Good morning, Marketer, is local-digital marketing an untapped opportunity? Despite generating most of their revenue in stores, multi-location brands (chains like Home Depot, Macyâs, Chipotle, and Walmart) have been slow to focus on local-digital marketing tactics â like SEO, GMB optimization, review management, and localized social marketing. Instead, many of these chains rely on national strategies â even though evidence suggests consumers engage with these entities primarily at the local level. A recent survey from Forrester found that 60% of multi-location marketers agree local ratings and reviews and social media have âa direct impact on their customersâ decisions to visit a store and make a purchase.â And 61% now say that improving local marketing effectiveness is a high priority ânext year.â But what makes it such a challenge to implement local-digital marketing? The organizational challenges and pain points the study identifies include: ⢠| Not enough resources to scale marketing programs locally across hundreds of stores and locations | ⢠| Siloed operations: a lack of internal cooperation and coordination among teams | ⢠| Lack of interaction between in-house marketers and external agencies that are managing different channels or campaigns | ⢠| Gaps in strategy: 31% reported no locally targeted paid social media strategy | ⢠| Use of distinct software solutions that arenât integrated for a global or holistic view of performance | ⢠| Inability to respond quickly to customer engagement or complaints at the local store level |
Keep scrolling for more, including a look at IPG Mediabrandâs first media responsibility report. Taylor Peterson, Deputy Editor |