Localize to Optimize Sales Effectiveness

Localize to Optimize Sales Channel Effectiveness will focus on driving best practices and thought leadership in optimizing the delivery of localized marketing support, engaging and acquiring customers on a local level, as well as connecting and resonating with local community interests, icons, preferences and hot buttons. Qualitative and quantitative interactions will be undertaken with leading brands in the automotive, retail, business service, insurance, banking, retail brokerage, hospitality, lodging, foodservice, technology, entertainment and health care sectors. A leadership committee of 15-20 top marketers in the localized marketing field will be assembled and an online survey will audit and assess issues, obstacles, competencies, proficiencies, experiences, successes, outcomes and intentions in the area of localized marketing.

Despite the homogenization of markets, media channels and brand experiences globally, localization of messages, images, creative executions, offers, deals and interactions is still critical to marketing effectiveness and customer relationship building across many business categories. While the Internet may have eclipsed the trusty Yellow Pages book as the primary go-to resource for finding things locally (and providing third-party validation), consumers still desire a very local buying and service experience from a trusted community participant and presence.

The advent of multi-channel, digital marketing is transforming customer engagement, both globally and locally. It is giving local businesses a global presence and global businesses a local face and pipeline into micro-populations, prospects and continuity customers. Local marketing automation platforms and solutions are enabling national or regional marketers to produce, package, distribute and digitally repurpose multiple versions of content, collateral, advertising, direct mail, promotion and in-store merchandising materials very cost-efficiently and effectively. It is enabling them to truly localize and customize campaigns by community, to accommodate factors such as climate, geography, ethnic composition, demographics, shopper-graphics, psychographics, politics, and even neuro-sensory influences.

Media companies in the cable, broadcast, print, mobile, Internet and outdoor display sectors are introducing more targeted zone, zip code and even location-based messaging and media buying capabilities. And the same is true at point-of-sale with behavioral targeting, leveraging the transactional histories of loyalty and reward club members shopping at supermarkets, drug stores and mass merchant outlets. Downsizing the world-wide web to a neighborhood locator network is transforming the classified advertising and local listings business and bringing localized search marketing innovations to the demand generation and traffic building capabilities of field networks, sales channels, service locations and merchant outlets of national brand marketers. These include local agents, dealers, franchisees, branch offices, manufacturers reps, consultants, brokers, restaurants, hotels, and retail stores. Localized social marketing is also harvesting the audience reach and viral value of hundreds of millions of active and addicted social gamers, personal content publishers, brand and personality fans, as well as community networking enthusiasts.

Advances in media, buying, tracking and reporting systems using the Internet are also introducing higher levels of transparency, accountability, reporting and measurement to co-op, localized and network marketing programs on a grassroots level. Centralizing the origination of localized marketing content and programs also delivers significant cost-savings, assures greater brand integrity, reduces errors and improves time-to-market. In addition, localized marketing support drives participation, interest and enthusiasm in the field, boosting sales effectiveness and closure.

2.6 billion local searches are performed each month on the Internet, which has now surpassed print, the Yellow Pages and newspaper as the primary source for local consumer service information - Piper Jaffray

27 percent of all mobile searches are for local information - Piper Jaffray

30 percent of all search queries contain a city, state or zip code - Redline Performance Marketing

63 percent of Americans have substituted the internet and local search for phone books - Spears Marketing

84% of searchers are looking online for a local business - Spears Marketing

73% of online activity is related to local content - Spears Marketing

82% of local searches result in an in-store visit, phone call, or purchase - Spears Marketing

Up to 46% of local searches result in a store visit - nearly 4 in 10 US Internet users (37%) who conducted an online local business search in 2009 ended up visiting the store in person, up 5% over 2008 - TMP Directional Marketing

Two out of every five streaming video ad dollars will come from local advertisers next year. - 2011 Advertising Forecast Memo

Local online advertising should grow by almost 18%, from $13.7 billion in 2010 to $16.1 billion in 2011 - 2011 Advertising Forecast Memo

Use of targeted display by advertisers local to the markets where their ads run will more than double in 2011, reaching more than $2.3 billion - 2011 Advertising Forecast Memo

Email advertising will see strong growth in 2011, up 9% to $16.0 billion, but only 3 percent is local - 2011 Advertising Forecast Memo

Google expects its new "Place Search" feature to become a cornerstone of its service because more than 20 percent of its search requests include something about a particular location. - SFGate

The market for alternative positioning technologies will reach an astounding $2.5 billion by 2015 - International Business Times

Only 4 percent of US online adults have ever used location-based mobile apps such as Foursquare, Gowalla and Loopt; only 1% update these services more than once per week - Advertising Age

Almost 80% of location-based service users are male. Close to 70% of them are between the ages of 19 and 35, and 70% have college degrees or higher - Advertising Age

Local businesses quite often hire employees with better product knowledge and more interest in getting to know the customers. - Ecomii Buy-Local Marketing 

Location-Based Social Networks: A Hint Of Mobile Engagement Emerges by Melissa Parrish - Forrester Research 

The Social Customer Engagement Index By Brent Leary - The Social Customer 

How Effective are Groupon Promotions for Businesses? By Utpal Dholakia - The Social Science Research Network 

Loyalty in 4D By Anne Mai Bertelsen, Mike Schneider and Scott Henderson - AG.com 

November 15, 2011 - Borrell: After Two Years Of No Growth, Local Ad Spend Will Spike In 2012 - PaidContent.org

