Summer is in full swing once again. You can smell the familiar sweet & smoky scents of barbecues and hear the fireworks thundering in the distance. As adults watching summer slip into fall, we're reminded of some responsibilities. There's back to school shopping, hurricane season, and late season heat waves that households need to monitor.
If you run a business, helping people prepare for these perennial problems might be this season's goal. You may even take the step of building out targeted marketing campaigns to help your community find back-to-school savings, get ready for hurricanes, and bear those dog days of summer. But are those efforts missing the secret sauce your business needs for a perfect barbecue?
Your community needs your advice, your marketing efforts are offering just that—but it's not leading to engagement, growth, and certainly not return-on-investment. Why? It might be that your efforts aren't reaching the segment of your community looking for you. That's why we've prepared some expert advice to help you prepare for summer with a dash of Nextdoor Marketing.
What is Nextdoor Marketing?
Nextdoor is a social media experience that combines the familiar posting style of apps like Facebook with the question and answer format of Reddit, and the localization of Google Maps. For businesses, Nextdoor offers an unparalleled opportunity to speak directly with customers in their neighborhood. With over 100 million users and 340,000 unique neighborhoods, there's a good chance your business is already mentioned on Nextdoor, so now's the time to claim it.
Once your business page is set up on Nextdoor and you have a few recommendations in the bank, you can start engaging with your local community. There are numerous ways for businesses to join the conversation on Nextdoor, just like any social media app.
Business Posts on Nextdoor: Business Posts on Nextdoor go right into neighbors newsfeeds when they open up the app. You can share updates, awards, feedback and the like. These are free, but like other social media posts can be boosted with payment.
Local Deals: One paid option is Local Deals, which allow you target specific neighborhoods with a sale, discount code or similar offering. This is the only option with neighborhood precision.
Neighborhood Sponsorships: Another paid option for Nextdoor are Neighborhood Sponsorships which position your business as an expert through Tips & Advice Ads, 1:1 Conversation Starter Ads; and Custom Business Posts.
Answer Questions: Businesses on Nextdoor, like in real life, should engage with the community as a fellow community member. That means taking the time to answer questions, share your recommendations.
Spotlight Events: Nextdoor offers a community calendar, so add your community facing events to it. It will also crosspost the event into people's newsfeeds, increasing its reach.
Nextdoor Marketing Advantages
Nextdoor isn't just another app to be posting on—if your business relies on local customers it should be central to your digital marketing efforts. Why? First, it's a platform you can quickly stand out on. Only 11.6% of small and medium sized businesses use Nextdoor marketing regularly. That means a less crowded newsfeed than Facebook or Instagram.
Another reason Nextdoor should take centerstage this summer is its user base. CMG's Elissa Crooks highlights the sign up process, "When you sign up on Nextdoor you have to provide your address. That means there are no bots on Nextdoor, meaning real customers will engage with your content."
It's also a highly desirable customer segment. Crooks continues, "For small businesses offering home, financial, or healthcare services, Nextdoor users are ideal because they're homeowners with a median income of $90,000." When you put your business's message on Nextdoor, you're reaching real, local customers, willing and able to purchase your services.
How to Leverage Nextdoor Marketing for Summer Preparedness
Nextdoor deserves a spot in your summer marketing mix, but how can you integrate it into your current marketing mix? Crooks advises a campaign that lasts at least two weeks that takes advantage of Nextdoor post features.
Nextdoor posts can and should feature pictures or videos. That means the right marketing agency can ensure people who saw your TV ad take action when they see a clip of it on Nextdoor. That highly relevant, locally-targeted repetition is what fuels sales growth.
Want more concrete examples? Check out some possibilities that work below:
Back to School Marketing Made Easy
Nextdoor deserves some attention as you prepare your back to school marketing campaigns, regardless of your industry. If you're not selling school supplies, it may seem like back-to-school shopping sprees have nothing to do with you. But zooming out, back-to-school is about families and education, two things any local business should care about.
Support fundraisers: If your business runs or participates in back-to-school fundraisers and school supply drives, you can highlight that work on Nextdoor. You can even add the distribution event to the community calendar so more people can benefit. Your local community will rightly recognize your business as a caring company around the corner.
Share deals: Whether you run a lawncare company or auto repair shop, you can show you care about your customers saving money on everything by sharing where you get deals on school supplies.
Help college students and parents: These families likely have financial questions about things like student loans, discounts, and deals. If you're a local community bank, now's the time to answer questions.
Back to school might mean new empty nesters: Some college parents might be thinking of making a move this time of year. Nearly 40% of homebuyers look to apps like Nextdoor for financing resources and your financial institution could be the resource they need.
Promote Hurricane Preparedness
You can also use Nextdoor to help potential customers and members of your local community prepare for hurricane season. Sharing accurate, usable information helps households prepare to weather storms or evacuate when necessary and local businesses have a role to play in spreading that kind of information. Here are some ways you can promote preparedness through Nextdoor marketing.
Free Business Posts with tips: Sharing tips from reputable agencies like the Red Cross or FEMA show your neighbors that you care about them as more than just customers.
Become a neighborhood sponsor and invite Q&As: If you run a home services business, you can invite members to ask you questions about how to get ready for storms. It provides an opportunity to showcase how your offerings can help protect their home, whether you're in roofing, siding, windows and doors, or a related business.
Prepare People for Heat Waves
CMG Local Solutions employees like Crooks are no strangers to late summer heat waves that leave you desperate for Fall weather. When heat waves arrive, Nextdoor is one of the first places people check for advice and answers.
That's what makes Nextdoor so valuable. For Crooks, "Nextdoor allows you to meet leads where they are—42% of customers are either going to apps like Nextdoor for answers before Google or using social media like Nextdoor when the situation calls for it." Here are just a few ways business can meet those leads:
Doctor's offices can share tips and resources: Using Business Posts or Q&As, you can start a conversation with potential patients and clients about how to stay safe in the heat while announcing that you're open for new patients.
Window companies can offer local deals: A window or home services company can offer a special deal for households looking for more energy efficient windows to handle the heat.
HVAC companies can use Neighborhood Sponsorships: Become a Neighborhood Sponsor to share and demonstrate your expertise in staying cool no matter the weather.
Nextdoor Marketing: Your Next Steps
One of the great advantages of Nextdoor marketing is how quickly your business can integrate into your digital marketing mix—with the right support. When you partner with CMG Local Solutions to power up your marketing efforts, you gain a partner that can seamlessly integrate digital marketing with traditional channels for maximum ROI. With our tools and expertise we can ensure that conversations start on Nextdoor, continue through email, get reignited through TV and Radio, and end with sales. No need to go back-to-school for marketing, just contact CMG Local Solutions today to become a customer.
