Even in today’s increasingly global world, where one can place an order from nearly any corner of the planet with the click of a button, the vast majority of economic activity continues to take place locally. Particularly in service-based economies like Canada, a large number of business transactions still depend on geographic proximity. That’s why at DM Collective, we take pride in being an Edmonton marketing agency specializing in our local community.
5 Reasons to Work With Someone Local
1. A Local Marketing Agency Knows Local Tastes
Perhaps the biggest benefit of working with a local marketing agency is that its team members live and work right here in the local community, giving them first-hand knowledge of local tastes and preferences. Simply by living in the region where they provide marketing services, local marketers already are immersed in the culture and “feel” of a place: an incredibly valuable commodity that can be difficult if not impossible for an outside marketing group to replicate.
National or Outside Agencies Can and Do Get It Wrong
We all are familiar with instances where an attempt to tap into the local spirit via a marketing campaign has gone embarrassingly wrong due to a misunderstanding of the local culture, customs, and/or tastes. In many instances, the negative backlash and perceptions of inauthenticity can be so intense that it would have been better never to have run the ad or campaign in the first place, and the stains of a poorly executed marketing campaign can take years to overcome.
Local Marketing Agencies Understand Locals
On the other hand, local marketing agencies are highly familiar with local customs, from the way people talk, to what sports teams they root for, to what public figures are adored or abhorred locally. All of these factors are highly important when it comes to connecting with your customer base, and a local marketing agency is best situated to provide you with expert guidance in navigating these sometimes complicated nuances.
2. A Local Marketing Agency Knows Local Trends
What presently is trending in one region may not yet be popular in another and may already be a passing fad in still another. Local marketers are experts on what is currently popular in their area and are keeping an eye out for what is coming down the line. By focusing exclusively on the local region, local marketing agencies are able to delve more deeply than those seeking to cover a broader geographic area, who must inevitably spread themselves more thinly.
As one digital marketing blogger on DMClocal.com rightly observed, “An advertising campaign in Los Angeles, California is going to look a lot different from an advertising campaign in Glasgow, Scotland.”
Agencies Serving Large or Multiple Regions Have a Broader Focus
Marketing agencies that provide their services nationwide or even internationally possess little understanding of local trends. Further, they tend to focus their attention mostly on the few largest urban areas where they stand to make the bulk of their revenue, giving them little incentive to focus on smaller regional trends outside the world’s major cities.
This leaves the huge national and international marketing firms with little understanding of regional trends in even medium-sized municipalities, where they are left casting a wide net with little ability to tailor their messages specifically to the local community. Often, this can leave them relying on antiquated and/or inadequate market research or, worse yet, regional stereotypes, which, again, can seriously backfire if they end up appearing like false efforts at authenticity or even alienating potential customers.
3. A Local Marketing Agency Knows Where And How to Reach Locals
Despite what the advertising giants would have you believe, local marketing agencies know best where to reach locals. After all, we are locals, too! We live in the local community, have family and friends and coworkers who also are locals, patronize local businesses, and consume the local media. Who better to understand how locals actually live and what forms of advertising will convey your message most effectively?
Local Agencies Don’t Use a One-Size-Fits-All Approach
Because no national agency could possibly possess expertise on every single local market, they are forced to rely on cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all approaches to regional marketing plans, applying the same methods to multiple regions based on an area’s demographic breakdown and population, for example. By contrast, local marketing agencies focus only on one region: their own. This makes them experts on everything from the local lingo to which billboard locations attract the most attention to what pitfalls one should avoid.
4. A Local Marketing Agency Won’t Treat You Like a Second-Class Client
Although their prices probably won’t reflect it, one major shortcoming of giant national or international marketing agencies is that they tend not to treat all of their clients equally, giving preferential treatment to enormous corporate clients with multi-million-dollar advertising budgets. While they charge top dollar, these companies often rely heavily on their reputations but lack a detailed understanding of local markets.
One should ask a potential digital marketing firm: How do we compare to your other clients regarding budget and production requirements?
Be Treated Like a Valued Partner
In local business, reputation matters. And when our client partners succeed, we succeed, too. That’s why at DM Collective, we are committed to providing our clients with the best possible outcomes regardless of size. We strive to be known as the Edmonton marketing agency that gets results so that our clients stick with us and share their success stories with others.
5. A Local Marketing Agency Knows Where Local Marketing Dollars Are Best Spent
Only a true local can acquire the detailed knowledge necessary to know exactly where a client’s marketing dollars are well spent and which investments to avoid. From city to city and even neighborhood to neighborhood and street to street, not all marketing investments are created equal, and a local marketing agency is best situated to guide you in making these important distinctions.
Don’t Waste Your Advertising Dollars
There’s an old saying: Half of your advertising dollars are being wasted, the key is knowing which half. Local marketers are much better situated to help discern in advance based on experience which advertising dollars are likely to be wasted, helping you to make the most out of your precious marketing resources.
Local Business Needs a Local Marketing Agency
For these reasons and more, businesses operating in a local region are much better off relying on the services of a local marketing agency rather than a regional, national, or international firm. At DM Collective, we are an Edmonton marketing agency specializing in Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer, and the surrounding areas. This gives us unique insight into local tastes, trends, and marketing opportunities that outside marketing agencies just can’t match.
Local Does Not Mean Less
Don’t think that somehow local marketing firms aren’t able to provide the same level of service as outside firms. At DM Collective, we offer our clients the best in tech performance and person-to-person service. On the tech side, we provide a single dashboard where you can view all of your business’s marketing activities in one place, but we still offer old-fashioned one-on-one consultations, as well.
Work With the Best Edmonton Marketing Agency
Ultimately, we judge our success based on one thing: our clients’ results! Our objective is to help you meet your objectives, whether that’s expanding your market share, increasing revenue, growing your brand presence, or all of the above. Contact DM Collective today to see what we can do for your local business!
