Five Reasons Locations Should Be At The Heart Of Your Growth Strategy This Year

Businesses of all shapes, sizes and sectors are stepping into 2024 with one question in mind: where can they find the growth that they need? The answers, for many of them, are standing in plain sight. They’re the physical locations where the vast majority of their customers will encounter and buy from them. Of all the improvements that marketers can make to increase revenues, loyalty and profitability, few can deliver as efficient a return as increasing the visibility of these locations on digital platforms.

Because bricks and mortar businesses are nothing new, it’s easy for growth-minded marketing departments to overlook their value. That’s a big mistake. Three quarters of today’s purchases take place in a physical store, and the number of people searching for locations that are ‘open now, near me’ is growing at 4x year-on-year, according to Google. Consumers aren’t using digital media to bypass in-person commerce and experiences. Instead, they’re using digital to navigate towards those experiences more efficiently. The most effective route to growth is to work with them by ramping up your locations’ digital presence.

We’ve created an in-depth playbook that sets out how to Rev Up Your 2024 Growth with High-Performance Digital Visibility. It’s a timely guide to building a location-driven growth engine that will align your brand and your locations with the encounters that today’s consumers are looking for. If you’re a marketer tasked with driving growth this year, here are five pressing reasons to pay closer attention to how your locations show up.

Reason 1: You Can No Longer Predict How People Will Search – But You Can Predict What They’ll Find

Today’s consumers have more options than ever when it comes to finding the products or services they need. They seek out information on SnapChat, TikTok, through voice assistants and within map apps. As a marketer, keeping up can feel intimidating. However, there’s one fixed point in this shifting search landscape. Every platform uses location to help ensure relevance: they prioritize places that are nearby, open and are likely to provide the most convenient solution. Optimize how your locations show up, and people will find them however they search.

Reason 2: Algorithms Are Thinking Local First

It’s not just searches that feature specific phrases like ‘near me’ or ‘open now’ that prompt algorithms to prioritize locally relevant results. Whenever search engines and social platforms detect imminent buying intent, they respond by prioritizing convenient locations to buy. If you want a greater share of these purchases, signalling your local relevance is vital.

Reason 3: Audiences Are Looking To Brands For The In-Person Experiences They Crave

Gens Z, Alpha and younger millennials are seeking out authentic, community experiences that are built around specific places. The focal point for these new community hubs could be a restaurant chain with flavors that align with a community’s cultural heritage, a branded store that plays particularly good tunes, or a must-taste coffee flavor. When you use your local, digital presence to highlight the features that a community cares about, the response can be spectacular. For proof, look at Nando’s spectacular Gen Z-fuelled growth in the United States. It’s built around local, branded stores, and is now integrated into the brand’s advertising campaigns.

Reason 4: A Generation Of Digital Nomads Are Exploring New Habitats Online

Today’s offices can be anywhere an employee chooses to go online. This is creating a generation of digital nomads, who move freely across new cities and countries using smartphones, search and social to guide them. Digital nomads are high-spending consumers who choose where to do that spending based on how locations show up, digitally. They don’t just want to know their nearest Starbucks. They want to know how much seating it has, what its wifi is like, and whether it looks like a relaxing place to spend a few hours working. Showcasing the experiences your locations offer plugs them into this constant flow of new customers.

Reason 5: Physical Presence Is Now The Key To Brand Trust

A 2021 report from McKinsey found that bricks and mortar retailers generate twice as much organic traffic as purely online retailers do. Why? Because brands that operate real, brick-and-mortar stores send an important signal of quality and commitment that consumers are ready to respond to. They’ve been made wary by an oversupply of fast fashion and cheaply produced eCommerce items. When searches on a brand reveal a line-up of attractive physical storefronts, they are far more likely to trust that brand – and buy from it.

These five truths about why consumers respond to digitally visible locations should put those locations at the heart of any growth strategy. Location-driven growth doesn’t just provide a convenient option for buying from you for consumers who’ve already made that choice. It’s at the heart of their decision-making process. It builds brands, builds preference, builds loyalty, and builds your bottom line. That’s why it should be at the top of every marketer’s agenda for 2024 and beyond.