A Deep Dive Into the 2022 LMBR: THE Data You Need to Know

Our 2022 Localized Marketing Benchmark Report (LMBR) is filled with data specifically for multi-location marketers. While this year’s LMBR had almost 3x the data compared to last year’s, we still had to make some cuts when deciding which data to feature in the report. That’s where this blog comes in! 

We’re going to dive deeper into some of the report’s details and highlight a few exclusive data nuggets that were not featured in the report! This blog will give you a more in-depth look into the stats, and provide actionable takeaways for how you can improve your local visibility, and ultimately  stand out from the competition. 

What is the 2022 Localized Marketing Benchmark Report?

If you’re not already familiar with the 2022 LMBR, it’s SOCi’s annual report that analyzes how leaders in localized marketing perform in local search, local social, and online reputation management. It’s worth noting that we added an entire category this year – online reputation management!  Prior years’ reports focused solely on local search and local social. The LMBR also focuses on data gathered from the three leading localized marketing platforms – Google, Facebook, and Yelp. 

The LMBR was created to: 

1. Develop standards for multi-location brand presence and promotion on the top localized marketing channels that influence today’s consumer buying decisions.
2. Quantify the digital presence and performance of today’s top multi-location brands to determine benchmarks for performance in search, social, and reputation at the local level. 
3. Analyze companies that score above our benchmarks, along with common patterns and vertical performance, to isolate and refine a target list of best practices. 

If you haven’t had the opportunity to read this year’s report, you won’t want to miss it. You can download the 2022 LMBR, here. 

A Deep Dive Into Local Search, Social, and Online Reputation Management 

As mentioned above, the 2022 LMBR looks at how top multi-location businesses are performing in local search, social, and online reputation management. We picked one stand-out data point from each category to dive further into. While the statistic might not have meant much to your multi-location business at first, a closer look will reveal how your multi-location business can level up its localized marketing efforts. 

1. Local Search 

One of the metrics measured was Google Business Profile (GBP) completeness when looking at local search. The 2022 LMBR data revealed that most multi-location businesses understand the importance of claiming and optimizing their local GBPs – with businesses that were studied averaging 97 percent GBP completeness. 

As a multi-location marketer, you likely see this data and don’t think much of it. If anything, it tells you that it’s essential to ensure your local listings, especially those on GBP, include updated and relevant business information. But taking a deeper look into the data, there’s more to unpack. 

Diving into what makes up GBP completeness provides a more holistic look at where multi-location brands are doing well and where there’s room for improvement. Below, you’ll find which factors were considered when calculating GBP completeness and the averages for each.

• Has Address: 98.2 percent
• Has Phone: 99.8 percent
• Has Local Landing Page: 96.7 percent
• Has Primary Category: 99.9 percent
• Has at Least One Secondary Category: 92.1 percent
• Has Merchant Description: 91.2 percent
• Has Business Hours: 97.2 percent
• Has Profile Photo: 99.8 percent
• Has at Least One Attribute: 99.1 percent
• Has Secondary URL (Booking, Ordering, Info): 71.2 percent

The bullets in green show places where top multi-location brands may be lacking when it comes to GBP completeness. This list highlights areas of opportunity for your multi-location business – these points showcase where you should focus when filling out local GBPs, and provide an excellent way to differentiate yourself from competitors. 

Secondary URLs are the most significant area of opportunity. As described in the bullet, a secondary URL is a link that could take the user anywhere from booking an online appointment to ordering food to a local landing page that provides additional location-specific information. 

These secondary URLs provide the opportunity to turn a potential customer into a lead, further emphasizing their importance. While most multi-location businesses studied had at least one secondary category listed along with a merchant description, they’re worth including to boost your GBP completeness and online visibility. 

2. Local Social 

As a multi-location marketer, you likely have a local social strategy for your multi-location business. When looking at local social, the 2022 LMBR studied how top multi-location brands performed on Facebook and Google. 

While we included this data in the 2022 LMBR, one of the most extensive areas of opportunity that stood out for local social was the use of videos. Multi-location brands studied included videos in an average of 10 percent of their posts. In comparison, localized marketing leaders (those who scored best in local social) only include videos in 14.7 percent of their posts. 

Seventy-eight percent of people watch online videos every week, and 55 percent view online videos every day. Fifty-four percent of consumers want to see more video content this year. Similarly,  72 percent of customers said they would rather learn about a product or service through video.

With the popularity of video content continuing to grow, multi-location brands must include more videos in their local social efforts. Check out our Localized Social Content Guide for more insight into the types of video content you can include in your local social efforts. 

Spoiler alert – consumers do not expect professional-quality video. Vertical videos taken on an iPhone suffice. 

3. Online Reputation Management 

More than half of consumers have passed up a business due to their local ratings and reviews. A solid online reputation management strategy is a must as a multi-location marketer. The 2022 LMBR analyzed various components of online reputation management, including review response rate. 

The report found that, on average, multi-location businesses were responding to:

• 36.2 percent of reviews received on Google 
• 28.3 percent of recommendations on Facebook 
• 6.2 percent of reviews on Yelp 

This data tells us that while multi-location businesses are responding to some of their reviews, there is much room for improvement. While responding to reviews across the board is essential, it’s even more important to prioritize your business’s responses to negative reviews. Forty percent of consumers expect a response no more than 24 hours after the negative review is posted. More than three-quarters of consumers leaving critical reviews expect a business to respond to them.

So how do multi-location businesses studied in the 2022 LMBR fare when responding to negative reviews? We analyzed this data when creating the report, but with so many data points, it wasn’t featured in the final product. 

The data studied found that multi-location businesses studied were responding to an average of: 

• 25.6 percent of the negative reviews received on Google 
• 6.2 percent of the negative recommendations received on Facebook
• 1.7 percent of the negative reviews received on Yelp

Wow. A deeper dive into this data tells us that multi-location businesses are not prioritizing their responses to negative reviews, or meeting anywhere near consumer expectations as stated above. As a multi-location business, you should be responding to as many reviews as possible. If you’re not able to respond to 100 percent of the reviews received, negative reviews should be prioritized. Responding to negative reviews across local search and social platforms is a clear area of opportunity and an excellent way for your multi-location business to stand out from the competition. 

For more information on what it takes to build a winning online reputation management strategy, check out our Multi-Location Marketer’s Guide to Online Reputation Management. 

Get Started Optimizing Your Localized Marketing Efforts 

The 2022 LMBR provided a wealth of data that continues to give us crucial localized marketing insights. Whether your multi-location business needs to level up its video content, improve review responses, or further optimize your Google Business Profiles, there are numerous opportunities to level up your localized marketing efforts. 

With 100s or 1,000s of business locations, we understand that this can be challenging, which is where SOCi comes in. SOCi is the marketing platform for multi-location brands. From a local social tool that can help you schedule video content across all your business locations to a reviews solution that allows you to monitor and respond to reviews at scale to SOCi Listings providing your business with the ability to optimize its local listings, there’s something for everyone. Request a demo today for more insight into how SOCi can help your multi-location business dominate its localized marketing strategy!