1. Strategies to Help
Multi-Location Brands
Connect with
Local Consumers
A roadmap to help brands reach their target
audiences anytime, anywhere.
2. 2
This playbook is for multi-location brand marketers –
at the corporate, regional or individual location level –
who are looking to improve their local marketing
efforts.
MULTI-LOCATION BRANDS
Businesses with hundreds or thousands of locations
that rely on local consumers to drive sales.
3. As a multi-location brand marketer, your business faces the
challenge of identifying and reaching target audiences. Not
only do you have to define demographics, behavior and intent
like any other brand, you also need to refine that target
audience to consumers within a set radius of your locations.
INTRODUCTION
A “spray and pray” strategy won’t cut it for multi-location
brands. You need marketing campaigns that can
accomplish the following objectives:
• Identify consumers in your service area who are
interested in your products/services.
• Determine what stage of the buying cycle those
consumers are in.
• Deliver customized messaging based on each
consumer’s interests and stage in the buying cycle.
This playbook was designed to help multi-location brand
marketers develop a cohesive strategy to accomplish all three
of those objectives.
4. Three local marketing campaign
strategies multi-location brands
should be leveraging.
WHAT YOU
WILL LEARN
FROM THIS
PLAYBOOK:
How the consumer buying
journey has changed.
How to determine the right media
mix for your brand.
5. Multi-location brands need to provide a
seamless consumer journey by making
it easy to research products/services
and find essential contact information
for each location.
CONSUMER
BUYING
JOURNEY
6. THE LOCAL
CONSUMER
BUYING JOURNEY
In general, the consumer buying journey
is no longer a simple linear path from
awareness to loyalty. It still follows the
same basic structure, but the flow is
different.
Consumers have more ways to research
purchases than ever before and internet-
connected mobile devices have made it
easier for them to start and stop buying
journeys whenever it’s most convenient
for them.
DISCOVERY &
AWARENESS
PURCHASELOYALTY
RESEARCH &
CONSIDERATION
7. <10 <10 MINUTES
Fuel, groceries, fast
food, gym memberships
<15
10-15 MINUTES
Casual dining, oil
changes, hair cuts,
home & garden,
auto services
<2015-20 MINUTES
Movies, clothing/shoes
LOCAL CONSUMER
SHOPPING BEHAVIOR
For many multi-location brands, the majority of your
customers are going to come from a tight radius
around each location.
In fact, 93 percent of consumers typically travel
less than 20 minutes to make everyday purchases.
93%
8. Next, we’ll cover the three marketing
strategies multi-location brands should
leverage to connect with local
consumers.
LOCAL
CONSUMER
MARKETING
STRATEGIES
LOCAL
DIGITAL
HOLISTIC
Identifying qualified local
consumers most interested
in your products/services.
Serving personalized
messages to massive
online audiences.
Launching campaigns
across a broad array of
digital platforms.
9. TARGETING LOCAL CONSUMERS
Consumers are growing more comfortable with ads customized to their location, behaviors and
interests. So much so, that many consumers now just expect brands and publishers to serve
personalized information.
One sign this expectation exists: Users no longer add geo-modifiers to local searches. This
doesn’t mean that local searches are decreasing. It means that local searchers now just assume
Google will know when they’re searching for something nearby and automatically deliver local
results.
Furthermore, location customization inspires purchases.
LOCAL 67%
of smartphone users
are more likely to purchase from
companies whose mobile sites or apps
customize information to their location.
Strategy
No. 1
10. THE IMPORTANCE OF PERSONALIZED MESSAGING
63%
HISTORY
63 percent of people
expect brands to use their
purchase history to
provide them with
personalized info.
66%
EXCLUSIVITY
66 percent said an offer
just for them is more
important than a
promotion sent to
everyone.
87%
GROWTH
87 percent of marketers
report a measurable lift
from their personalization
efforts.
48%
EFFECTIVENESS
48 percent would make a
purchase sooner then
they normally would after
receiving a brand’s
exclusive offer.
