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Depending on who you ask, there might be too much content out in the world. Five exabytes of content are created daily (one exabyte = one billion gigabytes, btw). That’s a lot of content. Or, as some might say, a lot of noise. How on earth can you make sure the content you create slices through all that other stuff and reaches the people? By going local with local content marketing.

Unless you’re a big, multi-national brand, with offices in hundreds of locations, you’ve most likely got a local base. And a local audience. And people who are looking for helpful information from a local angle. That’s where local content marketing comes in. Forget trying to reach an audience thousands of miles away. Your best bet is to reach and connect with people who are much closer to home.

Understanding Local Content Marketing

Every day, four out of five people search for local information. People are looking to find basic details about local companies, but they are also sometimes looking for more. That’s where local content marketing can come in handy.

Local content marketing involves content that’s specific to a local area. For example, if you run a small cheese shop in the Northeast, you can create content such as “How to Plan a Picnic in (Name of Local Park)” or “Tell Us Your Favorite Cheese, and We’ll Tell You the Neighborhood You Should Live in.”

Although local content makes a lot of sense for smaller companies that target one specific customer base in one specific area, it’s not only for the mom-and-pop companies. According to Crazy Egg, larger companies with multiple branches can put together a local content marketing strategy for each of the areas they work in. Companies that are launching a new division can also use a local strategy to target their new home.

In the case of larger companies with multiple locations, local content marketing can be a part, but not the whole of, your content marketing strategy.

Top Examples of Local Content Marketing

What does local content marketing look like? Here are a few examples from brands of varying sizes.

Local Content Marketing Example City Guides

Owners.com

Owners is a website that helps people buy and sell homes without agents. Like many real estate sites, it has an advice section, which offers tips on selling a home, buying a home, and moving. The local angle comes into play with the brand’s city guides, which offer advice tailored to people moving or selling in any of the markets Owners operates in.

Local Content Marketing on Facebook

Riverside Foods

A grocery store in Riverside, Illinois, Riverside Foods is a good example of a small business using local content marketing. The store’s Facebook page has photos and stories about what’s going on in-store. It also has an email newsletter that lets people know what’s on sale this week, and that provides recipes to help people figure out what to make with the ingredients they bought.

AirBnB Local Content Marketing Example

AirBnB

It makes sense that AirBnB, a global company, would use local content marketing. After all, they are encouraging people to visit specific areas and immerse themselves in local culture. To that end, the company has a variety of content targeting specific areas. If you do a search for “Airbnb Azores,” for example, you can see results such as “The Top 20 Vacation Rentals in the Azores” and “Not Yet Trending,” a video about the island destination. The company’s blog also has a post about the islands. Are you ready to book a trip to the Azores yet?

How Your Brand Can Put Together a Local Content Marketing Campaign

When you’re ready to put together a local content marketing campaign, either as your main strategy or as an ancillary strategy, here’s how to do it:

Know your audience

Who are you targeting? Creating buyer personas for local people will give you an idea of the type of content they want and the type of content that will be the most useful.

Get specific

Local content marketing is about more than simply swapping out city name A with city name B in search. Tailor your content to each area, and don’t assume that what works for an audience in one town or location is going to work in another.

Use social

Facebook, Twitter, and other social platforms are all great ways to connect with a local audience. Keep your social profiles up-to-date with content about sales, upcoming events, and other information a local audience would want to know. Consider making separate social profiles for each region, if you’re a company with multiple locations.

Make your contact information easy to find

Often, people looking for local content are looking to stop into a business. More than half of all local business searches involve people looking for addresses, business hours, and directions. When you’re going for a local audience, remember that you might soon see that audience in person.