Do you know local marketing? Obviously, you will tell us that it is local marketing that allows you to increase your local visibility among consumers present in your catchment area. Bravo, good answer!
The different local marketing techniques act with a specific goal, that of generating traffic in stores. In fact, 72% of consumers who carry out a local search visit a store less than 8 km from their current location. Additionally, “near me” searches have increased by almost 900% in the last two years. The premises are, therefore, a strong generator of business.
To face the competition, it is necessary to implement an optimized and efficient strategy. We are therefore revealing the 6 best local marketing practices to implement in your network.
Develop your local digital visibility
The first thing to do to be efficient is to be visible on the web. Keep in mind that 78% of location-based mobile searches result in an offline purchase.
To optimize your digital notoriety, we advise you to deploy a presence management strategy. To do this, create Google My Business listings and local pages on social networks for each of your points of sale. Yes, we said that for everyone!
This online presence contributes to your natural referencing and highlights your establishments during Internet users’ searches. Which then attracts prospects to your stores!
Go directly to consumers
To be close to your customers and therefore develop your sympathy, we advise you to contact them directly.
This technique is possible thanks to direct marketing, which allows you to send emails, text messages, and even messages to your customers’ answering machine. You can, for example, announce a promotion to consumers present in the catchment area of your store in Rennes. To do this, rely on your CRM or rent databases. Remember, good segmentation is the key to relevant communication.
We also advise you to strengthen this feeling of proximity through good management of your customer reviews. Take the time to respond to all comments and offer responses tailored to each situation.
Invest in social networks
To optimize your local notoriety, you must develop your presence on social networks.
As seen previously, start by creating local Facebook pages, local Instagram pages, and local LinkedIn pages (depending on your industry). Know that local pages generate 67% of impressions compared to only 33% for generic pages. They are, therefore, very important for attracting customers to points of sale.
Then, invest in location-based ads. These local advertisements allow very precise targeting and present consumers with advertisements integrating data on their local establishment. You can, for example, offer an exclusive promotion to the first 100 customers who come to your new store. It is important to note that publishing targeted content creates 7 to 8 times more in-store traffic. Ideal for generating point-of-sale traffic!
Also Read: Digital Marketing: What Is Local SEO In A Nutshell?
Personalize your content locally
We cannot emphasize enough that adapting content is the basis of effective local marketing. The proof is that the personalization of communications makes it possible to obtain an ROI 5 to 8 times higher than that of generic content.
It is, therefore, necessary to integrate elements of local context, whether at your points of sale or their location. You can, for example, tell the consumer the point of sale closest to them and tell them that as today it is hot in Rennes, they can come and try on your hats.
Local content personalization can be done in two ways. You can centralize at headquarters and dynamically generate content containing local information. Or you can decentralize your network by offering ready-to-use customizable templates. To improve performance, you can also rely on a local marketing platform
Deploy a multichannel and omnichannel strategy
For best results, we advise you to deploy your local marketing strategy in a multichannel and omnichannel manner. This allows you to be omnipresent and meet your consumers on different media and through different means.
Local advertisements on social networks, text messages, Google business listings, local Instagram pages, etc. Thanks to the repetition of messages, your brand becomes part of the daily lives of prospects, and you thus generate traffic at the point of sale.
Lean on a local marketing platform
We have seen that local marketing is essential to attract customers to points of sale. However, it requires multiple actions, settings, and distribution media, which must then be adapted locally to each point of sale.
To save time and improve your performance, you can rely on a local marketing platform. It allows you to manage:
Presence management:
- Centralized or decentralized updating of Google establishment files
- Multicasting on local directories, GPS navigation systems, and search engines
- Publishing Google posts with ready-to-use templates for your network
Direct marketing: sending emails, text messages, and messages to answering machines; ready-to-use models for local adaptation by your points of sale; automation of certain birthday message-type sendings.
Social networks: updating local Facebook, Instagram, and Linkedin pages; ready-to-use post templates including cross-posting technology (scaling and automatic publication depending on the social network); followed by an editorial calendar and schedule of publications.
Local advertising: local management and personalization of geolocated advertisements on social networks and Google Ads.
Customer reviews: centralization of Google and Facebook customer reviews; receiving alerts for new reviews; Ready-to-use response templates for your network.
Digital Asset Management: sharing a content library with your network. It contains elements like your logo, an image bank, videos, etc. Everything is centralized in one place, and you can send sharing notifications to your points of sale. It is even possible to define usage rights on each element, depending on the profile.
Monitoring indicators: local monitoring of KPIs for each previous theme. You benefit from precise data such as the completion rate of Google files, the conversion rate of your local advertisements, or the opening rate of marketing emails.
Conclusion
To optimize your local marketing, you must rely on various best practices in order to attract customers to points of sale. Start by developing your local online visibility, speaking directly to consumers, and investing in social networks. Then, remember to adapt your content to the local context and distribute your messages omnichannel.
To help you implement these best practices, you can rely on a local marketing platform that facilitates a large number of actions for you. The Digital teams will be happy to present their local marketing tool to you and support you in deploying your objectives.
Also Read: The Website As The Center Of Local Digital Marketing