12 Local Marketing Ideas to Sell More in Your Neighborhood

Gil bought the compass at a stationery store in the neighborhood, on a Friday afternoon. A school compass, just like the one he hadn't held since eighth grade.

That night, he printed a map of the area, found the scale in the corner, planted the point on top of his hardware store and swung it around. A circle one mile wide.

Inside that pencil line were the people who bought from him. Nobody crosses town for a box of screws. The store existed because of that circle.

Then he noticed two things. The first: he couldn't name a single thing he did to make that circle know he existed. The second was half a mile from the point of the compass.

What Local Marketing Is, in a Few Words

Local marketing is the set of acquisition channels that bring your business to the people who live, work or pass through near it: the sidewalk, the block, the neighborhood. An acquisition channel is any path by which a new customer reaches you. For neighborhood businesses, they tend to be cheap and fast to test, because they speak to people who can walk in. The secret isn't doing everything; it's choosing a few actions, repeating them consistently and writing down how many customers each one brought.

The Store Half a Mile Away

The spot half a mile away was Maureen's paint store.

The two opened the same year, with the same customer: people remodeling their homes, contractors with a list in hand, property managers hunting for quotes. And for a long time both lived off the same channel: the open door and the hope that someone would walk in.

Over the last two years, the street had changed. The pharmacy on the corner closed, the parking lot turned into an apartment building, the sidewalk emptied. Gil felt it at the register. Maureen, apparently, didn't: there were always people walking out of her place with a gallon of paint, many of them customers he knew by name.

He explained it away with luck, or with a better location. With the map on the table, neither excuse held. Her location was worse. And luck two years in a row has another name.

On Saturday, Gil went over there pretending to need a paint roller. What he saw near the register explained almost everything. First, though, it's worth looking at what fits inside a circle like that.

The 12 Ideas, From the Counter to the Edge of the Circle

The ideas below are organized by distance from your door. Next to each is the first step to test it and the cost to test, in ranges: free, low or medium.

On your sidewalk

1. A window display that changes every week. It's the ad that never goes offline. First step: a single product of the week, with one sentence that solves a problem ("Dripping faucet? Fix it with this"). Cost: free.

2. A sidewalk sign with a question. A question the passerby can answer in their head gets read; a list of products doesn't. First step: change the line every Monday and note how many people walked in asking about it. Cost: low.

3. A free sample or service at the door. Brings in people who would never have walked in. First step: on a Saturday, offer something simple, like sharpening scissors. Cost: low.

On your block

4. A complete Google business profile. People searching "store near me" decide by the map. First step: check hours, real photos of the store and the storefront, phone number and the right category. The step-by-step is in how to show up on Google when people search for your service in your city. Cost: free.

5. A review asked for at the counter. Reviews don't show up on their own. First step: a QR code that goes straight to the review page, shown to the customer who just said thank you. Cost: free.

6. A partnership with the complementary neighbor. The locksmith and the glass shop serve your customer at a different moment. First step: propose referring each other for 30 days. Cost: free.

Within a quarter mile

7. A flyer with a QR code and a trackable offer. Under a windshield wiper it becomes litter; handed out in person, at a building under renovation, with an offer valid only on that paper, it becomes a measurement. First step: a small print run with its own code; count how many came back. Cost: low.

8. A booth at a neighborhood event. Sunday market, church festival, apartment complex. First step: ask the organizer for space for a table with a demo. Cost: low to medium.

9. A business association. The people there refer, buy and flag opportunities. First step: go to one meeting and walk out with three contacts. Cost: low.

To the edge of the circle

10. Local sponsorship. An amateur sports team, the school fundraiser, the neighborhood 5K. First step: choose just one, where your customer will be, not the cheapest. Cost: low to medium.

11. Local or community radio. Still the companion of a lot of garages and kitchens. First step: ask to join a tips segment before buying airtime. Cost: free to medium.

12. Bags and packaging with a QR code. Everything that leaves the store can bring someone back. First step: a card in the bag with a QR code to your Google profile or to a referral coupon. Cost: low.

What Was Near Maureen's Register

It was a cork board. Above it, a handwritten banner: Neighborhood pros we recommend. Below, cards for painters, masons, electricians and a drywall installer, each with a little star sticker.

The clerk explained it matter-of-factly: the store recommends a professional to anyone who comes in wanting to hire someone, and that professional sends their clients to buy materials there. Every Saturday at nine there was a quick painting workshop for residents. And the board's card went into the bag with the purchase.

Three ideas. None expensive. Repeated every week for two years.

