We List the Best Local Lead Generation Strategies for Boosting Conversions
Helpful Summary
- Overview: This article explores effective local lead generation strategies, focusing on how to attract and convert local customers.
- Why you can trust us: Growform helps lead generation experts, digital marketers, and business owners create multi-step forms that generate more qualified local leads.
- Why this is important: By focusing on effective strategies like directory listings, SEO content, and targeted advertising, businesses can enhance their visibility online, drive more relevant traffic, and ultimately increase conversions
- Action points: To improve your local lead generation, concentrate on optimizing your presence in local directories, refining your SEO content to target local keywords, and leveraging targeted advertising to reach your ideal audience.
- Further research: For additional tips on online lead generation and multi-step forms, visit the Growform blog and YouTube channel.
Wondering How to Generate Local Leads?
Local lead generation is the lifeblood of small businesses and regional companies. It’s not just about attracting any customer—it’s about attracting the right customers, who are:
- Close enough to buy
- Ready and able to buy
That’s a tough balance to strike, but with the right strategy (or strategies) you can fill your pipeline with highly qualified local leads and grow your business. And in this Growform guide, we’re sharing a few of our favorite approaches to local lead gen.
But first…
Why Listen to Us?
Growform is a user-friendly multi-step form builder that lets businesses of all sizes reap the rewards of high-converting lead forms—even if they don’t have any technical experience whatsoever. We’ve helped thousands of businesses so far, and in this guide, we’re drawing on our experience to help you attract and convert the right local leads for your business.
Why Is Local Lead Generation Important?
Local Relevance
Local lead generation allows businesses to target customers in their immediate area, increasing the likelihood of engagement and conversion. This approach is particularly effective for businesses that rely on local clientele.
For example, a local bakery in New York City might use geo-targeted ads with phrases like “fresh pastries in Manhattan” to attract nearby customers who are more likely to visit the store.
Higher Conversion Rates
Local lead generation typically results in higher conversion rates compared to broader marketing strategies. This is because the leads generated are more likely to be interested in and able to access your products or services.
For instance, a yoga studio in Chicago focusing on “beginner yoga classes in Lincoln Park” is more likely to attract and convert local residents interested in starting yoga than a general campaign for “yoga classes” that might reach people outside their service area.
Cost-effectiveness
Local lead generation is generally more cost-effective than broader, national, or global targeting. It often requires a lower budget while delivering better results.
For example, if you run a plumbing business in California, using long-tail keywords like “plumbing installation and repair in San Francisco” is more cost-effective and yields higher ROI than broad terms like “plumbing contractor for hire.”
Related: See our article on lead generation ideas for plumbers.
6 Best Local Lead Generation Strategies
1. Location-Specific Landing Pages
Location-specific landing pages are pages that are designed to rank for location queries—think:
- “best plumbers in Arizona”
- “San Francisco seo agency”
- “New York City real estate agent”
These queries are highly specific, so only pages that directly target the location in question will typically be able to rank. So, this strategy works by systematically creating pages for key services in key locations using a format like:
- “best [service] in [location]”
The idea is to get your website ranking in positions 1-3 (or at least 1-10) for these key queries. Then, when searchers click onto them, the copy drives them to take a specific action, like filling in your lead form or placing an order.
Speaking of forms… the forms you embed on these pages matter. Quite a lot actually. We recommend using a multi-step form builder like Growform to optimize the user experience and increase conversion rates.
2. Local Directories
Local directories are great for boosting visibility and credibility in your area.
They help your business satisfy one of Google’s biggest ranking factors—”local citations.” These are consistent mentions of your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) across the web. The more consistent your NAP is online, the more Google trusts you.
Plus, they help you generate high-quality backlinks, which are great for SEO.
