Los Angeles is the land of sand and sun, famous films and celebrities, glamour and grit. It’s a place where people come to “make it,” and the competition is fierce. That includes the business competition, which includes companies of all sizes spread throughout the vast metropolitan area. There are more than 244,000 businesses in Los Angeles County, all of which are vying for customer attention.
So, how can you stand out in a saturated market like LA? The key is to focus on your local customers. Embrace your Angeleno status and take a personal approach to your target audience. Instead of relying on generic marketing tactics, develop a localized strategy that involves getting to know your customer base on their turf. Need some help getting started? Check out 23 tips for local marketing in LA featured in this comprehensive guide.
1. Customize Ad Copy for Each Region
2. Place Your Ads Wisely
3. Go Old School with Radio Ads
4. Use Testimonials in Your Advertising
5. Use Targeted Social Media Ads
6. Tap into the Influencer Market
7. Use Location Tags
8. Add Local Hashtags
9. Plan a Social Media Contest
10. Add Local Touches to Your Website
11. Incorporate Local Keywords
12. Focus on Individual Service Areas
13. Create an Effective Contact Page
14. Develop Helpful Content
15. Give Your Brand a Fresh Look
16. Manage Your Google Listing
17. Use Pay-Per-Click Ads
18. Partner with a Local Business
19. Get Involved with a Local Charity
20. Boost Your Presence in the Neighborhood
21. Join the Buy Local Movement
22. Get a Booth at a Local Event
23. Encourage Customers to Talk About Your Business
Customize Ad Copy for Each Region • Place Your Ads WiselyGo Old School with Radio Ads • Use Testimonials in Your Advertising
The Los Angeles metropolitan area has a population of over 13 million and covers about 4,850 square miles, including surrounding cities like Long Beach, Santa Clarita, Anaheim, and Glendale. That’s about the same size as the entire state of Connecticut. Within that large metro area, there are a number of regions, each of which has a unique makeup to its population. Even just within Los Angeles city limits, the population numbers over 3.7 million and covers over 500 square miles.
Due to its massive size and population, LA can’t be approached as a monolith when you’re thinking about local marketing. Instead, it’s important to connect with the needs of customers in each of the individual neighborhoods and regions within the city and metro area. Domu, a Chicago apartment rental service, recognized the individuality of each neighborhood in their public transit marketing campaign, a smart game plan in such a large city.
In Los Angeles, it’s easy to see how a similar tactic could play out. You can tap into the coastal vibes of seaside communities like Venice Beach and Santa Monica while focusing on the star-studded appeal of the city in Hollywood and Culver City. Local in-jokes can work in your favor as well, like talking about the scorching temperatures in the Valley or the abundance of hipster hot spots in Highland Park.
Here are a few questions to ask yourself to discern whether you’re taking enough of a localized approach to your marketing campaigns in LA:
1. Which areas within the Los Angeles metro area are most likely to be interested in my product/service and why?
2. What makes these areas distinct? What are the demographics of the population there?
3. How can I use that hyperlocal information to connect with consumers?
By looking to make genuine connections with local residents, you can position your brand as authentic and community-minded.
Should you focus on social media marketing or traditional print marketing? Where can you get the most bang for your buck when it comes to your marketing budget?
The answers to these questions lie in the demographics of your target audience. The way people consume media is influenced by a number of factors, including age, gender, ethnicity, education level, and location. For example, the Pew Research Center reports that 91% of adults ages 18-29 use YouTube, but only 38% of adults in this age group use Twitter. If you’re considering a social media marketing plan, it’s important to take stats like these into account.
Ads on billboards and in print have other factors to consider. While LA is known as a city where driving is the norm, billboards are largely occupied by tech, fashion, and entertainment brands (and are notoriously expensive to boot). You may have better luck with print ads, but you still need to be thoughtful about where those ads are placed. For instance, you can look into whether your target customers are more likely to read the LA Times or LA Weekly.
Not sure where your target audience gets their content? Start by asking your current customers. Survey them to gain better insights into their daily habits and media consumption. Some questions you can ask include:
In today’s tech-savvy world, having a professional web presence is absolutely essential. However, there is so much focus on digital marketing these days that it’s easy to forget that many local economies are still influenced by traditional advertising. While you still need to market yourself online, radio ads can also be a great way to connect with potential customers. In fact, News Generation reports that it’s the leading reach platform with 92% of Americans listening to AM/FM radio, a percentage that’s higher than that of TV viewers, PC users, and smartphone users.
Learn about the demographics for your radio stations. Which ones are your customers most likely to tune in to? Are they listening to classic hits on KRTH 101.1, the latest pop hits on KIIS 102.7, or Spanish contemporary tunes on KLVE 107.5? Use that information to create engaging ads that will appeal to your target audience. Make sure to play up the fact that you’re a Los Angeles business when you use these local media sources for marketing purposes.
