a smartsearch marketing whitepaper local search for … · identities, and get your data consistent...

A SMARTSEARCH MARKETING WHITEPAPER

Updated: JANUARY, 2015

Local Searchfor Multi-location

EnterprisesHow to Profit From

Social, Local & Mobile

SmartSearch Marketing 1-866-644-3134 [email protected] 2

Smartphones and the social, local, mobile (SoLoMo) ecosystem are the future of retail. Where once there was the yellow pages, today’s mobile consumer may be accessing the local web through any number of search engines, local directories, mobile search apps and social networks to find businesses. This paradigm shift in how consumers search-to-buy in-store is a reality that needs to be

addressed immediately for traditional brick and mortar retailers to survive in the new hyper-local marketplace.

While in-store purchasing still represents over 90% of all retail sales in the US, steady double-digit year-on-year growth of online retail sales has left offline businesses scrambling for ways to shore up the losses. And yet, many large national brands have continued the well-worn course of one-size fits all mass advertising campaigns with little or no impact where it matters most, at the local level.

In this whitepaper we’ll look at the dynamically evolving SoLoMo landscape and how a systematic location-based marketing strategy employing the appropriate tools can help large retail chains improve their street-level performance and deliver on the needs and expectations of today’s mobile-powered shopper.

At A Glance

Location-Based MarketingWhere Your Customers Are: Be There Now

If you are a retail business, franchise chain or an agency representing physical brick and mortar loca-tions, the local web is not just essential to your business, but should be at the very core of your market-ing strategy.

Why? Aside from the pain and peril associated with shrinking revenues and millions of potential new customers lost to the competition, the real and often irreversible damage that major national chains invite upon their brands when they fail to connect with customers when and where it matters most - at the point of purchase intent. As tens of millions of customers look to the mobile web with the express purpose of buying a specific product or service, they expect the companies they know and trust to fulfill their needs.

Unfortunately, most large brick and mortar businesses don’t have the tools or expertise to create a cohesive location-based marketing strategy to ensure strong venue presence in local search.

Local Search for Multi-location Enterpriseswhitepaper

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In the wily, fragmented world of location-based marketing it’s essential not just to have a good grasp of the basics, but a clear sense of where your brand and venues stand today. As local search becomes the new advertising billboard, search engines results are increasingly curated in favor of businesses with a strong local presence and relevancy.

What can national chains do to rekindle the local qualities of their business that will drive the new generation of web-enabled mobile shoppers to their venues in droves?

Let’s take a look at the challenges of managing large scale location-based marketing initiatives and provide clear takeaways that you can apply today to move your business into the future of local web search.

Need-to-Know Intelligence

Consumers Use Local Search to Shop and Find Businesses

According to comScore, the number one retail activity for people using a smartphone (representing 33% of searches1 is to help them find a physical store location. Overall, and depending which research you choose, anywhere between 33% (according to Google2, to over 50% (according to Microsoft3 of all Internet search queries carry local intent. As any good marketer knows, this is the final stop in the all-important ‘last mile’ of the buying cycle.

Mobile Shoppers Using Local Search Are Key Targets

While people are using their smartphones more than ever before, the way they use them is also a good indication of their likelihood of buying in a shop. comScore reports that 86 million Americans are now using their smartphones4 to shop, and according to Deloitte, 61% have used their device to buy goods in a physical store5. The same Deliotte study found that smartphone users are 14% more likely to make a purchase in a store than non-smartphone users. Overall, they found that smartphones will determine 19% ($689 billion) of all retail store purchases by 2016 - a startling and exciting opportunity best not ignored.

Marketers Need to Ensure Their Venues Get Found - Across Every Local Channel

As the above statistics indicate, local searches, store visits and intent to purchase are all tied inextricably together, and the initial search is the deciding factor. Ensuring that your venues are found in local search is therefore imperative, but it certainly doesn’t end there. Today’s consumers don’t just use search engines to find local businesses. They’re increasingly turning to social networks like Facebook, mobile apps like Foursquare and rating and review sites like Yelp to find local merchants with whom to transact. This is creating even more opportunities for location-based marketers and hammering home the importance of building a ubiquitous venue presence across the local web.

