What Is Hyper-Localization? Your Brand's Best Competitive Advantage

The old adage has been drilled into minds for decades: The customer is always right. We want to provide the customer with the information they’re looking for, or the service they need, in a frictionless, seamless experience.

In 2020, that means a lot of your brand content is being searched and consumed on mobile devices.

Mobile use comes in strong as the number of smartphone users is projected to reach 2.87 billion by the end of the year. Put another way: mobile is the vehicle in which your audience will likely arrive at your site.

And the numbers keep growing. Around 90% of all internet users have mobile access, with China, India, and the US leading the way. So many potential eyeballs for you to cater content to!

So now that we know how customers get to a place to engage with content, let’s think about what they seek in order to inspect how they move through the marketing funnel.

What is hyper-localization and why is it important?

Hyper-localization is creating content based on specific data, all the way down to the region and city level, looking at how shoppers are searching and buying.

When we hyper-localize, we take localization to the next level by providing an additional layer of personalization.

Hyper-localization can take on many forms:

• In the retail world, hyper-localization can mean stores tailor their offerings to local demands and trends. Or even provide personalized recommendations to shoppers in-store.
• Online, retailers and websites can offer coupon codes or unique promotions for specific regions like individual cities.
• Combining the two, retailers can text shoppers custom promotions directly, offering a personal touch.

A great example of hyper-localization is when your local pizzeria has half-off pizza pies if your local football team wins. They are taking the interests of a local region into account, and leveraging that for a unique promotion.

Hyper-localizing your content and product offerings will give your brand a strong competitive advantage. After all, people buy from people, and when shoppers feel that your business is actually listening to them, they’ll be more likely to convert.

Best Practices for Hyper-Localization

Hyper-localization can take on a number of different forms depending on your business model, the service or products offered, and the audience you are looking to cater to.

Here are some best practices to help you get started:

1. Place unique content on each page of your website broken down by country, state, region and always including dialect when applicable. This will resonate with your potential customers while pulling double duty boosting your SEO!
2. Personalize your customer experience by collecting data and using it to give customers a feeling of ease and comfortability. Installing a bot on your localized site can grab a person’s name and offer them around the clock customer service.
3. Demonstrate what your services do for the local community you serve. This will tie your efforts into the heartland of your customer. Give them something they can connect with on a local level and they will give you their trust.
4. Share local customer success stories. Much like the local community aspect, when a customer sees a local resident’s positive experience with your company, it is likely they will feel more confident that your business is legitimate and others have had good interactions with you.

Overall, you want to ensure your localization strategy aligns with your overall business strategies.

Timing is of the essence! Strategizing on local and businesswide levels will cohesively pull together your platforms.

Offer hyper-localized content by personalizing the customer experience

Today’s customer seeks a personal experience with brands and companies. As language accessibility becomes a key driving force for retail growth, localization has become an absolute must.

And going even further, personalizing the customer experience via hyper-localization as the digital landscape continues to develop is increasingly important in order to be seen among the competition.

From ads on Instagram and sponsored tweets, there seems to be both extreme ease and major speed bumps as customers navigate the purchasing process. Being adaptable, companies can deftly modernize the customer experience by personalizing their offerings.

Local grocery stores come to mind. What, aside from pricing, makes you lean towards a chain grocer verses a local store? Are there local mom and pop shops who sell their speciality jam or do the cashiers log you into your savings program to ensure you are taking advantage of your built-in coupons?

Having both variety and an injection of regionally-specific goods helps NYC grocers maintain firm and devout clientele. I could go to a Trader Joes, but the supermarket just a couple of blocks away always seems to give me an experience that reinforces my place in the community.

That in and of itself solidifies me as a repeat customer, and not only because I love the cupcakes a local baker has displayed in the baked goods aisle.

Hyper-localization meets customers where they are

The customer is always right. We have to put ourselves in their shoes to truly understand what we want and need in order to facilitate the bond that can happen between customer and brand.

Think about how this mirrors your own loyalty: what makes you a repeat offender at the local wine shop?

Customers are always on; online, on the hunt for a new experience, on the fence as to whether they should try a new brand.