake. Here are some key points to consider when comparing physical advertisements to online:

● Physical Advertisements are Less Saturated

Online platforms are becoming increasingly expensive and saturated with advertisements. Think of the last time you opened a recipe webpage. There can be so many advertisements online that users give individual advertisements no notice.

● Physical Advertisements Reach Additional Audiences

Physical methods such as custom vinyl banners and vehicle wraps continue to make impressions on audiences who aren’t constantly online. Furthermore, physical advertisements have a smaller chance of creating negative impressions, unlike repetitive YouTube and music streaming interruptions.

● Physical Advertisements Have a Greater Longevity

Where to advertise online is constantly in flux. Keeping up with the latest apps and trends can feel a lot like chasing your own tail. Physical advertisements are also subject to fads and fashions, but by and large, the general methods remain constant. Billboards, poster graphics and window graphics have been around for well over a century because they work.

Recent innovations have created a greater depth of real world advertising options that are exciting to consider such as 3-dimensional props and full body vehicle wraps. Physical banners, backdrops and building graphics also have the key advantage of reaching a majority local audience, a critical element when building relationships and brand awareness.

So in the end, making space in your budget to accommodate both physical and virtual advertising strategies is the wisest approach to reaching target audiences, increasing brand awareness and growing as a business.