When it comes to B2B local marketing, finding leads, closing sales, and driving revenue is an interesting challenge, especially when you think about it in the context of local.
Think about it this way, have you ever heard the saying, “supplies are limited?”
It’s a problem local B2B companies understand well. If you’re in a large metropolitan area like Los Angeles, New York, or Chicago, it’s actually more of a problem.
I’m talking about competition.
If you’re running a local B2B company, you’re competing directly with other providers in your area. If you’re missing the right strategy and tactics, it can be tough to attract the steady flow of clients you need to build a thriving business.
Today we tackle that problem head-on.
Here are 35 B2B local marketing ideas you can put to work immediately, generating the leads, clients, and revenue you need to grow your B2B company.
Table of Contents
B2B Local Marketing Idea #1: Becomes someone else's case study
Goal: Boost awareness and options with targeted testimonials
KPI: Referral traffic/visits
Cost: $10+
Time required: 2 – 10+ hrs per week (temporary)
Resources: Point-of-contact, documentation for results, landing page on your site
Here’s how it works. You find great products, customers, and services to use for your company. You achieve amazing results, then you reach out to the company in question, and you share your amazing results. Here’s a look at that in action.
The 17th Street Athletic Club is a fitness club and personal training studio based in San Francisco, California. They signed up with MailChimp, used their new marketing platform, and achieved amazing results.
This is a fantastic way to produce under-the-radar opt-ins and sign-ups for your business. It has a cumulative effect on the companies you work with. Here’s how you do it.
- Find a list of larger, local businesses in your area
- Use their products, achieve amazing results (only if it's a good fit)
- Reach out to these larger local businesses and share your story
- Be prepared to share measurable data and proof of your story (don't lie, embellish or pad)
- Do this for 10 to 20 local businesses in your area
Here’s why it works. Whenever these local businesses promote your business, they’ll promote you. It’s a conversion booster for them and free marketing for you. It’s a win all around!
B2B Local Marketing Idea #2: Referral network on BNI
Goal: Use BNI to create a group of volunteer referral partners
KPI: Referrals
Cost: $199.00 application fee and a membership fee of either $499.00 for one year or $799.99 for two years. Your local chapter may have additional fees.
Time required: 5 to 10+ hrs per mo.
Resources needed: A referral system to attract, share, and convert new leads
Business Network International (BNI) is a networking organization that facilitates networking. Here’s how it works. You pay the registration fee, and then you show up to the meetings (usually at 7:00 am). Businesses mingle and get to know each other initially. Then, once the session starts, members take 60 seconds to introduce themselves.
It doesn’t work well for most people.
Most people arrive with their hands out, immediately requesting referrals. That’s not how business is done. You’ve got to prime the pump. The best way to do that?
You give.
Let members in tangential or relevant industries know you’re looking for a reliable business to send referrals to. Then, send them referrals. Why would you pay hundreds of dollars to hand out referrals? Because what you give returns to you.
Send a consistent stream of referrals to givers and matchers. Avoid takers like the plague. In time, you’ll begin to receive a constant stream of referrals from each of the sources mentioned. Repeat as needed. It takes time to build, but it’s definitely worth it in the end. The more you give, the more you’ll receive.
BNI requires that members interested and willing to continue attending their weekly networking meetings sign their acknowledgment and acceptance of risk form. Businesses are eager to continue networking in the face of the ongoing pandemic and the potential economic downturn.
B2B Local Marketing Idea #3: Speaking engagements + products
Goal: Use speaking engagements to attract high dollar clients
KPI: Sales of products
Cost: $0 (receive income of $500 to $12,500 per speech)
Time required: 10 to 50 hours per month
Resources needed: Training, time to practice, data and sources to pitch
- Make a list of tangential services in need of your services. If you’re a contractor, you may want to speak with real estate investors or property developers.
- Create an introductory product or service your audience is required to pay for (e.g., books, DVDs, USB downloads, etc.).
- Pitch these organizations and ask for the opportunity to speak at their next event. Also, ask that they provide you with a table/chairs, featured spot in the venue to sell your materials.
- Deliver a speech that knocks their socks off; if you’re not sure how you can join Toastmasters to get the public speaking practice, you need in a safe environment.
