The biggest misconceptions about multi-location marketing (and how to fix them)

With multi-location businesses there is an ongoing debate about what works best for the overall brand vs different locations and how to marry the two in perfect harmony! Unfortunately, many misconceptions abound about the proper way to carry out marketing for multi-location businesses. Luckily, the team at MDG has been working with multi-location businesses for a very long time and we have developed some tricks for ensuring that each location, and the broader brand, thrives in marketing. In this article, we’ll walk you through some of the biggest misconceptions around multi-location marketing and how to address them.

Misconception #1 – Adopt a one-size-fits-all approach

Multi-location businesses do not always do well under a one-size-fits-all locations approach. Keep in mind that your locations are situated in diverse communities and serve different populations with distinct needs and desires. This doesn’t mean that everything should be individualized for the location. For example, it is important to ensure a consistent visual brand identity, overall marketing strategy, and specific advertising guidelines across all locations. However, you should be willing to give each location a bit of leeway when it comes to services, prices, advertising, and community building. Just remember that while these locations are part of your brand, they are their own location with unique successes and challenges, to lump them together would negate their individual experience and expertise. 

Misconception #2 – Implement uniform SEO, digitals ads, and branding initiatives across all locations

Gasp! We would never try to use a blanket approach to SEO or ads when it comes to multi-location businesses. For SEO in particular, you need to optimize for local results. That could mean a completely different set of keywords for different audiences for each location. Additionally, when implementing SEO for multi-location businesses, geolocating should take center stage to ensure each locations shows up in the most relevant results. 

With advertising, it’s important to note that each location will have a better idea of what will resonate with their specific audience and it may vary across each location, making the most effective ads the ones that each location can run. Getting great results from ads requires an evolving understanding of your audience and time to test your theories. Since ad campaigns should always reflect your business goals, such as brand awareness vs sales vs promotions, giving each location a broad set of goals can help drive traffic while addressing location-specific needs. Geolocating for advertising is just as important as geolocating for SEO. We don’t want to be selling local services to someone in a different town or you risk loosing customers to a competitor that delivers a more relevant result. 

Branding is probably the trickiest of the three since it can be hard to envision how to create individuality when everything needs to be tied back to a broader brand identity. There are subtle changes you can implement to websites and social media profiles, both visually and textually to ensure customers can see the differences between locations, but know everything is tied together.  

Misconception #3 – Pricing and services must remain the same across all locations

This one might be more nuanced for some brands, but there is something to be said for catering to your audience, and in some cases your providers. For example, some gyms with multiple locations in a city will offer distinct classes or times as compared to others. This gives them the freedom to respond to their community and their instructors without forcing everyone to move around. The same can be true of healthcare or wellness clinics. It can be tricky to offer specialized procedures if you do not have the right provider at that location. Additionally, it makes sense to consider the economics of the community. If you are located in an underserved community, charging premium prices is a great way to ensure you will need to find a new location as you won’t have any local customers.

Misconception #4 – Only attending community events as the brand, not the location

Your brand is an amazing tool, and it affords you a lot of opportunities. However, your community wants to connect with the faces behind the brand and build relationships with the people they will see all the time. When you attend community events you should go with the intention of fostering long-lasting relationships and connection. Encourage your staff to attend community events that they think will resonate with their audience and genuinely represent the best interests of that location. 

Misconception #5 – Reviews for each location do not have that much of an impact

In light of how often consumers use reviews to drive purchasing decisions, which is all the time, requesting, monitoring, and responding to reviews for each location is paramount to success. As a multi-location brand, you can ensure a strong digital presence for each location by having a great brand website and tools for social. However, reviews can be trickier because it requires the location to respond and ask their customers for location-based reviews. 

Simple ways to avoid these common pitfalls and stand out in local markets

So, what can you do to ensure you do not fall into the misconceptions trap when it comes to marketing for your multi-location business? Glad you asked! We’ve worked with lots of multi-location businesses over the years, and there is plenty you can do to be successful. What follows are some of the top ideas we have seen work across industries. 

  • Give your locations a marketing budget and let them choose how best to apply it – Advertising and marketing budgets can be hotly contested topics! Assigning a marketing budget to each location allows you to account for geo-targeting as some locations are more competitive than others, while also giving each location the freedom to choose what works best for their audience. For example, one location may already know that google ads are too costly for their services, so they decide to advertise on Instagram and in the local paper. If you have a generic marketing or ad strategy, nuances like the above, and thus success, will be diluted. 
  • Build out a comprehensive marketing strategy for the brand so locations have goals to aim for and a general direction – Just giving locations a budget and telling them to do their own thing is not helpful. By building out a brand-centric marketing strategy first, then indicating where locations can excel and giving them the resources to do so will ensure their success. As a brand marketing team, you have access to resources and economies at scale that each location may lack. To help each location with marketing, keep open lines of communication without micromanaging to drive their success. 
  • Provide training and support – One of the best ways to support your locations is through training, money, and support. We already talked about giving them a budget, but you should also give them the training and resources they need to be successful. Their success is your success! By offering to teach people and creating spaces for exchanges of ideas and results, you can foster a growth-centric team that everyone wants to be a part of and learn from. 

Avoiding some of the biggest misconceptions about multi-location marketing can help ensure your team is successful and you can spend more time trying new and exciting initiatives. If you would like help navigating the world of multi-location marketing, reach out to the MDG team today.