Today’s announcement from Boris Johnson is that working from home needs to resume as the default position. This will signal a major setback for many industries.
With commuter figures at an all-time low, OOH media will take a hit once more. Eyeballs on ads in The Metro, underground stations and train carriages will plummet.
It’s times like these that social media steps up to the plate.
Our friends over at Motor Claim Guru have a great blog that sums up how best to use twitter, Facebook and Linked In. The principals Tim Kelly talks about in the article can be applied to any business. Once you have mastered the basics, you can think about laser targeting your message. When done on a geographical basis, this is called hyperlocal marketing.
Hyper Local Marketing in 2020 : Five Ways
1. Hashtags
Use hashtags relevant to your town or city – make sure you have a range of hashtags that are very popular ranging to less popular in terms of volume. On Twitter use no more than three. Instagram allows you to use up to thirty hashtags – no penalties for this and it boosts your reach. Facebook has recently given more priority to hashtags too and there is now a hashtag feed – be sure to start using them quickly to give you a competitive advantage but don’t go overboard. The other golden rule with hashtags is to make sure they are relevant.
2. Stories and Reels
If you aren’t already using Facebook and Instagram stories NOW is the time to start. You can tag your geographical location and reach people who don’t already follow you so what’s not to love? Once you have mastered that you need to quickly graduate to using Instagram Reels – because right now the platform is rewarding you for using this new function. But it won’t be new for long so make hay whilst the sun shines.
3. Google My Business
Next up, and it’s an absolute must, is the use of Google My Business. This free platform is woefully overlooked by local and geographically based businesses. It’s great for giving you web traffic, web SEO rankings and for supercharging your visibility when people search ‘near me’.
4. Crowd-Sourced News
There are an increasing number of local news, gossip and information platforms including UpMyStreet, Neighbourhood and an immeasurable number of Facebook groups. Check them out as a new way to connect with customers on your doorstep.
5. Mobile Billboards
As the pandemic evolves so does the role of media and advertising. A tried and tested form of hyper local marketing is mobile advertising boards.
We’ve quickly discovered that our ad bikes are a secret weapon in the fight against Covid-19. Our eco-friendly, pedal-powered, mobile billboards are highly effective at targeting populations in a specific, geographically restricted area. They are the real-life equivalent of a ‘near me’ search on a smart phone!
In Calderdale, the bikes were used by the local council to communicate the local lockdown restrictions.
Huge Media ad vans are also a fab way to take the message to any audience. They are suited to where a bigger geographical area needs to be covered. Most recently they have been deployed in Leicester as pictured below.
Hyper local marketing in 2020 is changing as fast as Boris’ directives. The pace of technology is not slowing down. But we have proved that billboard advertising still has a very important role to play, it has stood the test of time. And our campaigns are always amplified by their very visibility providing great visual content for social media and web.
