BIG ROOTS
MARKETING
Local trade
Your customers
live ten
minutes away
They're not planning a holiday. They're wondering who does that round here, asking in a Facebook group, the woman next door, or searching on google for answers. Getting picked is a completely different job to attracting visitors, and it needs a different approach.
The local problem
In a tourist town, local businesses get drowned out
Search for almost anything on the Yorkshire Coast and the results fill up with places aimed at visitors. If you serve the people who actually live here, you're competing for attention against an entire tourism industry with bigger budgets and louder marketing.
The good news is that summer, when everyone else is shouting at holidaymakers, is your clearest run at the local audience all year.
80%
search Google for a local business every week
And 32% of them do it every single day.
76%
visit a business within 24 hours of a nearby search
Local search intent is immediate. They're not browsing.
42%
click the map results rather than the website links
Which makes your Google Business Profile the front door to your business.
It's worth mentioning
Half your market isn't on Instagram, and that's fine.
*With the exception of a few industries such as beauty and aesthetics
The residential population here skews older than the national average. Plenty of your best customers don't scroll, don't have TikTok, and would rather ring you than fill in a form. Marketing that assumes everyone is online misses a large, loyal, high-value chunk of your town.
So the answer isn't to go all-in digital, and it isn't to give up on it either. It's a deliberate mix — something in their hand, something on the road they drive down, and something waiting when they do search.
Print and post that still lands, because it physically arrives
Big, clear type and a phone number that works — not just a QR code
An easy phone or in-person route as well as an online one
Digital aimed tightly at your postcodes, not the whole county
Royal Mail door drops
Delivered with the post to whole postcode sectors. You pick the areas by household type, so you're not paying to reach holiday lets and student flats.
Chosen by postcode and household profile
Designed and print-ready
Timed around paydays and seasons
Leaflets & door-to-door
Cheaper per household than a door drop and better for tight, walkable areas. Good for a specific estate or a new-build development.
Targeted streets rather than whole towns
Repeat drops, which is what actually works
A clear offer, not just a logo
Posters and banners
Village halls, community boards, shop windows, the fence by the roundabout everyone sits at. Local, visible, and almost free.
Readable at a glance and from a distance
Placed where your customers actually go
Weatherproof spec so it lasts the winter
Vehicle signwriting
If you drive round the area for work, your van is a moving advert that's already paid for. Most are wasted on a logo nobody can read at 30mph.
What you do and where, in big letters
One phone number, huge
Artwork specced properly for your signwriter
Local press and parish magazines
Small circulation, but read cover to cover by exactly the demographic that's hardest to reach online. Often cheaper than a single week of ads.
Parish and community magazines, On Your Doorstep booklets
Local paper and what's-on guides
Written to fit the publication, not a generic ad
Community and sponsorship
Sponsoring the junior team, the gala, the fete. It buys recognition and goodwill in a way advertising can't, and people remember it for years.
Local clubs, schools and events
Something to photograph and post about
Genuine involvement, not just a cheque
Online, aimed at your postcodes
Be there for the ones who do search
The half of your market that is online searches with real intent — boiler's leaking, need a hairdresser, who does that near me. They're not browsing, they're buying. And they'll ring whoever comes up first with decent reviews.
Google Business Profile
The single highest-value free thing a local business owns. Four in ten local searchers click the map results and never reach a website at all.
Claimed, verified and completely filled in
Services, areas covered and correct hours
Photos, posts and questions answered
Local SEO
Ranking for “near me” and for your town by name. Slower than ads, but it keeps working after you stop paying.
Town and service pages that actually rank
Consistent details across every directory
The searches your customers really type
Radius-targeted ads
Google and Facebook ads limited to a set distance or specific postcodes, so you're not paying for clicks from Leeds.
A tight radius or named postcodes
Small budgets, closely watched
Increased advertising in your quiet weeks, reduced in your busy ones
The bit everyone skips
“I've no idea if the leaflets worked”
This is why most small businesses give up on print — not because it doesn't work, but because nobody ever tells them whether it did. It's fixable, and it costs nothing extra.
01
A code on the leaflet
A simple offer code that only appears on that drop. Every redemption is a leaflet you can count.
02
Its own landing page
A short web address printed on the artwork. Visits to that page came from the print, and nowhere else.
03
Ask, and write it down
“How did you hear about us?” at the point of booking. Unglamorous, and the most reliable data you'll get.
04
Compare the areas
Drop two postcodes, not one. Next time you spend the money where it actually worked.
Ideas that work on the yorkshire coast
Campaigns we'd actually suggest
Not a strategy deck. Things that could be running within a fortnight.
The summer local push
While every other business in town is chasing visitors, you run a locals-only offer. Least competition for attention you'll get all year.
New movers
People who've just moved in are choosing a hairdresser, a garage, a vet and a takeaway all at once. A door drop to new-build streets catches them deciding.
The winter rebook
A postcard or email to everyone you saw last winter, timed for the same week this year. Boilers, chimneys, gutters, hair before Christmas.
Neighbour and friend referrals
“Bring a neighbour” for a discount for both parties. Word of mouth is already your best channel here — this just gives it a nudge and a deadline.
The village hall poster run
One afternoon, fifteen noticeboards, one design. Costs the price of the printing and reaches people no ad platform can find.
Answer the local question
A page on your site answering the thing people actually ask — “who does emergency plumbing in Filey?” Those pages rank fast because nobody else bothered to write one.
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