9 Signs You Need a Local Marketing Automation Solution

Marketing Resource Management for Local Marketing Enablement

Several years ago, industry leader Gartner predicted that organizations that invested in processes for integrating local marketing enablement could see revenue gains of up to 20% by the year 2015.

In 2017, as the need for relevant, personalized marketing continues to crystallize, it’s clear that organizations with a national or global brand only stand to benefit from strengthening their local marketing enablement.

But corporate marketing can’t possibly scale brand messaging to every local market. Enter marketing resource management – also known as local marketing automation (LMA) solutions – the technology and processes that enable a more seamless execution of local marketing. It enables organizations to better align corporate marketing standards and goals with local marketing efforts.

Pairing the Power of Localized Marketing with Global Strategy

With LMA, it’s not just about streamlining tasks, protecting the corporate brand and ensuring compliance (although these are invaluable benefits). Targeted, personalized campaigns are now core elements in most marketing strategies. Consumers are demanding relevance. Consumers want to feel like you are specifically addressing them as individuals – not a wide general audience. They are shunning the generic and embracing the authentic.

Give customers localized content in an authentic voice, and they’ll respond: Localized marketing communications can produce an 18% higher response rate than generic corporate communications, according to Gleanster Research. (A report from Gleanster on building a business case for LMA provides in-depth guidance on justifying ROI.)

LMA solutions ensure that corporate owns and controls the brand, strategy and tactics. But it also empowers marketing teams to integrate localized data to produce more targeted – and therefore more powerful – campaigns.

LMA lets organizations with widespread markets representing diverse demographics, geographic regions and even languages achieve this. It isn’t just a point solution; rather, LMA provides the structure to integrate a fragmented web of point solutions (e.g., those for digital marketing assets, lists, inventory, campaign management and more). The result is a more seamless customer experience that preserves local relevance while also retaining the appeal of the higher-level brand.

9 Signs You Need MRM for Local Marketing

Benefits range from those inherent with MRM and a local marketing automation system – improved speed to market, efficiency and less chaotic distribution of content and collateral – to producing more targeted and effective campaigns that harness the power of local knowledge and data.

The following is far from a comprehensive list of reasons to implement LMA or integrating an existing infrastructure of disparate solutions. But if any of these ring a bell, it’s past time to investigate your options:

1. Personalized, segmented marketing is part of your national or global strategy – but leveraging local data (e.g., addresses, product selection, business hours) is unwieldy or out of reach.
2. Local campaigns tend to “go rogue,” sabotaging brand integrity and creative standards, not to mention regulatory compliance.
3. Corporate marketing lacks aggregated analytics and reporting for national campaigns at the local level.
4. Your brand lacks visibility and recognition in some or most of your local markets.
5. National campaigns experience lagging time-to-market at the local level.
6. Redundant processes and delays in approvals sacrifice valuable hours that could be spent developing brand and strategy.
7. Ad-hoc local, short-run print costs and misuse of existing content are leading to unnecessary costs.
8. Central teams are spending too much time fulfilling one-off requests and re-creating content to meet day-to-day local demands.
9. Meanwhile, local teams often forego waiting for corporate and struggle to create their own marketing instead of focusing on local sales and outreach.

Getting Started With MRM and LMA

Selecting and implementing MRM for local marketing enablement is a process that takes time, careful research and planning. Strata Company, a marketing, communications and technology firm based in Plymouth Meeting, PA, knows that companies need more than a one-size-fits-all solution. For over 20 years our clients have relied on our industry expertise, personalized support and customizable technology platforms to help them improve local marketing. Read a case study on how we helped a national pharmacy chain give its large network of independent stores a competitive edge through a customized local marketing solution. Or contact us today to discuss your goals and challenges.