Hyper Local Targeting - How do YOU find those hyper local sources?

[Linda Buquet]

<img src="http://marketing-blog.catalystemarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/HyperLocal.jpg" alt="HyperLocal" width="45%" />

How do you go Hyper Local? How do YOU find those hyper local sources?​

Gregg Stewart one of the original local search pros just did a post at Clickz I wanted to share. He's talking more about how big national brands should target hyper locals for media buys and go deeper than just Facebook and Yelp.

But same thing applies for SMBs as a source for citations, links and just good old paid advertising.

<a href="http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2411943/hyper-locals-the-second-biggest-missed-opportunity-in-local-marketing">Hyper Locals: The Second Biggest Missed Opportunity in Local Marketing | ClickZ</a>

Where Do I Find the hyper-locals?

There are a number of ways to identify digital media opportunities. For big brands, you can leverage your media agency to review market-specific offerings. Many will come back with "geo-targeted" recommendations for large national sites, e.g., Facebook, Yelp, YP.com, etc. But to get hyper-local you have to dig down below the existing tool sets and manually identify sources that are often overlooked. A simple manner to uncover some local gems is to search on any search engine "town name news".

For example the search "Conshohoken news" displays a link to a web site entitled MoreThanTheCurve.com... And local advertisers have flocked here, yet there are no national brands.

Similarly a search for "Redding ct news" displays a web site "HamletHub". HamletHub is a network of local news sites in Connecticut and a small portion of New York that share local stories.

Above is just a snippet, so head over to read the rest. Thanks Gregg!

One of the suggestions Greg made that jumped out at me is to find hyper locals...
Search for "town name news".

So I thought we could brainstorm about other queries you use to find hyper local places to get citations, BLs, directory listings or to do paid ads.

What's your fav hyper local targeting strategy???
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[Scott Barnett]

Thanks Linda - this was an excellent read and of major interest to us.

Of course, the big challenge is that most consumers won't know to type in "town name news" - so the hyperlocal publishers need to figure out ways to improve their organic results in their areas of interest (e.g. the communities that they are experts in). We are looking to help those publishers address that issue - because we completely agree with Gregg that they are the best source of local information!

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks Linda - this was an excellent read and of major interest to us.

Of course, the big challenge is that most consumers won't know to type in "town name news" - so the hyperlocal publishers need to figure out ways to improve their organic results in their areas of interest (e.g. the communities that they are experts in). We are looking to help those publishers address that issue - because we completely agree with Gregg that they are the best source of local information!

Thanks Scott, glad you found it of interest.

And good points all. Had not thought about it too much from the publishers perspective, but I'm sure they have their own set of challenges in terms of getting traffic and exposure in their communities.

 

[Gregg Stewart]

Hi Scott - I agree Hyper Local publishers need better SEO, Content Marketing, etc to drive usage. And, I agree that consumers do not find these properties by searching for "Town Name - News". That was a tactic for planners & buyers to find properties that covered a specific geography/market.

 

[Scott Barnett]

Gregg - understood on your tactic. I'm happy that you agree on the other stuff, because that's the problem we're trying to solve!

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks for weighing in Gregg and for the original post too!

 

[Laustin1878]

This is an insightful article with an approach that is definitely overlooked. Thanks for bringing it to light.

A very basic question I have is how are certain small businesses (or firms working for said busineses) creating enough local news content to be featured on these sites, relevantly? I have skimmed local news sites such as The Patch for opportunities but the SMB's are not producing content that fits in naturally on these sites, especially not at any great frequency.

There was a time where every business owner thought they had "Press Release" worthy material for every event that took place within the business. Press Releases became of little use to leverage traffic b/c it became abused. I believe it's changed within the last 2 years or so but I see a similar conundrum with this approach.

I understand there are ways to make it work and I'm not diving into deep thoughts on ideas but I can see how a real estate site can benefit from this over a restaurant per say. Just thinking aloud.

 

[Gregg Stewart]

Hi Laustin1878,

I wrote the article more focused on how national brands and SMBs who market locally can identify Hyper Local paid advertising opportunities. However, having been in the Local space for over 20 years now, I have some insights and experience into how local SMBs can get published in Hyper Locals.

Generally speaking, this type of effort requires a well thought out and consistently executed "Content Marketing" strategy & plan that is discussed with the editor/publisher of a given Hyper Local. Sites like Patch have contributor links that enable content to be shared. Other Hyper Locals require that you contact the editor/publisher and "pitch" your content.

The reason that I state above that the Content Marketing Plan need to be consistently executed is that "one and done" posts rarely derive large results. Instead bi-weekly or monthly posts enable a business to become a thought leader in a specific community for a specific topic.

So, I would recommend that part of the pitch contain an editorial calendar listing the proposed post topics for up to six-months. And then "do it".

As Thomas Edison once said: " Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." SMBs should consider the time (Do it Yourself) or resource commitment (hiring a local ad agency) before jumping into a Hyper Local Content program.

I hope that info helps if you need further info I can be reached at Gregg@3rdactmarketing.