Author | Chatmeter TeamDate Posted | March 16, 2020

5 Ways to Win Over Customers with Localized Content

Although we live in a world that’s more globally connected than ever, it’s still all about local.

Customers want to connect with businesses that not only offer high-quality products and services but more importantly can present themselves as a convenient option. As we continue to live in an increasingly hyper-local world, brands need to create a strong local content strategy if they want to take their brand’s exposure to the next level. It should be every brand’s goal to connect with local consumers who are in each region of their store-front location. The need for businesses to be local is eminent when you think about these powerful stats:

More consumers are increasingly searching for products and services near them through smartphones and voice technology. 54% of social browsers use social media to research products. A localized content strategy on social media will give your brand authority as consumers continue to search for nearby stores. This step-by-step guide will help your brand win over local customers with the perfect localized content strategy.

1. Focus On Local Social Pages

Local social pages on top social media platforms help businesses share information in a consumer-centric way. Geo-targeted social posts are six times more successful than global posts. Although it may seem tedious to create social pages for every location, this ensures potential customers can find your business no matter where they’re searching. Brands need to create content in line with each platform since every social network serves a different purpose.

Behind 46% of all Google searches are users searching for local information. Google My Business (GMB) is a great social tool to share actionable content to users who are searching for businesses like yours. Google Posts show up in your GMB profile and allow visitors to share content through other social media platforms. GMB gives brands direct control over their reputation with the ability to provide accurate business information in a user-friendly manner.

With over 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is a great way to reach a large audience by creating engaging local content. Facebook’s mission is to help connect people and deepen authentic relationships. Communicating your brand’s story through Facebook Live, conversational posts, images, and videos will help you build a deeper connection with your audience. Businesses can directly feature products for purchase due to Facebook’s e-commerce integrations. 52% of U.S. consumers reported seeing a product they were interested in on Facebook in the last 3 months. Facebook’s e-commerce integrations provide businesses an easy way to directly feature their products.

Instagram is rapidly becoming a popular way to reach purchase-ready shoppers. 72% of users report making purchase based decisions based off of something they saw on Instagram. As an aesthetic social platform, Instagram is your go-to for creating visually compelling content centered around your store’s location. Adding pictures and videos that blend the local neighborhood with your store will generate larger local interest. Businesses should consistently utilize Instagram Stories, location tagging, and hashtags to make their content locally discoverable. This is also a great platform to collaborate with local influencers and businesses to drive more traffic.

Businesses can only have one brand account for LinkedIn and Twitter. Since LinkedIn’s audience is geared towards professionals, your brand will need to showcase its business through a different lens. This is a wonderful opportunity to highlight company culture and local employees. Your multi-location business can also add value by posting to location-based groups on LinkedIn.

Twitter’s local discovery and communication features make it a great platform for businesses to connect with local customers. On the platform, businesses can use advanced search capabilities to find Twitter users who are posting content near your location. 78% of users said if they saw a tweet for a sale at a nearby retailer, then they would go. Twitter gives brands an opportunity to quickly reach local consumers with buyer intent.

If you want to keep your audience engaged on all of these platforms, it’s important to post consistently. You don’t want your audience to forget that you exist. Your brand should aim to post on all social media platforms three to five times a week. This will create a consistent social media presence and help your brand develop a base of loyal customers.

2. Create a Localized Content Strategy

Social media is a great platform to share content and build relationships with local customers. This is where your business can inject your brand messaging and creativity. 85% of Generation Z learns about new products on social media. With localized content, your business can reach Gen Z and other consumers who are discovering business through social media.

When creating your local content strategy, you need to share content that is relevant and engaging to your audience:

Every local community is different in terms of geography, weather, population, and more. Taking these factors into consideration will drive you towards creating location-specific content. For example, let’s say your brand is a nationwide business such as McDonald’s. If it’s wintertime, it’s not a good idea to advertise your ice cream flavors on your New York local page in comparison to cities such as Las Vegas. Place yourself in the shoes of a local consumer. At the end of the day, consumers will always have endless options to choose from. Here are some great examples of posts you can create to draw in customers:

  • Incentivize customers with deals and coupons specific to your location.
  • Feature employees as brand ambassadors and have them share their favorite part about your brand.
  • Create how-tos and tutorials for your products.
  • Tie in trending content that aligns with your brand’s industry.
  • Conduct contests and giveaways to your followers.
  • Reward customers who engage with your local social media pages.
  • Share the “behind-the-scenes” of your business.