October 19, 2011 - Sales Tools, Localized Marketing and Inflation Driving Supervalu Comps - Drug Store News

October 17, 2011 - Walmart Launches Hyper-local Facebook pages for 3,600 Stores - Click Through

October 10, 2011 - Your Business on Facebook: Solving the Local vs Global Dilemma - AdAge

September 5, 2011 - Now-Rare U.S. Brands Thriving Overseas - AdvertisingAge

August 23, 2011 - Collaborative Marketing Could Save Local Councils "Millions" - Marketing Week

August 12, 2011 - Borrell: 20% of Local Marketing Budgets Planned for Mobile - Street Fight Magazine.com

August 10, 2011 - Macy's 2nd Quarter Profit Surges on Local Marketing -USA Today.com

July 7, 2011 - How Businesses Can Forge (Much-Coveted) Brand Partnerships With Foursquare - FastCompany

June 8, 2011 - 43 Percent of U.S. Businesses Now Successfully Using Social Media -www.destinationcrm.com

April 18, 2011 - Local Advertising: New Balance's Excellence Campaign for the 2011 Boston Marathon - ProductPlacePricePromotion.Blogspot.com

April 11, 2011 - Radio Shack Says Foursquare Users Spend 3.5X More - ClickZ.com

March 28, 2011 - Newspapers Follow Groupon's Suit; Enjoy Slice of Group-Buying Pie - Advertising Age

March 21, 2011 - What Is Facebook Doing, Adding Checkins to Events? - Fast Company

March 18, 2011 - Are Four Words Worth $25 Billion for Groupon? - Yahoo! Finance

March 17, 2011 - Groupon Said to Discuss IPO Valuation of Up to $25 Billion - Bloomberg Businessweek

March 10, 2011 - L'Oreal Teams Up With Buddy Media To Help Local Salons Market on Facebook - Mashable

March 9, 2011 - Foursquare Amps Up Local Deals - Mashable

March 8, 2011 - Cash Registers May Get a Groupon Button - Bloomberg Businessweek

March 5, 2011 - To Beat Groupon, Its Competitors Must Go National - Wall Street Journal

February 25, 2011 - Silicon Valley Goes Local as It Pursues Small Business - Financial Times

February 24, 2011 - New To Macy's Spring Lineup: Custom QR Codes - MediaPost

February 18, 2011 - Mobile Ad Market Still Faces Hurdles - Wall Street Journal

February 15, 2011 - Most Popular Marketing Tool For Local Biz: Facebook - MediaPost

February 14, 2011 - Gen-X friendly marketing: Five Emerging Real Estate Marketing Trends - Wicked Local

February 4, 2011 - Caritas Owner to Introduce Itself in Local Super Bowl Ad - Boston Globe

January 31, 2011 - Mobile Apps Drawing in Shoppers, Marketers - Wall Street Journal

January 30, 2011 - Pepsi Bets on Local Grants, Not the Super Bowl - The New York Times

January 26, 2011 - Most Users Don't Want To Share Their Location - Business Insider

January 19, 2011 - Living Social Launches Self-Promoting Amazon Offer - Brandweek

January 17, 2011 - Borrell Associates' 2011 Ad Forecast Memo - Borrell Associates 

January 17, 2011 - Local Internet Marketing to be BIGGEST Trend in 2011 - Local Marketing Source 

January 13, 2011 - Effective Boy-Local Marketing: Arm Consumers with Some Basic Buy-Local Facts - Ecomii 

January 13, 2011 - Local Business Facts - Spears Marketing 

January 12, 2011 - How Local Business Marketing Drove My Sales Through The Roof In The Dreariest Of Economies - EzineMark.com 

January 12, 2011 - 10 Marketing Trends for 2011 - Reuters 

January 3, 2011 - Coca-Cola Wraps Largest Social Media Project Ever - Advertising Age 

December 14, 2010 - Early Days for the Groupon-ing of the Internet - MarketWatch 

December 7, 2010 - Gap Embraces Geo-Trageting by Incorporating Foursquare in Ads - UTalkMarketing.com 

October 29, 2010 - Social Media Shopping Deals for Facebook's 500+ Million Potential Buyers - InventorSpot.com 

October 27, 2010 - How Retailers are Using Location-Based Services Such as Foursquare - CIO.com 

October 22, 2010 - New Location Technologies To Generate Billions - Internation Business Times 

October 19, 2010 - Pandora Tunes Local Businesses Into Geotargeted Mobile Ads - BIA/Kelsey 

October 4, 2010 - Beyond Foursquare: The Next Generation of Customer Loyalty - Harvard Business Journal 

September 28, 2010 - Why Mobile Check-in Services Aren't Providing Value - Social Media Today 

August 25, 2010 - Local Online Advertising Market Set to Top $16 Billion in 2011 - TechFlash 

August 16, 2010 - ROI Success in Local Digital Marketing - Facts for 2010 - GannettLocal Blog 

July 17, 2010 - How Social Media Drives New Business: Six Case Studies - TechCrunch 

June 28, 2010 - Why We Check In: The Reason People Use Location-Based Social Networks - ReadWriteWeb 

June 22, 2010 - Olay, Gap, Pepsi Run Geo-Social Campaigns - but Not for Foursquare - Clickz.com 

April 9, 2010 - Is Location-Based Advertising Effective? - Penn Olson