It’s no secret that the United States has seen some turmoil in 2020. One of the biggest culprits in 2020 that has negatively affected our economy is COVID-19. Now that we are moving into summer, the nation is gradually opening back up, but what does this mean for you and your business’ online marketing in Raleigh NC? Well, to save you from hours and hours of Google searches that may lead to just more confusion, I am here to help you navigate the online advertising landscape amid the nation’s economic reopening.

As reopenings are happening gradually and at different speeds dependent upon the state and sometimes even the county, you may be wondering how to target your campaigns in such an uncertain and tumultuous time. Well the answer is simple: localized campaigns. Next, I will highlight three strategies that you can implement to give your localized campaign the TLC it deserves.

Utilizing Localized Audiences

As mentioned above, uniform widespread campaigns are not the answer for advertisers wanting to maximize their ROI during this uncertain time. There are far too many significant differences that exist among different regions, states, and cities when it comes to economic reopenings that you cannot just throw a blanket statement to your audience and not expect to waste many impressions.

With our Addressable Programmatic advertising, we have the ability to target over 126 million U.S. households using GPS and plat line data, as opposed to relying on IP-based targeting, to maximize targeting precision and make sure they are hitting the right consumer with the right message. If you’re a client of ours, I’m sure you’ve heard about our addressable geofencing and audience curation that can allow you to target your programmatic campaigns at the household level.

Additionally, you will want to take into account geofencing as the nation continues the phased reopening approach. Over the past few months, driving traffic to physical storefronts was on hold as consumers were encouraged to shelter-in-place, which is why for many retail businesses, we reallocated funds. However, as more and more stores begin to reopen, location-based marketing that drives consumers into their storefront will be important.

Minimize Wasted Impressions

As mentioned earlier, the reopening timelines have been specific to different localities. These timelines vary by state, city, and even county in some instances- even here in NC, Durham County halted on moving into phase two until a week later.  Some stay-at-home orders have become rolling, while others have lifted. There have been various localized social distancing restrictions put in place. Additionally some markets are back open and focused on driving foot traffic to storefronts while others continue to drive online transactions only. Whichever market you may be in, we want to make sure you use your budget appropriately.

To reach optimal success during this time you have to know your local market as well as your customers. Failure to truly tap into your localized audience is going to result in failure for your marketing campaigns. You need to know your localized ordinances in accordance with reopening, but also, if your customers are the type to even come into your business or if they will continue to opt in for online shopping. If that’s the case, you’ll want to utilize tactics that are focused on online conversions instead of foot traffic attribution.

Understand Localized Campaign Performance

If you are used to running national campaigns, this may be a new “monster” for you, but you will have to look at campaign performance on a more granular level post-COVID-19 than you had to before. Performance is likely to vary at the local level. For example, the unemployment rate in your city can be very different from the neighboring city. There are local-specific, city-specific, and state-specific stimulus/incentives to take into account. It’s not enough to just localize audiences and be agile. At the end of the day, you could get everything right and the buying climate could simply be very different  (different conversions rates, different results at a local level, etc.). The ability to analyze data and buying trends will be your best friend during this time.

Launch Localized

While this may seem intimidating, we promise if you think local, you will see great success with your online marketing in Raleigh NC. If you feel you need assistance or would like to bring someone in to steer the ship in these uncertain times, reach out to us and one of our account managers can put together some recommendations for your localized campaign!

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