A Manufacturer’s Guide to Localized Marketing

As a manufacturing marketer, you may find it challenging to engage local customers at scale. How do you attract potential customers to your brand and drive them to your independent dealers or distributors with whom you’ve built strong relationships? That’s where localized marketing comes in. 

Localized marketing is the process of creating and implementing a marketing strategy that is distributed at the local level. Rather than creating a generic marketing strategy that is used nationwide, localized marketing tailors marketing efforts to local markets. Optimizing local engagement through localized marketing drives more customers to visit your dealers to buy your products. 

While your manufacturing company may not already have a localized marketing strategy, it’s not too late. Within this blog, we’ll break down the different components of localized marketing while sharing tips your company can use to execute the strategy effectively. It’s time to stand out from competitors, and localized marketing can help!

Refine Your Local Social Efforts 

Today, 82 percent of Americans use social media, and 68 percent of consumers agree that social media enables them to interact with brands and companies. As a manufacturer, you may not think social media is worth the investment, but these statistics prove otherwise.

As a manufacturing company, it’s crucial to engage relevant customers locally and relevantly in local markets rather than launch general and unpersonalized national campaigns. So which channels should your company leverage when it comes to local social? With a whopping 2.93 billion people logging onto Facebook every month, there’s little question that members of your target audience are among the social network’s many users.

Although Facebook is non-negotiable, there are additional social channels that you should leverage if time and resources allow. For instance, market research firm GWI found that Facebook and Instagram remained the top social platforms in 2021. LinkedIn and Twitter are also among the top used platforms. 

Your manufacturing company should put time and effort into understanding where your target audience spends their time on social media and create local social profiles on those channels. Once your manufacturing company decides which platforms to invest in, the next step is to develop local content. 

Data has found that localized content performs 12x better than non-localized content. As a manufacturing company, posting local content that resonates with your target audience is essential. So, what type of content can your manufacturing company include in its local social strategy? 

Content can include, but is not limited to:

• Updates to products and services 
• Details about local stores your products are sold in 
• Photos and videos when possible — get creative! 
• Upcoming events or partnerships your company is involved in 
• Customer testimonials and user-generated content (UGC) 

Once you have your localized social content strategy in place, you can start to look for a solution that allows you to schedule your content across platforms and locations. We’ll get into a solution to scheduling social content later in this blog. 

Master Social Listening 

Social listening is another critical component of a comprehensive localized marketing strategy. For those unfamiliar, social listening is the process of monitoring social media channels and other online platforms for mentions of your company, your products, and your competitors.

Social listening allows you to understand the conversation around your industry and gain insight into what consumers need and expect. Manufacturing marketers can leverage the information collected from social listening to optimize marketing efforts, products, and the overall customer experience. 

For instance, if a competitor releases a new product that receives rave reviews, you can look into how that product differs from your product and adjust accordingly. This doesn’t mean that you should copy your competitors’ products, but it’s good to have the information available and further improve your product in your own way. 

Similarly, suppose you see consumers speaking highly of one of your products. In that case, you can reach out to the customer and see if they’ll allow you to get a testimonial from them or leverage their user-generated content on social media. Without social listening, think of all the conversations your manufacturing company could miss out on. 

Leverage Chatbots 

Now that you understand the importance of local social and social listening, let’s talk about social messaging. Social messaging apps have continued to increase in popularity in the marketing world and will continue to do so. 

Currently, there are 20 billion messages sent on Facebook Messenger each month. It’s clear that people like using Facebook Messenger to chat with each other, so why wouldn’t they want to use it to speak to your company? Chatbots and Facebook Messenger are easy ways for your manufacturing company to communicate with potential customers and make their experience personalized.

Chatbots on your website, local pages, or social platforms allow your company to answer customer questions promptly. Your manufacturing company can also leverage chatbots and Facebook Messenger to gain an inquirer’s contact information and move them into the sales funnel. In today’s digital world, consumers expect companies to have a presence on messaging apps and chatbots. Without them, you might be falling behind competitors and missing new leads.

Our Localized Chatbot Guide provides an in-depth look at how your manufacturing company can seamlessly implement chatbots into its localized marketing strategy.

Develop Local Pages 

Local pages, also known as local landing pages, are search-optimized brand pages at the local level that deliver a consistent presence across your company and improve your local search visibility. Many manufacturing companies already have local pages, but are they optimized to their fullest potential? If not, think about the missed opportunities. 

Local pages are one SEO ranking factor Google considers when determining where your business should appear in search results. And while increased visibility on Google is excellent, the benefits of local pages don’t stop there. 

Local pages provide potential consumers with the convenience they’re looking for, keeping consumers happy and bringing business straight to your door. Many manufacturers find that optimized local pages lead to increased revenue, which every company strives to achieve.

When building local pages, your manufacturing company should: 

• Determine a keyword strategy to boost online visibility further 
• Include helpful business information such as:
  • Hours of operation 
  • Contact information 
  • Local business address
  • An interactive map 
  • Images of the business location 
  • Links to social media accounts 
  • Promotions or sales 
• Leverage calls to action to collect potential leads 
• Maintain brand guidelines and consistent messaging 

To recap, well-managed local pages boost SEO, generate leads, and promote unique content. Local pages are a must to keep consumers immersed in your brand experience.

Stand Out From Competitors With A Winning Local Social Strategy

Whether your manufacturing company is just starting with its marketing strategy or you already have a plan, there’s always room to improve. Finding a solution that can help you manage your localized marketing efforts in one place at scale should be non-negotiable. That’s where SOCi comes in. 

SOCi provides a centralized platform that allows manufacturing marketers to find all the data and actionable insights from every localized marketing effort in one place versus having to go to every individual point solution’s platform to pull data. From local social to local listings to social listening, chatbots, and local pages, SOCi is the marketing platform for manufacturing companies. 

Request a demo today to get a more in-depth look at SOCi’s products and gain insight into how they can help you stand out from competitors without the extra work!