When we talk about multichannel marketing for multilocation brands — franchises, retailers, healthcare companies, insurance organizations, financial services branches, etc. — we often talk about mitigating the risk of brand dilution by empowering local marketers. But what does that mean, exactly?
Global marketing leaders don’t have the bandwidth to handle local marketing campaigns themselves, and local representatives often aren’t (and don’t want to be) marketing experts. The solution: to give local franchisees, retailers, channel partners or dealer networks access to the preapproved, up-to-date resources and procurement partners they need to market locally leveraging traditional, social, and digital channels — while keeping your business on message and on brand.
Here’s what that might look like.
A Centralized Repository of Content and Resources
The first step in empowering local marketers (and easing global leaders’ burdens) is making the collateral they need available twenty-four-seven. Yes, you can email the updated files for the new brochure to the local reps, but it’s far easier for everybody to upload it to a central content hub. That’s a time-saver in two ways:
- Global leaders don’t have to worry about which reps got the latest version of what — or spend time managing the requests and emails.
- Local reps don’t have to dig through their inboxes and sift through old emails to find the latest version of what they need – which likely is outdated.
Rather, as many of us were told as kiddos who struggled to keep their rooms neat, “everything has a place, and everything’s in its place.” Local reps know exactly where to go to quickly grab whatever collateral they need, and they can access it twenty-four-seven. They’re empowered to do their jobs — and global leaders can rest assured their brands are in good hands.
Pre-Approved, Customizable Templates
Of course, creating local campaigns doesn’t end with grabbing the right collateral from the central hub. Some assets will be ready to download and use, but the majority of local marketing campaigns will need to be tailored to each reps’ unique audience. Addresses, times, offer details, and even regional lingo may need to be updated based on the location of a particular campaign. So how can global marketers empower local reps to create the personalization they need without jeopardizing brand integrity?
That’s where modularized templates come in. Rather than uploading finished files into the content hub, marketers can add templates that include all the key brand content — colors, design, critical messaging, etc. — as well as customizable fields where local marketers can input the details that are specific to their individual audiences.
Personalizing local marketing is a powerful way to enhance customer relationships, and with the right systems in place, it’s easy to empower franchises, retailers, or local reps to do just that.
Automated Approval Workflows
Another logjam that often leaves local marketers feeling powerless is the approval process for any new collateral they’ve produced. It can take significant time — and lots of follow-ups — for a ready-to-go social media advertisement or POS flyer to bounce from inbox to inbox, waiting for signoff from all necessary parties. This can delay time-sensitive marketing campaigns, understandably tempting local marketers to “go rogue,” proceeding with unapproved materials.
Of course, the easy access to approved content and streamlined templates alleviates much of the need for collateral approval, but in the instances that something does need a sign-off from the higher-ups, an automated system can make this much easier and more efficient.
Rather than passing the collateral from person to person as an attachment — risking both delays and version control issues as various parties add their comments — consider using that same central content hub as a workspace for approvals. Imagine the party who needs to sign off on a piece of collateral gets a notification and logs into one hub, where they can easily review and then approve or reject the asset, ensuring the piece stays on brand. The local marketer who’s requested approval can easily monitor the approval — much more easily than if they had to request a new asset be created, then monitor revisions and chase down approvals – as well as the ordering, shipping and managing payment – each time they need an asset.
Self-Service Print Ordering
Finally, national marketers can empower local reps in the production of their print collateral. Again, we can do this through that central marketing hub, allowing approved users to place and track orders from a trusted production and distribution partner through the same hub.
When local reps are left to their own devices in terms of production and distribution, the additional burden of sourcing vendors and managing orders can overburden their already full plates. What’s more, corporate marketing leaders can’t control cost or quality if they don’t know who local reps are using. Are they saving a buck by going to a lower-quality vendor down the street? Are they overpaying somewhere else?
Giving local marketers on-demand access to the preferred vendor, however, accomplishes two things:
- It’s easy for local reps to order the materials they need.
- Corporate marketers can be assured that local marketing campaigns will uphold quality standards without busting the budget.
Again, local reps are empowered to take control over their marketing initiatives, but you’ve made it easy for them to create quality, cost-effective print collateral — from business cards to in-store displays — by giving them on-demand access to your preferred vendor.
Localized multichannel marketing is critical for any brand whose presence is spread across multiple regions. But empowering local brand representatives to create engaging, personalized campaigns that adhere to brand guidelines can be a serious challenge. At OneTouchPoint, we pride ourselves on making it easy. We give local marketers control of their campaigns by simplifying access to branded materials, templates, and production and distribution resources through our U.Connect platform — all without jeopardizing brand integrity. Learn more about how we work with multi-location brands to create and implement localized marketing campaigns, and when you’re ready, we invite you to contact us or request a quote on your next project. Our experts will provide insight and ideas to deliver phenomenal results at a great price.