Too many times, it goes this way: you run a digital ad. Someone clicks on it. Maybe they complete a transaction, maybe they don’t. After that, the customer goes away. Once your paid campaign stops, so do your interactions. If you want to re-engage, you need to start at Square One with yet another digital ad.
And on it goes. This “lather/rinse/repeat” methodology is wasteful in terms of time and resources. Don’t get us wrong, you’ll still need to draw in new customers but you want to avoid spending the first dollar twice by repeatedly reaching the same people.
So how can you better utilize that initial contact, deliver beyond the moment and provide an experience that will provide recurring value for that customer? How can you bring them back without having to “retarget” them all over again?
The solution is to make your brand a local resource. Even better, make it hyperlocal. Make your site/company/brand a trusted place for the deeper information, tips and helpful resources that area customers are seeking.
This concept is based around “geotargeting and geo-personalization.” This means combining your relevant content with content or data that is relevant to a customer’s location, in order to build a deeper relationship with them. In short, using georelevance to make yourself more useful and, therefore, valuable.
The main driver of this digital marketing strategy is getting beyond that initial click or transaction. So how do you do that? [Keep reading.]
Whether you have an online presence, a brick-and-mortar business or some combo of the two, there are smart ways to give visitors access to the local tools and information that will get them coming back to you again… and again.
AARP has learned this. The member organization, boasting 38 million members and focused on enhancing the quality of life as American’s age is perhaps best known for the savings they deliver to seniors. But with significant offerings across insurance and travel along with resources for Social Security, Medicare, Healthy Living, Family Caregiving, employment and much more, they want to be seen as an everyday resource by their members.
In order to add daily value, they versioned their website to have a custom local brand presence for every city and town across the United States. How’s that for hyperlocal? Now, all of their content and offerings have been localized for their members along with a trove of local resources like restaurants, things to do, fun activities and events happening in the area. The idea is to make themselves a valuable resource to their membership on a continual basis vs. once or twice a year. You can check them out a https://local.aarp.org/
Now here’s an example of a great intention, but one that could use improvement in terms of execution.
Dick’s Sporting Goods wants to be the expert about sporting life in the communities where they have stores. Often when you walk in, they’ll have some kind of whiteboard showing various sporting-related events happening that week. This is being done only at the store level. It’s completely offline and is limited to only those events that the store is aware of.
But what if Dick’s thought bigger? What if it truly was the “go to” guide to all things sports in the local area they serve? What if they had the run-down (pun intended) on local youth and school sports, 5Ks, community walks and golfing events? Or camping, hiking, and fishing? How about if they offered content about where to go enjoy those activities, the permits needed, checklists of necessary gear (which, handily, can be purchased from them)?
A strategy like this has the added benefit of inspiring the community to get out and watch, participate and generally be active. All the while, it’s encouraging customers to come in and gear up.
In a case like this, Dick’s goes beyond the sales transaction to become a valued local resource. That equals more visits to their site, their stores -- and a higher likelihood of purchases by an ever-expanding audience.
Sure, they can continue to use their simple in-store whiteboard announcements – but the revenue possibilities of building a robust and highly localized digital ecosystem like the one described above are hard to miss.
And since data is key to any marketing plan, what could Dick’s learn about their customers from this effort? How about the highest indexing activities in the specific communities they care about most, during key times of the year? The implications for sponsorships, media spending, CRM, in-store merchandising and promotions are profound.
As a trusted local resource, you’re far more likely to see that customers come back. Providing them with the kinds of information they’re seeking exponentially increases the value of any marketing/advertising dollars you’re investing.
And it’s no longer a one-off deal: when a customer knows that you’re the place to go for a rich vein of information and the products/services that align with what they need, they’ll return to you again… and again, creating a virtuous circle. This kind of contextual marketing is a far smarter play than repeatedly starting over with the same plain old digital ad.
Are you now seeing how a brand presence incorporating highly relevant localized content can pay repeated dividends on your marketing and advertising ROI?
We have years of experience in smartly scaling this kind of hyperlocal brand presence. We help you build local relationships at a “town level” that deliver impressive results.
We'd love to share our impressive portfolio of results with you. Let us outline how our geo-personalized strategy can help build ongoing relationships – and create robust conversions. No matter where you are, we’re able to take your local brand presence and grow it into something much bigger and more profitable.
If you need a bigger ROI from your marketing budget, let us show you how it can be done effectively and efficiently.
