Unlock the Power of Localized Marketing — For Distributor Brands

As a multi-location marketer, you likely understand the importance of a comprehensive marketing strategy. But with numerous dealers and retailers, developing that strategy is often easier said than done. That’s where localized marketing comes in.

Within this blog, we’ll recap a recent webinar specifically for distributor brands on the power of localized marketing. We’ll highlight which areas of localized marketing your company should focus on, how dealers come into play, and what to consider when choosing a solution to help. 

Let’s get into it! 

Localized Marketing for Distributor Brands

Before we dive into which specific localized marketing tactics your brand company can leverage, let’s define localized marketing itself. 

For distributor brands, localized marketing refers to a targeted approach brands use to promote their products within specific local markets. The main goal is to generate traffic and boost sales by directing potential customers to authorized dealers while optimizing sales content at the local level.

The three pillars of localized marketing are local search, local social, and online reputation management. 

So you have the definition of localized marketing, but why is it so important? 

The data speaks for itself: 

• Seventy-four percent of consumers conduct local searches at least once a week, and 54 percent visit a business on the same day.

• Eighty-two percent of consumers have purchased a product they saw on social media. 

• Three out of four consumers have discovered a new offering through social media recommendations. 

Now that you understand the power of localized marketing let’s dive into how to unlock it.

Level-Up Local Search Efforts 

While the topic of local search might seem daunting, as a distributor brand, having your product show up in relevant search results is critical. You need to have a great dealer locator and branded dealer landing pages to increase organic reach.

Dealer Locators Explained

If you’re unfamiliar, a dealer locator is a web page or section on a website that displays valuable information and unique details about each location where a brand’s products are sold. Below, you’ll find an example of Echo USA’s dealer locator. 

Dealer locators can help your brand: 

• Rank well for branded search 
• Route customers to your dealer network of stores to find your brands
• Share in-stock or assortment information with customers 

Dealer Local Landing Pages Explained

Alternatively, branded dealer landing pages, often known as local landing pages, are local pages that highlight where your products are being sold and are branded to your company. 

Local landing pages can help customers find the closest store to them that sells your products. They also drive non-branded discovery of your products. 

How to Optimize Your Local Landing Pages

While local landing pages are essential, they aren’t adding as much value unless they’re optimized. 

Distributor Brands can optimize online local landing pages by: 

• Including unique content about your products 
• Linking your top brands and products 
• Adding images or videos of your products 
• Sharing online reviews 
• Linking to nearby locations to show customers where else they can find your products 

Combined, dealer locators and local landing pages can help level up your brand’s local search efforts. Download our Top 10 Things You Should Be Doing in Local SEO Now guide for additional tips on improving your local SEO strategy.

Leverage Social Media 

Social media can be challenging as a national or regional brand with no store locations. To overcome this, distributor brands must leverage social media to strengthen local relationships with dealer networks. For instance, you can partner with local dealers to share content on their local profiles. 

As part of this partnership, make it easy for your dealers to share your social content locally. This includes creating local social content for them. 

By creating this content and ensuring it’s being shared locally, your brand can: 

• Establish a local foothold on social media 
• Create a channel for localized content syndication 
• Get your products and services in front of more local consumers
• Bring in more business to your local dealers 

Additionally, our research found that localized content receives 12x the engagement rate of “non-localized content.” While the importance of local social is evident, it’s important to remember a few best practices.

When creating local social content for dealers, top priorities include the following: 

• Consistent branding 
• Leveraging visuals and multi-media 
• Community involvement, such as user-generated content 
• Providing value for your audience 
• Influence collaboration if it’s available 

To fund these local social campaigns, your brand can consider leveraging a co-op marketing fund which is when the distributor pays for a portion of or all marketing campaigns and marketing technology (MarTech) for their partnered dealers. These programs and funds make it easier for dealers to promote your products and brand.

For more local social media tips and tactics, download The Localized Social Content Guide for Distributor Brands.

Finding a Comarketing Solution That Helps 

Now that you understand how to engage your local audiences and bring potential customers to your local dealers at scale, it’s time to find a solution that can help. That’s where SOCi comes in.

SOCi’s Local Pages and Locator services will help elevate your brand and dominate organic search. With SOCi, you can easily optimize and make real-time edits and updates to your local pages and locator.

SOCi Local Pages and Locator are also built for lead generation. You can showcase location-specific content, allow appointment booking and online orders, and leverage lead capture forms. Read our ECHO-USA case study to learn how SOCi helped one of the most popular professional power equipment distributors  increase its page views by 152 percent.

Additionally, SOCi Social can help you crush your local social efforts.

With SOCi Social, you can: 

• Seamlessly distribute content to local dealers
• Automate social posting to local dealer pages 
• Analyze local post-performance at scale
• Get your brand in front of local customers loyal to the stores selling your products or offering your services 

For more insight into how SOCi can help your distributor brand unlock the power of localized marketing and win more customers, request a demo today!