Integrated Local Targeting to Drive Consumer Preference
Six ways to ensure alignment of local marketing programs.
Six ways to ensure alignment of local marketing programs.
Seeking new ways to connect with fickle customers, many large companies are expanding their online marketing strategies to include customized messaging that speaks to local audiences. Investing in local, geo-optimized campaigns can yield significant benefits, but it takes a lot more investment of both time and resources in order to achieve optimal results. When considering integrating a local component to your targeting programs, ensure your strategy can support both the demand for increased content and uniqueness of offers to differentiate the campaigns.
Let’s say you’re a major grocery chain that’s trying to connect more with consumers at the local level. You’d probably start out by creating a series of profiles specific to each store or region and then designate an on-site worker to monitor and maintain the profiles on a daily basis. Strategies such as this require a series of do’s and don’ts so information is presented accurately, and so the local presence remains within branding guidelines. Along with these profiles, though, this grocery chain should be creating unique user experiences on their website by displaying geo-specific content, local social network feeds, integrated map listings, and also information from review sites. Besides developing geo-specific messaging, remember to include as many user stories as possible to add validity from the online community. Every local experience should be a well-thought-out extension of the existing corporate marketing infrastructure and fueled by targeted interactive marketing campaigns.
Geographically-focused strategies such as this are based on circumstantial situations such as seasonality and geographic specialties. It does your business a disservice to provide the same controlled message across the board. If you’re selling lawn chairs in Los Angeles in the winter months, it makes no sense for customers in Chicago to be seeing that promotion, or even content associated to it.
Enterprise-level companies are all dealing with how to manage local marketing programs such as this and it’s best to understand all of the opportunities that exist. To ensure alignment of local:
Fundamentally, people consume and engage with content that is shared by the people closest to them. Companies need to look at local marketing as building a positive brand experience, and by doing so, will see short-term and long-term rewards. The frequency of downloads or views on a video may seem like a short-term victory that didn’t get more than a like, but the result from constant exposure may lead to a conversion down the road – and a more loyal, engaged customer.