11. 11
When both brand and location-specific pages
exist, 85% of all consumer engagement
takes place on the local pages.
Brand Assets
15%
Local Assets
85%
THE IMPORTANCE OF
LOCAL ASSETS
Location-specific assets (e.g., local ads, local listings,
local social profiles, etc.) are crucial to engaging local
consumers. These assets give consumers a straight path
to contacting your business and making a purchase.
For example: Let’s say you’re a local financial advisor for
a large investment company who wants to use digital
display ads to reach consumers. When you serve ads to
these consumers, which one of the options below
provides the better user experience?
A) A local ad with contact information that also sends
users to a local landing page on your site
B) A national ad that sends users to a page on your
brand’s website requiring them to enter a ZIP code to
find you
12. 12
THE POWER OF THE INTERNET
It goes without saying, but the internet is a pretty big deal. But given how naturally the internet
has blended into everyday life, it’s easy to forget how quickly it’s grown.
Twenty-five years ago, the internet handled about 150 Gigabytes (GB) of traffic a day. By
1997, the internet was experiencing over one thousand times that number; by 2017, it
increased 893 times over. In 2021, global internet traffic is expected to reach 319 exabytes
per month, or 475,727,228 GB per hour (1 EB=1,000,000,000 GB). This massive growth is
the result of an increasing user base that’s able to connect to the internet anytime, anywhere.
DIGITAL
281.1
285.4
289.2
292.6
2018 2019 2020 2021
U.S. internet users (in millions) Global internet traffic
1992 148 GB per day
1997 167,000 GB per day
2002 11,867,000 GB per day
2007 149,246,000 GB per day
2017 181,939,567 GB per hour
2021 475,727,228 GB per hour
Strategy
No. 2
13. INTERNET AUDIENCES
A major driver of the internet’s popularity is smartphones
and connected devices.
The ability to access the internet from anywhere at any
time means consumers are always on, always connected
and always available.
Smartphones are taking over as consumers’ go-to
resource for getting stuff done. Smartphones help
consumers automate, facilitate and complete a variety of
everyday tasks, including researching purchase decisions.
While this has changed the consumer buying journey, it’s
not necessarily a bad thing for advertisers – at least not for
brands that are willing and able to evolve. The digital
buying journey offers brands countless touchpoints to
reach consumers and gather essential user information
that helps advertisers develop customized messages
based on each consumer’s stage in that journey.
14. 14
229M
people in the
U.S. used a
smartphone in
2018.
55%
of the U.S. population
viewed digital video
via smartphone in
2018.
94.2%
90.3%
79.3%
79.0%
55.9%
55.4%
ACTIVITIES
CONDUCTED
by smartphone
users in the U.S.
App installers
Search users
Social networkers
Video viewers
Audio listeners
U.S. smartphone users
spend
3+ hours
a day with mobile apps.
70% of the population
THE POWER OF SMARTPHONES
181M
digital video
viewers
86%
of mobile
internet time
is spent in
apps.
Gamers
15. Digital channels used to research
products prior to purchase
39%
36%
34% 33%
23%
16%
14%
10%
9%
43%
17%
13%
10%
6%
3%
2%
7%
Twitter
Snapchat
Google
Other
None
DIGITAL MEDIA’S ROLE IN THE BUYING JOURNEY
When consumers need to make a purchase, they turn to digital media first to research products and services.
Social media channels consulted before
making a purchase
Onlinereview
sitesBrand’swebsiteIn-store
Onlinemarketplace
Peer/familyreviews
SocialnetworksVideochannelsBrand’smobileapp
Brand
emails
Blogs,forums
Facebook
YouTube
Instagram
9%
16. 16
86 percent
of smartphone users shop on their
phones.
59 percent
use smartphones in-store to compare
costs or search for deals and
coupons.
54 percent
choose to shop with retailers who
send special offers via mobile while
in-store.
SMARTPHONES’
ROLE IN THE BUYING
JOURNEY
Smartphones play a huge role in the
buying journey.
