The best local marketing agencies have the expertise to help you grow your brand in your market, but knowing which to choose can be challenging. Below are the eight best local marketing companies to grow your small business’s local presence with effective search engine optimization (SEO), advertising, website marketing, and more.
- Best Local Marketing Agency Overall: Straight North
- Best Local Reputation Management Services: Avalaunch Media
- Best Local SEO Services: SEO Discovery
- Best for Social Media Marketing & Advertising: Lyfe Marketing
- Best for Local Influencer Marketing: WebFX
- Best Agency for Local Search Ads: Orbit Local
- Best Local Event Marketing Agency: Lotus823
- Best for Local Listings Management: Hibu
- Best Local Marketing Agencies at a Glance
- 1. Straight North: Best Local Marketing Agency Overall
- 2. Avalaunch Media: Best for Local Reputation Management
- 3. SEO Discovery: Best Local SEO Services
- 4. Lyfe Marketing: Best Local Marketing Agency for Social Media
- 5. WebFX: Best for Local Influencer Marketing
- 6. Orbit Local: Best for Localized Paid Advertising
- 7. Lotus823: Best for Local Event Marketing
- 8. Hibu: Best for Local Listings Management
- How We Evaluated the Best Local Marketing Agencies
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- Bottom Line
Best Local Marketing Agencies at a Glance
| Providers | Pricing | Features | Learn more |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Custom, from $1,000* |
| Visit Straight NorthorRead More Below |
 | Custom, from $1,000* |
| Visit Avalaunch MediaorRead More Below |
 | Custom, from $250 |
| Visit SEO DiscoveryorRead More Below |
 | From $650 |
| Visit Lyfe MarketingorRead More Below |
 | Custom, from $600 |
| Visit WebFXorRead More Below |
 | Custom, from $99 |
| Visit Orbit LocalorRead More Below |
 | Custom, from $1,000* |
| Visit Lotus823orRead More Below |
 | Custom |
| Visit HibuorRead More Below |
Keep reading to learn more about each local marketing agency, including the scope of services for each, user reviews, and pricing.
1. Straight North: Best Local Marketing Agency Overall
Straight North offers all the essential digital marketing services for small businesses, including website design, branding, SEO, content marketing, and paid ads. This makes it the top local marketing company overall for small businesses, especially if you’re starting out.
Straight North can develop your brand identity and create and optimize your website. In addition, it can publish search-friendly and link-worthy text and visual content on your site, create marketing videos, execute your local SEO, and manage your Google and Facebook search and display ads.
However, Straight North’s biggest drawback is that it doesn’t offer organic social media marketing. For these services, Avalaunch Media or WebFX might be a better option.
Straight North is one of the best local marketing firms for growing your brand from scratch. (Source: Straight North)
Start growing your brand presence today with Straight North’s individual services or bundled marketing solutions—contact its team for a custom quote for your business.
2. Avalaunch Media: Best for Local Reputation Management
Your online reputation can make or break your local business, from coverage on online news to how customers discuss your brand on social media. A local marketing agency that can handle all these aspects is Avalaunch Media—it has one of the strongest PR (public relations) services around and can handle sending press releases to get your business covered by local press. And, it can also monitor your brand’s online reputation.
Beyond reputation management, Avalaunch Media can also grow your social follower count from scratch—including via influencer marketing—and connect your business with local events. It also has many other digital marketing services, including SEO, paid social and Google ads, branding, and social media. The one thing it lacks is website-building services, so you’ll need to partner with an agency like Straight North if you don’t have a website yet.
Partner with Avalaunch Media to manage your business’ local reputation and more. (Source: Avalaunch Media)
Otherwise, Avalaunch Media is one of the most comprehensive local marketing companies around, with an especially strong suite for PR and connecting you with your local community. Contact the company today to get a custom quote for your business.
3. SEO Discovery: Best Local SEO Services
Boosting your local SEO is an essential way to grow your business’s local presence, and SEO Discovery has one of the most comprehensive local internet marketing services for doing so. Its services will help your site rank higher on Google within a specific location by link building, content creation, and even schema markup, which helps search engines understand your content better to improve your rankings.
While its local SEO services are comprehensive on their own, SEO Discovery also supports them by optimizing your Google Business Profile and listing your site on other local business directory sites. Plus, it can also set up locally targeted paid ads and manage your online reviews.
