Local Businesses: Help, Encourage and Boost

Local businesses: should you boost this new marvel?

If we look at any social media platform, we can easily notice one particular thing: the wide spreading online presence of local businesses and ways to boost them.

Local businesses are in vogue at the moment, especially in Lebanon since the devaluation of the local currency. Why is this practice growing and why should we support these businesses?

The first simple answer that comes to mind is: they often offer the same for less. But I think helping local businesses goes beyond that.

Young people are taking initiative and trying to make it on their own. Little shops are figuring out that  exposure helps boost sales. Lebanese manufacturers are taking chances and trying to pierce the market. So shouldn’t helping our own acquaintances instead of big corporations be more of a priority?

Buying local and advertising local businesses is the first step towards the local solidarity we are in dire need of.

Most of the time, local businesses suffer from one thing: the lack of professionalism in the exposure they seek to achieve. Even though social media might seem like a simple field it actually is a minefield, not in the literal sense of the word of course. It’s full of possible “faux-pas” that can actually ruin your image. To help you avoid these mistakes, I will now be giving you some tactics to boost and promote your content while making sure everyone sees your business the way you want it to be seen.

What to do to boost your business?

The first step is easy! Do what we do: write a blog. It can be free, you can reach your public and explain the nature of the products you’re offering. Then you can also create your own website to display your products and their prices, post ads and advertise your offers.

The next step is to master social media marketing. Interact with your public, understand their needs, get their attention with unique slogans and captions. You can also use targeted ads by search engine marketing or SEM. For example, let’s say you have a jewelry shop in Beirut, you can pay for ads that pop up when people search “affordable jewelry in Beirut”. Another easy idea is to partner with local influencers who are nowadays references for young people.

My final advice to you is to try to make your customers feel special because this move will make you stand out in the immense sea of big accessible corporations. Show them you care about their loyalty, give them some kind of loyalty promotion or little gifts with every purchase. It will definitely mean a lot to them and build an affinity or relationship that goes beyond simple purchases.

I truly hope this brief article will help you if you’re a business owner because you deserve to have a chance in the face of globalization.

Now, business away