Why Local Store Marketing Matters

Whether you’re marketing your own small business or you’re a marketing professional for a large corporation, now more than ever local store marketing is an important component in your marketing toolkit. Without focusing on local marketing efforts and strategies, your business can miss out on customer growth and loyalty.

Local marketing is ideal for any business because it focuses on targeted marketing campaigns in a specific area. These tactics can help create customer engagement and loyalty. Here’s what you need to know about local store marketing and why it’s so important for your business.

What Is Local Store Marketing?

While local store marketing can mean something different to each business, local store marketing is generally the term used to describe a local marketing strategy that supplements a larger marketing campaign that’s either regional or national.

The local business, whether it’s the sole location in a business or one of many, will have control over the localization of the broader marketing campaign. The rationale behind local store marketing is that employees in a specific location will have much better insights into the consumer base in that area, meaning they can tailor local marketing campaigns based on area trends.

This approach uses geo-targeted offline marketing tactics in conjunction with online optimization strategies, to help drive online traffic into local stores.

But why is online local store marketing so important? Because Google and other search engines use it to suggest relevant businesses in a user’s location. By optimizing web pages and focusing on marketing efforts in the area, both web and foot traffic will end up at your business.

Local store marketing is all about having a relevant presence in a particular area. This is done by engaging with local customers and creating strategies to attract those customers based on local consumer needs and trends. Targeted engagement establishes consistent growth in the local marketplace.

Ways to Use Local Store Marketing

There are many ways that businesses can use local store marketing effectively to grow their local customer base and increase sales. Marketing strategies such as direct mailers, local promotions, special events, and local advertising on the radio, in the newspaper, and on local television are all ways that businesses can leverage local store marketing.

Effective local store marketing campaigns also include rewarding repeat customers. This personalized level of customer service and appreciation is what makes this form of marketing so powerful. With 80% of customers saying the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services, local store marketing is essential and one of the most effective ways for participating businesses to succeed and grow.

Businesses can connect and engage with customers in the area through events or even online through social media. Connecting with customers on an individual basis is much more effective than a blanket national campaign. Local store marketing allows marketing professionals to tailor content, programs, and even pricing strategies to the local area.

Marketing by the Numbers

Local store marketing, like any other marketing strategy, is used not only to grow your customer base but also to create loyalty within your existing customer group. Here’s why it’s so important to use local store marketing to create customer loyalty.

65% of consumers have cut ties with a brand over a single poor customer service experience.
Acquiring a new customer can cost five times more than retaining an existing customer.
Increasing customer retention by 5% can increase profits from 25-95%.

Companies need to focus on grassroots marketing campaigns in order to attract customers in various locations. Simply using national or regional marketing campaigns alone is not as effective as supplementing those larger campaign strategies with local store marketing.