Boost Your Business with Local Digital Marketing Services in Cumbria

Unleash the Power of Locally Targeted Advertising!

In Cumbria’s increasingly competitive business landscape, reaching your target audience effectively is the key to success. With the continued rise of digital platforms and the arrival of AI tools, local businesses have both a golden opportunity and significant new challenges to connect with their local customers. This is where local digital marketing services come into play – helping you boost your business by unleashing the power of locally targeted advertising.

Whether you’re a small bakery, a hair or nail salon, or an ambitious accountancy practice, local digital marketing services, implemented well, can be a game-changer for your business. Digital marketing agencies, with their expertise in search engine optimisation, social media management, digital PR and online advertising, can help you not only increase your online visibility but also drive qualified traffic to your website or store.

By leveraging the power of locally targeted advertising and online PR, the local digital marketing services on offer ensure that your marketing message is seen by the right people – those who are genuinely interested in your products or services.

Through precise targeting of your audience, locally relevant content, messaging that’s in tune with the region you’re in and strategic ad placements, ClimbHigh SEO and our peers help your business generate higher-quality leads, increase conversions, and ultimately grow your business. If you’re ready to take your business to the next level locally, it’s time to harness the potential of local digital marketing strategies. Get in touch with a reputable agency today and unlock the power of targeted advertising for your business.

Understanding the power of targeted advertising

In this digital and increasingly AI driven age, targeted content and advertising have emerged as powerful tools for businesses to connect with their ideal customers. Unlike traditional broad-based marketing campaigns, locally targeted content allows you to laser-focus your marketing efforts on the people who are most likely to be interested in your products or services.

By tapping into data-driven insights and advanced targeting capabilities, local digital marketing agencies, including tiny ones like us, can help you reach the right audience at the right time. We use a whole bunch of strategies to target audiences geographically and demographically.

Our work ensures that your ads are seen by the people who matter most to your business at the times when they actually WANT your service or products. Precision like this helps you maximise your marketing budget but also leads to higher engagement, increased conversions, and ultimately, better results for your business. For photographers in one of our client’s case, they were very clear that they did NOT want to target wedding photography when they started moving from ecommerce landscape fine art photography into commercial photography. (Amusingly, a chance encounter at one of Cumbria’s networking events, now has him pondering making the leap into weddings!)

When your ads are tailored to the specific needs and preferences of your local or regional audience, they are more likely to resonate and encourage people to take the actions your business needs: whether that’s a sale, a sign-up, or a visit to your premises.

Benefits of local digital marketing services

Partnering with a locally focussed digital marketing agency unlocks a world of benefits for your business. These specialised service providers bring a wealth of expertise, resources, and cutting-edge tools to the table, allowing you to lean into the power of their skills in setting up targeted advertising and digital marketing campaigns more effectively than ever before.

One of the primary advantages of working with a local digital marketing service is their more intimate understanding of your local target market. They have a finger on the pulse of the unique needs, behaviours, and preferences of the consumers in your immediate locality, enabling them to craft highly personalised campaigns that resonate with your local audience.

Local digital agencies often have well established relationships with digital platforms, publishers, and influencers within your community. A classic example in Cumbria is that the Carlisle Ambassadors are a network of businesses of all types and if your usual provider can’t deliver what you need, then the ambassadors will know someone who can.

Another example in Cumbria is a well connected local publishing platform – Cumbria’s Business Crack. Unusually, the current owners and journalists have shied away from the usual “death by display ads” approach to financing the title and have instead decided to work in partnership with a range of local partners. In your own area you will probably be able to pick out similar well connected local publishers and partnerships.

This locally grown insider knowledge and well connected network can be invaluable in securing PR and editorial placements, building strategic partnerships, valuable backlinks and tapping into the respected local channels to reach your customers.

It’s not just about the soft and fluffy aspects of marketing. These service providers have a rich diversity of technical experience of digital marketing, that can free up your time and energy to focus on running your business. From search engine optimisation and social media management to email marketing and online advertising, they can take care of the heavy lifting, ensuring that your digital presence is optimised for maximum impact.

Local digital marketing statistics

The power of local digital marketing is undeniable, as evidenced by the impressive statistics that continue to emerge. According to a recent study published by SEMrush, 46% of all Google searches have a local intent, meaning that people are actively looking for businesses, products, or services in their immediate vicinity.

Furthermore, 78% of local-mobile searches result in offline purchases, underscoring the strong connection between digital engagement and real-world consumer behaviour. And when it comes to the impact of online reviews, a staggering 93% of consumers say that positive reviews influence their purchasing decisions.

