The Ultimate Playbook for Retail Local Marketing

The Ultimate Playbook

for Retail Local Marketing

A Playbook

Modern Retail Marketing: At the intersection of personalization and mobile

Today, your consumers demand the very best from your retail story.

In the age of eCommerce, there is a common belief that

online sales are overwhelming brick-and-mortar sales.

It just isn’t true. In fact, today more consumers want to

purchase from a local store more than ever. But, they

want their journey to be personalized and relevant to

them. The retailer that markets to the consumer the

exact way that they want to be marketed to will get that

consumer’s purchase and more than likely their loyalty.

As important as personalizing the journey, consumers

want to be shown the quickest and most effective way to

make their local purchase.

Human Behavior is Driving the Local Customer Journey

70% of purchases made 5 miles from a customer’s home (Google Study)

79% of smartphone owners and 81% of tablet owners use their devices to search for information on local businesses

Approximately 80% of mobile searches result in the purchase of a product or service, and 75% brought the customer into the physical store

“Near me” searches or mobile searches performed to locate a purchase within a close proximity to the shopper have increased 340% since 2011 and have doubled last year alone

THE ULTIMATE PLAYBOOK FOR RETAIL LOCAL MARKETING | BALIHOO.COM

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The buying decision for the retailer consumer has changed. The point where the shopper begins looking for a solution is what

we call the “last mile of marketing”. It is the point where shoppers make attempts to discover a product or service - often

using a mobile device – and ends with a relationship being built with a local brick-and-mortar location. The Last Mile of

Marketing is also where your company and its products and services are discovered and convince the shopper to buy, giving

them the quickest access to your local point of purchase. It is also the window of time where shoppers can discover your

competitors as well.

Examples of the “last mile of marketing”:

STUDENT AT HOME

Looking to replace his or her broken laptop locally before school

starts the next day

For the new sport he just signed up

and looking to get gear quickly

SPORTS FAN LOOKING FOR NEW EQUIPMENT

BUSINESS TRAVELER NEW TO A CITY LOOKING FOR LUNCH

Trying to find a close place for lunch to take a new client while in a

“foreign” city

BUSY MOM IN A MINI-VAN

Trying to find a close pet food store

for the dog her daughter just found

COFFEE FANATIC LOOKING TO REPLACE HER ESPRESSO MACHINE

Looking for the closest retail outlet

that carries the latest espresso machine

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Discover shopper behavior and match the their shopping experience to their

needs and wants

When planned and executed correctly, “the last mile of marketing” has the promise to:Drive foot and

phone traffic to the local store Engage

customers in more meaningful

ways at the physical store

Increase awareness of

your brand and store location for

future visits


This retail guide outlines the four key steps to achieving a successful

local retail marketing strategy

Plan

Listen

Execute

Optimize

1

3

2

4

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The first step to local retail marketing is to define your goals.

If your company is focused on building customer loyalty,

leveraging mobile marketing to automatically reward loyal

customers is a good fit for that strategy. If your company’s focus

is on customer service, leveraging mobile and location-based

marketing to automatically notify an associate of a VIP’s arrival

is a good step. If you are wanting to drive new customer sales,

focusing on digital awareness and discovery of local outlets is a

key goal.

At Balihoo, we believe the foundation to successful local

marketing is “discoverability”. That is, making all your local

points of purchase – whether company owned, partner led, or a

mix of both- are easily found by customers with a need or desire

that begin their digital journey. Basically, it is marketing the right

message to the right person AT THE RIGHT TIME.

It’s not surprising that online search is the tool consumers use

most frequently to find your locations—your retail outlets,

franchisees, distributors, agents, channel partners, and

representatives. In fact, 90% of consumers search online and

THEN purchase offline in local markets.1

For a national brand with local storefronts or partners, the key

to discoverability is ensuring that when a consumer searches

for your type of product or service, they are served up locally-

relevant results for your local storefronts ABOVE those of your

competitors. This is the moment when many national brands

lose potential customers to their competitors, without even

knowing it.

