Content Marketing and the Future of Multi-Location Brand Marketing

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1 Content Marketing and the Future of Multi-Location Brand Marketing Local Internet Marketing for MULTI-LOCATION BRANDS 47 North Jefferson Street, First Floor, Allentown, PA

2 78% of CMOs Think Custom Content is the Future of Marketing 1 What is Your Local Content Marketing Strategy? 16-20x Pay Per Click Local SEO Local SEO is 16-20x more cost effective than pay-per-click advertising 70% of consumers prefer getting to know a company via articles rather than ads 7,600,000,0 00 local searches every month driven by local content 88% Of marketers who have executed localized national campaigns say their brand gained a competitive advantage Introduction Content marketing has proven to be a more effective use of resources than traditional advertising. In fact, 78% of CMOs think custom content is the future of marketing. Still, many multi-location brands struggle to understand what content means to their business and how to apply it effectively across several, hundreds, or even thousands of locations. In this whitepaper, we present the following research: What content marketing means to a multi-location brand in increasing both the acquisition of new customers and the loyalty and frequency of return for existing customers How to localize content to engage customers within their communities How to build a consistent local content marketing program What technology you will need in order to scale with new locations If you are responsible for marketing a multi-location brand, local content is a concept you should familiarize yourself with. Why? Local Content Marketing is the process of creating or curating content that is relevant to a specific audience based on their location and community, with the goal of engaging them and developing profitable long-term relationships. Local Content Drives Search Success 97% of Americans search for local businesses online, resulting in roughly 7,600,000 monthly local searches. A local content marketing strategy will ensure they are finding YOUR BRAND! Local Content Creates Social Media Engagement Likes or followers to do not drive social media success engagement is the key. Localized content is far more engaging to customers, drives more likes, comments, retweets and ultimately reach. Local Content Can Increase Effectiveness remains the #1 most effective direct marketing channel returning on average $38 for every $1 spent. s require compelling content.

3 90% of B2C Marketers Use Content in Their Marketing Strategy What Is Content? In today s consumer-driven world, companies can no longer control their messaging through paid media. This is especially true in the B2C space, as consumers turn to social networks and online directories for recommendations instead of traditional media. Content Marketing is a way to grab the reins of your brand back from your customers. Of course, the term content is fairly vague. It can be a tweet, a comment card, a picture of your store. In other words, content can be anything, which is an overwhelming idea. For a multi-location brand, developing or repurposing content that can scale from your national brand down to a local audience is the goal. 4 Simple Types of Content Marketing for Brick-and-Mortar Brands 1. News & Events News, stories and events can become content that engages your customers at a local level. You can comment on appropriate news items through your social media channels, and even develop deals based on them. For example, if you are a restaurant, a story such as New Study Reveals Health Benefits of Salmon, could inspire a 10% off deal on your signature salmon entrée. Events provide for a wealth of content potential in all phases of the experience (pre-event, event, post-event). 2. Brand Building Posts Blogs give websites 434% more indexed pages and 97% more indexed links. Cater your blog toward the interests of your customer-base (i.e. a pool repair store might create the blog, 5 Small Signs That Could Spell Big Pool Repair Problems Ahead with appropriate local search/linking strategy applied). This will result in higher search rankings for your organization on search engines like Google and Bing, without paying for ineffective Sponsored search positions that only 5% of searchers click on. 3. Videos 72% of B2C marketers used video in their content efforts last year. Video is highly consumed by people on the internet, and it gives you the freedom to have some fun with your employees and your brand. Videos can be of in-store events, employee interactions, and community outreach (If your employees participate in a charitable event, showing a recap will promote your company in a positive way). 4. Marketing In 2013, 76% of B2C marketers used marketing as a medium to deliver content. Building your database by location and sending a monthly or weekly newsletter through your marketing system communicates news, deals, and in-person events to customers and is highly effective. is still the #1 marketing channel and returns $38 for every $1 spent!