86 percent of smartphone users shop on
their phones. Almost 60 percent of
shoppers use their phones inside a store to
compare costs and seek deals. Over half
choose retailers who send mobile offers
while they are shopping in-store.
17. 17
CONSUMER TARGETING
Ad tech allows advertisers to collect
in-depth (and anonymous)
information about consumers
including online behavior, purchase
intent and most importantly, precise
geo-location.
ADVANTAGES OF LOCALIZED DIGITAL ADVERTISING
On top of all of those factors, digital campaigns have a lot of unique technical advantages for multi-location brands.
PERFORMANCE REPORTING
Campaigns feature near-
instantaneous reporting and the
ability to track conversions like store
visits, allowing brands to monitor
performance in real time and ensure
campaigns are providing a return on
investment (ROI).
CAMPAIGN OPTIMIZATION
Campaigns can be adjusted and
optimized at any time. Thanks to in-
depth and instant performance
reporting, advertisers are able to
adjust on the fly and optimize
campaigns for maximized
performance.
18. THE DIVERSITY OF THE INTERNET
While a few major publishers garner most of the attention and dollars from advertisers, internet
audiences are spread across a diverse ecosystem of digital properties. And internet audiences far
exceed those of even the top TV telecasts.
Of the top 25 web properties among desktop and mobile internet users, each of the top four have
over 200 million unique visitors per month, and all 25 have over 100 million per month.
The top telecast of 2018 was Super Bowl LII with 104.1 million viewers.
243.8 211 210.9 207.8 198.3
Googlesites
M
icrosoftsitesFacebook
Oath
Am
azon
sites
O
ath
Amazonsites
Super Bowl LII 104.1
Super Bowl post-game 74
NFC Championship 42.4
NFC Playoff 35.8
This Is Us 33.4
HOLISTIC
Top 5 web properties among US desktop/mobile
users (unique visitors per month, in millions)
Top5telecastsof2018(millions of viewers)
Strategy
No. 3
Google
sites
M
icrosoftsitesFacebook
19. 19
$35 $41 $48 $55 $62
$17
$24
$29
$34
$39
$10
$18
$26
$33
$42
2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Google Facebook Amazon, Instagram, YouTube
U.S. digital ad revenues by company (in billions)
GOOGLE +
FACEBOOK
When people think about digital
media publishers, they usually think
of the Big Two – Google and
Facebook.
When you add Amazon, Instagram
and YouTube, the top five
companies will rake in over
100 billion dollars
in 2019.
THE BIG TWO
20. 20
2019 Digital ad revenue tiers in billions of dollars
(# of publishers in tier)
GROWING NUMBER OF MAJOR DIGITAL MEDIA COMPANIES
11-50B (3 publishers)
3-10B (4 publishers)
100M-2B (9 publishers)
While Google and Facebook may have a
duopoly of sorts in digital media, there are
a lot of other publishers with significant
audiences and advertising opportunities
(which focus on helping consumers find
local businesses).
The pace of change in digital media is
intense. New technology is introduced or
updated daily, changing the way
consumers find local businesses. And, new
publishers enter the mix every day, further
diversifying digital audiences.
Multi-location brands don’t have to limit
themselves to Google and Facebook to
reach qualified local consumers.
21. LOCAL DIGITAL PUBLISHERS
The local ecosystem is an extremely complex web of search
engines, data aggregators, social platforms, local directories,
map/navigation apps and other sites all pushing and pulling
business data to and from one another in a never ending
attempt to provide up-to-date and consistent local information
for consumers.
This complicated dynamic makes it tough for local
brands to manage information across all of these
sites. But it’s important for multi-location brands to
maintain updated information on as many of these
sites as possible, because incorrect information on
one site can permeate across the ecosystem.
To give you an idea of just how complicated the ecosystem
is, the diagram on the right from Whitespark illustrates the
various distribution relationships between local digital
publishers.
