There are many effective ways to advertise your business in Walsall.
Whether you’re a new or existing company plying your trade locally, check out these five ways to get the word out about your services to the community.
Set Up a Google My Business Account
The first thing you should do when your business is up and running is to set up a free Google My Business account.
This will take you a matter of minutes to complete and ensures you are visible on Google Search and Google maps when people are searching for Walsall businesses.
All you need to get started is a Gmail account and details about your company, as well as a logo or a photo to make your profile look appealing.
Once set up, your profile will appear on the right-hand side of the page on Google search and really stand out. Customers will also now be able to leave you reviews, giving you a star rating out of 5.
Each time you have a satisfied customer ask them to leave a review on Google. There’s nothing more appealing to a potential customer searching for local businesses to see a company with lots of 5-star reviews!
If you ever get a negative review, you can respond within the Google My Business dashboard.
Always make sure you do this to build up trust. People do read these Google reviews and will look at both positive and negative responses, so it’s important to respond in the appropriate way to any negativity so you do not put off potential customers.
What to know more? Check out our guide on How to Create A Google My Business Account and Profile Page.
Create a Facebook Business Page
Social media is crucial for your marketing strategy and is another free way of advertising your Walsall business directly to the community.
Sign in with your personal Facebook account and go to the create page section. Choose business or brand and enter your business information, including which category your business fits into.
Make sure you add profile and cover pictures to create a good first impression and choose a username. Make sure the username is the same as your business or as close as you can get.
Ensure you add a location, which will ensure that potential customers and clients can see where you’re based, and make sure your description of your company explains exactly what you offer.
Immediately invite everyone on your friend’s list to get things started and create your first post. Understand who your customer is and create regular, engaging content that they will like, share and comment on.
Find other pages on Facebook that are relevant to your company. For example, a local business community or a local Walsall community group, such as Walsall Chit Chat & Natter. You’ll often find opportunities to interact and post within these channels to inform the community of your services.
For example, if you’re a plumber, keep an eye out on local community groups for people looking for recommendations for a plumber. This gives you the ideal chance to respond and generate some business.
Post regular content and share other interesting content to engage with your audience and grow your Facebook page.
If you have a website or Google My Business profile, make sure you link to your Facebook page from it, so people know you are on social media.
Investigate running a Facebook ad. The targeting options are incredible, allowing you to drill down to a specific area of your locality and target people who are interested in certain subjects. Online advertising doesn’t have to cost a lot of money and Facebook ads are very reasonably priced.
Set Up A Website
Setting up a website to advertise your business in Walsall can be a daunting task, but there’s plenty of help out there. If you have the budget, hire a website company to set it up for you. You can discuss your vision with them and they’ll create a website to suit your needs.
Alternatively, there are many out-of-the-box solutions with website templates that you simply just have to fill in and require little knowledge of website building.
WordPress is a great option with an easy-to-use interface and dozens of tutorials on the web to help you get started.
Feeling brave or have the skills? Give it a go yourself. Your website will be one of the most important parts of your business so it’s crucial you are involved in every step of the process.
So, take your time and create your vision offline on how you want it to look and what information you want to include.
Think about the journey you want visitors to have when arriving at your business website, and make sure you read up on search engine optimisation (SEO) to give your website as much chance as possible to rank highly on search engines.
Magazine Advertising in Walsall
Though the advertising space has evolved greatly over the last decade, with online advertising in Walsall and social media promotion becoming a cheap way to reach customers, there’s still huge potential to attract business with print magazines.
Magazine advertising complements your online advertising. While the behaviour of online users sees them dipping very quickly in and out of webpages, processing lots of information, magazine readers will often pick up their magazine time and time again.
The shelf life of magazines is much longer than online, so you are essentially reaching a more captive audience.
While many print publications have struggled to survive from the rapid advancement in web technology and the change in readers behaviour, some local magazines continue to flourish.
This includes Pioneer Magazines, which was first published 16 years ago has a readership of 120,000 and reaches the 48,000 homes of people in Walsall, Great Barr and other local areas – the exact people you want to be using your business.
This community-focused magazine is full of local stories that readers engage with and around the editorial are promotions from local businesses, with many happy customers advertising in the magazine and enjoying success for many years.
Find out more and see how you can advertise in Pioneer Magazines.
Submit Your Company To Business Listings
There are many places that you can list your business for free online. Simply Google “free business listings” and start the process.
This includes Pioneer Magazines. As part of its recent “Shop Local Campaign”, this local community business set up a free business listings portal. You simply need to send an email and your company will be submitted, allowing customers to find your services via search engines or directly by its devoted online readers.
If you don’t have the time or the budget to create a website, you can set up a business page on the Pioneer Magazines website. This acts as landing page for potential customers searching for local services via Google and other search engines.
Creating an engaging page in the business directory is an affordable option that can help elevate your business.
Support Local Causes
Become a real part of the community and spread the positivity. Many local businesses support charities and aren’t shy about letting the community know via social media and blog posts.
This brings your business closer to the community. For example, you could choose a particular day when some of your proceeds will be given to a local charity; if you’re a food business you could deliver food parcels to those who need it; or perhaps you could invite buyers to make a donation when making a purchase.
Creating a positive image of your company and brand that people can trust is a great way to spread word-of-mouth to more customers.
If you’d like help promoting your business to an engaged audience in Walsall, Great Barr and the surrounding areas, get in touch with Pioneer Magazines.