4 61% of Consumers Feel Better About Companies That Deliver Custom Content While content creation can be a difficult task, it will pay off, as 61% of consumers feel better about companies that deliver custom content, and are more likely to buy from those organizations. Spotlight on Success: The W Hotel Group One brand that has made an effort to engage locally on social media is the W Hotel. The W Hotel is a division of Starwood Hotels, and a worldwide brand with nearly 50 luxury properties. The hospitality industry is one that requires a particular sensitivity to local communities. Hotels that use social media platforms to connect with those communities increase online viewership by 12% each month. By claiming location pages on sites like Facebook, individual properties are able to respond to feedback from guests, whether that feedback is positive or negative. Perhaps the most active W Hotel location on Facebook is the W Taipei, which boasts nearly 62,000 likes and 9,000 ratings (4.5 stars) on its local Facebook page. In 2013, the location increased their followers by tagging third-party fan pages, asking other pages such as Vogue.com to share information on the hotel, and promoting contests and posts about food, events, and celebrities on the page. Traditional marketing and advertising is telling the world that you are a rock star. Content marketing is showing the world that you are one. - Robert Rose, Chief Strategist, Content Marketing Institute Showing, instead of telling, requires a more direct and personalized message. This is why location is an imperative component of great content. It is also where many multi-location brands struggle.

5 National Brands That Implement Integrated Local Marketing Processes Will Increase Revenue by 10-15% by Gartner 4 Reasons Why Multi-location Brands Struggle with Developing Local Marketing Content 1. Gap in Content Ownership In a multi-location business, the national corporation owns the overall brand. But who is responsible for creating custom, branded content? Is it the national marketing team, or the regional /location managers? If this relationship is not defined, it is difficult to create consistent local content. 2. Shortage of Resources Running a business takes a lot of work. Especially within industries such as retail, where the immense level of turnover can also create organizational roadblocks. Quite often, efforts such as local marketing content can fall by the wayside in favor of dayto-day operational activity. This is why choosing a tool that saves time and doesn t require extensive training to adopt is key. 3. Inadequate Software Today, most brands utilize some form of marketing automation technology, such as an marketing provider. Being successful at localizing your strategy, however, requires a more sophisticated and integrated set of technology centered around location, including a robust content management system and a method for social media monitoring. It also requires integrated metrics to see what is working over each marketing channel in a unified way. 4. The Size of Challenge Increases with Each Location Without adequate systems in place, local content marketing can become extremely difficult to scale. Each time a new location opens, each disparate system ( , social, online directories, etc.) must be updated with new information. Sharing local content becomes more complex because each task has to be completed across each one of those systems. This includes Yelp profiles and reviews, local publishers, news sources, local events and sponsorships.

6 Only 2% of Local Businesses Think Pay-Per-Click Advertising is Effective In Driving New Business Creating a Path to Success in Local Content Marketing Today, only 2% of local businesses believe that paid advertising is effective. Even large national brands are turning away from paid advertising. Interestingly, 21% of nationally recognized brands are focusing at least 25% of their budgets on campaigns designed for specific regional audiences. Your audience expects content that is custom-built for their needs. Which means it must be in-line with your overall messaging and also specific to the local community. For multi-location brands, this can be a daunting challenge. How can you be both large and small at the same time? How can you be both national and local? The following are 5 key steps to creating a consistent, intelligent, and effective local content marketing program. 1. Local Search Engine Optimization Local search is different than traditional search in the use of local keyword combinations, the prevalence of online directories and that it is managed over multiple locations. You must adjust your SEO program to achieve goals such as getting one post to rank for 500 separate locations. 2. Social Media & Reputation Management Strategy Building a centralized, branded page on each social media platform is a good place to start. But to achieve maximum results, you must claim and design all of your local pages on social media sites and online directories such as Google+ Local, Yelp, and Facebook. At the same time, you must create content that encourages engagement with each local audience. In doing so, consumers are far more likely to share your brand with their peers, and likely to do so more than once. In fact, 99% of people who share via social networks are sharing via multiple platforms. 3. Localize Your Website Similar to claiming your local social media pages, you must create separate, locally optimized pages on your website for each location. One of our clients, a 600+ location QSR, recently implemented this technique and saw an increase in website visits by 125,000 per month!

