7 irrefutable proof that local marketing is essential to your strategy
You want to reach as many people as possible with your agency, point of sale or network of brands. It's only natural, and that's why you want to give your marketing messages the widest possible reach.
Whether in retail, banking/insurance, services or catering, adopting a global communications strategy is not always appropriate, especially when your potential customers are just around the corner!
So why not open the door wide to local marketing? It's a sure-fire way of boosting your business and your sales per establishment!
If you're still hesitating to put proximity at the heart of your marketing strategy, this should change your mind. So, are you ready to give your marketing and sales actions more impact?
Local marketing: the def in a nutshell
What is local marketing?
Also known as proximity marketing, local marketing refers to marketing strategies and actions aimed at reaching customers who are geographically close to a sales outlet or chain.
If you work for a company with a local presence, such as a franchise or chain of brands, or a business with physical outlets, local marketing could be your secret weapon for developing your business through targeted marketing campaigns.
Sounds promising, doesn't it?
What's the difference between local digital marketing and local SEO?
When we talk about local marketing, we're usually talking about local digital marketing. The latter focuses on optimising the online presence of your business or brand on local searches, to increase your visibility on the web and attract customers from your area.
Local SEO, on the other hand, aims to reference the profiles of each of a company's commercial establishments on online platforms and directories. The aim is to adapt each of them to local preferences, so that you appear before your competitors when consumers are looking for a product or service near to where they are.
Why local marketing? 7 (very) good reasons!
#1 - You improve your visibility
This is THE first good reason: making yourself known locally is essential to attracting potential customers to your point of sale.
Thanks to local marketing combined with digital tools, you can increase the local visibility and awareness of the outlets in your network, so that consumers choose your outlet rather than your nearby competitors.
Local search engine optimisation (or local SEO) is the starting point. Search engines such as Google rely on geo-referenced data to give users the most accurate answer possible.
So when someone nearby searches for the good or service you offer, they'll find it all the more easily if you've set up a location-based marketing campaign on Google.
This is an undeniable advantage when it comes to
- to build up your customer base if you're just setting up,
- to keep them when a competing shop or brand opens nearby,
- or to reach customers who are temporarily present in the area concerned.
#2 - You adapt your strategy to the outlet in question
You can deploy a global marketing strategy, but with local objectives, adapted to the environment of each of your brand's establishments, sales outlets or branches.
So, even if the broad lines are decided and steered by the head of the network, who carries the vision and defines the brand image of the chain, each outlet can have its own identity.
Each store can be encouraged to highlight its own specific characteristics in its communications, while respecting the rules of the parent brand. A real asset for each shop!
#3 - You benefit from web-to-store
Web-to-store is a concept you need to be familiar with. If you're not, in a nutshell it's about attracting your customers to your points of sale via the Internet.
In other words, if you activate the levers of local marketing, you encourage Internet users and prospects to visit the nearest shop.
With local marketing, you target potential buyers in the catchment area of each of your physical sales outlets, by personalising your digital campaigns.
Your advertisements should provide as much information as possible to :
- inform them that there is a point of sale near them,
- encourage them to visit the shop with promotional offers,
- convey a message tailored to local conditions.
In this way, you'll be better able to effectively generate traffic at the point of sale, by reaching your target audience more directly through localised digital communication.
#4 - You build a close relationship with your customers
Your points of sale are first and foremost local businesses. This proximity is a strength for your shop!
Every outlet deserves to know the environment around it and the customers who frequent it. They can develop a real link with their customers, whether in person in their shop, or by developing a local community on social networks.
The shopping experience becomes more personalised: sales staff are in an ideal position to develop customer confidence, and ultimately customer loyalty.
#5 - Strengthen your reputation with local SEO
Working on your local SEO, as we saw earlier, is of great benefit to you: it directly attracts customers in your catchment area, with targeted content, and brings you traffic both online and at the point of sale.
The algorithms of search engines, including Google of course, are becoming increasingly sophisticated and are able to detect users' needs with ever greater precision, in order to provide them with the most relevant response possible.
To do this, make sure that the information you provide is as detailed as possible, easy to find and suitable for all devices.
