One of the growing challenges for retail chains is the localization of its digital marketing. Let’s take a closer look.
Sommaire
What do we mean by local digital marketing?
Local digital marketing involves using digital tools and services to increase the online visibility of a particular branch of a business, thereby generating custom.
This communication strategy is becoming more and more consistent with consumer buying behaviour. The Internet, search engines, social networks and Google’s business card have become the new shop windows. Internet users start thinking about their purchase before visiting a shop, a phenomenon called ROPO, meaning Research Online, Purchase Offline.
What advantages can local digital marketing offer?
Compared to traditional marketing and advertising such as printed materials and in-store display units, digital tools offer four major benefits:
- Targeting: the ability to reach the right audiences. Marketing that is both digital and localized offers businesses the opportunity to go one step further when it comes to targeting their audience and distributing content… For example, sponsorship campaigns like Instagram Ads, Waze Ads or Google Ads allow you to restrict the scope of ads according to consumer data such as geolocation, age, etc.
- Drive-to-store: advertising promotions. Internet users carry out geolocalized searches to find the information they seek. For example, the Google Business Profile provides addresses, details of products and new products and information about opening hours, etc. Supplying information to platforms like this improves visibility in search directories. You can use it to publicize commercial strategies like promotions, sales, events, etc.
- Return on investment: measuring the conversion rate of ad/marketing campaigns. Online advertising offers precise indicators on the results of an ad campaign: cost per click, cost per download, etc.; data that can be used to assess how effective marketing and ad campaigns have been. Plus, the ability to incorporate specific criteria helps further boost the effectiveness of those campaigns. Uniquely targeting only the right audience/customer base optimizes returns (ROI).
- Engagement: building and engaging with the fan community. Interacting with users is a good way to build loyalty. Online communities are exposed to the content a store publishes on its pages. Sellers can respond to subscribers’ comments and questions, and online users can support retailers with likes, shares, etc. The rate of engagement is often higher on local pages than a company’s national pages.
Where to start with local online marketing?
A local branch can be boosted by having online presence. Here are our tips for kick starting local digital marketing for your network.
Provide accessible resources that people will be able to use
Make sure posting on social networks or launching an ad campaign are straight-forward processes. Head office can provide content or marketing packages to make digital marketing easier for local branches to localize. The easier it is to launch an ad/marketing campaign, the more likely it is that branches will be active online.
Support the point of sale network
Local franchisees or branches are probably not marketing experts, so the level of experience may differ from branch to branch. The key to a successful local marketing strategy is to include each branch gradually. Interacting, sharing small victories and promoting good practice will help the thinking to evolve. A hotline, training webinars and online chat are always welcomed.
Maintain a consistent brand image
Local digital marketing must be in line with the brand’s identity. It’s one of the keys to an effective online presence. A centralized space dedicated to the brand makes managing the network and sharing information a more fluid process. There are various marketing tools to choose from, such as social network management, online personalization and local SEA, according to company/branch requirements and the type of campaign you wish to launch.
The local platform to boost proximity marketing
Digital marketing of your point of sale network can be carried out on a local scale thanks to this 360 tool. A local marketing platform is a way of activating online visibility levers without getting technical.
To improve local referencing, social media, online presence management or customer review management tend to be essential. The idea is to facilitate access to these innovative solutions in a
simple, measurable and efficient way.
This way, retail outlets can extend their digital strategy and respond to the issues of positioning on the web or interaction on social media platforms.
This dynamic is good for company revenue, as many commercial objectives are played out locally.