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Top 3 Things Marketers Are Missing to Drive High Valued Engagement

 

Are your local social efforts falling flat? Are you not getting the engagement your multi-location business needs? These are common occurrences amongst multi-location marketers. In today’s fast-paced digital world, high-valued engagement is hard to come by, but it’s not impossible.

 

Within this blog, we’ll look at the top three localized marketing tactics multi-location marketers need to drive high-value engagement. All of the tactics are easy to implement, and the effort you put into them will pay off with new leads and sales

 

Increase Number of Locations Posting on Social

 

Data from our newly released 3rd Annual Localized Marketing Benchmark Report found that many marketers miss the localized social mark when it comes to the number of their locations posting on social. An average of 49 percent of business locations post on Facebook, while only 17 percent turn to Google My Business (GMB) for posts. Both of these numbers have significant room for improvement.

 

 

Ideally, your multi-location business should strive to have 100 percent of your business locations posting on both Facebook and GMB. If that’s not feasible, you should at least be meeting the average while striving to get as many sites posting as possible. If all of your business locations are posting locally on social media, you increase your opportunities for high-valued engagement. Similarly, consumers will recognize that your business is taking the time and effort to engage locally and often return the favor with high-valued engagement.

 

While managing local social media across 100s or even 1,000s of business locations might seem daunting, it doesn’t have to be. SOCi’s Content Manager enables multi-location businesses to manage and deploy localized content at scale while maintaining brand consistency at both the enterprise and local levels. This solution is an excellent option for multi-location marketers looking to elevate their local social efforts without a lot of extra time and effort.

 

 

Invest In Reputation Management 

 

Another great way to boost your high valued engagement is through a more focused approach to reputation management. Your business is likely receiving ratings and reviews on Facebook and GMB, but what are you doing with them? Is there room for you to increase your volume of reviews as well? Our Localized Marketing Benchmark Report found that, on average, multi-location businesses only receive four new reviews on GMB a month and less than one recent review on Facebook.

 

Today, reviews are the number one factor consumers consider when making a purchase decision. If your business can increase the number of reviews you receive, you can likely increase your high valued engagement and ultimately drive more sales.

 

While you should never ask for reviews outright, your business can gain genuine reviews by: 

• Making it easy for consumers to leave reviews by providing links to your review sites on your website.
• Adding a review option on surveys or other digital interactions with consumers, such as an emailed receipt.
• Highlighting positive reviews on social media and thanking the reviewer for taking the time to leave the review.
• Sitting down and brainstorming a consumer review strategy. This will keep your multi-location brand accountable.

 

Once you increase the number of reviews your business receives, you must ensure you respond to them in a timely and personalized manner. Currently, companies are responding to reviews on Facebook in an average of 93 days and on GMB in 41 days. This response time is way too high. Your business should aim to acknowledge ratings and reviews as quickly as possible. Similar to local social, if consumers see your multi-location business is taking the time to reply to reviews, they will remember your business when it comes time to make a purchase.

 

Managing your reviews across business locations doesn’t have to be difficult either. SOCi’s streamlined reputation management software allows users to view every action taken on reviews and monitor social media activity. Now, your local, regional, and corporate teams will always know the reviews and social engagements addressed and those that still require attention to ensure the prompt responses consumers expect, increasing your high-valued engagement.

 

 

Test More Localized Content 

 

Finally, your multi-location business can drive high-valued engagement through localized content. If your multi-location business is posting corporate-level social content consistently, you could be missing out. (maybe more clear- Consumers crave a local connection more than ever before, and localized content satisfies this need.

 

Our previous tip highlighted the need for your multi-location business to increase the number of business locations posting on local social. To fully harness the power of posting, your multi-location business should have all of your local social pages claimed. After claiming your local pages, your multi-location business should start thinking about how you can interact with your consumers through localized content.

 

The way you address your target audience in a small town in Kansas might differ from how you speak to an audience in New York City. Similarly, there may be location-specific events or newsworthy things going on in specific locations that your multi-location business can address. Your messaging must align with your consumer base. When planning content at the local level, you can share various types of content, including:

• Special promotions or discounts that are happening at your business location. Are you running a special promotion for first-time customers?
• Positive customer reviews from local consumers. User-generated content can go a long way. If a consumer see that other people in their area appreciate your brand, they will be more likely to trust it.
• Pictures of live or virtual events happening at your local store. If you hosted a virtual cooking class, share those images on your local social media accounts.
• Current events that are happening in your local area. Is there a snowstorm headed your way? Did your city’s sports team win a big game? These are things you can incorporate into your local content.
• Ways your local business is giving back to the community. Are you hosting a supply drive for the local school? Are your employees volunteering at a local food bank? These are types of activities you can highlight in your local content.

 

Increasing the volume of localized content your business locations post will drive engagement. Consumers will be more likely to interact with localized content relevant to them rather than generic corporate content. Not to say that your multi-location business should never post corporate content, but there should be a balance between the two.

 

If your multi-location business follows all the tactics we’ve covered above, you should start seeing improvement in high-value engagement. If your multi-location business wants to distinguish itself from its competitors and lead the industry in sales, a solid local social presence and reputation management strategy are critical. As we’ve covered, SOCi can help your multi-location business manage both your local social efforts and ratings and reviews. SOCi can also assist you with other aspects of your localized marketing efforts. SOCi is the all-in-one platform for multi-location marketers and the central command for localized marketing. For more information on how SOCi can help your business win more sales, request a demo today!