Contrary to popular belief, your business does not have to be big to be global. In fact, the two have absolutely nothing to do with one another. Technically speaking, you could set yourself up with nothing more than a £10 website and £50 worth of stock – targeting buyers on a global basis would still make you a global business. Likewise, you could have the most enormous and successful company imaginable, but choose only to focus on a relatively confined, local area.
If you market your products, services and business in general in the English language without targeting one specific area, you are a global business – it really is as simple as that. Which on the surface sounds like a predominantly positive thing, but it can nonetheless result in you missing out on certain benefits that come with a local focus.
The thing is, there’s nothing to say that your business cannot be global in nature but still incorporate local focus in its overall marketing plan. And when you consider the benefits local marketing and focus can bring, you immediately realise it’s more than worth the required effort.
There are three simple yet clear reasons why it could make sense to bring a little more local focus in for the benefit of your brand:
1. Budget Optimisation
First of all, one of the immediate benefits of a local approach is the way in which it enables you to dedicate more of your marketing budget to the areas of greater value to you and less to the ones you could really do without. Chances are there are certain areas, territories and countries that are responsible for bringing you the lion’s share of your revenues, while others barely contribute a dime. The question being – why not pay particularly close attention to those who give you the most buck in return?
2. SEO Prowess
Google and the other major search engines have made no secret of the fact that they both approve of and encourage local focus when it comes to online businesses and marketing efforts in general. Because of the sheer competition out there, gaining any kind of meaningful exposure as a global brand is difficult. By contrast, gaining exposure in a specific locality by focusing on local SEO is considerably more achievable. Google already gives a certain amount of priority to businesses that focus on local – a trend that is only likely to continue going forwards.
3. Cultural Appeal
Last but not least, the more narrowly you focus your marketing efforts, the more you can appeal to your target audience members in a more personal, culturally relevant way. For example, you can’t expect to win over customers in China and Turkey with Christmas themes and promotions, given the way in which they don’t celebrate it. Likewise, certain Arabic countries forbid the use of visuals and graphics that feature women. Attempting to please all of the people all the time with something of a one-size-fits-all isn’t just difficult, but will almost always result in exclusion or even offence in the case of certain demographics. When you focus on local, you focus on what exactly matters to your target audience members and can be decidedly more cultural in your approach.
Get in touch with your local internet marketing strategists at Search and More. We are specialists in SEO and social media marketing.