So, which directories should you look into? There are tons of region- and industry specific ones, but here’s a comprehensive list to get you started:
- Google My Business
- Yelp
- Yellow Pages
- Bing Places for Business
- Foursquare
- Angie’s List
- TripAdvisor
- Citysearch
- Manta
- Superpages
- Yahoo Local
- Hotfrog
- Local.com
- MapQuest
- MerchantCircle
- Whitepages
- DexKnows
- Avvo
Google My Business is your top priority by a huge margin. It unlocks a ton of lead generation potential through features like:
- Google Map Pack: A SERP feature that showcases the top three local businesses for a particular query on a map.
- Reviews: User-generated content that shows customer satisfaction and boosts your online reputation.
The process will be largely the same for everyone. Start by either adding or claiming your business, then fill in every available detail accurately and completely. Make sure you use keyword-rich language to help users and search engines understand what you do.
3. Customer Reviews
Customer reviews are crucial for building trust and demonstrating credibility. If you don’t currently have any reviews on Google, this is a top priority.
Start by setting realistic, tiered goals:
- 5 reviews (this is the minimum for your star rating to appear in search results)
- 10 reviews
- 20 reviews
- 100 reviews
- 500 reviews
- 1,000 reviews
For each tier, you need a plan for how you’ll reach it. There are tons of creative ways to encourage customers to leave reviews, such as QR code stickers on packaging or windows, offering incentives for reviews, or simply asking satisfied customers to leave a review.
While the goal is 5-star reviews, a few bad reviews are inevitable. It’s important to respond to these using the following format:
- Acknowledge the issue
- Apologize for any inconvenience
- Assist by offering a solution
The goal here isn’t to get them to change their review (although that does happen). It’s to show others who read the poor review that if they do business with you, any concerns they have will be addressed.
4. Paid Ads
Businesses that use paid search ads experience an average increase of 200% in their conversion rates compared to those relying solely on organic methods. The key for local lead gen? Extremely precise location-based targeting.
Pretty much every ad platform offers location targeting these days. So, all you need to do is create location-specific ad creatives and copy, and use these targeting options to match up your ads with specific regions, zip codes or even GPS coordinates.
Some solid platforms to look into include:
- Google Local Service Ads
- Facebook Ads
- LinkedIn Ads
- Yelp Ads
- Instagram Ads (via Facebook)
5. Social Media
Social media remains a powerful tool for lead generation, with 65% of marketers successfully using it to generate leads. For local lead gen, social media is a powerful tool for building a community and demonstrating your expertise and local knowledge.
Some tips for using social media for local lead gen include:
- Use hashtags to increase visibility for location-specific keywords
- Utilize geo-targeting options to reach specific audiences in certain locations
- Partner with local influencers, micro-influencer, and businesses to reach a larger audience
- Share user-generated content from satisfied customers
6. Community Engagement and Networking
The great thing about local lead gen is that you’re typically nearby your target customer. That’s an asset that you should definitely be taking advantage of by:
- Participating or Sponsoring Local Events: Get involved in local events like fairs or charity runs. Sponsorship increases your brand’s visibility and showcases your commitment to the community, fostering goodwill and potential leads.
- Partnering with Local Businesses: Collaborate with nearby businesses on joint projects or promotions. For example, a gym could partner with a health food store for mutual discounts, broadening its reach and attracting new customers.
- Attending Local Meetings and Trade Shows: Join local business meetings and industry-specific events. Networking in person helps build relationships and positions your business as a key player in your area.
Turn Your Landing Pages Into Local Lead Generation Engines
Leads drive sales and business success, making effective lead generation crucial. Growform offers a powerful solution with its multi-step form builder, designed to enhance your lead generation efforts.
Our forms look great on mobile and desktop devices and you can embed them on any website or landing page builder that supports custom HTML—whether it’s WordPress, Unbounce, Webflow, or something else entirely. Beyond compatibility, we also generate up to 2-3X more leads using conditional logic, user-centric design, and psychology-backed templates.
Ready to get more local leads and conversions from your landing pages? Start with a 14-day free trial today.