My local marketing strategy starts by imagining the customer's actual errand. If someone needs to wash a bag of clothes, convenience is likely to matter. A location five minutes away may be more useful than a beautifully marketed business across the city.
That was the starting point in a recent discussion with a business operating many locations. We could spend time talking about broad brand activity, but I wanted to understand how people found the nearest outlet and whether the information helped them choose it.
Follow the route customers already use
Our analysis suggested that Google Business Profiles played a substantial part in the journey for the locations we examined. People were interacting with those profiles, including after visiting the website. That gave us a concrete reason to prioritise their management.
I wanted the basics to be accurate across the website, the profiles and other relevant listings. Names, addresses and contact information should agree. Services should reflect what is actually available at the location. The customer should not have to resolve conflicting information before deciding where to go.
I also wanted an ongoing process for keeping the profiles useful. A business with many branches needs to know who maintains them and how changes reach the right locations. Creating the profile is the beginning of that responsibility.
Understand the difference between nearby branches
For a network, local marketing is more complicated than repeating the same campaign everywhere. We discussed branches close enough together that the customer could easily choose the wrong one or assume the business was farther away than it really was.
I want to examine location-specific searches and the way the locations are represented. Which branch is useful for this person? Is the destination clear? Does the advertising reflect the area and the service the customer needs?
The objective is to make finding the appropriate branch straightforward. That is a more useful starting point than assuming a network-wide awareness campaign will solve every local problem.
Google describes local results in terms of relevance, distance and prominence. Accurate information supports discovery, but no marketing team can guarantee that the closest branch will always appear first. Regular posts are a communication practice, rather than a promise of a ranking increase.
Reference: Google guidance on local ranking — https://support.google.com/business/answer/7091
Give social content a real situation
I also see a role for social content, provided we give people a reason to care. In the meeting, I suggested thinking about the frustrations and routines of visitors to an area.
For example, a traveller staying near the coast might want to get their swimming clothes washed and dried before returning to their accommodation. That gives us a practical story to explore with a relevant local outlet. It connects the service with something the audience is already doing.
The idea was a creative direction to test, not a campaign result. Its appeal was the specificity: a person, a situation and a useful service. That gives the creative team more to work with than another generic announcement that the business exists.
Give customers a reason to look for you again
Convenience may bring someone in for the first time, but a useful loyalty offer can influence their next choice. I used my own experience of buying coffee to explain this. Once a loyalty programme became part of my routine, I began searching for that brand rather than simply searching for any coffee shop nearby.
I would explore the same question for another local business: what makes returning worthwhile and easy? The answer needs to fit how people actually use the service, rather than copying a loyalty mechanic because another industry uses it.
If you run several locations, start your next review at branch level. Check how a nearby customer finds the right place, what information they see, and why they would return. Those decisions give the wider marketing plan a much clearer foundation.