The Retailer Winter 2018/19

Why your local marketing should extend to digital

Pratik Mungasuvalli Omnichannel measurement lead Google

LOCAL MARKETING SHOULDN’T BE RESTRICTED TO STORES ALONE. DIGITAL EXPERIENCES SHOULD MIRROR THOSE IN THE REAL WORLD. From January 2016 to August 2018, searches on google with ‘near me’ grew 5 times. On closer inspection however, this trend is changing. In the 4 months since then, they have fallen by 30%. Users now expect their search results to be locally relevant without the need to explicitly mention it. Local marketing has often been thought of as something stores do in and around their neighbourhoods to promote products and services specific to them. This is a problem. How a customer feels about the brand should be consistent, irrespective of where and how they choose to interact with it. For example, Nike recently hosted a sprint race experience in NikeTown on Oxford Street, London to promote the launch of their latest Pegasus shoe. An excellent way to market their new product. This experience however, was only accessible to someone walking along Oxford Street or Londoners at best. In most cases, a buyer’s experience on the web would be the same, irrespective of their location. A great example of a local digital marketing campaign was Nike’s acclaimed ‘Nothing beats a Londoner’. It celebrated young athletes in London and showcased the unique relationship Nike has with the people of the city. Across digital platforms, the ads were interactive and used local celebrities. It appealed to Londoners because it cleverly highlighted the unique challenges and joys of living in this city. Here are some things to consider while evaluating your local marketing efforts. Product and Inventory information Bringing the ‘local’ aspect of retail to the online world has been challenging but it can be a crucial differentiator. Over 80% of shoppers check if a product is in stock before heading to the store to buy. Making customers aware of offers, events and product availability at their local store when they visit your website can be the difference between a delightful brand experience and an average one. Customers who have interacted with your website are also 25% more likely to purchase in store than an average customer. Yet, only half of all retailers in the UK have product information on the website that enables and encourages purchases on any channel.

Knowing your (best) customers Customers also want their online experience before visiting a store to help them while at the store. 70% of people said if they start a purchase online, they’d like store associates to be able to see the items in their shopping carts for better assistance. Although this might not be possible in every case, it reflects the need for experiences to be seamless and orchestrated. Being able to identify your best customers both online and in store is key. This requires many teams and internal systems which have traditionally worked independently to talk to each other. Although this change is hard and messy at first, the benefits of a ‘single customer view’ are clear. First, it helps you understand how your top customers behave and interact with your brand, what they love about you and why they keep coming back. The top 20% of your customers can usually contribute upwards of 50% of revenue and an even higher share of profits in a given year - assuming that you don’t need to aggressively market to them. Really understanding their behaviour could help not only protect this revenue, but also grow it. Second, with predictive lifetime value models, there are now ways to identify ‘similar’ customers - who show early signs of long term value for the company. This approach can lower acquisition costs significantly especially in a time when over 50% of customers in the UK are classified as ‘cost conscious’. Not combining your local stores data with website behaviour can lead to incomplete or worse, flawed customer insights. It could also mean that your most valuable customers are not being treated the way they should.

24 | winter 2019 | the retailer