On the negative side, there are no visible prices for SEO Discovery’s local SEO services, so you’ll need to reach out for a custom quote. However, generally, SEO Discovery is one of the more affordable digital marketing agencies around (for instance, its general SEO packages start at $250 monthly). Another drawback is that, unlike most other local marketing companies, it doesn’t offer any graphic design or email marketing services.
SEO Discovery offers some of the most comprehensive SEO services, including local SEO. (Source: SEO Discovery)
Overall, SEO Discovery is the go-to for developing your local SEO strategies. Partner with it to increase your website’s search engine ranking and get web traffic and leads from your local community.
4. Lyfe Marketing: Best Local Marketing Agency for Social Media
Social channels offer some of the best ways to quickly reach and engage local customers for brand awareness and sales. Lyfe Marketing has made it their specialty. The social media agency focuses almost exclusively on social media marketing and advertising services, including niche services like creating the vertical videos needed to thrive on platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
Being able to combine strategies for organic and paid social offers the best chance to gain visibility online with local prospects and customers and engage with them authentically. However, Lyfe Marketing doesn’t offer a full range of local marketing services, such as website building, SEO, or content marketing outside of social platforms. If you want an all-in-one solution, Hibu could be a better choice.
Lyfe Marketing specializes in social media marketing and advertising. (Source: Lyfe Marketing)
We admit it—we’re fans of Lyfe Marketing. High customer satisfaction and a slew of case studies on the agency’s website are proof positive that it’s the best local marketing agency for social media marketing and advertising. Get started at no risk by requesting a free consultation.
5. WebFX: Best for Local Influencer Marketing
Local influencer marketing is one of today’s fastest-growing strategies for local marketing online that your small business can benefit from, which is where WebFX can help. One of the most established digital marketing agencies around, WebFX’s influencer marketing services cover every stage of the process, from sourcing the best local influencers for your brand to creating the content for posting, making it a flexible and cost-effective option.
Plus, all its influencer marketing services are a la carte, so you won’t need to commit to any locked-in plans, and its database spans from nano to mega influencers. However, the downside of WebFX’s influencer services is that there is no guarantee that all the sourced influencers are local to your specific region—sometimes, the best influencer matches for your brand are in a different location.
WebFX offers many marketing services for small businesses, including influencer marketing. (Source: WebFX)
Still, being a well-established marketing agency, WebFX also offers countless other marketing services, from website building to SEO and content marketing—and many more. Get started building your marketing strategy today by getting in touch via its website.
6. Orbit Local: Best for Localized Paid Advertising
Paid ads are a staple in digital marketing, but they can be a powerhouse when customized to your local audiences. Most digital marketing agencies offer paid ads services, but for a more local marketing agency, Orbit Local is one of the best. Get localized paid ads on Google, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram, but also on Bing and other even local radio.
Orbit Local is also a full-service paid ads agency, which means it will handle everything from planning your strategy to setting up and optimizing your ads and analyzing your results—a great option if you’re a complete beginner to paid ads. It also has services for local SEO, Google Business Profile setup, ecommerce marketing, and social media management.
Its main lacking points are the lack of review and listing management services, so it’s only most useful if your main focus is paid ads and SEO. If your needs go beyond local advertising services, go with Hibu or SEO Discovery instead.
Orbit Local specializes in local marketing, especially for paid advertising. (Source: Orbit Local)
Overall, Orbit Local is unique for offering fully localized digital marketing services, making it one of the best local marketing companies, especially for paid ads and SEO. Contact the agency today by booking a free consultation on its website.
7. Lotus823: Best for Local Event Marketing
If local marketing events like product launches or trade shows are part of your local marketing strategy, Lotus823 might be your best partner. While it offers many marketing essentials like social media and paid ads, it also specializes in creating and managing events for small businesses, from intimate group events to large-scale conferences. These events help form personal connections with your local community.
Plus, Lotus823 is a full-service agency, so it will handle your event from start to finish—from strategizing your event to handling all the logistics on the actual day. It will also integrate your event with other digital and website marketing strategies beforehand to maximize your brand impact even further.
However, the negative side of this is that because Lotus823 is a fully hands-on agency, there are no a la carte services available, or visible pricing—you’ll need to reach out for a quote.
Also, beyond local events, its local marketing services are more limited than others. For instance, it doesn’t offer any services for listings or reviews management (even for your Google Business Profile), website-building, or press release management.