If you’re been successful in encouraging customers to leave reviews about your business, you might be wondering how you can spread the word about some of the positive feedback. Whether it’s an online ad, a print ad, or a radio ad, including testimonials from real customers is a great way to let prospective customers know what people are saying about your product or service. Authenticity is key here, so make sure you never alter the words of your customers’ reviews. It will also help if you can include a name (just use a first name and last initial for privacy reasons) and location (the LA neighborhood where they live) to make sure the reviews maintain a personal feel.
Looking for ways to integrate these testimonials into your marketing campaigns? Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Use Targeted Social Media Ads • Tap into the Influencer Market • Use Location Tags • Add Local Hashtags • Plan a Social Media Contest
If you decide to create social media ads, make sure you know the ins and outs of each platform and how it can help connect you with customers. For instance, let’s say you’ve found that most of your customers are regular Facebook users, so you want to focus your digital advertising campaign on that platform. The first step is to figure out what type of Facebook ad you want. Are you linking directly to specific products? Are you creating an eye-catching video? Facebook offers a number of different ad formats from which to choose.
Next, you’ll want to take full advantage of Facebook’s ad targeting options, including age, gender, and location. You can get really specific in these categories, so don’t assume your only option for location targeting is “Los Angeles.” Target by region to reach those outside the city limits, or keep it super-specific and target customers by zip code. Experiment with these settings to discover what works best for your business.
It’s no secret that Los Angeles is a hot market for influencers. Along with the general ambience of glamour and allure that comes with Hollywood, the area is bursting with scenic backdrops that make for attractive online content.
Finding local influencers who are interested in what you have to offer can be a great way to tap into the Los Angeles market. These individuals can have tens or hundreds of thousands of followers, and they’re savvy about which brands they want to partner with. If you’re a good fit, you might just be able to get your product or service featured on their social media feed.
For lower level influencers with followers numbering in the hundreds or thousands, sending some free products can be sufficient for getting a small promotion on their account. But if you want to reach a greater number of potential customers, you’ll need to pay for a featured post, Instagram story, or other promotional partnership. Fortunately, that investment can pay off in a number of ways, including an impressive ROI (reported to be around $5.78 per $1 spent) and boosted brand awareness.
Wondering what kind of influencer content will work best for your brand? Consider these social media-savvy ideas:
If you’re trying to connect with local customers in LA, consider adding location tags (also known as “geotags”) to your social media posts. Used frequently on Instagram and Facebook, location tags do more than just label where a photo was snapped or a video recorded. Users can click on the name of the location to see other posts which have been tagged at the same spot. On Instagram, users can search for a place and see all the top and recent posts from that location. It’s pretty effective, too; Social Media Today reports that Instagram posts tagged with a location get 79% more engagement.
When you’re posting to social media, make sure you use geotags that place you directly in LA. You can tag a post or story as being in Los Angeles, though that’s a pretty wide net to cast. It’s better to be more specific, like posting from a neighborhood (like Echo Park or Sherman Oaks) or a general area (like Venice Beach Boardwalk).
Pro Tip: Make sure your business is also listed as a location on Instagram, and use that to tag some of your posts. Use this tutorial from Ampfluence if you need to create a custom location tag.
Similar to geotags, hashtags offer an easy way to find related content on social media. Studies have found that, on average, an Instagram post with at least one hashtag gets a 12.6% boost in engagement. In order to promote your brand, you’ll want to label your posts with related hashtags. The tags can mention the location, products/services you offer, what’s featured in the post, and other associated keywords someone might search for. The hashtags should be fairly short (about 1-3 words) so they’re easier to read and understand.
For example, if you’re a local party planner and you’re posting about an event in Huntington Beach, you could use hashtags like:
#HuntingtonBeach #OrangeCounty #OCEvents #OCPartyPlanner #LAPartyPlanner #BlackTieEvent #PartyDecorations #Centerpieces #PlaceSettings
It’s tempting to go overboard with your hashtags, but keep the norms for each channel in mind. On social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, it’s more common to only use one or two hashtags on a post. On Instagram, a greater number of hashtags is acceptable, but you should put long lists of hashtags in a separate comment or below your main caption (separated by a couple of line breaks).
An easy way to drum up local interest in your brand is to come up with a contest involving a giveaway on social media. According to research conducted by Tailwind, running an Instagram contest or giveaway can help you achieve 70% faster growth when it comes to gaining new followers.
The key idea is to increase engagement and create more publicity for your brand. For example, a Los Angeles museum could run a contest with a giveaway for two tickets for free admission. To enter, participants will need to do three things:
There are a number of variations on this type of contest, but the goal is to boost engagement with the brand’s social media account and gain new followers. As part of their contest entry, participants spread the word about your business to their own followers, many of whom are bound to be local residents as well.