- Sell your books after the event. The people who buy your introductory product have pre-qualified/self-identified as high-value leads. Add these people, with their permission, to your marketing funnel.
In a post for SpeakerHub, Mitch Jackson recommends that speakers have an indemnification clause in their agreements. Here’s how he describes it.
“What this means is it’s an agreement that you include in your speaking agreement with the company/agency who hires you to speak, which either includes you being an added insured under their health insurance policy should, god forbid, someone, either you or someone on your team becomes ill for any reason, including infectious diseases like the Coronavirus, or a clause that agrees to reimburse or indemnify you for any out-of-pocket medical expenses you may incur because of contracting any type of disease like the Coronavirus.
These are all terms that can be included and negotiated in a speaker agreement, and it’s something that it doesn’t hurt to ask or have your agent negotiate in your contract for you.”
It’s no surprise that many speakers are seeing a sharp decline in their speaking opportunities and fees. This is an industry that has been hit hard by the pandemic. However, many speakers have pivoted to provide their partners with virtual speeches (at a reduced rate). They’re also willing to take part in digital events as a way to sell and promote their products and services.
B2B Local Marketing Idea #4: Get your local library to sell for you
Goal: Build free marketing partnerships with local libraries
KPI: Contact information
Cost: $0
Time required: 2 – 5 hours per event
Resources needed: Training, introductory product
- Separate serious contenders from the casuals
- Create additional revenue for more marketing
- Build awareness, recognition, and buzz
B2B Local Marketing Idea #5: Sponsored offerings
Goal: Monetize sponsorships via exclusive offers
KPI: Voucher redemption (digital or in-person)
Cost: Variable
Time required: Minimum of 2 hours per month
Resources needed: Training, a list of sponsors, and an intro offer
- Find a relevant organization, group, or event to sponsor. The emphasis here is relevance. If you’re a business attorney, sponsoring business, entrepreneur, or startup-related events would be perfect.
- Create a compelling and irresistible offer. Use urgency triggers and risk reversals to sweeten the deal.
- Require that businesses come to your business specifically (online via a custom landing page or offline via a digital/paper voucher) to redeem the offer. They’ll need to provide you with their contact details
- Give everyone at the organization, group, or event you’re sponsoring equal access to the offer. Limit the offer to the first X number of people to redeem the offer in person. This is important because you typically won’t serve everyone and set limits to avoid the Groupon rush.
B2B Local Marketing Idea #6: Newsjacking with breaking news
Goal: Build consistent publicity with appropriate, short-term content
KPI: Visits, shares, opt-ins
Cost: $0
Time required: 1 – 3 hours per mo.
Resources needed: Tangential news content you can tie to your business, product, service, or offer
Newsjacking is defined as:
“The art and science of injecting your ideas into a breaking news story and generating tons of media coverage and social media engagement.“
This strategy requires nuance and careful consideration. Here’s how it works. You find a relevant breaking news story that’s attracting a lot of attention. Then, you offer to solve the problem in the news story for each of the parties involved.
Here’s what that looks like.
The Gracie family are pioneers of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. They frequently offer to train officers, police departments, and innocent bystanders in the art of gentle self-protection. They’re focused on helping departments avoid publicity nightmares and the decrease of trust in the community. They’re also focused on empowering innocent victims/bystanders.
This strategy requires ingenuity, but it can work for any local company.
B2B Local Marketing Idea #7: Invest in the greater good of your community
Goal: Live out your values, build goodwill and a strong reputation by serving your community first
KPI: N/A
Cost: Labor + materials
Time required: Variable
Resources needed: Variable
Identify a social interest cause or problem that’s related to your business. If you’re a lawyer, defend the defenseless. Restaurant? Feed those who can’t feed themselves (e.g., homeless, nursing home, elderly, etc.). If you’re a dentist, provide dental care for the homeless.
Next, watch the news for issues that are related (directly or indirectly) to your business. Then, contact the parties mentioned in the story. Offer to provide for the needs of the suffering in your community. Do not market or promote your good deeds. Do not take pictures of your good deed and post them on Facebook. Simply step in, serve those who are struggling, then step out.
That’s it.