7 53% of Marketers Admit the Lack of Resources Needed to Localize Their Campaigns is Their Primary Challenge 4. Adopt an Omnichannel Marketing Tool Multi-location brands frequently maintain separate systems for marketing, social media, and content management (blogging). This creates an unnecessary obstacle to success, because more work must be done to execute your strategy. It s also much more difficult to glean insight from each disparate data source. By integrating your systems into an omnichannel tool, you will be able to: Push content both to an aggregate list and to individual locations Recognize and respond to social media feedback in real-time Share insight across the company to identify trends and individual stores that are under/over-performing Dynamically manage a multichannel process within an omnichannel tool Organize your marketing process by location instead of by channel, which will save time and effort for your local/regional managers 5. Create Organizational Alignment For any initiative to work, you must have buy-in and commitment from every stakeholder and be organized for success. Local-level or regional-level managers must be empowered to manage content processes, while being trained and trusted to do it well. Budget must be allocated, potentially as a paid media optimization consideration. Regardless of how strong your technology is, it will never make up for a lack of organizational commitment and dedicated resources. Spotlight on Success: Whole Foods Market Whole Foods has a unique operation compared to competitors and other multi-location brands. They maintain a marketing team at each location, and operate independently of the global marketing department, including on social media. They use their global brand to communicate healthy living content, and allow local marketing to push sales, products, and events. They scale their content from national to local effectively. For example: o Global Brand Pinterest account shared an Infographic entitled 10 Summer Friendly Wines and What to Eat With Them o Local Brand Pinterest account for the Upper West Side location shared the Infographic, but included sale prices on each mentioned item for their store They employ a Community Manager at every store, who is trusted and empowered to make decisions that build the local community and make the store a destination for customers. They also have a separate newsletter and Twitter account for each location. They truly organize their marketing system by location.

8 64% of Franchisees Are Disappointed with the Marketing Support They Receive Spotlight on Franchise Marketing Success: The Little Gym The Little Gym s primary challenge is that their kids get older and move on, requiring a need to constantly find new, younger kids to fill classes. With pay-per-click ads, they were spending thousands of dollars and tracking expensive inbound calls but they couldn t tell if it moved the meter. Managing messaging across locations was difficult, and after tens of thousands of dollars spent, their social media accounts had fewer followers than competitors, they were not ranking on Google, and their phone number was wrong on many directories. They paid for short-term advertising, not long-term marketing strategy. And it cost them, as 90% of moms are online, while 63% of them read blogs about child care. With LocalSearchDrs., The Little Gym has adopted an omnichannel content marketing platform that delivers and clearly displays results: Reached half a million consumers and have had thousands of parents read their LocalPosts for each location, an average of 600 reads per post per location. Increased Twitter following by 792% and Facebook likes by 381% Optimized over 1,000 directories and are ranking #1 organically on both Google and Google Maps for terms like playspaces, dance classes, kids gymnastics, kids camp and kids gyms. Additionally, The Little Gym now has visibility into performance from the national to the franchise to the location level. I didn t realize how much more I could do with my advertising budget and set myself up for longer term success. Even with call tracking software, the business impact of PPC was unclear to me. With LocalSearchDrs., I can see who s engaging with my content, see my locations on the front page of Google and see my customer base, and consequently class sizes, growing. It s that simple. - Jeff Freeman, The Little Gym Franchisee

9 Local Content Marketing: Build Profitable Customer Relationships with LocalSearchDrs. As a multi-location brand, you must engage consumers locally to build customer communities. There are 7,600,000,000 monthly local searches and 97% of Americans search for local businesses online. How can you capitalize on those numbers? Paid advertising is no longer effective, as only 5% of searchers ever click on Sponsored search results. This means that you must invest in developing and distributing localized content to reach your customers. Today, consumers expect content to be custom-built for their needs, which includes being relevant to their location. In fact, 90% of consumers find custom branded content useful. A strong local content marketing program can appear difficult across several, hundreds, or even thousands of locations. Add to that a set of disparate marketing technologies, and it becomes downright overwhelming. Many companies struggle because their marketing program is organized by channel, instead of the way the rest of the company is organized, by location. We provide an omnichannel platform that allows users to create and distribute engaging content across multiple channels such as social media, ws publications and . More importantly, it is organized on a local-level, so you can easily customize content to each customer community. With LocalSearchDrs., you can see how your content efforts are performing in each location, so that best practices can be shared across the broader organization. It s time to start marketing nationally at a local level and locally at a national level. Find out how LocalSearchDrs. can help. LocalCast A single, omnichannel local marketing platform to publish content to and monitor search and SEO, directories, mobile, social, , local publishers and more with granular metrics from the national brand level to a single location. us at marketing@businesscreatorplus.com for a demo!