Local Marketing – Setting Goals

Local Marketing programs are intended to get “better results,” but what exactly does that mean to you? Understanding who you are trying to reach and what behavior you are trying to influence, are critical to a successful outcome.

Think of Local Marketing as a series of “Micro-Marketing” events within a single store, where each campaign is targeted at a distinct customer interest. Once you accomplish this, you can start framing your objectives. While you can begin with a broad business target (for example, increasing store sales by X %), don’t count on that type of benchmark to get results. The program goals must be as specific as the local marketing campaigns; micro-marketing efforts require “micro-goals.” The goals must state who you are targeting (which customer attribute) and what behavior you wish to influence among these consumers. The more specific you can be about the who and the what, the more likely you will be able to implement a Local Marketing campaign that works.

How specific can you be about who you are targeting? Do you have customer attributes collected that help you identify their interests and preferences? (For example, “parents with young children” would be a much more useful attribute than just “parents” or “customers”) You may be limited in the amount of data that you have collected about your customers, but don’t worry. It takes time, patience and determination to accumulate this type of information. Just start with the data that you have and continue to build upon it.

Do you know exactly what behavior you are trying to influence? For example, are you trying to:

• Attract new customers into a store
• Entice old customers back to the store
• Motivate customers to return more frequently
• Encourage customers to spend more each visit
• Drive customers to buy specific items
• Encourage customers to say positive things about you
• Raise customer satisfaction

Once you have defined a list of specific Local Marketing goals for each store, you are ready to start the process of determining the how of Local Marketing: Messaging and Media. In my next posts, I will explore a range of strategies for getting real results.

As a final note, please keep in mind that Local Marketing is not an event, but instead is a process of defining the who, what and how of targeting the interests and preferences that drive customers to act. Developing this process into a business routine with the right tools can make your efforts easier to accomplish – and prove to be a significant competitive advantage.