Add Local Touches to Your Website • Incorporate Local KeywordsFocus on Individual Service Areas • Create an Effective Contact PageDevelop Helpful Content • Give Your Brand a Fresh Look
Your website might seem like a more passive form of marketing, but it’s vitally important. One of the great things about focusing on one region, city, or neighborhood is that you can incorporate local touches into your website design.
Consider including some Los Angeles imagery that adds a personal, familiar feel. Depending on your business, that might include photos of the beach, the Hollywood sign, or a local business district. The images you use should make sense for your brand and help to establish you as an authentic part of the LA community.
Another great way to improve your business website is to make sure you include localized keywords in the copy and the meta tags. Something as simple as changing “dental clinic” to “Los Angeles dental clinic” can boost Google search rankings considerably. Think about what a potential customer might search for and include those terms on your site, such as:
Need help coming up with keywords specific to your area? Use the Google Trends tool to see what’s popular in your location and in your industry. These types of keywords are especially important for local businesses. According to WebFX, 46% of Google searches are for local businesses, and 28% of local searches result in a purchase.
Do you serve multiple areas throughout Los Angeles and the surrounding region? Make sure your website reflects that by creating unique copy for each area. A great way to do this is to create a “Service Areas” tab on your website with a drop-down menu listing each of the areas you serve.
Let’s say you run a landscaping company in LA. Your team is willing to travel to any part of the southern Los Angeles metropolitan area to provide your services. You could create individual pages for a number of areas, such as South LA, Gateway Cities, Palos Verdes Peninsula, Orange County, etc. These pages offer customers an easy way to see where you work. In addition, it gives you more opportunities to incorporate localized keywords on your website.
Don’t underestimate the power of a good contact page. It’s important to make sure that it’s easy for customers to find out where you’re located and how to get in touch with you. Your contact page should include:
The map is an especially important contact page component for any local business since it allows Los Angeles residents to easily visualize your location within the city.
Your products or services may have plenty of useful benefits you can tout, but try to think outside the box when it comes to serving potential customers. What are some other ways you can be of use? If you can associate your brand with being reliable and helpful, your products or services will come to be seen in the same way.
Think about some types of content you can create that relate to your brand, such as:
In each of these examples, a business is creating something that is useful to the target audience they’re looking to attract. This allows them to build brand recognition and boost their reputation. Research shows that this type of content can be a great way to connect with new customers as well. According to DemandMetric, companies with blogs produce 67% more leads per month on average compared to those that don’t blog.
If your business has been around for a while, it might be time to update your brand. The look and feel of your branding directly affect what customers think about your business, so an outdated design or unclear message can have a negative impact on your revenue.
Developing a new brand identity does involve quite a bit of work and branding expertise. Whether you’re redesigning your logo, developing new brand messaging, or updating your website, you’ll want to hire a Los Angeles branding agency to come up with a customized strategy. By choosing a local agency, you’ll get a team that understands the Los Angeles market and knows how to position your brand to stand out in the competitive landscape of a big city.
Manage Your Google Listing • Use Pay-Per-Click Ads
When someone Googles your business, what comes up? Ideally, your website will be at the top of the search results. But pay attention to what else shows up on the page. One thing that customers will look for right away is your Google business listing, which is essential for conversions. In fact, 64% of consumers use Google business listings to find contact details like a phone number and address.
If you haven’t done it already, go to Google My Business and claim your listing. This allows you to customize what comes up in a Google search and check whether your business appears correctly on Google Maps. You can add important contact details like your hours, phone number, and website URL. You can also reply to customer reviews and see insights about how your listing is performing, including how many people have viewed it. Make sure you upload quality photos as well; Google My Business listings with photos receive 35% more clicks on website links and 42% more requests for directions.
When you’re trying to focus on a target audience in a specific location, pay-per-click (PPC) ads are a smart way to broaden your marketing strategy. These ads appear at the top of online search results based on the specific key words you’ve chosen. It’s important to focus on local keywords (like those described in the Incorporate Local Keywords section above) in order to get the best results. According to a Google Economic Impact Report, businesses make an average of $2 in revenue for every $1 they spend on Google Ads.
There is a lot of SEO strategy involved when utilizing PPC ads. They can be very effective, but only if you understand keyword rankings and how to navigate the complex customization settings and analytics. Plus, you need to carefully determine how much of your budget is reasonable to devote to PPC ads since they’re placed through a bidding process. If your marketing team doesn’t have previous experience with PPC ads, hire a digital marketing agency in Los Angeles that has proven success in this area.