These numbers paint a clear picture: local consumers and potential B2B clients are actively seeking out and engaging with businesses through digital channels. Modern consumers expect a seamless, personalised experience. By leveraging local digital marketing services with a clear strategy, you can tap into this thriving market and position your business for success.

Key strategies for effective local SEO and digital marketing

To make sure your local digital marketing efforts boost visibility in your local area, it’s essential to have a strategy. There are proven tactics that can help you reach and engage your local clients effectively. The first three epitomise the core offer of ClimbHigh SEO. Lots of digital marketing activities are sexier and trendier, but being the one who comes up when a client is desperately wanting your service is still powerful.

1. Search engine optimisation: (SEO) of your website content: You won’t be surprised to see that we’ve put this digital marketing foundation first. Optimising your website and online content marketing for local search queries significantly improves your chances of visibility in the search results and AI generated overviews, making it easier for potential customers to find your business. At the most basic level, this includes incorporating location-specific keywords, creating location-based content, and building citations on “local” directories.
2. Brand Creation: defining what your brand is all about and then working with a branding expert – before the web designer tries to create your presence tends to be the smart move. This can be happening in parallel with the creation of the website copy and formulating your digital plan. This gives the web designer much clearer parameters to work with.
3. Content Creation: In the most effective workflows for creating an online presence for your brand, creating the core content before your web designer gets creative is by far the best way to approach your digital marketing strategy. By doing it this way, your business is able to tailor the messaging to your well researched local audience, without being constrained to fit it into a specific sized box.
4. Local business listings: A basic local SEO technique for increasing your digital footprint at low cost is adding your business to local directory listings. Provide detailed, up-to-date information about your business, including your name, address, phone number, website, business hours, and a compelling description. This will not only improve your visibility in local search results but also make it easier for customers to find and connect with your business. Websites such as Yell, Yelp, Apple Maps, Brown Book, Thomson Local, Central Index (which now controls all the local newspaper directories), Foursquare, HotFrog, Cylex and around 200 others offer placements with a backlink. It is important to start developing backlinks to your website from other trusted websites. It’s the basic way of getting found – links are the very structure of the web. These enable search engines to find you and start assessing your “worth”. Which leads on to the next step. One of the core services provided by ClimbHigh SEO is listing management. This can be a particularly tricky area to navigate when a business changes location due to expansion or more favourable premises becoming available.
5. Google Business Profile (GBP) and Bing Local listings: These are the 2 most important touch points for a business that operates locally. Why do we list them after the other listings? In recent months it has become clear that the current local algorithms of Google and Bing make it increasingly difficult to get a new business listing verified (and therefore, visible) if there is no third party corroboration that the business exists. Therefore our current recommendation is to get some of the easier listings and your website live before trying to set up or change the details on these key Google and Bing properties.
6. Social media marketing: Maintaining an active and engaging presence on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn helps you build brand awareness, foster connections with your local community, and drive traffic to your website or physical location. Utilise location-based targeting and try to encourage user-generated content (that’s comments and shares) to create a strong local social media presence. A point to note though. Social media users who visit your website tend not to engage very strongly. A recent look at another client’s Google Analytics after they had engaged a social media ads expert to get more eyeballs to his brand, found to his dismay that although there were lots of website visits from the ads – they only stuck around on the website for 5 seconds on average. When this was pointed out the business owner in question was pretty disappointed. But those visitors have seen his brand at least once and that can be a valuable touch point in building brand awareness.
7. Third party media: Get mentioned in local, trade or national media wherever possible. This isn’t just newspaper titles or local business magazines. As mentioned previously, local business associations such as the Cumbria Chamber of Commerce, the Ambassadors and Cumbria Crack all add to this thread. Our own Local Brand Authority offering publishes content about your business in news , blog, podcast, slide show, infographic and video formats. For the most part each of these separate pieces of content does return a backlink. More importantly is that the articles will often rank high for some of the searches you need and then pull your website up to join them. This worked brilliantly for a local office equipment supplier who needed visibility in Penrith for a specific type of product. The search engines are doubling down on BRAND (not branding) as a way of rating businesses; so getting mentions in other media, even without a backlink, has been shown to boost your value in the eyes of search engines. It is very difficult to persuade a local media publication to add a backlink to a mention of your brand these days but the mention is valuable.
8. Local Backlinking: this is where you lean into the relationships you have locally. Do you sponsor a local team or group? Ask for a backlink. It doesn’t matter if the group’s website isn’t as powerful as the BBC website, because what you seek here is a backlink from a locally relevant website. ClimbHigh SEO for instance, despite our small size helps STanwix Community Association, Carlisle Mountaineering Club (there’s a clue in our name 😉 ) and UKPT, all who have kindly linked to us from somewhere within their websites.
9. Email marketing: Developing a targeted email marketing campaign that speaks directly to your local customers can be a powerful way to nurture relationships, promote special offers, and drive repeat business. Segment your email lists by location and tailor your content to address the specific needs and interests of your local audience.
10. Reputation management: Monitoring and actively managing your online reviews and ratings has a significant impact on your local reputation and credibility. The critical mass seems to be gaining at least 10 reviews in a reasonably natural timescale. Whatever you do – DON’t tap into the fake review market – these services may work for a few weeks but the language patterns within them are soon detected by search algorithms and can have a disastrous effect. GBP listings and even websites can find themselves removed from the Google index and effectively vanished from the face of the web. Always respond to both positive and negative reviews, and use this feedback to continuously improve your customer experience.
11. Local paid advertising: Leveraging platforms like Google Ads and their local service ads, Facebook Ads, and Instagram Ads to run targeted, location-based campaigns are an effective way to reach your local audience. By using data-driven targeting and ad optimisation, you can ensure that your ads are seen by the right people at the right time. The variety of available ad formats makes this an important approach for quick results, if you have a good budget available, but the traffic stops when your spending stops.

