Ask any of Balihoo's enterprise clients: A marketing strategy is only as successful as their affiliates’ presence in local markets. National brand marketers know that localized marketing is not just a passing trend. In fact, according to BIA/Kelsey, 49 percent of marketers believe localized marketing is essential to business growth.
Local websites, smaller variations of a corporate website, are a crucial element in the local marketing mix as they serve as the centerpiece for all tactics, including directing search engines to the right place at the right time. But once implemented, local websites need to continue working for you. In today’s blog post, we highlight the importance of metrics, launching and communication. For more in-depth information, download the whitepaper 5 Tips for Making the Most of Local Websites.
Tip #1: Plan Ahead to Reap Metrics Magic
Local websites enable you to track campaign and media effectiveness in specific local markets—or across all of your markets (which as we all know, is hard to do from the national brand level). But early on, you’ll want to set clearly defined goals and decide which parameters to measure. By monitoring impressions, phone leads and conversions, you’ll be able to make better decisions about which programs to keep—and which to eliminate.
Tip #2: Launch Like You Mean It
A good rule of thumb when launching local websites to your affiliates: The more interaction the better.
This means educating them as to how this effort will improve their bottom line. Affiliates will also need to understand their role in the process and any action they’ll need to take. Conducting hands-on training (by means of webinars, recorded presentations and marketing portals) is also a good idea.
Tip #3: Keep up the Communication (A.K.A. “The Best Surprise is No Surprise”)
Even after local websites are rolled out, affiliates should always be prepared for upcoming promotions. Keep them in the loop by publishing a calendar of content updates and key dates. Send reminder emails about how they will be impacted by such information and if they must take further action.
When national brands take the above steps, the early rollout of local websites is sure to be successful. For steps 4-5 (implementation and automation), stay tuned for Part II – Five Tips for Making the Most of Local Websites.
As content continues to digitize, consumers and media channels continue to fragment. The good news is this enables marketers to better target consumers and to reach consumers where and when the consumer wants the brand’s message. The bad news is that executing campaigns which take advantage of all these new media and social channels is really complicated, especially when the campaigns move from the national brand level to the local markets. (Check out Pete Gombert, CEO, as he explains the evolving landscape: 
Co-op advertising programs provide incentive dollars from a national brand to a local outlet for marketing their products. Historically these programs have funded everything from local golf tournaments to regional mass-media efforts and are seen as a “benefit” to the local outlet. However, as marketing has become more digital and technologically sophisticated there is now the ability to truly measure the ROI of these expenditures at a granular level as opposed to broad sell-to or sell-through numbers. 
Localization of media channels, particularly on the digital front, will continue a rapid escalation in 2012. Search, social and content providers will continue to use geography as a key filter to provide highly relevant information to increasingly digital consumers. 
Two major 2011 trends collide in 2012: the adoption of social media by local businesses and the dramatic growth of content marketing at the national level. Local businesses, now heavily using social media, will be desperate for “what to say” via these channels. Their national counterparts demonstrated in 2011 that content marketing was a highly effective B2B and B2C marketing approach. As a result, 2012 will see local businesses rapidly adopting content marketing as a marketing strategy and promote that content strongly via social channels. 
Local will continue to play an increasingly large role in 2012, and national brands will expect their partners and their vendors to deliver clear marketing analytics, both online and off, that can be rolled-up in a comprehensive view of activity and results. 
Over the past decade, corporate websites have become the hub for all national brand marketing activities, becoming the centralized landing pages through which most tactical programs are driven, tracked and measured. 
Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have made the realization that their customers are online, and their marketing budgets are shifting, however they have not had the tools or expertise in place to effectively track the true ROI of these activities. 2012 will see local busines
Until recently, there was a fairly succinct line between the providers of traditional and digital media. Consumers and marketers also divided traditional and digital activities in to distinct pillars. 
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