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1ComsScore Mobile Metrix 2.0 study, September 20122Google Places Stats & Facts: Google and Local Businesses, by the numbers3Bing Mobile Local Search Stat: Cited by Screenwerk (http://www.screenwerk.com/2011/05/25/google-40-of-mobile-searches-local/ )4ComsScore Mobile Metrix 2.0 study, September 2012 Deloitte | Smartphones will Influence $689 Billion in Retail Store Sales by 2016: Deloitte Study | Press Release5Deloitte | Smartphones will Influence $689 Billion in Retail Store Sales by 2016: Deloitte Study | Press Release

3 Key Facts About SoLoMo



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Businesses Must Promote Their Local Venue Presence - or Disappear

These numbers represent trends that are only increasing (some exponentially) as the Social, Local, Mobile ecosystem expands, refines itself and embraces the needs and expectations of mobile consumers. As such, all indications are that businesses that don’t address location-based marketing will quickly become irrelevant and disappear.

We have already begun to see the impacts - positive and negative - on brick and mortar chains. The companies that employ intelligent, creative and systematic location-based marketing strategies are winning at the local level. The ones that aren’t have seen their revenues drop, their physical stores shut down, their businesses atrophy and in some cases vanish altogether.

Faced with this do or die scenario, can today’s smart retail chains and franchises harness the power and opportunity of location-based marketing and manage it effectively? Today we see some promising real-world examples of brands that are doing it right.

Conundrum

There’s no question that major retail chain and franchises face considerable challenges in the age of local mobile search. Where once the reach and scale of their national branding and advertising campaigns ensured near total dominance, the playing field has leveled dramatically, and now it appears to be tilting against them. Smartphones and the SoLoMo Ecosystem Are the Future of Retail Unfortunately, the big dollars spent on major national ad buys don’t translate into local marketing performance. Quite to the contrary in fact. The Google paradigms of authority and authenticity that have come to dominate the search engine ethos serve to benefit those companies with a strong grassroots local presence.

These operating principles have rapidly spread to almost every major local search channel. For many large brands, local has been an afterthought. Despite the enormity of their budgets, their performance is shockingly poor. Instead, more often than not, the local boutique or mom ‘n pop shop rises to the top of the local results and ultimately wins the SoLoMo customer.

While it’s true that any company, large or small, can launch and operate a Google+ Local page, the realities of this world could not be more different between the small local business and the big retailer. While it is easy for a mom ‘n pop shop with no special tools or strategy to generate a winning combination of presence and visibility on local pages, the scale of large venue footprint retail chains demands the efficiencies of an enterprise-class solution.

Thus, ironic as it may seem, the only way for large, multi-venue retail businesses to effectively compete with small, locally-focused shops in the world of SoLoMo, is by employing a systematic, centralized and scalable location-based marketing strategy. Only then can they begin to compete on Google+, Facebook, Four- square, Yelp, and any other hyper-local channels where consumers search-to-buy.

Bottom Line:

The Social, Local, Mobile



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to Improve Local Presence and Drive Sales

Own Your Brand Identity on the Local Web & Get Consistent

Many brands overwhelmed by the dizzying array of social, local, mobile sites and channels have neglected to effectively address location-based marketing. A top-down, integrated approach is the only way to ensure a winning local search marketing strategy in this highly fragmented universe. Taking a buckshot approach to your brand’s local presence will only hinder performance. The better approach is a centralized Location-Based Marketing function managed by the primary brand owner. That person should be responsible for providing a complete picture of all of your locations on the ground, and make sure that your all-important “Anchor Identity” information (business name, full address with zip and phone number) is accurate, up-to-date and consistent for all locations. With comprehensive Business Listing, Discovery & Management companies can effectively lay the bedrock of their location-based marketing strategies going forward. By streamlining the process with the right tools, your brand and venues will thank you.

