Are you wanting to really narrow down your marketing on Instagram to a local audience? In today’s episode, we are talking about hyper local marketing on Instagram with Carmen Kaethler of Macaroni Kid.
IE 223: Hyper Local Marketing on Instagram with Carmen Kaethler
Carmen focuses on marketing to her local audience in Winnipeg, Canada, and 80% of her Instagram followers live in her city.
We will talk about the best ways to engage your community, what hashtags to use, and utilizing Instagram Reels to really nail down your community and get them through your door.
Connecting Entrepreneurs With Their Clients Online
As a marketing strategist, Carmen’s main focus is working with entrepreneurs who are meeting with their customers or clients in person. She teaches them how to build their audience online, specifically through Instagram, and then getting that audience to walk through their doors.
For the last seven years, Carmen has run Macaroni Kid, a national platform that helps parents have fun with their kids. Each Macaroni Kid community is managed by a local mom or dad, and Carmen runs the Winnipeg edition.
Carmen is able to connect these parents with local businesses in order to give them more ideas of things to do with their kids. Knowing her local businesses is part of her job and that is why she is good at helping entrepreneurs to find their people and get them through their doors.
Using Instagram to Engage Your Community
When Carmen first started using Instagram, she was posting very generically: pictures of her around her city, quotes, etc. But she was not receiving the engagement she wanted. Now, she focuses on making relevant content for her community, that they will in turn want to share.
Since her website is all about family fun, she makes sure she is sharing content that is true to that, whether that is different walks to take or different museums they can visit.
Carmen also makes sure to sprinkle in posts when she appears on the news to assert her authority on the topic, while also sharing personal posts so that her followers get to know her on a personal level.
Carmen utilizes all of the features that Instagram has to offer: stories, IGTV, Reels, and the main feed.
Repurposing Content for Her Followers
Carmen used to focus a lot on events and hosting her own events prior to COVID-19. Now she focuses on things that can be done as a family with restrictions still in place in some parts of the world. One of these things is taking walks on trails.
Carmen has a trail in her city that has faces carved into the trees along the path. She documented it with her kids along with her. She uses a lot of addresses as reference points for her followers.
Carmen posts these types of documentation to her Instagram stories and makes sure to save them to a highlight. She can also send this content out as an email or turn it into a Reel. Repurposing content is one of the best ways to reach her people.
Engagement Pods and Giveaways
Carmen has made sure that her audience is hyper-local, and, in fact, about 80% of her followers live in her city.
She isn’t joining engagement pods or hosting a ton of giveaways in order to grow her audience. When Carmen does a giveaway, she makes sure it is something super specific to her audience and she intends for the winner to pick it up in her city.
Giving away a $100 Amazon gift card doesn’t make much sense because it isn’t demographic-specific. If you sell a product, use that as a giveaway. If you don’t have your own product, collaborate with a local business or restaurant.
How to Target Your Hyper Local Audience
The best way to target your hyper local audience is to always make sure you are using your location in posts and stories.
Using very specific hashtags is also huge. Carmen has some very generic location-based hashtags and then some that she has created that are specific to her audience.
If relevant, Carmen will always tag local businesses if she can.
When using hashtags, you don’t have to shy away from hashtags that have a smaller number of posts attached to them, because you are using very specific wording.
Always come back to who you are talking to and who you want walking through your door. If a hashtag doesn’t have a ton of posts but will attract your person, use it.
Be Specific In Your Descriptions
One of the most important things to remember when working on your descriptions is that you need to note that you are part of your community. One of the first things Carmen says is that she is a Winnipeg mom, specifying who she is and what she is doing.
A common theme for influencers is to list their interests in their descriptions, almost as if it is a dating profile. This doesn’t tell your audience who you are, what you do, or what you can provide them.
Specifying where you are and what you do will help you to stand out from other influencers, and especially other influencers in your area.
Creating Reels That Are Consistent
Carmen wanted to test out Reels but wasn’t interested in doing dances. She knew her audience would like it because she IS her audience, but she needed to remain true to her content.
Carmen started following others in her industry and seeing what they were doing for their Reels to get inspiration.
She now creates Reels of herself and her girls exploring, using a voiceover to explain what they are doing. These Reels are consistent with the other content in her stories and her main feed.
Carmen heard a friend say that your Reels are the advertisement for your business, and your Instagram stories are your soap opera.
Whether you are a hairdresser or a mom-and-pop shop, this is yet another way for you to reach people in your community. The people in your community will then know you and want to see you succeed.
Getting Started with Your Hyper Local Marketing
Carmen is a marketing strategist and offers one-on-one business coaching to her clients.
She is offering a guide to help you get started with your hyper-local marketing on Instagram. It is similar to what we covered in this episode, just in much more detail.
She will help you get started attracting the people you want, instead of reaching a bunch of people that will never walk through your door.
You can connect with Carmen on Instagram by sending her a DM. You can also check out her website for more information about Macaroni Kid and her marketing business.
Action Steps:
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