22. SOCIAL MEDIA
PLATFORMS
Social media plays a large role in local digital
advertising thanks to two major factors:
1) Usage numbers that are
already massive and continue
to grow.
2) Advanced targeting tactics
made possible by detailed user
data.
Facebook
169.5 million U.S.
users (52% of the
population)
Instagram
104.7 million U.S.
users (32% of the
population)
Snapchat
84.8 million U.S.
users (26% of the
population)
Twitter
55.2 million U.S.
users (17% of the
population)
23. Now that we’ve covered potential local
marketing strategies, let’s take a look at how to
decide which campaigns to implement.
This will vary based on your brand’s marketing
objectives, but there are some general rules on
how to find the right media mix to reach your
target consumers.
DETERMINE
THE RIGHT
MEDIA MIX
24. It’s important that local marketing campaigns
complement any efforts at the national or regional
level. In general, national advertising is great at
generating brand awareness and building trust with
consumers, while local marketing is better at guiding
consumers toward purchases and driving conversions.
To bring things back to the consumer buying journey,
national marketing gets the consumer started toward
making a purchase by generating awareness of the
brand, while local marketing works to help turn
consumers into customers.
NATIONAL + LOCAL
25. SYNCING UP WITH
THE CONSUMER
BUYING JOURNEY
Brands need to understand the needs
and wants of local consumers at each
stage in the buying cycle.
This will help you determine:
• What type of messaging will
resonate most with your target
consumers at each level.
• What your marketing goals and
objectives should be for each level.
• Which marketing campaigns will be
the most effective at accomplishing
those goals.
26. PROOF OF CONCEPT
Pilot campaigns are critical to finding out which mix
of marketing campaigns works best for your brand.
Multi-location brands should leverage pilot
campaigns to test which solutions drive the best
results at the local level.
These pilots can be implemented across a few select
locations and last anywhere from a few months to a
year. The results of these tests can help you
determine if specific media campaigns are right for
your brand and worthy of being rolled out across all
of your locations.
Tips for multi-location pilots
SELECT SAVVY LOCATION REPS
If you’re a corporate/regional marketer,
start with locations that have digitally savvy
employees – they’ll be able to understand
the finer points of the campaigns and
promote the pilot to other locations.
SET REALISTIC GOALS
Digital campaigns often have a “ramp-up
period” so make sure that participating
locations understand what type of returns
to expect and when to expect them.
FIND THE RIGHT AGENCY
The digital marketing partner(s) you
choose should focus on realistic goals
and timeframes, have experience with
local campaigns and have the ability to
launch campaigns at scale.
1
2
3
28. 28
• Access Development, “National Consumer Study Summary,” 2017
• GeoMarketing, “Think with Google: In Searches, “Near Me” is Now Implied, August 2017
• Google/Ipsos Connect, U.S., Playbook Omnibus 2018, January 2018
• Think with Google, “Customer expectations are changing. Here are 3 ways brands can keep up,” November 2018
• eMarketer, “Customer Experience Roundup 2018,” August 2018
• Evergage, Inc., “2018 Trends in Personalization,” April 2018
• MomentFeed, “State of the Mobile Customer Experience for Multi-Location Brands,” July 2017
• eMarketer, October 2018
• Cisco, “The History and Future of Internet Traffic,” August 2015, Visual Networking Index: Forecast and Trends, 2017-2022, November 2018
• eMarketer, “U.S. Mobile StatPack,” April 2018
• Adobe, “2019 Adobe Brand Content Survey” in partnership with Advanis, February 2019
• Netsertive, 2018 Local Consumer Survey, May 2018
• eMarketer, “U.S. Mobile StatPack,” April 2018
• HRC Retail Advisory Survey, October 2018
• iVend Retail, “2018 Global Path to Purchase” Survey, 2018
• Comscore Media Metrix Multi-Platform, September 2018
• Nielsen, December 2018
• eMarketer, February 2019
• Whitespark, “The U.S. Local Search Ecosystem,” 2017
• eMarketer, August 2018
REFERENCES