Expand Your Online Presence & Build Brand Awareness

Once you get a firm grasp on all of your current listings and local brand Anchor Identities, and get your data consistent and accurate, you can begin to build your location-based marketing empire. Part of this expansion is ensuring that you can be found on the most popular location-based marketing sites, all the way down to the most hyper-local and niche directories. The increased prominence of your venue data creates credibility with consumers and the search algorithms alike, whether it’s for Google or other less wellknown local channels. The larger the presence that your venues have, the higher the probability they have in being found. Just like in traditional marketing, the more often consumers see your brand the more credibility it has and the more attention it sustains with consumers. Bringing your local presence to the next level in this way requires deep insights into the factors driving brand discovery and selection on the ground. Only comprehensive competitor analysis and local search analytics can provide the key insights required to ensure dominant placement, presence and customer mindshare on the local level. Improve Click Through & Drive In-Store Sales

Now that consumers can find you when they search, how do you ensure that they select you over the competition? Of course there is no way to guarantee customer click-through, but many primary source research studies have revealed that businesses with complete listings including photos and positive reviews and positive star ratings have a powerful influence over a consumer’s decision to click. According to an independent marketing consultancy study6, local search engine results with thumbnail photos and reviews attract the lion’s share of user clicks. In addition to adding flavorful content wherever possible, location-based marketers should tap their local managers and marketing staff for stories, capture them and make sure they find their way online across social media, directory listings (where reviews and other content can be added) and of course on your company’s local venue pages on the website.

6Source: Whitepaper: Eye Tracking and Click Mapping Google Places

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3 Straightforward Strategies

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6source: Whitepaper: Eye Tracking and Click Mapping Google Places



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Here are the key factors that determine how, why and where your business is winning or losing in local.

Presence: the Key to Location-Based Marketing



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Conclusion: Get SoLoMo or Go HomeDespite a decade of heavy focus and investment in online retailing consumers have been reticent to abandon the traditional in-store experience. In this new environment, major retail brands have no choice but to get serious about local marketing or lose the local battle altogether. With more and ever stronger focus on making local customer connections and driving traffic, the need to develop cogent location-based marketing strategies that effectively build presence and visibility is a necessity. Meeting that demand, location-based marketing has become the new frontier for brick and mortar businesses.

Without the right tools and tactics, large retail brands will continue to face a growing onslaught of smaller players with strong hyper local-focus will continue to dominate the local mobile web results that drive in- store performance. While every location-based marketing solution may have its unique strengths and applications, for enterprise scale brands the issue is not what these channels do well, but the gaps they leave.

Large footprint businesses need to see the complete picture spanning hundreds or even thousands of locations across the location-based marketing spectrum and be agile enough to respond to issues in real-time. They need to see who their competitors are venue-by-venue and where they are winning in the courts of local opinion. Finally, they need enterprise-class processes and workflows that will allow them to effectively manage their total presence on the ground.

Solving the presence problem is the first and most critical step. Not only will it deliver immediate dividends of local brand equity and in-store sales, but opens up a world of opportunities to build and expand local brand visibility from the beachheads of your retail locations and allow you to engage customers at the critical point of purchase intent.

Only with such a holistic approach and understanding of its complexities will companies meet the new local marketing landscape head on.

SmartSearch Marketing is a leading, full-service search marketing agency. Since 1999, we’ve been delivering brilliant results and ROI to customers like you.

1-866-644-3134 [email protected]

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SmartSearch Marketing is a full-service search engine marketing agency that helps their clients generate leads, acquire new customers and position brands online through search engine optimization (SEO), pay per click (PPC) advertising, conversion and usability, mobile search marketing, website analytics, and local listings search marketing. SmartSearch Marketing serves both B2B ad B2C companies by offering comprehensive search solutions that include:

ABOUT SMARTSEARCH MARKETING

· Strategic planning

· Search advertising

· Search engine optimization

· Media buying and creative services

· Website usability

· Landing page development

· Conversion improvements

· Marketing analytics

· Local list management

· Mobile search marketing

DISCOVER MORE EXPERT TOOLS FOR B2B MARKETERS ATwww.smartsearchmarketing.com

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION Dale HurshSmartSearch [email protected] x 703

a smartsearch marketing whitepaper local search for … · identities, and get your data consistent...

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