By incorporating these key strategies into your local digital marketing plan, you can create a well-rounded and effective approach that helps you connect with your target audience, drive tangible results, and ultimately, grow your business.

Creating a local digital marketing plan

Developing a comprehensive local digital marketing plan is the foundation for success in today’s business environment. Simply adding a few listings and seeing how it goes is not going to make a huge difference to your positioning, as it is only one piece of a complex jigsaw. A strategic approach to local marketing will be far more effective at achieving your business objectives. Make sure that your time and resources are invested in the most impactful channels and tactics by teaming up with a digital marketing agency like ClimbHigh SEO.

Begin with good old-fashioned market research. Analyse your local market and clarify your target audience. Find ways to tune in to their online behaviours, their wants and their needs. Unpick the language they use when searching online. That’s the keyword part of your background research. Working out what the competitive landscape is like and how hard it will be to show up above established competitors is a very important part of gauging how hard you will have to invest your time, resources and finance in developing your local presence.

Gather data on the demographics, interests, and pain points of your local customers, as well as the digital marketing strategies employed by your competitors. This information will be crucial in shaping your plan and identifying the most effective ways to reach and engage your audience.

Next, set clear, measurable goals for your local digital efforts. These objectives probably include increasing website traffic, generating more leads, boosting in-store foot traffic, or improving your online reputation. By establishing specific, achievable targets, you can more effectively track the performance of your campaigns and make data-driven adjustments as needed.

With your market analysis and goals in place, it’s time to select the right mix of local digital marketing tactics to include in your plan. Based on your unique business needs and target audience, you might choose to focus on a combination of search engine optimisation, local paid advertising, social media marketing, email campaigns, and reputation management. Be sure to allocate your resources strategically, prioritising the channels and strategies that are most likely to deliver the highest return on investment.

Finally, don’t forget to incorporate regular performance monitoring and optimisation into your local digital marketing plan. Google provides some free tools that help you understand how well you are showing up and engaging website visitors.

• Google Search Console: track your position in search results and which keywords are generating clicks
• Google Analytics 4: analyse the behaviour of visitors once they land on your website
• Google Business Profile Insights: data on how searchers interact with your GBP.

Continuously analyze the data, track key metrics, and make adjustments to your campaigns as needed to ensure that you’re achieving your desired outcomes. This agile, data-driven approach will help you stay ahead of the curve and maximize the impact of your local digital marketing efforts.

Local search engine optimisation for your website is still important

Despite the fact that Google is constantly trying to monopolise your potential customers’ attention onto their own results and AI additions to search, your website is the cornerstone of your local digital marketing strategy. To say it’s the virtual storefront is a cliche, but true.

Even with the threat of AI Overviews keeping people in Google’s website or Open AI bringing out a rival search experience, potential customers will still visit to learn more about your business.

Your website is still going to be the source of information that AI search experiences will use to decide whether you are even mentioned in AI driven results. Your website will remain the place where customers can explore your products or services, and ultimately, decide whether to engage with you. That’s why it’s crucial for you -as a locally operating business – to optimise your website for local search to ensure that it’s easily found by your target audience.

The keyword research you’ve undertaken will have identified the search terms and phrases that your local customers are using to find services like yours. Incorporate these location-specific keywords throughout your website’s content, including your page titles, meta descriptions, and headers. This will help search engines like Google understand the relevance and geographic focus of your business, improving your visibility in local search results.

Next, ensure that the website’s technical foundations are solid. This includes optimising your site’s loading speed, ensuring a seamless mobile experience, and implementing a secure, SSL-encrypted connection. These factors not only enhance the user experience but also play a significant role in how search engines evaluate and rank your website.