According to Google, 5 out of 10 consumers who carry out a local search for goods or services visit a shop within 24 hours.
Source : HubSpot
By optimising your activity in this way, you're sending positive signals to Google, which will enable you to reach consumers who are interested in your offer, are nearby and want to make an immediate purchase.
#6 - Adapt to local events
As part of the same drive to blend in with local life, you raise your brand's profile by taking part in local events: sporting, cultural, humanitarian, and so on.
Being a partner or sponsor of an event is an ideal opportunity to raise your profile locally. You'll improve your visibility (especially as photos will surely be taken and shared on social networks!), you'll build an excellent reputation and you'll build customer loyalty.
#7 - Build customer loyalty through social networking
Just like Google, social networks are an invaluable tool for developing effective communication with your customers and prospects.
They give you the opportunity to make your presence felt on a regular basis, to invite yourself into their daily lives, with various possibilities, such as :
- announcing the arrival of a brand new product, creating anticipation and dropping hints,
- offering a time-limited promotion, giving your customers exclusive access,
- telling a story (the famous storytelling), or putting the spotlight on one of your sales staff, etc.
Communicating on social networks helps you to have a more targeted impact and to speak directly to your community of customers. This will encourage them to become attached to and loyal to your brand.
3 examples of successful local marketing strategies
Monoprix: a mobile application to facilitate the shopping experience
Monoprix is an inspiring brand when it comes to being close to its customers. Always looking for the best ways to adapt to their habits, it has set up a mobile application called Monoprix et moi! to meet a strong need among its customers, who are mostly city dwellers, connected and in a hurry: to avoid waiting at the checkout!
The application offers a self checkout service available in every shop. Consumers scan their products independently and use their smartphone as a payment tool, without having to go to the checkout.
Thanks to this strategy, in-store traffic flows more smoothly and the customer experience is greatly enhanced. The icing on the cake is that by using the app, customers are encouraged to come back and make purchases in their shop.
Century 21: perfect use of Google My Business
The property group has understood that a carefully completed Google My Business listing can make a major contribution to increasing its visibility on the internet. Especially as it's a free shop window!
Century 21 estate agents are good at this, carefully filling in all the relevant information (agency contact details, opening times, website address, photos, etc.), giving themselves the best chance of attracting customers to their agency.
All the ingredients are there to project a professional image and appear on both Google and Google Maps, with the route planner feature to help you get to the nearest branch.
Virgin Holidays: deploying a multi-channel presence
The Group is demonstrating a strong, harmonised online presence. With its 80 branches, it has to ensure that it provides users with correct and always up-to-date data.
Its use of a local marketing solution enables it to deploy consistent and comprehensive communication on nearly 100 search platforms worldwide (including Google, Facebook and Yelp).
The strategy has proved a winning one for the company, which has seen the number of visits to its profiles soar.
How do you market locally? Useful tips for getting started
In practical terms, where do you start? First of all, it's a good idea to test your online visibility - especially when you know that 97% of consumers use the internet to find a point of sale!
For example, use an online tool offered by Solocal to obtain a free audit of your company's digital visibility. Simply fill in an online form, and you'll instantly receive personalised advice on how to improve your visibility score. The solution also recommends digital solutions and services, such as managing your social networks or advertising, to boost your online presence.
Generally speaking, we recommend +++ :
- be fully informed about your territory, or catchment area, and its specific characteristics;
- analyse the issues specific to your target audience, its habits, consumption patterns and where it lives and works;
- create optimised communication plans to better reach your local targets,
- evaluate the impact of your local marketing campaigns, and adjust your strategy on the basis of these results;
- look after your e-reputation, by monitoring reviews on review platforms and on your Google My Business profile;
- use local marketing tools, such as :
- multi-local marketing management solutions if you manage agencies,
- SEA and Google Ads for advertising targeting keywords related to your business,
- Google's Local Pack to gain visibility in a geographical area with a "Google Protection" badge, etc.
These are all ways of helping you reach exactly the prospects you want, boosting the ROI of your local marketing campaigns, and ultimately increasing your sales!
Article translated from French