Lotus823’s expertise is in organizing marketing events to connect in person with your local community. (Source: Lotus823)
On the whole, however, Lotus823 is impressive for including local events as part of its marketing services, making it one of the more unique local marketing companies around. Contact the agency today via its website to book a consultation on the best events strategy for your business.
8. Hibu: Best for Local Listings Management
If having local citations for SEO is one of your main marketing strategies, Hibu might be the best local inbound marketing agency for you. Listing your business in online local directories like Yelp or FourSquare can get your business in front of many interested customers, generate foot traffic, and boost your SEO with a quality backlink. Hibu has services specifically for spreading out your listings to where they’re relevant and keeping them updated.
Hibu has a dashboard for managing your listings and tracking analytics like traffic and engagement. It can even optimize them to be discoverable via voice search (for example, via Siri), and if you need to update your info, all you need to do is give them a call. However, Hibu’s services are all bundled in plans that include a website, social marketing and advertising, SEO, and more; for a la carte options, SEO Discovery or WebFX are better.
Hibu has top-to-bottom services for managing your business listings, including a dashboard for monitoring your analytics. (Source: Hibu)
Still, more than most other local marketing companies, Hibu is one of the most comprehensive for managing your business’ local listings and reviews. It will set you up with a dashboard and automatically optimize all your listings. Get started with Hibu today by contacting the agency for a free consultation and marketing report.
How We Evaluated the Best Local Marketing Agencies
With dozens of digital marketing agencies available for small businesses, choosing the best ones for local marketing entails setting specific criteria. For instance, we only included agencies with services specifically for growing your business’s local presence, such as local SEO or listings management.
Here are the criteria we used to help choose the best local marketing agency for a small business:
- Local marketing and advertising services: We only included agencies with services geared for local marketing. These include local SEO, listings and review management, and services for gaining local press coverage (i.e., press releases or radio and billboard advertising). We also considered whether they offered website building, social media, and paid advertising.
- Plan flexibility: While most of the marketing agencies above have custom pricing, we only included those with flexible plans and pricing schemes. Nearly all the agencies above have options for a la carte services or bundled custom plans.
- Small business experience: There are countless digital marketing agencies available, but it takes specific skill sets and strategies to market a small business. Therefore, we evaluated whether each local digital marketing agency above had previously worked with small businesses and startups, not just nationally known companies.
- User reviews: Client experience is also part of the equation. When evaluated on review sites such as G2.com, Clutch.co, and Capterra, all of the agencies had an average rating of at least 3.5 out of 5.
- Cost: All the agencies here offer affordable starting costs for startups and small businesses. The value for your money is also there, along with scalable plans and services to grow with your company.
- Expert opinion and experience: Our team has decades of collective experience in local marketing for small businesses, online and off. We determined that each of the local marketing agencies above offers a quality experience and has deep local marketing expertise—we’d use them for our own businesses in a heartbeat.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What does a local marketing agency do?
A local marketing agency executes strategies and campaigns to grow your small business presence in your local area. Working with you, it puts together plans based on your marketing goals, from growing your local brand awareness to generating leads, sales, and web or foot traffic to your business. These strategies often include improving your local SEO, listing your business on local directories, advertising, PR and publicity, local events, and more.
Is it worth it to hire a marketing agency?
Yes, hiring a marketing agency is worth it to grow your business’ brand presence effectively instead of constant trial and error. Marketing agencies have professionals that can handle all your small business marketing strategies, both offline or online, and meet your specific marketing goals. There are also many marketing agencies catered specifically to small businesses that won’t break the bank, such as those above.
What’s the difference between an advertising agency and a marketing agency?
A local advertising agency uses paid advertising strategies to grow your business (such as pay-per-click or radio ads). Marketing agencies create a more holistic strategy for your business using both organic and paid methods. In short, paid ads are just one part of a marketing strategy. If you only want to advertise your business, you’ll partner with a local ads agency, but if you want a more comprehensive strategy, you’ll need a marketing agency.
Bottom Line
Connecting with your local community can lead to significant growth for your small business. Local communities can increase foot traffic and sales and create loyal customers for your brand. For the best local marketing strategies, partner with a vetted local marketing agency, such as those above. Our overall top pick for a holistic approach, especially if you’re just starting out, is Straight North—it’ll develop your brand from scratch and grow your local presence.