This certainly doesn’t seem like a great marketing idea, but it is. Here’s why. You are showing that you care about the people in your community. More importantly, you did what most people can’t or won’t do to help. This is a long-term strategy that’s most effective when it’s used as a habit.
Want your community to care for and support your business? Take the time to care for and support your community.
We’re in the middle of a pandemic. Community support is more important than ever. Many in your community are likely struggling to make it through the pandemic. Reaching out to leaders in the community with your help and support is still needed.
B2B Local Marketing Idea #8: Create a local referral kit
Goal: Automate the referral process
KPI: Referrals
Cost: Variable (printing and distributing referral kit materials)
Time required: 20 – 40 hrs. (frontloaded)
Resources needed: Educational materials, intro offer, landing page
It can be difficult for B2B organizations to earn a consistent supply of referrals. Clients aren’t always sure what to say to prospective clients. A referral kit changes that.
A referral kit is a print document or booklet that provides clients with a solution to one (or a few) problems. You’ll want to provide a solution that’s meaty enough to provide clients with options but brief enough to demonstrate their need for you.
When you’re finished working with a client, give them a few copies of your referral kit. This short booklet is an educational powerhouse that provides you with a steady supply of clients. Create a digital referral kit for clients that are concerned about in-person contact.
B2B Local Marketing Idea #9: Local guest posting
Goal: Build publicity and local clout with influential publishers
KPI: Visits/conversions
Most clients are familiar with guest posting as a strategy. You’ll get varying opinions on its effectiveness depending on who you ask. Local guest posting provides local businesses with a direct path to more leads, customers, and sales.
Cost: $0
Time required: 1 – 5 hours (depending on content factors)
Resources needed: A list of (do-follow + no-follow) guest posting sources, contact information, pitch templates, written guest posts
- A list of local publications. You’re looking for high traffic, prestigious or partnership sources you can use to build your business. If they’re an unknown, you’ll have to evaluate things on a case-by-case basis.
- A list of syndication sources. Some of the local publications in the previous step will also accept syndication, you’ll want to identify the terms and conditions ahead of time.
- A compelling but limited offer. You’ll want to avoid a Groupon rush as much as possible. Limits increase your offer’s value, but they also protect your business from an overwhelming surge of attention.
B2B Local Marketing Idea #10: Exchange services for referrals
Goal: Create a powerful group of referral volunteers
KPI: Visits, conversions
Cost: Variable
Time required: 1 – 10+ hrs
Resources needed: A list of people with connections to your target companies
Make a comprehensive list of local companies in your community (e.g., city, town, or county). You’re looking for organizations with a poor review portfolio. These are companies with no reviews, too many negative reviews, too few reviews (across multiple sites), or poor reviews from the wrong customer.
Present a few of the local companies with poor review portfolios a compelling offer.
You’ll help them boost the traffic, leads, and sales to their business dramatically. You’ll take them on as a regular ongoing client, and provide them with a steady source of revenue, free of charge. When they ask what’s the catch, you show them your list.
They have to provide you with an introduction to X number of companies on your list each mo. The number of introductions they provide will vary from industry to industry.
B2B Local Marketing Idea #11: Become a local information broker
Goal: Collect and share difficult or hard-to-get information
KPI: Referrals/leads
Cost: Variable
Time required: Variable
Resources needed: Information sources (free + paid)
Mavens are information gatherers, people who have access to valuable pieces of information others do not. If you’re able to gather information prospective clients may want or need, do so. Take the time to share that information with B2B prospects systematically (e.g., newsletter, membership site, recorded voicemail, etc.).
Becoming an information broker is an easy way to attract a never-ending supply of leads.
B2B Local Marketing Idea #12: Become the local connector
Goal: Broker access to those who struggle with networking
KPI: Number of quality contacts
Cost: $0
Time required: 1 – 2 hrs per mo.
Resources needed: List of people to connect with
Follow the 5+50+100 rule. Work to become a master connector, someone who can connect with anyone and everyone regularly. This is a marketing track that operates parallel to your business. You need to have a set of systems and procedures in place to handle the demand once you get going.
Make it your goal to connect with anyone and everyone, regardless of their immediate value or interest to you. Next, work to stay in touch, providing everyone on your list with some sort of consistent, punctuated value. When anyone needs an introduction, be the one to line them up.