Plan

79% of smartphone owners and 81% of tablet owners use their devices to search for information on LOCAL businesses

Approximately 75% of those searches bring the customer into a physical store - and 80% result in a purchase

1


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The 3 Elements to Local Discoverability

Local Websites take your dealer or company locator to another level.

Local websites allow all locations to show up individually in location

searches and maps on top search engines, capturing the immediate

attention of consumers looking for your product or services NOW.

Key elements for success:• Use an automation platform to create all websites

simultaneously - using your own database of locations and their offerings.

• Allow local partners to customize and configure strategic elements.

• Launch corresponding City Websites - which enable all the brand locations for that city to be easily categorized by

city - for both the search engines and consumers.

• Enable call tracking - which allows you to report on the resulting phone traffic generated to your partners.

LOCAL WEBSITES | The heart of your local marketing strategy

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Twenty percent of local business listings are inaccurate and one out of every four local business

listings is missing key information.2 By centrally managing all of your brand’s business listings

from a single database, you can ensure that they are correct, consistent and visible online.

Key elements for success:• Make sure your automation

platform checks your data for accuracy—locating and resolving duplicate listings and missing data.

• Publish your data to all the major U.S. data aggregators.

• Easy reporting on listing status and performance

LOCAL LISTINGS | An overlooked step in generating demand



Local Paid Search puts your locations at the top of search engine results,

captures the attention of local customers who are looking for your product

or category, and drives traffic to your local partners and locations.

Key elements for success:• A platform that allows for corporate-managed approach, which cut costs by only spending funds where it makes sense.

• Localized ad copy and keywords list that increases traffic to local websites and boosts results for your partners and locations.

• Detailed campaign reporting features that let you understand how you are doing in aggregate, by location, and other key criteria.

• Utilize radius configurations to keep locations from competing with each other

With Local Websites, Local Listings, and Local Paid Search, your national

brand has an effective set of tools that can extend your national strategy

to a local level, drive more demand and foot traffic, ensure consistent and

accurate information, and increase return on your marketing dollars.

But does it work?

LOCAL LISTINGS | An overlooked step in generating demand LOCAL PAID SEARCH | Engage customers earlier in the purchase cycle


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• A branded URL for local websites that greater discoverability and consistency

• Built-in best practices for search engine optimization (SEO) for each local website

• Name, address, and phone number consistency across all online directories

• Unique local content and locally-relevant links to tailor content to specific markets

• Google+ Local Registration and management for local relevance

Control4, a leading provider of automation and

control solutions for the connected home, has a

distributor base of 3,000 independent dealers.

Ensuring a consistent online presence and seamless

customer experience— while driving local online

traffic and leads—was a challenge. By implementing

local websites in partnership with Balihoo, Control4

revolutionized their online presence.

They now have:

An example

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The results were stellar. In less than 12 months, Control4 experienced tangible success and exponential growth, including:

“The local websites we launched in conjunction with Balihoo has given us the ability to maintain a local brand presence online

by leveraging our independent dealer’s physical locations and associating them in with our brand. We have seen phenomenal

results with this effort and more importantly, we are getting leads directly to our dealer network faster than we ever have.”

- Tyler Reed, Senior Marketing Manager at Control4

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The second step is listening to your local customers and local

stores for input. For campaigns to be effective, we know that

they must be personalized and relevant. Using a data-driven

approach to marketing allows marketers to customize their

campaigns based upon the local needs of your customers.

By listening and incorporating data from your local markets,

you can create campaigns that are meaningful and specific to

the needs of your local market customers.

Using local market intelligence, such as weather, census data,

building permits, and data from the local stores, can help you

create discovery campaigns that are specific to your company

AND local market needs. For example, so your company makes

portable heaters. You know that the northeast markets are

going to receive significant snowfall in December.

Why not create a local paid search campaign to specific markets

where you have stores based upon Weather.com data? Use

platforms like Balihoo’s Local marketing Cloud can allow you to

do this at scale for all your locations across the country.

Another effective method for prioritizing which markets to

focus discovery tactics on is to compare store data. Let’s say

that your brand has 150 locations in 20 states. These locations

are in metro areas with population levels of greater than

500,000 people. The graph below represents data from 10 of

these stores over a 90 day period.

