Back Roads and Bold Moves
"Back Roads and Bold Moves" is the podcast for anyone building a business far from the city lights. Hosted by Elyssa Giedraitis - rural WA mum, social media strategist, and unapologetic straight-shooter. This show is about real business talk without the buzzwords.
From social media that actually works (even with crappy Wi-Fi) to the messy reality of running a business in a small town, Elyssa dives into the strategies, stories, and bold moves that matter. Expect unfiltered opinions, rural grit, and conversations that cut through the fluff.
If you’re tired of cookie-cutter advice and want to do business your way, whether you’re on the back roads or beyond, this podcast is for you.
Back Roads and Bold Moves
Should Your Business Be Using Local Social Media Marketing?
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Your rural business is on social media, right? But are you reaching the right people?
In the first episode of Localise and Socialise, let's explain local marketing a little bit better, as well as delve deeper into the types of regional businesses, organisations and events that can truly harness the power of local social media marketing.
For my first official podcast episode of Localise and Socialise I want to deep dive into local marketing and why I believe it really is the key to ensuring your rural business is being seen by the right people.
Where many people, businesses and agencies are focusing on maximising reach, getting content to as many people as possible, I want to focus on the businesses who don’t need to reach people on the other side of the country, they need to reach people in their local area, their local community. They want to connect, engage and create impact with their community.
When I talk about local marketing I am referring to marketing strategies that a business uses to get their products or services in front of people in their local area, as well as engaging new and potential clients that are within a certain geographical area.
When you are targeting these locals, you are actively targeting people who are most likely to not only purchase from you, but also are more likely to become repeat customers.
All businesses need some degree of local marketing in their strategy, but some for some businesses it is especially important.
If you are a brick and mortar business, you’re going to need local marketing because you need to target people in a certain vicinity. What is the point of getting your content in front of someone on the other side of the country if they can’t actually come in and visit your store?
Restaurants or cafes for example, you need people to actually come into your venue to eat your food, or you need them to be in the general area for mobile ordering or takeaway. Pubs and bars are the same- you’re locked into that physical location and need to have a local audience.
If you’re a retail store you probably have an online store, but if you also have a physical location you need to incorporate local marketing into your strategy to have people actually come and in see you. Local marketing will not only increase foot traffic, but it will also help build your brand reputation and awareness, which is especially important for smaller businesses trying to compete with the big stores and fast fashion.
Other retail stores like supermarkets, fuel stations, hardware stores, chemists, specialty stores like sports shops, furniture stores and books stores - if you have a physical location you want to increase your foot traffic. You want people to stop in and make a purchase, you want to make that connection with your local community so they don’t just stop in once, they come in over and over again. You want them to tell everyone to come in and shop too.
If you’re a business operating in the agriculture industry, there is also a good chance that your primary customer base is your local community. A machinery dealer might make the odd interstate order, but they’re actively selling to a local geographic area - where it’s possible to send a sales person out too, where delivery isn’t a huge distance away, where the customer is able to come into the store and see and play around with the machines.
A chemical and fertiliser supplier, ag contracting businesses, an engineering business, you’re also operating in a certain geographical location for similar reasons. Your mechanic, they don’t need to target outside of their local area, because is someone going to travel hundreds of kilometres away with a broken car? They probably physically cant.
Even as a grower you are able to utilse local social media marketing. I’ve seen farming businesses use social media for various different things including finding new employees, exploring new opportunities for growth and advancement and educating people on the ag industry. They’re also using social media to increase brand awareness and advocate for change- think about it, where did you hear most of your information about the doomed Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act, where are you seeing people advocating for the banning of Live Export to not happen?
While lots of professional services are now operating online, there are still professional services that operate in a certain geographical area, they need that in-person element. A builder, a plumber, an electrician, they need to visit their customers in person and only have a certain area that they are able to travel too. They don’t need people outside of that area seeing their content because they cannot physically serve them. Similarly a real estate agent, doctor, therapists, optometrists and dentists often needs to work in person so can only serve their local area, hence the need for local marketing.
Other professional services are able to operate online, but also still need a degree of local marketing to target those people who still like in-person consultations and help. Lawyers, accountants, bookkeepers, agricultural consultants, financial planners, event management, they can all benefit from targeting and impacting their local community.
Organisations working for the community will also find that it is essential to employ local social media marketing tactics. Business associations, progress groups, your local shire or CRC, your local ambulance service, fire brigade the community club. Community sporting teams can also use local marketing for reasons like increasing support, encouraging people to join, finding volunteers, spreading awareness, sharing their results.
The other clients I work with to increase their local social media marketing is community events. Think about it, if someone is hours away from the event, are they really likely to make the trip? Probably not. But, people in a certain geographical area, your local area, are likely to join in if they know about it, if they know the details of the event, so, you need to tell them.
There are so many different local social media marketing tactics that your rural business can use to make sure you are reaching the RIGHT people, your LOCAL people and I am so excited to explore them throughout the episodes of Localise and Socialise.