Unlock the Power of Localized Marketing — For Distributor Brands

Darcy Bickham

Darcy Bickham

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Unlock the Power of Localized Marketing — For Distributor Brands

Unlock the Power of Localized Marketing — For Distributor Brands

  As a multi-location marketer, you likely understand the importance of a comprehensive marketing strategy. But with numerous dealers and retailers, developing that strategy is often easier said than done. That’s where localized marketing comes in.   Within this blog, we’ll recap a recent webinar specifically for distributor brands on the power of localized marketing. We’ll highlight which areas of localized marketing your company should focus on, how dealers come into play, and what to consider when choosing a solution to help.    Let’s get into it!   

Localized Marketing for Distributor Brands

  Before we dive into which specific localized marketing tactics your brand company can leverage, let’s define localized marketing itself.    For distributor brands, localized marketing refers to a targeted approach brands use to promote their products within specific local markets. The main goal is to generate traffic and boost sales by directing potential customers to authorized dealers while optimizing sales content at the local level.   The three pillars of localized marketing are local search, local social, and online reputation management   So you have the definition of localized marketing, but why is it so important?    The data speaks for itself:    Now that you understand the power of localized marketing let’s dive into how to unlock it.  

Level-Up Local Search Efforts 

  While the topic of local search might seem daunting, as a distributor brand, having your product show up in relevant search results is critical. You need to have a great dealer locator and branded dealer landing pages to increase organic reach.  

Dealer Locators Explained

  If you’re unfamiliar, a dealer locator is a web page or section on a website that displays valuable information and unique details about each location where a brand’s products are sold. Below, you’ll find an example of Echo USA’s dealer locator. 

Example of Echo’s dealer locator that shows multiple dealer locations on a map in Cleveland, OH, along with a list of dealers and retailers and their business information

  Dealer locators can help your brand: 
  • Rank well for branded search 
  • Route customers to your dealer network of stores to find your brands
  • Share in-stock or assortment information with customers 
 

Dealer Local Landing Pages Explained

  Alternatively, branded dealer landing pages, often known as local landing pages, are local pages that highlight where your products are being sold and are branded to your company.    Local landing pages can help customers find the closest store to them that sells your products. They also drive non-branded discovery of your products.   

Echo-USA dealer local page overlaid on a macbook showing a dealer and apple maps pin

 

How to Optimize Your Local Landing Pages

  While local landing pages are essential, they aren’t adding as much value unless they’re optimized.    Distributor Brands can optimize online local landing pages by: 
  • Including unique content about your products 
  • Linking your top brands and products 
  • Adding images or videos of your products 
  • Sharing online reviews 
  • Linking to nearby locations to show customers where else they can find your products 
  Combined, dealer locators and local landing pages can help level up your brand’s local search efforts. Download our Top 10 Things You Should Be Doing in Local SEO Now guide for additional tips on improving your local SEO strategy.    

The Top 10 Things You Should Be Doing in Local SEO Now, Updated 2023 - Short CTA, download button

   

Leverage Social Media 

Social media can be challenging as a national or regional brand with no store locations. To overcome this, distributor brands must leverage social media to strengthen local relationships with dealer networks. For instance, you can partner with local dealers to share content on their local profiles.    As part of this partnership, make it easy for your dealers to share your social content locally. This includes creating local social content for them.    By creating this content and ensuring it’s being shared locally, your brand can: 
  • Establish a local foothold on social media 
  • Create a channel for localized content syndication 
  • Get your products and services in front of more local consumers
  • Bring in more business to your local dealers 
  Additionally, our research found that localized content receives 12x the engagement rate of “non-localized content.” While the importance of local social is evident, it’s important to remember a few best practices.   When creating local social content for dealers, top priorities include the following: 
  • Consistent branding 
  • Leveraging visuals and multi-media 
  • Community involvement, such as user-generated content 
  • Providing value for your audience 
  • Influence collaboration if it’s available 
  To fund these local social campaigns, your brand can consider leveraging a co-op marketing fund which is when the distributor pays for a portion of or all marketing campaigns and marketing technology (MarTech) for their partnered dealers. These programs and funds make it easier for dealers to promote your products and brand.   For more local social media tips and tactics, download The Localized Social Content Guide for Distributor Brands.  

Green background with a black rectangular title showing a young asian woman standing up looking at a tablet in her hands

   

Finding a Comarketing Solution That Helps 

  Now that you understand how to engage your local audiences and bring potential customers to your local dealers at scale, it’s time to find a solution that can help. That’s where SOCi comes in.   SOCi’s Local Pages and Locator services will help elevate your brand and dominate organic search. With SOCi, you can easily optimize and make real-time edits and updates to your local pages and locator.    

Two laptops, one showing a Hertz local page and the other showing Nekter Juice Bar's local page. Also an iPhone showing Hertz's locator page and a tablet showing Nekter's locator page

    SOCi Local Pages and Locator are also built for lead generation. You can showcase location-specific content, allow appointment booking and online orders, and leverage lead capture forms. Read our ECHO-USA case study to learn how SOCi helped one of the most popular professional power equipment distributors  increase its page views by 152 percent.   Additionally, SOCi Social can help you crush your local social efforts.   With SOCi Social, you can: 
  • Seamlessly distribute content to local dealers
  • Automate social posting to local dealer pages 
  • Analyze local post-performance at scale
  • Get your brand in front of local customers loyal to the stores selling your products or offering your services 
 

A product screenshot of SOCi's social compliance solution on both an i-phone and laptop

  For more insight into how SOCi can help your distributor brand unlock the power of localized marketing and win more customers, request a demo today!

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