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If you want your business to be part of the local community, you have to get your brand out there. Connecting with the community is all about building trust and showing people that you’re part of it. That might be by providing a valuable service or by getting involved in local initiatives, investing your profits back into the community that your business calls home. To start building trust, you also have to increase the visibility of your brand. Fortunately, this is easy to do with a number of different strategies for your consideration.

To start engaging in local marketing and build recognition from the community, you need to put your name and messaging out there. Keep reading to find out how to start implementing a plan to achieve your goal.

Sponsor Local Events

Local events offer a fantastic opportunity to get in touch with your local community. They’re great for being more visible and showing that you care about what’s happening locally. There are a few ways you might get involved with local events, including becoming a sponsor. Some events will have sponsorship packages, so you know exactly what you get in return for your investment. But even if they don’t offer this, you can ask about how you might support an event and where you might be able to display your name and logo. You could also get more directly involved with events by doing things like running a stall or delivering a workshop.

Partner with Other Businesses

Other local businesses can be good partners to help you get your brand more recognition in the community. When you partner with others, you can benefit from cross-promotional opportunities, co-hosting events, or sharing advertising space. One easy way to team up is to agree to host or distribute each other’s marketing materials. Another business could have your booklets, brochures, or flyers in their lobby or entrance so that customers can take one away with them. You can return the favor for them, placing their material somewhere for your customers to grab or perhaps putting them in your packaged orders before you send them out.

Join with a Charity or Community Initiative

One of the best ways to build trust and recognition within your local community is to find charities or community initiatives that you want to support. You can get involved with this kind of thing by raising funds, becoming an ambassador, and highlighting your commitment to supporting various causes. Take some time to identify various options that could align with your core values. You might want to support an initiative to keep the local community clean and green, or perhaps contribute to a charity helping families in poverty.

Be Visible Online

Although you’re trying to tap into your local community, it’s still important to think about your visibility online. Searching online is one of the main ways local people will look for the products and services you need, and it’s important to be available to them as a local provider. If you don’t make yourself visible online, larger chains may be easier to find, making it harder to win business. Get started by ensuring you have a Google business profile set up, ensuring you can be found in Google Maps, and helping to boost SEO visibility.