Follow the 5-to-1 ratio.
Facilitate five connections for every one connection you request. Worked to connect with influencers, celebrities, powerbrokers, other connectors, mavens, and thought leaders. Make it a way of life, a habit you consistently follow.
B2B Local Marketing Idea #13: Barter for value
Goal: Trade services for value
KPI: Trades
Cost: $0 – variable
Time required: Variable
Resources needed: Systems and procedures to identify people who need what you’re offering
Put out feelers. Work to consistently identify B2B professionals who are willing to barter for value. If a small business client needs help with their accounting, offer to line them up with a professional who needs some legal work. Throw your products and services in to sweeten the deal.
B2B Local Marketing Idea #14: Host virtual (or in-person if viable) meetups for tangential sources
Goal: Build a membership of like-minded sources
KPI: Leads
Cost: Variable (cost of renting venue)
Time required: 3+ hrs.
Resources needed: Zoom account (or venue, tables, and chairs), scheduling software, educational content
Hosting meetups virtually or in person is a great way to cultivate leads for your business. If you’re a small business attorney, you can host meetups for entrepreneurs, startups, and small businesses in your area. If you’re focused on a specific industry or group, you can create regular meetups focused on serving your particular audience.
B2B Local Marketing Idea #15: Forum posting
Goal: Build traffic by providing value on forums
KPI: Unique visits
Cost: $0
Time required: 30 min. to 2 hrs. per day
Resources needed: A list of forums to share content, landing pages, intro offer
You can use forum search engines like board reader or search for specific subreddits related to your industry. If it’s appropriate, add a compelling message to your signature. If you’re on Reddit, be sure to fill out your profile in its entirety. You’ll want to jump into these forums and begin solving your prospective client’s problems. Focus exclusively on value. Remember, education attracts information converts.
If you’ve taken the time to complete your profile properly, visitors will find you all on their own. This strategy works. I’ve used forums myself to land $14,000 – $20,000 contracts.
B2B Local Marketing Idea #16: Become a resource together
KPI: Contact information
Cost: $0
Time required: 2 – 10 hrs. per mo. (ongoing)
Resources needed: A list of most-wanted resources
First, determine the industry or groups in your target audience. If you’re a startup consultant, you can identify the resources startups want most (e.g., funding, money to borrow). Create a list of resources, people, and groups interested in loaning small businesses the resources they need, whether that’s access, connections, money, leads, or sales.
Work to find the inside track, a way for your specific target audience to get the resources they want from (or through) you. Provide better resources, content, and details they can’t get anywhere else. Create resources that are so good your clients would be crazy if they refused to come to you first.
B2B Local Marketing Idea #17: Create/commission original research
Goal: Create publicity and thought leadership that’s difficult/impossible to copy
KPI: Traffic, leads, links, and shares
Cost: Variable, high
Time required: 50 – 100+ hrs.
Resources needed: High-value research topics, questions that need answering, people willing to analyze the data
Reach out to your local university. Contact specific colleges or departments: Recruit data scientists, statisticians, and economists in the making. Provide them with something they want (e.g., money, a recommendation letter, prestige, experience, etc.).
Ask them to create original research data on your behalf (in exchange for the thing they want). Ideally, you’re answering questions the industry, your prospects, or partners care about most. Provide them with the research credit, then advertise your original research (displayed on your website) to prospects in the local community.
Watch as the traffic, leads, links, and shares pour in.
The better you are at answering important questions and presenting them in an attractive manner, the better your results will be.
The more compelling your research, the better the outcome and results will be. You’ll be able to attract and convert a large number of customers who are eager and willing to spend, based primarily on the quality of research you’ve created.
B2B Local Marketing Idea #18: Create your own locally focused Facebook or LinkedIn group
Goal: Build trust quickly, drive traffic and generate leads at scale
KPI: Contact information + engagement
Cost: $0
Time required: 5 – 10 hrs. per week (ongoing administration)
Resources needed: Intro offers, promotion to attract new members, moderators to manage the group
Create a LinkedIn group that serves your prospects and potential clients. If you’d like your group to be successful, do something your competitors won’t do. Provide prospects with exclusive and valuable content they won’t get anywhere else (e.g., Interviews and Q&A access to influencers and celebrities).
