Positioning yourself as a local business is important to lots of different businesses from a wide range of industries. Being active as a local player is especially important among estate agents.

Most of the work you do as an estate agency is within the local market. Even if you’re a national chain of estate agents or have numerous locations, you’ll still be dealing with the local market most of the time.

But so will all the other estate agencies near you, and this creates a high level of competition to get noticed and known locally. So how can you fight off the local competition and win more local leads? There are many ways of doing this, and we’re here to discuss the best ones below.

How to position yourself as a local business

We believe there are four key ways to position yourself as a local business and win more local leads from your competition. You can do this by:

• Adding localised content to your website 
• Using targeted digital marketing methods, such as Google Ads and Google My Business 
• Using strategic offline marketing, such as leaflets and signage 
• Networking and attending local events

We cover these in more detail in the following sections.

Localised SEO website content

Your website content can be optimised for search engines by including popular search terms within the content. Simply put, the idea is if your content speaks the same way as what people search for online, you’ll be easier to be found.

But you can also include more localised search terms in your content. For example, if you’re an estate agency in Kent, you might tailor your content to the popular search terms related to property in Kent. This is easier and more naturally achieved if you dedicate whole service pages to the local areas you service.

But it isn’t just the written content that can be optimised for local searches. You should include bespoke imagery of the local area. Bespoke images like these will also score points with search engines and it makes your business more relatable when it attracts local visitors.

Targeted marketing methods

Online marketing methods have become so sophisticated that you can actually make them appear to locals only. This includes your Google Ad campaigns and your social media adverts. But another great way – and often overlooked – to appeal to local homeowners and buyers is to make the most of your online Business Profile with Google My Business (GMB).

It’s completely free to claim a Business Profile and optimise it through the GMB platform. You just need to upload images, add contact information and a link to your website and encourage positive reviews. Your business will then appear on relevant localised searches on Google Maps and regular Google searches. Speak to our team for guidance on how to do this effectively.

Offline marketing is another powerful way to tap into the local market. You could hand out flyers and business cards, put up posters or make the most of other offline techniques, some of which now include QR codes to drive traffic to your site. Offline marketing is especially effective when competing locally because people like to receive something tangible and the marketing material repeats over time and as it passes to family and friends.

Active in the community

You don’t have to be actively marketing to market yourself as a local business. There are ways to get your business known by just being active in the local area. This might mean attending charity and sporting events or just simply speaking to locals. If you did want to be more actively marketing yourself, you could even consider hosting or sponsoring local events. Being active in the community has never been more effective considering the upward trend in social consciousness; people are trying to engage with smaller local and family-run businesses more often.

Recap: Estate agencies are usually left to battle it out for leads with other local estate agents. So how can you fight off the competition? Some of the best ways are to include localised SEO website content and make the most of marketing methods, especially Google My Business which will literally put you on the Google map. Being active in the community and local events is another great way to penetrate the local market.

WEBPRO Knows

Google reports that almost half of online searches have local intent. What an opportunity for locally-driven businesses!