The past year has caused massive disruptions in your local marketing strategies worldwide due to shifts in consumer shopping behavior, making local marketer’s jobs increasingly difficult and the search ecosystem more complex. Due to the pandemic, new and existing local marketing challenges are affecting your customer’s path to purchase. In turn, your business must create new commerce opportunities that benefit both in-store and online channels and cater to hyperlocal search queries.

Recently, we hosted a webinar where our panel explored those untapped and underutilized local marketing opportunities for multi-location brands. We were joined by Radius8 to further dive into these opportunities, as well as best practices for deploying and managing hyper-localized content based on the consumer’s physical location, and how Rio SEO and Radius8 partner together to do this.

Let’s dive into the key takeaways our panelists shared. Additionally, you can also watch the full webinar on-demand now.

Provide an Optimized Experience at All Touchpoints

Consumers who are seeking your products or services are finding your business’ information in a variety of places. In fact, a recent joint study by McKinsey and Harvard Business Review found that 73% of all consumers use multiple channels when making a purchase. This staggering figure shows brands must take an omnichannel approach and ensure accurate information across the ever-expanding search ecosystem. 

To discover more about you, consumers may look for you online, on an app, on their mobile devices, or on a number of different platforms. However, if the information they find isn’t aligned across all these potential touchpoints, you risk losing their trust and dollars. This extends to information that goes beyond just your business’ name and address. 

One channel of importance that was brought up in the webinar was mobile. Mobile has become an increasingly popular search tool over the past year, as consumers were spending more time indoors. During the webinar, we asked the audience what percentage of their website traffic is entering via mobile. 62% of the respondents indicated that over half their traffic enters via a mobile device, further highlighting the importance of optimizing your mobile presence. 

Consumers are also interested in whether you offer curbside pickup if they can shop in-store with you if you deliver to their homes, and how your business is going to provide them with a safe shopping experience. Your local pages and local listings are the opportunities to provide them with all this information, which further necessitates the importance of having accurate information for all your locations.

Hyperlocal and Experiential Leads the Day

Hyperlocal experiences drive interest, provide a more personalized experience for the consumer, and may improve conversions. They also help your business target high-intent consumers who are looking to make a purchase. 

In the last year, Google saw “available near me” searches surge 100% over the year prior, proving convenience remains king.

Brands that are creating a more personalized shopping experience will win, as evidenced in the examples below referenced during the webinar.

Adidas Tailors Their Store Experience

Adidas has made an effort to not only focus on creating a more immersive store experience to aid in the decision-making process but also tailoring their stores to reflect the local area they are in. From the artwork in the store to the merchandising, each store has a different aesthetic and feel depending on where the store is located.

REI Gets Close With Its Community

REI’s local strategy includes hosting in-store events known as ‘garage sales’ as well as local hikes and biking lessons for kids to keep their co-op members engaged well beyond the sale.

Snipes Leverages Mobile

Snipes leverages localization to rapidly mobile targeted e-commerce experiences and content to support local marketing precision for events based on where our customers are and what activations are most relevant to them. This drives awareness, brand equity, and cross-channel sales.

Macy’s Opens A Flexible Retail Store 

In a new 20,000-foot store, which will be called “Market by Macy’s” the location will host community-driven programming from cooking tutorials and book signings to crafting and fitness classes, extending well beyond their traditional retail store format.

Nordstrom Expands on Service

If you are familiar with the Nordstrom brand, you’re likely well aware of their service-centric approach. Nordstrom is now expanding on their services they offer in certain locations, including personal stylists, buy online pick up in-store (BOPIS), coffee shops, cafes, trunk club services, and bars. 

Tying it Together with Radius8 and Rio SEO

Radius8 and Rio SEO partner together to empower brands with a digital presence to geofence your locations to deliver unique, hyperlocal digital experiences, with location data powered by Rio SEO. 

Additionally, businesses benefit by:

• Geofencing content into configurable content tiles powered by proximity to stores or relevant points of interest (i.e. arenas, venues, beaches, resorts, etc.) or self-defined geofenced areas
• Surfacing different messages based on location, time of day, current or forecasted weather, and much more 
• Creating new e-commerce engagement by targeting locally relevant products, special delivery offers, and promotions 
• And more!

Interested in learning more about how you can get more hyperlocal with Rio SEO and Radius8? Reach out to your Account Director or Business Development Representative today!

Watch the Full Webinar

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