As a business owner, there’s no shortage of ways that you can market your business. The options are truly endless, between social media platforms like Instagram, Threads, Facebook, and TikTok, and other avenues like email marketing, Pinterest, paid advertising, and maybe even old school snail mail.
So when you see someone saying you should try yet another avenue for marketing your business, it might make your head spin. But as a local business, I want you to hear me out on this one…
Blogging is one of the BEST things you can do as a local business because it presents some unique advantages that strictly online based businesses simply don’t have.
But before we get into that, I want to introduce myself – I’m Natalie of Natty Writes and I’m a blog writer and strategist for creative business owners! It’s my mission to help business owners see that blogging still belongs in their business even in the era of shiny social platforms.
You’re finding me here because I’ve had the pleasure of working with Sky and The Photobooth Edit for years now and if I must say so myself, she’s doing blogging RIGHT!
If you own a photobooth business that serves primarily local clients, there’s so much opportunity for you when it comes to blogging, so let’s get into the good stuff.
Why Blogging Matters For Local Businesses
Before we really dig into the advantages and tips for blogging as a local business, I want to start with why it even matters in the first place!
To help you really understand this, I want you to think about the last time you needed a local service, like a hair stylist or a caterer. Chances are, you didn’t scroll Instagram hoping one would pop up. Instead, you opened Google and typed something like “best caterer near me.”
Well, your future photobooth clients are doing the exact same thing!
When someone is planning a wedding, a corporate holiday party, or a sweet sixteen, they’re searching phrases like “photo booth rental in [their city],” and they’re doing it right when they’re ready to book.
And that’s where blogging can come in handy! You see, every single blog post you publish gives Google another reason to show your website to those searchers.
And unlike a social media post that gets buried in a few hours or days (for real, the shelf life of social media is nottttt great) a blog post can keep bringing people to your site for months and even years after you hit publish.
Plus, your website is the one piece of online real estate you actually OWN, which is one of the main reasons that I tell every business owner to start a blog in the first place.
At the end of the day, social media algorithms change, platforms come and go, but your blog stays put and keeps working for you.
Advantages of Blogging For Local Businesses
Now that you know why blogging matters as a local business, let’s dig into the unique advantages that you have when you do it consistently!
What’s really cool about blogging as a local business is that there’s a lot of different opportunities for you that entirely digital businesses simply don’t have.
Here’s what I mean:
Local SEO
I want to start with this one because it’s a big one! If you’ve ever heard someone talk about blogging, then you’ve likely heard the term SEO (search engine optimization).
Search engine optimization is the process of making your website easier for search engines like Google to find, understand, and show to the people searching for what you offer. In simple terms, it’s how you help your business show up when potential clients go looking for you.
But businesses that serve specific areas, like your photobooth business for example, have a local SEO advantage!
Local SEO is the part of SEO focused on getting your business found by people searching in your area. Instead of competing to show up for everyone everywhere, you’re working to show up for the people who are actually nearby and can book you.
Here’s what this might look like in practice:
If someone searches “photobooth rental near me” or photobooth for weddings in [city]”, Google will try to show them businesses that are actually nearby and that’s a HUGE opportunity for you!
Every blog post you write that mentions your city, the surrounding areas you serve, and the venues you work at helps Google understand where you are and who you serve.
And the more consistently you publish, the more signals you’re sending that you’re THE local option.
An online-only business can’t tap into this at all, but YOU can and it’s one of the most direct paths to getting found by people who are ready to book!
Less Search Competition
When you’re blogging for your business, it’s important to do keyword research so your content matches what people are actually searching for.
But oftentimes, business owners feel defeated during keyword research because the keyword they’d love to rank for has soooo much competition, giving it a super high keyword difficulty score. In plain terms, that means the keyword is hard to rank for because so many other businesses are targeting the same one.
For example, a virtual wedding planner might try to rank for something like “how to plan a wedding.” That keyword has a high difficulty score because there are tons of publications, national brands, and likely thousands of other wedding planners blogging about the same thing.
But as a local business, you’re not trying to rank for the whole internet. You’re trying to rank for searches in YOUR area, where the competition might be just a handful of other photobooth companies, and many of them probably aren’t blogging at all.
So for your local photobooth business, you might target something like “wedding photo booth rental in [city].” There will naturally be less competition for a keyword like this, making it much easier for your content to actually show up in search results.
Overall, this means your blog posts have a real shot at landing on page one, sometimes much faster than you’d expect. And when you blog consistently, you can quickly set yourself apart from everyone else in your market!
(P.S. Keyword research is just a sliver of all the technical things that go into SEO and it can sound so overwhelming – I promise it’s really not! I’m a firm believer that you should blog in your business for more reasons than *just* SEO, so I don’t actually teach this, but I have a girl that I always recommend! Mariah Magazine is a great resource for all things SEO and has a ton of free content on her blog, in her newsletter, and on her YouTube channel.)
Go-To Community Expert
Another huge advantage that I absolutely LOVE for local businesses to capitalize on with their blog content is becoming a go-to community expert of sorts.
Because here’s the thing: as someone that’s actively serving your community with your photobooth business (regardless of the types of events that you work), you KNOW your local area.