Maureen wasn't doing twelve things. She was doing three, nonstop, and she knew how much each one brought in, because she asked every new customer: how did you hear about the store? The answers went into a notebook with a blue cover. An action that went a month without showing up in the notebook was dropped.

Gil had one channel and lived through the feast or famine of foot traffic on the street. She had three and knew, with a good margin of accuracy, how many new customers she'd have next month. That has a name: predictability, knowing that this many actions, or this much investment, brings in one customer.

How to Choose Your Three

Don't start with all twelve. Start with one, using the criteria Maureen used without ever having read about them:

Intent: does it bring people who buy or only people who look?

Fit: is your customer already there? Sponsoring the 5K only makes sense if the people who run are the ones remodeling their homes.

Routine: can you repeat it every week for 30 days?

Measurement: ask every new customer how they found you and write it down.

After 30 days, look at the notebook: keep, adjust or swap. Only then add the second action.

Which Side of the Pencil Line Are You On

There's the shopkeeper who waits for the neighborhood to walk past the door. And there's the one who goes out to the neighborhood, block by block, until they're the first name anyone thinks of when they need something.

Both pay the same rent. Only one of them depends on a single channel.

Gil left the store with a paint roller and a question: what if I had looked at this two years ago? The twelve ideas in this piece fit in a one-mile circle. But they're only a piece of the map.

The 100 Acquisition Channels Guide, written by Luiz Philipe Campos, founder of Ímpetus Host, gathers 100 channels in 10 parts. The "Offline and Local" part alone has ten, from the storefront to wrapping the delivery van, and the other nine bring referrals, partnerships, communities and events, Google search and much more. Each channel tells you what it is, a practical example, the first step, who it works best for and what it costs to try. And it comes with a spreadsheet to score channels on cost, speed and fit and choose your first three, plus a 30-day, day-by-day plan to test the first one.

Next step

Don't depend on a single way to win customers

Everything in this article works better when new customers arrive every month. Most businesses depend on two or three channels and suffer when one of them slows down. The 100 Acquisition Channels Guide shows 100 ways to win customers, a practical example of each one and the first step to test it spending little or nothing.

• ✓The 100 channels, one by one, from the best known to the ones almost nobody uses
• ✓A practical example and a low-cost first step for each channel
• ✓A simple way to choose the channels that fit your business now
• ✓Bonus: Channel scorecard
• ✓Bonus: 30-day test plan

Get the 100 acquisition channels guide for $49

One-time payment · Instant access · 7-day guarantee

Access is immediate, in your inbox, to read on your phone between one customer and the next. If it doesn't suit your business, Hotmart refunds your money within 7 days.

It costs less than an afternoon of a billboard truck. And, unlike the truck, you use it all year.

Gil and Maureen are characters created for this text.

Frequently asked questions

What is local marketing?+

Local marketing is the set of actions that bring a business to the people who live, work or pass through near it, such as window displays, a Google business profile, partnerships with neighbors, flyers with QR codes and sponsorship of neighborhood events. It works especially well for retail and services that depend on customers from the area. The best results come from a few actions repeated consistently and measured by the number of customers they bring in.

What's the cheapest way to promote a neighborhood store?+

The cheapest are usually a well-filled Google business profile, asking for reviews at the counter, a window display changed weekly and a referral partnership with a neighbor who serves the same customer. All of them can be tested at no cost. What matters is asking each new customer how they found the store, so you know which one really works.

Do flyers still work for a local business?+

They work when they're handed to the right audience and when you can measure the return. A flyer with an exclusive offer or its own QR code shows how many people came back because of it. Handed out without criteria and without measurement, it becomes a cost with no answer.

Where can I find other channel ideas to get customers in my neighborhood?+

The 100 Acquisition Channels Guide gathers 100 channels organized in 10 parts, including one entirely on offline and local channels. Each channel comes with an example, a first step and a cost to test, plus a spreadsheet to choose your first three and a 30-day plan to test the first one.

Does it work for my type of business?+

Yes. The channels cover local businesses, service providers, online stores, B2B companies and professionals. The guide helps you pick the ones that fit your case.

How do I receive the guide?+

Right after payment, Hotmart sends the access to your email. You can read it on your phone, computer or print it.

What if I don't like it?+

You have a 7-day guarantee. If it isn't for you, ask for a refund through Hotmart within that period.

The 100 Acquisition Channels Guide

100 ways to win customers without depending on a single source of sales

Get the 100 acquisition channels guide for $49

One-time payment · Instant access · 7-day guarantee