The term “going rogue” has taken on a somewhat romantic notion these days. Usually, it indicates someone showing an independent spirit. We picture the rogue as a maverick who bucks off expectations to forge his own path. While it’s become something to admire in politics or sports, it’s less appreciated in the business world. That may help explain the rapid rise of Local Marketing Automation (LMA). This valuable business tool gives marketing leaders the power to disrupt without threatening their brand identity in the process.
The Benefits of Local Marketing Automation
Local marketing automation offers satellite branches of a national or global brand the opportunity to utilize the company’s image. This includes its branded name, logo, and images to build marketing materials on a more personal level. The idea of LMA is to prevent the local outlet of a national company from “going rogue.” Thwarting attempts to develop their own ads or branding efforts that miss the marketing target and veer too far away from established company practices. These practices can dilute a brand and undo years of the hard work that goes into building a brand image.
The Effects of Integrated Local Marketing Management
Integrated local marketing management has a lot to offer to both the parent company and the local outlet. Here are a few of the major benefits:
- Maintaining Marketing Consistency. Taking the national message and using it locally helps the brand stay on target. Additionally, it gives local entities the ability to enjoy the recognition and visibility of the brand itself.
- Lower Marketing Costs. The national expertise of the brand can be combined with local data for lower marketing costs. The result is an expanded market reach and awareness that attracts those familiar with a strong brand name.
- Raising Response Rates. Customers may be aware of the brand’s national reputation. Local marketing automation helps them see the efforts of such a campaign closer to home, reinforcing a positive image of both the brand and the local outlet.
- Marketing Efficiency. With access to the national brand’s approved logos and collateral material, local marketing efforts become more efficient. This also allows regional affiliates to tailor their message to the local audience using company branding.
This combined effort assures brand consistency across the board, as corporate leaders are ensured their brand image message is staying consistent.
Related: Creative Marketing Strategies AND Brand Compliance: How to Have It All
Hitting the Marketing Bullseye with Local Automation Marketing
Local marketing automation provides an even greater benefit. It allows brand managers to leverage brand recognition value to grow a business. Therefore, this leads a more positive image of the brand and better ROI. In other words, more local marketing efforts hit the proverbial “bullseye.”
According to Pageflex, “LMA provides solutions that regular marketing automation misses, including improved brand compliance, localized message approvals, and consistency. Lack of alignment with corporate marketing and branding strategies can lead to many challenges. These include delays in approval, customer dissatisfaction, and higher production costs resulting from redundant time and effort spent on developing and ultimately re-creating resources. The automation of localizing marketing collateral can keep costs down while retaining a global appeal at the local level.”
Local marketing automation is also a more efficient form of marketing and can lead to better response rates. According to Gleanster Research, “Top Performers who localize marketing communications report an 18% higher response rate over generic corporate communications. These performance gains can largely be credited to growth in adoption of marketing automation tools.”
Clearly, utilizing local marketing automation has its benefits. Cost savings, greater visibility, and efficient solutions built for fast deployment, all support efforts for integrated local marketing management.
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This was such an informational write up! I really need to be aware of these advancements and how to make them work for us!
This was truly beneficial information! Definitely local marketing automation is very successful!
This was a super interesting read. I agree with marketing locally being way more effective in the long run.
Marketing regionally or locally is definitely easier than worldwide. In the travel niche those that focus on and hone on one specific part of the world can gain a level of expertise and exposure that a broader, global travel will not be able to attain.
I agree as with anything consistency is key. Not only will they will be taken more serious but also keeps the interest going.
You make some great points about local marketing that I hadn’t thought about yet! I think especially for regional and local businesses targeting your market to a local or specific audience can be so key.
I had no idea about marketing automation. As a marketer, however, this is valuable Intel. Thank you
Yep – getting your correct target market isn’t always easy – but it does help to narrow the scope.
This is such an informative post – local marketing can definitely help yield more results and is a valuable thing for any business to know.
Valuable information with some great nuggets. Local marketing automation is an essential part of any business.
Wow, what an interesting read and I couldn’t agree more- marketing on a local level produces better results. Spot on…thank you!
Totally agree that marketing on the local level is MUCH more effective. We’ve heavily leveraged regionally landing pages and had incredible success as search engines head more “local.” Great read, Vincent!