Build Local Brand Awareness With Community Engagement Marketing

Choosing the right marketing channels is key for any business, especially if you run a local or service-based business. For these businesses, organic growth can be a challenge, and marketing means so much more than just social media tactics.

When you think of engagement, your mind may go to likes, comments, and followers, but that’s not all it is. Engagement also includes real-world participation from customers. The focus should always be on building relationships with your customers and improving visibility within the local community.

Executed correctly, your community engagement marketing strategy will help build brand awareness, drive sales, and even improve customer loyalty. Learn how to develop and execute your personalized strategy in this guide.

What Is Community Engagement Marketing?

Community engagement marketing focuses on building stronger relationships with the people around your local business. These are the people who could become customers and even advocates for your brand, so it’s hugely beneficial to make connections with them.

Unlike some other forms of marketing, community engagement marketing is a two-way street. It’s about fostering dialogue, feedback, and participation from community members so you make them feel heard. Open communication between your business and the community paves the way for more consumer trust and loyalty.

But how do you engage your community effectively? Connect over shared interests and values. As a local business, you probably share some community goals with customers in your area, so talk about them. Points of connection like these help form more meaningful bonds.

Don’t try to fake it, though. Customers are smart and can tell when marketing is insincere or forced. Instead, prioritize genuine participation. Tell stories that pull back the curtain and help humanize your brand.

Why It Matters for Local and Service-Based Brands

As a business leader, you have a lot on your plate. Executing a community engagement marketing strategy may seem like yet another task to accomplish, but it pays off big time.

Community engagement marketing helps local businesses in several ways, including:

• Builds brand awareness and identity: By interacting with your local community, you’re getting your name out there and showing people who you are to boost brand awareness.
• Enhances customer trust: Customers often trust honest communication and engagement much more than purely promotional ads. And, if you can get other people talking about your business more, those peer recommendations will go a long way toward convincing new customers.
• Drives customer engagement: Being active in conversations and discussing topics that are relevant to your community will get customers interacting with your brand more. This customer engagement can then lead to purchases and even advocacy.
• Fosters stronger relationships and loyalty: Who do you think a customer is more loyal to: a brand they don’t know anything about, or one that’s active in their community, engaging customers? When you open up and interact with customers more, you’ll build stronger, more loyal relationships based on emotional connections.
• Promotes organic growth: Paid marketing campaigns, like paid social media marketing for local businesses, have their place, but organic growth can be much more powerful. You can build a loyal community of people who boost your messages and provide word-of-mouth marketing.

How to Practice Community Engagement To Build Your Brand

These days, you might think connecting with your customers has to happen online. While digital channels are great ways to engage your community, it’s worth showing up in real life, too. Try these avenues for community engagement in marketing.

Use Social Media To Engage With Your Community

Chances are, many people in your local community are on social media. The majority of American adults use social media, so it’s just a question of reaching your local customers.

Work on building an organic presence on top platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Don’t just share your content and disappear, though. Make sure you respond to the comments you receive and foster conversations on your posts.

Encourage customers to interact with you by hosting digital Q&As, running polls, and sharing user-generated content that serves as social proof for your brand. For example, an auto body shop might run a poll asking followers about which car brands are their favorites. Then, people will vote, and there’s an opening for the auto shop to share insights about the differences between car manufacturers in their experience.

As part of managing your customers on social media, make sure you respond to feedback and questions you get in direct messages, too. Social media can be a valuable tool for customer service as well as community engagement.

If staying on top of all these social media customer interactions gets overwhelming, try social media management from Optimize Digital Marketing. We’ll handle it for you so you can focus on running your business.

Share Real-Life Stories

Customers want to know who they’re actually doing business with. Let them get to know you by sharing real-life stories about your team. For example, you can highlight your team’s involvement in community events or local causes. Sharing these stories can help boost the online reputation of small businesses.

Hearing from your existing customers may be even more persuasive, though. Share real stories from your previous customers and emphasize the impact your business's solutions had on them. Customer successes and testimonials are very persuasive when people are choosing between brands.

Participate in Local Events and Initiatives

Get out into your community and participate. You’ll be able to meet community members and show what your business stands for.

Consider sponsoring community or school events and programs, sports teams, fundraisers, or nonprofit programs and events to get your name out there. Another option is hosting open houses, workshops, or free service days that draw customers to your business. Share the details on your Facebook business page so people know what you’re doing.

Participate in your local chamber of commerce and local business groups, too. You’ll get to know other local business leaders and stay up to date with any opportunities to connect with customers in your area.

Build Partnerships With Other Local Businesses

In those local business groups, you may find other business leaders who would make great partners. Consider running co-hosted events or cross-promotions to gain more visibility with the other business’s customers. You can also try referral partnerships, like a home cleaning services business referring clients to a local window washing business and vice versa.

Work with other business leaders on shared community initiatives, such as two businesses sponsoring a highway cleanup. Then, incorporate your work on those initiatives into your local digital marketing.

Support Causes That Matter to the Community

Show that your business cares about the community by supporting local causes that your customers actually care about. Here are a few ideas:

• Make charitable donations tied to local impact, such as donating to a local food bank.
• Implement employee volunteer programs so your team members can make hands-on contributions to the community.
• Execute cause-based campaigns rooted in community values, such as a campaign to stop discrimination.

Measure the Impact of Your Community Engagement

Community engagement efforts offer a tangible benefit to your business. Measure the impact with metrics like:

• Repeat customers
• Referral mentions
• Event-driven inquiries
• Local media mentions
• Foot traffic increases
• Social media mentions

Engagement is a long-term strategy, and not all impact shows up immediately in analytics. But remember that over time, these metrics will show how your efforts are contributing to your business growth.

Growing Locally With an Engagement-Driven Marketing Partner

Managing your community engagement is a full-time job all on its own. You can always turn to Optimize Digital Marketing for help. Our team offers local businesses expert reputation management, branding, and social media management with community engagement marketing. Contact us today to get started!