You know the best venues, the best photo ops, the best places to eat, where to shop, where to grab a coffee, where to stay, and everything in between.
So just imagine a couple searching for the best wedding venues in your area and finding your blog about the top 5 best places to get married in your city. Not only did you help them get closer to deciding which venue to book, but you also planted a seed in their head to book you for a photobooth experience at their event!
Over time, your blog becomes the place people go for answers and the business they think of first when it’s time to book!
Local Relationships
And lastly, as a local business owner, your blog can be a place where you foster local relationships! As a photobooth owner, you’re likely part of a whole network of venues, planners, photographers, DJs, florists, and other vendors who work the same events you do.
Nurturing those relationships is so important and your blog is a great place to do it. For example, you can feature a venue you love, recap an event and credit the whole vendor team, or put together a roundup of your favorite local wedding pros.
When you share those posts with the people you’ve featured, they feel celebrated, and they’re much more likely to share your post, link to it on their own site, or refer clients your way.
Overall, those connections are something online businesses can’t replicate and they can turn your blog into a real referral engine!
5 Tips for Blogging For Local Businesses
If you’ve read this far, my hope is that you’re officially convinced to start blogging for your photobooth business and if so, I have a few tips to make sure you do it well!
Use Location-Specific Keywords
Starting with those keywords I mentioned above, if you want to dominate local SEO and really reap the benefits that can come with it, your blog needs to make it crystal clear WHERE you serve.
To do this well, work your city, surrounding towns, and even neighborhoods naturally into your blog titles, headings, and content.
For example, a post titled “Wedding Photo Booth Rental in [City]: What to Expect” is going to perform so much better locally than a generic “What to Expect From a Photo Booth Rental.”
The key with this, however, is to keep it natural! Always always always write for your PEOPLE first and then use your location the way you’d actually talk about it.
Feature Venues You’ve Worked At
As mentioned above, a huge advantage for blogging as a local business is that you can become a go-to community expert and one of the best ways to do that is by simply featuring venues you’ve worked at on your blog!
Here’s why: people search for their venue by name all the time while they’re planning, so when you write a post about a booth setup at [Venue Name], you’re showing up in front of clients who are already booked there and looking for vendors.
In blog posts like this, you can share photos from the event, note where the booth was set up, mention any tips for that space, and give the venue a shoutout. Then send them the link so they can share it too if they want!
Feature Local Vendors
In addition to featuring local venues that you’ve worked at, your blog can also be a great place to feature other local vendors! Because as a photobooth owner, you only make up one part of an event.
Your clients likely also need florists, DJs, photographers, caterers, and more and featuring your favorite local vendors on your blog is a win for everyone!
For a blog like this, you can roundup your favorite local wedding vendors or recap an event and credit the whole vendor team. When you tag them and let them know about the post, many will share it with their own audience or link to it from their website.
That gets you in front of new eyes AND helps your search visibility!
Answer Questions Your Clients Are Already Asking
A lot of times, business owners will come to me wanting to blog for their business, but not knowing what to blog about. When this happens, one of the first things I tell them to do is think about the questions that their audience has asked them lately.
Because trust me, if one person is asking a question, there’s probably at least 10 more people thinking the same thing. And oftentimes questions can make great blog post topics!
For example, think about questions like:
- How much does a photo booth rental cost in [city]?
- How much space do I need for a photo booth?
- Open-air booth vs. enclosed booth: which is right for my event?
- How far in advance should I book a photo booth for my wedding?
Or if you really want to take it a step further, you can round up a list of common FAQs (like The Photobooth Edit did here!) to put everything in one place.
Blog posts like this are gold because they answer real questions people are typing into Google and they save you time answering the same questions in your inbox!
Connect Your Blog to the Rest of Your Marketing
Now for probably my biggest tip of all… treat your blog like the homebase of your marketing and connect it to everything else that you do! I call this a Blogs First, Socials Second approach and the point is to make your marketing as a whole 10x easier because you’re starting with your long form content first.
I have a wholeeee spiel about the Blogs First concept here and you can dig deeper with this workshop. But overall, when you start with your blog content first and connect it to the rest of your marketing, you’re giving every blog post a much longer shelf life by sharing it on other platforms, like Instagram, Pinterest, or even linking it in your email newsletter.
One blog post can fuel a LOT of content and that’s something that I want every business owner to recognize!
Additional Blog Writing Resources for Local Business Owners
If you loved this and want more support with blogging for your local business, that’s what I’m all about and I’d love to stay connected!
Here’s how:
- Binge the Natty Writes Blog – this is where my best blogging tips and resources go FIRST!
- Subscribe to Notes From Natty – if you want *almost* weekly blogging insights straight to your inbox, this is the place to be
- Follow along on Instagram – this is where I share more BTS content and show up for funsies
And as a parting gift, here’s my free Beginner’s Guide to Blogging For Your Business that serves as a resource for almost everything you need to know about blogging in your business AND doubles as a workbook to help you put everything you learn into real action!
If you’re looking for more hands-on support for blogging in your business, CLICK HERE to learn more about my blog writing services for business owners!