Structured data and schema markup should be used where possible to provide search engines with more detailed information about your business. This includes details like your address, business hours, contact information, and even customer reviews. By making it easier for search engines to understand and categorise your business, you can increase the chances of your website appearing in prominent local search results, such as the Google Maps pack or the local business carousel.

Finally, consider creating dedicated location-based pages or a local landing page to showcase your business’s presence in a specific geographic area. This can be especially useful for multi-location businesses or those serving a wider regional market. By tailoring your content and optimising these pages for local search, you can further enhance your visibility and reach within your target communities.

Leveraging online review sites to improve local marketing

In the digital age, online review sites have become essential tools for local businesses to establish their online presence and reputation. Many of the online directories provide a review function but few of them are used consistently by your customers. The major exceptions are your GBP and Bing Places and Yelp listings. These review platforms not only help potential customers discover your business but also provide valuable social proof that can influence their purchasing decisions.

Once your business listings are set up on these sites, actively monitor and respond to reviews on these platforms. Whether the feedback is positive or negative, engaging with your customers shows that you value their opinions and are committed to providing an exceptional experience. Respond to reviews promptly, thank customers for their feedback, and address any concerns or issues in a professional and constructive manner.

By consistently maintaining and optimising your presence on both review sites and online directories, you can build trust, credibility, and a positive reputation within your local community. This, in turn, can lead to increased visibility, higher-quality leads, and ultimately, more business for your company.

Using social media for local digital marketing

In Cumbria’s digital landscape, social media has emerged as a powerful tool for local businesses to connect with their target audience and build a strong, engaged community. By leveraging the power of social platforms, you can effectively showcase your brand, promote your products or services, and foster meaningful relationships with your local customers.

Start by identifying the social media channels that are most relevant to your target audience and your business. This usually includes Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, but TikTok is also having an impact in local search now. Once you’ve selected the right channels, create and optimise your business profiles to ensure a consistent, professional, and visually appealing presence aimed at connecting with your local customers.

Getting involved with local marketing support groups can be very helpful as in the case of Cumbria growth Hub.

Cumbria growth Hub’s Linked In page where businesses can begin to create their community.

Next, develop a content strategy. This might include sharing behind-the-scenes glimpses of your business, showcasing your products or services, highlighting local events or community initiatives, or engaging with your followers through interactive content like polls, questions, or user-generated content. By creating a mix of informative, entertaining, and engaging content, you can build a strong connection with your local community and position your business as a trusted and valuable resource.

Leverage the location-based targeting capabilities of social media platforms to ensure that your content and advertising efforts are reaching the right people. Utilise features like geo-targeting, audience segmentation, and local business pages to ensure that your marketing messages are seen by the consumers in your immediate geographic area. This precision targeting can lead to higher engagement, more qualified leads, and ultimately, better results for your business.

Finally, don’t forget to actively monitor and engage with your social media followers. Respond to comments, answer questions, and address any concerns or feedback in a timely and professional manner. This level of customer service and community engagement can go a long way in building brand loyalty and fostering long-term relationships with your local customer base.

Is ClimbHigh SEO the right local digital marketing service provider for you?

When it comes to local digital marketing, partnering with the right digital marketing company can make all the difference in the success of your business.

Start by assessing the agency’s experience and expertise in local SEO services. You’ll be amazed at how many business owners only think about the local SEO angle after the  web design is complete. We take the time to understand your business, your target audience, and your unique challenges, and then tailor our services accordingly. We focus primarily on local SEO strategies and work closely with other digital marketing experts to deliver website design Home – Bespoke Web Design in Carlisle, Cumbria, and the UK – Light Bulb Web Design Ltd, conversion focused copywriting, social media marketing, digital media and those all-important backlinks.

If you work with us, we start with a an appraisal followed by an in-depth digital marketing consultation. We explore your current strengths and vulnerabilities, clarify who your ideal customer is and what pain points might bring them to your business.

The research phase, for both new and established businesses, involves keyword and competitor research to get a clear picture of how your clients behave and how strong the competition for their attention is. From that we plan a structure for your website and a keyword strategy for main content pages and future blog content.

We then produce a marketing plan that outlines the digital marketing campaigns that are most likely to lift you into premier position.  We’ll meet with you to discuss the detail and organise the web design and copywriting assistance you may need.

The process we then follow is effectively:

• Copywriting
• Web Design and Branding
• External marketing activities (listings, digital PR, digital ads and backlink campaigns).

So give Ray a call at ClimbHigh SEO: the digital marketing agency Carlisle businesses rely on for local marketing services that get you found first. After all it’s great to be on top of summits and searches.