7 irrefutable proof that local marketing is essential to your strategy

You'd like to reach as many people as possible with your agency, point of sale or brand network. It's only natural, and your ambition is to give the widest possible reach to your marketing messages.

Whether in retail, banking/insurance, services or catering, adopting a global communications strategy is not always appropriate, especially when your potential clientele is only a stone's throw away!

How about opening the door 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 more impact to your marketing and sales actions?

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Local marketing: 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 can 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 optimizing the online presence of your business or brand on local searches, in order 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 one to local preferences, so that you appear before your competitors when consumers are looking for a product or service near 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 your network's outlets, so that consumers choose your establishment over your nearby competitors.

Local search engine optimization (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.

An undeniable asset :

• to build up your clientele if you've just set up shop,
• to keep them when a competitor's store opens nearby,
• or to reach customers temporarily present in the area.

#2 - Adapt your strategy to the specific outlet

You can deploy a global marketing strategy, but with local objectives, adapted to the environment of each of your company's establishments, sales outlets or branches.

So, even if the broad outlines 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 store!

#3 - You benefit from web-to-store

Web-to-store is a concept you need to be familiar with. In a nutshell, it's all about attracting customers to your outlets via the Internet.

In other words, if you activate the levers of local marketing, you encourage Internet users and prospects to visit the nearest store.

With local marketing, you target potential buyers in the catchment area of each of your physical points of sale, by personalizing your digital campaigns.

Your advertisements should provide as much information as possible to :

• inform them that there's a point of sale near them,
• encourage them to visit the store with promotional offers,
• convey a message adapted to local conditions.

In this way, you're better able to generate traffic in-store, by reaching your target more directly with localized digital communication.

#4 - Forge a close bond with customers

Your outlets are first and foremost local businesses. This proximity is a strength for your store!

Every outlet deserves to know its environment and the customers who frequent it. They can develop a real bond with customers, whether in person in their store, or by developing a local community on social networks.

The shopping experience becomes more personalized: salespeople find themselves in an ideal position to develop customer trust, and ultimately loyalty.

#5 - Strengthen your presence with local SEO

Working on your local SEO, as we saw just before, is of great benefit to you: it directly captures customers present in your catchment area, with targeted content, and brings you online and point-of-sale traffic.

Search engine algorithms - 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 achieve this, make sure that the information provided is as detailed as possible, easy to find and suitable for all devices.

According to Google, 5 out of 10 consumers who conduct a local search for goods or services visit a store within 24 hours.

Source : HubSpot

By optimizing your activity in this way, you send 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

In the same spirit of blending in with the local community, you raise brand awareness by taking part in local events: sporting, cultural, humanitarian, etc. This is a great way to promote your brand.

Being a partner or sponsor of an event is an ideal opportunity to extend your local reach. You'll increase your visibility (especially as photos will surely be taken and shared on social networks!), build an excellent reputation and develop 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 exclusivity,
• telling a story (the famous storytelling), or putting the spotlight on one of your salespeople, etc.

Communicating on social networks helps you to have a more targeted impact and speak directly to your community of customers. All the more reason to build brand loyalty.

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 customer proximity. Always on the lookout for the best ways to adapt to their habits, it has set up a mobile application Monoprix et moi! to meet a strong need of its customers, who are mostly urban, connected and in a hurry: avoid waiting at the checkout!

The application offers a self checkout service, available in every store. 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 return to make purchases in their store.

Century 21: perfect use of Google My Business

The real estate group understands that a carefully completed Google My Business listing can make a significant contribution to its online visibility. Especially since it's a free showcase!

Century 21 real estate agencies are good at this, carefully filling in all the relevant information (agency contact details, opening hours, website address, photos, etc.), giving themselves the best chance of attracting customers to their agency.

All the ingredients are present to project a professional image and appear on both Google and Google Maps, with a route planner to the nearest branch.

Virgin Holidays: deploying a multi-channel presence

The group is demonstrating a strong, harmonized 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, 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.

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How to market locally Tips for getting started

Where to start? First and foremost, it's a good idea to test your online visibility - especially when you consider that 97% of consumers use the Internet to find a point of sale!

Use an online tool offered by Solocal, for example, to obtain a free audit of your company's digital visibility. Simply fill in an online form, and you'll instantly receive personalized 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.

In general, we recommend +++ :

• know your territory, or catchment area, and its specifics;
• analyze the issues specific to your target, its uses, consumption habits, places of residence and work;
• create optimized communication plans to better reach your local targets,
• evaluate the impact of your local marketing actions, 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 on 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 to help you reach exactly the prospects you want, boosting the ROI of your local marketing actions, and ultimately increasing your sales!