Local Campaigns: How They Can Support Your Physical Store
Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2024 7:21 am
Local Campaigns: How They Can Support Your Physical Store
The customer who enters a physical store today often comes from the web. He was convinced by a Google australia phone number list search, or intrigued by what he saw on social media, or by a visit to your website.
This is why Local campaigns are one of the most effective drivers for growing an offline business such as a physical store.
Year after year, research confirms a very rapid growth of online sales that seems to take space from physical stores. However, it is good to be aware that retail trade still moves mainly at the level of physical stores, with a few rare exceptions related to specific markets (for example, the purchase of airline tickets).
It is normal that it is this way: the physical store allows you to see and try the object, to immediately take possession of it, but above all it is also a pleasant activity for your free time.
However, even when the purchase is in-store, the information that determines it is often searched through web channels: search engines, social networks, online magazines. This is why being present and highly visible on the web is the best advertising investment even for physical stores.
What are Local Campaigns?
Local campaigns are, in short, those that target a limited territory, generally identified as a certain radius around the physical store.
Depending on the type of business, the radius of action can vary greatly: it will be a few kilometers for a small neighborhood ice cream shop, it will embrace one or more provinces for a large specialized store.
In the case of chain stores, the Local campaign will be planned around the different locations.
The campaign may take different forms at a technical level and run on different platforms, but its objective will be to gather more customers for the physical store:
or indirectly (through brand awareness, data collection, etc.)
or directly (offering discount codes, promoting events to book, etc.).
What used to be done by spreading flyers around the neighborhood, in other words, or paying for billboards, can now be done with Google or Facebook; in this way, the advantages of online advertising are exploited:
the possibility of tracking user paths, measuring at least in part the results of the actions undertaken
the ability to quickly modify campaigns, both in content and budgets, if the desired effects are not achieved.
Let's see, therefore, which are the most effective tools for Local campaigns.
Google My Business and Facebook Places
The great advertising potential of Local campaigns is also demonstrated by the commitment that web giants such as Google and Facebook have put into managing local activities on their networks.
Google My Business
Google My Business allows each shop or business to be included in Google Maps with a very complete profile, which includes all the main information about it.
Taking good care of your Google My Business listing means being able to show yourself directly to potential customers with your exact location, a specific description, inviting photos, opening hours, reviews from other users, offers and more.
On Google, geolocalized searches, i.e. those of the type “product/service name + city”, get as a first response a map on which the businesses listed by Google Maps are visible; you can thus appear as a dot on the map of the area when a potential customer searches for a business like ours, for example “pizzeria in Rimini”.
Not only that, since these searches are generally done from a mobile phone, the activities closest to the person carrying out the search can be favored.
The importance of this tool is such that it has its own advertising system, namely Google Ads campaigns that are created to respond to local searches and take the user directly to your My Business page – and, through it, to guide them directly into the store.
Facebook Places
Facebook also has its own internal mapping system where you can register your business. In fact, you just need to set your shop page as a “Place Page” to be able to enter the address and appear on the maps.
There is also a specific type of location page that allows you to group all the stores bel
The customer who enters a physical store today often comes from the web. He was convinced by a Google australia phone number list search, or intrigued by what he saw on social media, or by a visit to your website.
This is why Local campaigns are one of the most effective drivers for growing an offline business such as a physical store.
Year after year, research confirms a very rapid growth of online sales that seems to take space from physical stores. However, it is good to be aware that retail trade still moves mainly at the level of physical stores, with a few rare exceptions related to specific markets (for example, the purchase of airline tickets).
It is normal that it is this way: the physical store allows you to see and try the object, to immediately take possession of it, but above all it is also a pleasant activity for your free time.
However, even when the purchase is in-store, the information that determines it is often searched through web channels: search engines, social networks, online magazines. This is why being present and highly visible on the web is the best advertising investment even for physical stores.
What are Local Campaigns?
Local campaigns are, in short, those that target a limited territory, generally identified as a certain radius around the physical store.
Depending on the type of business, the radius of action can vary greatly: it will be a few kilometers for a small neighborhood ice cream shop, it will embrace one or more provinces for a large specialized store.
In the case of chain stores, the Local campaign will be planned around the different locations.
The campaign may take different forms at a technical level and run on different platforms, but its objective will be to gather more customers for the physical store:
or indirectly (through brand awareness, data collection, etc.)
or directly (offering discount codes, promoting events to book, etc.).
What used to be done by spreading flyers around the neighborhood, in other words, or paying for billboards, can now be done with Google or Facebook; in this way, the advantages of online advertising are exploited:
the possibility of tracking user paths, measuring at least in part the results of the actions undertaken
the ability to quickly modify campaigns, both in content and budgets, if the desired effects are not achieved.
Let's see, therefore, which are the most effective tools for Local campaigns.
Google My Business and Facebook Places
The great advertising potential of Local campaigns is also demonstrated by the commitment that web giants such as Google and Facebook have put into managing local activities on their networks.
Google My Business
Google My Business allows each shop or business to be included in Google Maps with a very complete profile, which includes all the main information about it.
Taking good care of your Google My Business listing means being able to show yourself directly to potential customers with your exact location, a specific description, inviting photos, opening hours, reviews from other users, offers and more.
On Google, geolocalized searches, i.e. those of the type “product/service name + city”, get as a first response a map on which the businesses listed by Google Maps are visible; you can thus appear as a dot on the map of the area when a potential customer searches for a business like ours, for example “pizzeria in Rimini”.
Not only that, since these searches are generally done from a mobile phone, the activities closest to the person carrying out the search can be favored.
The importance of this tool is such that it has its own advertising system, namely Google Ads campaigns that are created to respond to local searches and take the user directly to your My Business page – and, through it, to guide them directly into the store.
Facebook Places
Facebook also has its own internal mapping system where you can register your business. In fact, you just need to set your shop page as a “Place Page” to be able to enter the address and appear on the maps.
There is also a specific type of location page that allows you to group all the stores bel