West Vancouver is one of the most beautiful areas of Metro Vancouver hosting Horseshoe Bay and Cypress Mountain as well as having the highest average household net worth of any municipality in Canada at $4.5 million. This means people who live there are affluent and can likely afford your products and services. When considering your marketing for this community you can pull from some of the resources outlined below, but keep in mind that in West Vancouver everyone knows everyone and if you get in with the right circles socially it can make all the difference to your business success and market penetration. Therefore reach out to the Chamber of Commerce.
Local SEO / Proximity Optimization / Citations
When customers are looking for you or industry related products or services online, no matter which search engine, app or similar they are using, you need to streamline how customers find you aka being “discoverable“. In that way your business address should be the same across all major search engines and map placements including Google, Bing, Apple, Yandex, Baidu, Yelp, Yellowpages, TripAdvisor and others. Searches for businesses or services “near me” are at an all time high as people aren’t travelling as much and at the same time they are trying to shop local. Most of these citations and business profile setups you can do yourself, but if you do not understand this area of internet marketing we suggest chatting with the guys at White Spark. Do not keyword stuff your profile descriptions and titles either that lends itself to a bad user experience.
Canada Post Direct Mail using P.O. Box Address Targeting
Sending direct mail to peoples homes or offices is a bit “old school” but you have to keep in mind that West Vancouver is a unique area of British Columbia in that many residents are older and do not use the internet or social media as much as you and I do. They want to see and feel marketing materials in their hands that are directed to them and make them feel like the intended recipient of a sincere message. Using materials that are recycled or biodegradable can help with waste mitigation and having textures and colours that stand out from other direct mail marketing you are seeing. Always have a call to action on the mail you send out and ensure your phone number, email and website address are easy to locate. Consider getting a few third parties to grammar check and proof read the designs before you get lots of them printed. Canada Post of course does this best.
Social Media Marketing: Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, SnapCHat, YouTube
Of course everyone nowadays seems to be using social media apps to connect with friends, family and customers using their business or organization. However, at the end of the day speaking with people directly is the name of the game and having sincere conversations. We suggest direct messaging profiles who are related to your initiatives in West Vancouver and introducing yourself. When you share content posts use hashtags, geotags, @replies and profile tagging to stretch the reach of the content you publish. Reaching out to influencers is also of value as you can create promotional relationships with them that come across as sincere while driving market penetration for your brand or business offering. Doing paid advertising on social media can be useful too, geolocating the physical areas and then refining further with demographic information. We suggest you do all of this yourself and learn to make it part of your overall customer service programs.
Guerrilla Marketing with Stickers, Posters, Activation’s, Street Team
When people see things in front of their face it can leave a lasting impression. Guerrilla marketing is more about branding and logo recognition then driving direct sales. As potential clients can learn about your brand from a sticker or poster setup at a bus stop or coffee shop, and then in the future when they see your business brand again online or in another medium, they already have affinity which makes it more likely for them to consider purchasing from you. Always use materials that are biodegradable and be respectful where you place marketing materials. Before covid using a street team would be of huge value as you can give out samples or information packages to people walking nearby the physical location of your business. We suggest using Vista Print for this area.
Email and Text Message Marketing using Tailored Subscriber Lists
Every business should be capturing client emails and phone numbers to send them future promotions or announcements. This is critical in the marketplace of today with hyper competition and everyone being connected in real time. You can setup automated emails to say happy birthday to people or remind them of an appointment that is coming up. Email and text message marketing also has a very high open and click-through rate when compared to other forms of marketing as it is more sincere and often their is an established relationship between the business and customer. MailChimp has great services and options.
Content Marketing and Storytelling with Blog Posts or Website Pages
Your website and domain is the doorway into your business, so the pages and sections should be easy to read and navigate on any device or browser type (this is called user experience optimization). If you find yourself getting asked the same questions in a circle from your customers, you should put those questions on your website in a frequently asked questions section or turn the content into blog posts. Then moving forward you can refer people to sections of your website while also building the inbound links and SEO benefits that all businesses need online. Having a regularly updated blog will be a game changer for you in the short and long term as you can feature key areas of your business that make you different and target long tail keywords using semantic language. We strongly suggest you use WordPress for your website and blog.
Refer a Friend Loyalty Programs or Points Rewards
What better way to earn new business then offering a current client or customer something in order for them to refer one of their friends or family members. Perhaps a discount on future products or a freebie. Game theory is being applied to customer retention at a very increased ratio then in the past, given how much of our culture is built upon video games and the digital world. Many local businesses have found great success in points systems, when a customer spends money they get matched with corresponding points that can be used for future purchases, promotions or discounts. We would consider this stuff the bread and butter of marketing. If you are using WordPress for your website you can use WooCommerce for this area.
Word of Mouth, Online Reviews and Direct Customer Referrals
You don’t always need to offer something to get a referral from an existing client, sometimes you just need to ask them and one of the best ways to do that is get them to leave you a review on your Google, Bing, or Yelp business profile listing. When doing this ask them to be sincere and thorough in their review writing, but never coach customers on what to say in the review. Sincere honest reviews earned over time is among the best ways to grow your business transparently.
Quality Customer Service with Real-time Responses
When a customer arrives at your website seeking a product or service and having potential questions, you want them to be able to find answers fast. Of course resource pages are useful, but sometimes depending on the business or industry, having a real-time pop up chat window can be of huge value. The customer would input their question along with their name and email and send it to you, from their A.I. powered chat bots would respond with potential answers while guiding the customer further down the conversion cycle. And as you asked for the email at the beginning of the conversation, you can follow up on the chat thread on email to dive deeply into their needs and earn their business. Saving a customers time is of huge important when they are making a purchase. Suggest to try out ChatBot.
Reputable Marketing Agencies on the North Shore
To wind down this article we want to shed a light on some really good local marketing companies doing business in the communities here. At Lonsdale Avenue Magazine we are a marketing agency but we also want to hat tip these other providers so you can price shop for the services you need to manage your business marketing. As a community driven organization we love to support friendly competition. We suggest checking out: Bloom Marketing, If Communications, Loki Creative, Relentless Technology, NS News, and Adaptive Marketing.
If you have any questions about the above marketing information or just want to talk about your needs and have your questions answered contact us.