According to the findings of the “National Brand Use of Digital in Local Marketing” study, a survey of national brand marketing executives in North America commissioned by Balihoo,
national brands are betting big on local marketing with 91% surveyed expecting to spend more or the same on local marketing in 2013 as they did in 2012.
Expected 2013 Marketing Spend (% of Respondents) |
| Expected Market $ Spend |
Market | More | Same | Less |
Local | 47.3% | 44.0% | 8.6% |
National | 47.4 | 41.2 | 11.1 |
Source: Balihoo, November 2012 |
Digital tactics will play an important
role across the board for national brand marketing planning, with 67.5% surveyed reporting digital marketing as extremely or very important to national brand success.
Importance of Digital Marketing For National Brand Success |
Importance | % of Respondents | Revenue ≥ $500M | Revenue $100-250M |
Extremely important | 38.8% | 45.0% | 34.0% |
Very important | 28.65 | | |
Important | 27.6 | | |
Unimportant | 4.17 | | |
Source: Balihoo, November 2012 |
When asked about local digital
tactics they’re currently using, national brands ranked Other Social Media (Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.), Facebook and SEO as their top priorities. National brand marketers were also asked about
local digital tactics they’re not currently using but would like to begin using in 2013.
Use of Local Digital Tactics (2012 & 2013; % of Marketers) |
| % of Respondents |
Digital Tactic | Used in 2012 | Not in 2012; Possible 2013 |
SEO | 66.15% | 14.84% |
Local search registration | 22.66 | 19.53 |
Pay per click advertising | 44.27 | 19.01 |
Digital display advertising | 50.26 | 14.06 |
Mobile marketing | 32.03 | 35.42 |
Facebook | 69.27 | 12.24 |
Other social media | 75.52 | 14.58 |
Online customer reviews | 22.14 | 30.99 |
Local websites | 46.35 | 16.15 |
Local
blogs | 26.04 | 31.51 |
Source: Balihoo,
November 2012 |
Additional local digital priority findings:
- Only 22.6% of respondents are currently using local search registration
and only 19.5% ranked it as a priority for 2013
- Larger national brands ($500M+) are using a wider mix of digital tactics than smaller national brands ($100M - $250M)
- A larger
percentage of smaller national brands ($100M - $250M) are using Facebook and Other Social Media (Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) than the larger national brands ($500M+)
Pete Gombert,
Balihoo’s CEO “...particularly interesting is how national brands are prioritizing their local marketing tactics... there is a lot of opportunity for national brands to better lead and
support their local channel partners...”
The study probed into the digital marketing trends for national brands that rely on local affiliates (dealers, agents, resellers, channel
partners, retailers, and franchisees). Only 4% of this sub-segment ranked their affiliates as excellent at marketing, with the majority (47%) ranking affiliates as moderately effective.
87% surveyed said that their national brand is not well represented on affiliate web sites. When asked in what areas their local affiliates lack expertise and the ability to execute
effectively, respondents identified as top weaknesses:
- Mobile marketing (53.4%)
- SEO (49.4%)
- PPC (46.6%)
To obtain the free PDF study from Balihoo, please visit here.