Listen2


Now that you have an understanding of your customers’ traffic and shopping

patterns for each market – and local market data - it is time to execute your

discovery campaigns. We recommend starting with campaigns targeting markets

that are challenged with revenue and foot traffic as a test. Developing local sites,

local paid search, and optimizing local listings for these markets is a great way to

test your campaigns and see the greatest results.

Execute3

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After executing on your discoverability campaigns, now is the time to sample

other tactics that may be helpful in increasing local marketing effectiveness.

Other marketing tactics, such as display advertising, re-marketing, local direct

mail, local social media marketing, and local email are effective tactics to boost

retail store traffic, create awareness, and build loyalty. One digital tactic that

we have seen be effective after a discoverability strategy has been executed is

local display advertising.

Location-based ads help brands improve targeting, boost engagement and

generate more effective creative collateral. Did you know this startling statistic:

four out of every five consumers want ads customized to their city, zip, or

immediate surroundings?3

What’s more, personalized display ads have a 10x higher click-through rate

when compared with traditional ads.4 In fact, local relevancy is the top reason

for engagement with mobile ads.2,3

Optimize4


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For example, LiftMaster recognized that they needed to invest in a

strong local marketing strategy to show up in local search results.

At the same time, LiftMaster wanted to maintain a seamless brand

presence down to the local level, and compete in local markets,

or risk losing a sale.

Objectives

• Invest in proven digital tactics versus heavy, untrackable traditional media

• Grow presence in local search, while generating additional traffic and awareness

• Activate national campaigns at the local level for more dealers without needing to bring on more staff

• Develop and uphold a seamless and effective customer experience

A local marketing success story


Solution

In the span of a couple of months, Balihoo

and LiftMaster developed a pilot plan to start

generating traffic to local dealers, growing

the LiftMaster brand in target local markets,

and increase online impressions. By launching

both the Local Websites Solution and Local

Display Advertising, LiftMaster has experienced

exponential growth in each area of interest.


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LiftMaster Results

Five weeks after launching a pilot program for a group of 105 locations,

LiftMaster has experienced incredible growth and results. In addition to the

data below, Balihoo has provided invaluable insights into how LiftMaster’s

national campaigns and advertising translate to sales at the local level, and

armed them with a solution to track and measure ROI from local campaigns to

help inform their strategy for future efforts.


“By partnering with Balihoo, we found

a Local Marketing platform provider

that understands the ins and outs of

the local marketing space and allows

us to respond to market trends and

customer needs. We are excited to

continue to grow the relationship

with Balihoo and evolve the way the

LiftMaster brand reaches consumers

at the local level.”

- Mike Bevan, Director of Digital Marketing and Dealer Services

25 million online

impressions

more than double the industry averages 0.34% CLICK-THROUGH-RATE,

More than 100,000 clicks to local

websites

175 clicks on maps for directions to

local dealers

82 visits to dealer

websites 64 emails to

local dealers

42 lead form submissions in five

weeks

Low cost-per-click rates at $0.25

SUBMIT

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1) Google Study, 20142) 2014 Moz Local Search Ranking Factors Study3) IPsos MediaCY, 20144) “Display Re-targeting”. Get Elastic, 2013

Summary and Conclusions

LOCAL WEBSITESThe heart of your local marketing strategy

LOCAL LISTINGSAn overlooked step to generating demand

LOCAL PAID SEARCHAllows you to compete at the category, brand, and product levels

At its heart, retail marketing is local marketing. The foundation to a successful local marketing strategy is to allow your local stores to be discovered by searching customers, mostly likely on a mobile device. Ensuring your local storefronts are listed AT THE TOP of a customer’s search for local brand and product searches is key through deploying 3 key tactics:

But, “The Last Mile of Marketing” can be empowered by demand generation and relationship-building tactics such as email, direct mail, social media, and digital display - all with a local lens.

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The Ultimate Playbook for Retail Local Marketing

Marketing

Transcript of The Ultimate Playbook for Retail Local Marketing