Use your LinkedIn group to serve your prospects exclusively.
If you’re a real estate attorney, serve real estate investors, lenders and developers specifically.
B2B Local Marketing Idea #19: Rate businesses in a specific industry
Goal: Become an influencer for a specific industry
KPI: Prestige, traffic, views
Cost: $0
Time required: Variable (more time = higher quality)
Resources needed: Gaps in the market (that you can fill)
Create an objective rating system for the best of the best in your state, region, town, community, or ZIP Code. A well-known example is the Michelin guide. In the early 1900s, the Michelin tire company created the Michelin guide as a way to rate local restaurants. Today, the Michelin star is a make-or-break rating for restaurants and dining establishments in Europe.
Create your own trustworthy rating system to boost traffic, leads, and sales for the industry of your choice and your local business.
One idea would be to create a list of COVID-friendly businesses in the area that are willing to accommodate customer requirements. You could go above and beyond, creating a list of companies willing to provide customers with COVID extras (e.g., free delivery, accepting returns).
B2B Local Marketing Idea #20: Promote local (hidden gems) in your community
Goal: Become a local thought leader in your community
KPI: Traffic, access, leads, and sales
Cost: $0
Time required: Variable (10+ hrs per mo.)
Resources needed: Sources that feed you information on local businesses (Chamber of Commerce, networking groups, meetups, law firms, etc.)
Introduce the community to hidden gems in your local community. Provide local businesses with information on amazing businesses they walk past every day but aren’t aware of. Promote these hidden gems aggressively, promoting each business with advertising.
Take it a step further by creating a micro-site where local businesses can request a feature in your publication. Give each business the chance to share their story. Ask businesses to submit high-quality video, images, and content that meets a high-quality standard.
B2B Local Marketing Idea #21: Creat a local loyalty program
Goal: Increase repeat sales, up-selling, down-selling, and cross-selling opportunities
KPI: Repeat sales, more up-sells, down-sells, and cross-sells
Cost: Variable
Time required: Variable
Resources needed: Loyalty software, team to manage loyalty programs
Create a loyalty program for your business. This encourages repeat customers to spend more often, focusing on the value they receive from your company, product, or service.
Here’s a simple way to boost the results from your loyalty programs. Increase your prices slightly, while also increasing the benefits customers receive from your loyalty programs. This provides your company with more revenue from fewer sales while also maximizing your customers’ benefits by shopping with you.
B2B Local Marketing Idea #22: Promote user-generated content
Goal: Increase engagement and publicity for your brand
KPI: Increased engagement, leads, and sales
Cost: $10+ (survey software)
Time required: 30 min. – 2 hrs.
Resources needed: Survey software, data visualization tools, analysts to discuss data
You ask clients to share their honest feedback on a few specific issues affecting their industry or other important issues. An example of this would be attorneys asking clients to show their honest feelings on billable hours anonymously.
This creates a tremendous amount of engagement, publicity, and buzz.
B2B Local Marketing Idea #23: Repurpose and redistribute your old content
Goal: Breathe new life into old content by updating and reformatting old content
KPI: Traffic, leads, subscribers, follows, shares, sales
Cost: $0
Time required: Variable
Resources needed: Analytics reports on top-performing content, plan to repurpose content, platforms to distribute and syndicate repurposed content
Prolific marketers like Gary Vaynerchuk and Ross Simmonds old content into new material. Create a video? Transcribe it, then turn it into a blog post, social media posts, a slide deck, and an infographic. Squeeze maximum value out of the old content on your site.
B2B Local Marketing Idea #24: Apply for online business awards
Goal: Boost trust, credibility, and prestige
KPI: Smaller sales cycle
Cost: Varies
Time required: Ongoing
Resources needed: A list of business awards to apply for, show-ready work, list of sources for promotion and campaigning
Apply for relevant awards in your industry. The key is consistency. You’ll want to consistently apply for the awards you’re reasonably confident you can win. Repeatedly applying to awards, you know you have no chance of winning will get you blacklisted and unable to win when you are ready.