Check our past blog on 7 Local Content Ideas Any Brand Can Use for more ideas.

Want to simultaneously boost social media engagement and gain returning customers? Engaging content will keep people coming back for more — and generate widespread exposure for your brand! Recently, Walmart employee Charlene made waves across the internet for her humorous content posted on her store’s local Facebook page.

All it took was a little humor and creativity for this local Walmart page to go viral. Here are some great strategies to create interesting content and will boost engagement with consumers:

These ideas will keep your brand’s localized content fresh and customer-centric. For a strong local presence, your brand should actively post on Google Posts, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

3. Leverage User-Generated Content to Build Engagement

User-generated content (UGC) is any kind of content created from a brand’s own audience. Typically, these individuals are posting content about the brand solely due to their own desire. UGC is a great way to build your business’s credibility by showing that you have a loyal fan base who are also brand advocates.

50% of consumers say that seeing user-generated content would increase their chances of buying a product. By utilizing the strategies in the previous section, you can generate more user-generated content by engaging with your audience often. Brands like GoPro and Starbucks are great at inspiring their audience to create their own content. UGC is free and valuable content. Your brand should consistently leverage it to build engagement.

Finding UGC is relatively easy. Head to all your “tagged” photos on Instagram. You can also view tagged content through your inbox on Facebook, mentions on Twitter, and activity on LinkedIn. All tagged content will pull through your feed in real-time, actively monitoring this content will help brands to share and engage with fans in a timely manner. Although these users may be posting publicly on their accounts, ALWAYS ask for permission. These photos are owned by the users and it’s very important to receive their consent when resharing content.

4. Use a Tool to Scale Your Localized Content

When a multi-location brand has hundreds of locations, it becomes impossible for social media content to be posted manually for each location. Using a tool like Chatmeter’s Social Suite can help you easily find UGC and bulk schedule content on social media platforms across all locations. This will also allow your team to stay organized through a content calendar.

With geolocation monitoring and advanced tracking capabilities, all content related to a brand’s location is easily pulled into one centralized location. This allows multi-location brands to pinpoint which store location all media, visual content, review, and social mention is coming from.

A brand-response strategy will help your business ensure that all content is consistent with your brand messaging. Although each location will have localized content, you want your brand to have a uniform tone throughout every store-front. Creating a toolkit or a brand guideline template will help your team create on-brand social media content at scale. This is also a great place to let your team know when to share brand-wide information in comparison to local content. It’s a good rule of thumb to have a good mix of local and national content on a brand’s social media profiles.

5. Track and Monitor Your Performance 

Every multi-location business needs to analyze their social media efforts. The first step is to outline which metrics are important to track. Below are some common types of social media metrics to track.

  • Engagement Metrics
    • Post reach
    • Click-through rate
    • Social shares
    • Number of positive and negative sentiments
    • Brand awareness
    • % of engagement difference
    • Social traffic to website
  • Content Metrics
    • Amplification rate
    • Reach
    • The frequency of posts to each platform
    • Type of content (video, photo, written)
    • Top performing content
  • Audience Metrics
    • Current and new followers
    • Google Analytics alignment
    • Gender demographics
    • Location
    • Age group

This final step is crucial in determining the success of your localized social strategy. Tracking and monitoring your performance gives your brand clear insight into how your business is performing with customers. Measuring these key performance indicators (KPIs) also gives your brand a plan of action on how to move forward. This great data will help your brand become a champion among local consumers.

Content localization is a great way for multi-location businesses to speak to target audiences. Adapting your brand’s content to a specific region through local social pages and user-generated content extends your reach to local, purchase-ready consumers. This creates a powerful opportunity for brands to create an engaging relationship with their audience. Consumers value brands who take the initiative in speaking to their audience authentically. With the right strategic plan and social tools, every multi-location business can appeal to their local audience and ultimately bring customers to their store-front location.

Want to take your localized content strategy to the next level? Schedule a free demo with one of our location experts to see how your brand can win over customers with our scalable social platform.