Partner with a Local Business • Get Involved with a Local Charity Boost Your Presence in the Neighborhood • Join the Buy Local Movement • Get a Booth at a Local Event • Encourage Customers to Talk About Your Business
In marketing, so much of the focus is placed on market share. You always have to keep an eye on the local businesses that could be potential competitors. But when you’re only focused on the competition, you could miss out on the local businesses that could act as complements to your brand. These are the businesses that may be tangentially related to your business without acting as a direct competitor.
Creating a business partnership can be mutually beneficial in a number of ways. You can:
Think of the many creative ways this can play out in a particular LA neighborhood or region. A bakery partners with a butcher shop to sell select products in each other’s stores. A wedding venue and a catering company can feature each other on their list of recommended vendors. A landscaping company offers customer discounts for a lawn care business, and vice versa.
In each of these instances, local businesses get the opportunity to expand their customer base. At the same time, they provide that same benefit for another local business owner. It’s the definition of a win-win, especially when you consider that, because these partnerships are mutually beneficial, they are often low-cost or even free.
Start by brainstorming what other types of LA businesses your customers would realistically be interested in. For example, it wouldn’t make sense for a budget wedding venue in Irvine to partner with a high-end caterer in Santa Clarita. Instead, look for partner businesses that are located close by and target the same general demographic.
In marketing, so much of the focus is placed on market share. You always have to keep an eye on the local businesses that could be potential competitors. But when you’re only focused on the competition, you could miss out on the local businesses that could act as complements to your brand. These are the businesses that may be tangentially related to your business without acting as a direct competitor.
Creating a business partnership can be mutually beneficial in a number of ways. You can:
Think of the many creative ways this can play out in a particular LA neighborhood or region. A bakery partners with a butcher shop to sell select products in each other’s stores. A wedding venue and a catering company can feature each other on their list of recommended vendors. A landscaping company offers customer discounts for a lawn care business, and vice versa.
In each of these instances, local businesses get the opportunity to expand their customer base. At the same time, they provide that same benefit for another local business owner. It’s the definition of a win-win, especially when you consider that, because these partnerships are mutually beneficial, they are often low-cost or even free.
Start by brainstorming what other types of LA businesses your customers would realistically be interested in. For example, it wouldn’t make sense for a budget wedding venue in Irvine to partner with a high-end caterer in Santa Clarita. Instead, look for partner businesses that are located close by and target the same general demographic.
Does most of your foot traffic come from locals walking from their homes? Is your business located within a largely residential neighborhood? If so, it can pay to reach out to your neighbors. By becoming a friendly and familiar face, you can encourage locals to check out your business. You might even create a kind of “where everybody knows your name” vibe à la the TV show “Cheers.” Ideally, you’ll become a place that people living nearby recommend to their friends, family, and neighbors when they’re in need of a product or service you offer.
Here are some of the ways you can take a more active role in the immediate community around your Los Angeles business and boost your presence in the neighborhood:
In recent years, there has been a massive increase in support for buying local. More and more communities are trying to be proactive about encouraging residents to make purchases from locally owned and operated businesses. If you’re a Los Angeles area business, look for networking groups, chambers of commerce, or business associations where you can join forces with other local businesses.
Some parts of LA have campaigns dedicated specifically to the buy local cause. Buy Local Santa Monica is one such campaign which offers their business members some pretty great perks, including marketing and promotional assistance, discounted advertising rates, business directory listings, and exhibitor opportunities.
Los Angeles hosts a number of major events, conferences, and festivals throughout the year. Being located in a major US hub like LA provides businesses with excellent opportunities to showcase their brand. Signing up to get a vendor booth at one of these gatherings is a great way to increase your exposure to local residents as well as out-of-town visitors. Consider giving away free samples and or discount coupons to encourage event attendees to follow up with an online or in-store purchase.
When it comes to local businesses, no form of marketing compares to word-of-mouth advertising. According to Nielsen research on the “trust” factor in advertising, 92% of customers trust a recommendation from someone they know, and 70% of customers trust strangers’ opinions posted online.
When customers praise your business to people in their social circle, it’s more powerful because there’s already a layer of credibility and respect in place. For many businesses, a great way to encourage word-of-mouth advertising is to provide a discount when you gain a new customer through a referral. This system can be especially effective for client-based businesses like accounting firms, hair salons, and insurance agents.
Another way to get people talking about their experiences is to encourage customers to give reviews or testimonials.
There are a number of ways you can do this, including:
Whatever method you choose, make it easy for customers to leave reviews by including links or the names of specific websites where reviews can be posted.
Are you ready to take your Los Angeles brand to the next level? Use this guide to take a multi-pronged approach to local marketing and advertising and connect with nearby residents in your target audience. For the best results, partner with a Los Angeles ad agency that understands the ins and outs of marketing in your area.