Focus your time and attention on the awards that are a good fit for your business. Once you win, use these awards as a conversion tool to decrease your sales cycles and win more clients.
B2B Local Marketing Idea #25: Use email newsletter advertising to drive traffic, leads, and sales
Goal: Drive traffic leads and sales with email advertising
KPI: Traffic, leads, and sales
Cost: Variable (based on size and popularity of list)
Time required: 2 – 10+ hrs. per campaign
Resources needed: Target audience list, budget to acquire the list, intro offers, landing pages, opt-in offers
Use email advertising providers like Paved to advertise your services in other people’s newsletters and email lists. Segment your advertising so it appears on relevant, local, and exclusive lists to the organizations you’d like to target.
B2B Local Marketing Idea #26: Advertise via direct advertising and third-party ad display networks
Goal: Lower-cost advertising via relevant sources
KPI: Lower ad cost, higher return on ad spend
Cost: Variable (based on ad network and type)
Time required: Variable (based on size and scope of campaigns)
Resources needed: Media plan, ads/creative assets, intro offer, landing pages, sales copy, content
You can use mainstream platforms like Google display ads at a steep price (low if you know what you’re doing) or third-party platforms like BuySellAds, SiteScout, Bing, and other low-cost platforms. Get more traffic, leads, and sales for your money at a lower cost per click/impression.
B2B Local Marketing Idea #27: Hyper-local advertising on Pandora
Goal: Lower-cost advertising via relevant sources
KPI: Lower ad cost, higher return on ad spend
Cost: $5 – $7 CPM
Time required: 2 – 10 hrs per week
Resources needed: Media plan, ads/creative assets, intro offer, landing pages, sales copy, content
Use geofencing, retargeting, remarketing, and contextual ads (online/offline) to attract a significant amount of hyper-local customers to your local business.
- If you're a dentist, you can target geo-fenced searchers who entered the query, "kids dentist in Chicago."
- If you're an attorney, you can target corporate prospects in select metropolitan areas using contextual ads.
- If you're a plumber, you can use triggering events + your local weather to serve ads to geo-fenced searchers (e.g., heavy rains coming, free sump pump check-up).
B2B Local Marketing Idea #28: Use Facebook reach ads to drive local awareness of your business
Goal: Boost awareness, traffic, and sales
KPI: Traffic, leads, sales
Cost: Average costs – $.97 per click, $7.19 CPM
Time required: 2 – 10 hrs per week
Resources needed: Media plan, ads/creative assets, intro offer, landing pages, sales copy, content
Launched in 2014, Facebook reach ads give hyper-local businesses the precise targeting options they need to focus on a specific radius, neighborhood, or locale. With reach ads, you’re able to reach customers on Facebook and Instagram who are physically close to your business.
Hit them with an irresistible, urgent, and time-sensitive offer to immediately attract their attention. Provide them with a compelling value proposition and strong risk reversal to close the sale.
B2B Local Marketing Idea #29: Driving local traffic with Waze
Goal: Target daily commuters and travelers on their way to and from work once offices open back up
KPI: Traffic, leads, sales
Cost: $2 – $30 CPM
Time required: 2 – 10 hrs per week
Resources needed: Media plan, ads/creative assets, intro offer, landing pages, sales copy, content
Waze depends on individuals to tag products, services, and even police officers on their route. What makes Waze so helpful is the fact that it uses location-based marketing to introduce customers to businesses as they approach.
Waze works well if your business serves a specific neighborhood, region, or locale. If you’re offering food, dry cleaning, child care, or professional services, Waze works well.
Just keep in mind that Waze is going only become more effective as people actually begin driving more again.
B2B Local Marketing Idea #30: Google local ads and Nearby ads
Goal: Targeted traffic to your local or hyperlocal business
KPI: Unique visits, conversions, sales
Cost: Varies (based on zip code, number of leads needed, and industry)
Time required: 2 – 10 hrs per week
Resources needed: Media plan, ads/creative assets, intro offer, landing pages, sales copy, content
Google’s local search ads and nearby ads. These two platforms enable you to target hyper-local prospects in your audience directly. Local search ads enable you to respond to searcher intent, while nearby ads send users a notification of your app, website, product, or service they can accept or reject.
B2B Local Marketing Idea #31: Create a local job network
Goal: Building connections
KPI: Connections to the top 1 percent of your industry
Cost: $0
Time required: 1 – 2 hours per mo.
Resources needed: A networking platform (i.e., LinkedIn)
You can create an informal network where you put strong and weak contacts in touch with opportunities in the hidden job market. The vast majority of jobs and opportunities are available in the hidden job market.
Doing this enables you to source fresh talent for your own business while also creating access and building connections to powerful influencers and kingmakers inside and outside your industry.
B2B Local Marketing Idea #32: Create DIY kits
Goal: Increase revenue
KPI: Boost revenue by # percent
Cost: Variable (depends on the amount required to productize your service)
Time required: 40+ hours (upfront)
Resources needed: Pricing, services you’ll productize, virtual meeting tools (i.e., Zoom)
If you’re a service provider, you may have noticed that some customers hesitate to reach out to you for service. This is no problem at all if you have the right tools and resources in place.
Enter the DIY kit.
The DIY kit is a product that functions as an add-on. You give customers the education and basic skills needed to solve their problems for a flat fee. You’re essentially productizing your service. If you’re a handyman, for example, you could:
- Provide educational content basic repair jobs (e.g., toilet repair)
- Give customers a shopping list and recommended stores they can visit
- A project checklist they can use as they go through the process
- An expert check-up either virtually or in-person (with full PPE)
B2B Local Marketing Idea #33: Offer free help and support for your community
Goal: Show customers they can depend on you
KPI: Dependency
Cost: Variable
Time required: Variable
Resources needed: A list of the items needed in your community (e.g., information, resources, people, support, etc.)
Providing free help and support for your community in the midst of the pandemic is a great way to create opportunities, build relationships and enhance connections with customers. You can help customers with a variety of services, including:
- Information and research
- Forms and paperwork
- Connections
- Educational content
B2B Local Marketing Idea #34: Educate brands about controversial topics
Goal: Healthy conflict
KPI: A supportive environment
Cost: $0
Time required: Variable (5 – 10 hrs.)
Resources needed: A list of topics or events that are likely to spark disagreement or controversy
Take a look at this story.
This customer came into the store without a mask. He was agitated and disagreeable. This situation spiraled out of control, leading to three employees restraining and choking this customer. This is a situation that isn’t being addressed.
Service businesses in the marketing, advertising, or public relations industries can provide companies and their employees with the training they need to tackle controversial issues. These are third-rail topics that generally make people uncomfortable.
- Anti-maskers
- Customers who aren't willing to maintain social distancing
- Customers who disagree (masks vs. anti-mask)
- Conflict and disagreements (in-store, online, etc.)
- Negative reviews that are based on ideological or controversial topics
B2B Local Marketing Idea #35: Become a data clearinghouse
Goal: Give the community the data they need
KPI: Instant access to key data
Cost: $0
Time required: Ongoing (5 – 20 hrs. per mo.)
Resources needed: List of key, in-demand data, a list of people interested in that data, landing pages and sources to point people to
Use this time to focus customer attention on the information that matters most. Are you running a hotel? Teach customers about the details they should be looking for in a COVID-ready establishment. This can include:
- Signs of cleanliness to look for
- Sanitization schedules
- Management contact information (in the event of a concern)
- Complimentary services (e.g., hand sanitizer, clean bathrooms, a ready supply of masks)
This isn’t about flooding people with data or giving them mental indigestion. Information overload isn’t helpful. What is helpful, is providing your community with the data they need, when and how they need it.
Your local B2B competitors aren't ready for this
They’re really not ready for you.
If you’re in a small metropolitan area, competition is a problem. If you’re in a large metropolitan area like Los Angeles, New York, or Chicago, it’s actually more of a problem.
There are too many cooks (competitors) in the kitchen.
As a local B2B company, you’re competing directly with other providers in your area. If you’re missing the right strategy and tactics, it can be tough to attract the steady flow of clients that you need to build a thriving business. I’ve tackled the problem head-on for you.
If you’re running a B2B company, these are 30 local marketing ideas you can put to work immediately, generating the leads, clients, and revenue you need to grow now.
All you have to do is get started. Are you ready?
