The "why" and "how" of sourcing local talent from national HQ
A recent report on national-to-local marketers mentions that, with the exception of email marketing, “enterprise brands are struggling to make digital as effective as traditional tactics and media” for local branches’ ad dollars. With locally focused email newsletters, it’s generally easier to automate locally targeted sales or events. On the other hand, local content is much more essential for local SEO and social media engagement, and this is where enterprise brands have not yet fully conquered the local space.
For national brands, accumulating content that resonates with locals in each individual market is an excruciating task. Not even the best of researchers or the slyest of copywriters can match the value of a local’s knowledge base. Meanwhile, local partners may not have the time or the storytelling know-how to create quality local content.
Content without topic knowledge is generic; content without storytelling chops is ineffective. Herein lies the problem for local: How do you plan quality, shareable articles, videos, and digital media with a local focus at a national scale?
The answer: Find locals to create content about their region.
As Ronell Smith recently wrote, SMBs have the content creation advantage when it comes to local know-how, but I respectfully disagree with Ronell on his preference for local brands topping local content SERPs. Generally, I’d prefer the best local content to top my searches, and many national startups are disrupting local habits for the better (think Uber v. your local cab company). National, online brands will never be able to replace the helpful salesperson down the street, and franchises will never be the first choice for dinner with friends from out-of-town, but there is a space in the market for enterprises, especially if they’re willing to take the time to mingle with local creatives.
The three methods in this post have varying SEO side effects, depending on the tactics used. While local content is a boon to local rank, a “sponsored post” on a local news source won’t have the same effect on your rankings. But while SEO is a factor to consider in content creation, it’s not the only reason in town. Good ‘local’ marketing doesn’t always mean scaling standardized national content and messaging to every market; rather, this post posits that ‘scaling local’ means developing targeted resources that resonate in each market.
1. Patronize local media
PR is not the only way to work with journalists anymore. Many media publications both large and small are adding content creation services to their revenue stream. Sometimes this means sponsored content, where a piece is commissioned (and labelled as such) by a for-profit partner. In other cases, journalists are working with brands to bring their talent for story to commercials, website content, or other branded media.
According to a 2014 Pew Research report, “the largest component of the growing digital news world is the smaller news site. A large majority of them are less than a decade old, about half are nonprofits, most have staffs of five or fewer and many also rely on volunteer and citizen contributors. Their greatest area of focus is local news coverage.”
One such example at the local scale is Bit & Grain, a North Carolina-focused long-form publication, whose pieces are supported by its founders’ storytelling productions for brands and nonprofits. I spoke with the weekly publication’s three cofounders on their revenue generation experiences, 18 months post-launch.
Cofounder Ryan Stancil explained that they’re still experimenting with revenue generation models, but that content production and creation is their most successful funding tool so far.
“People need help telling their story,” Stancil said. He added that their work-for-hire is both very different and very similar to the pieces they create for Bit & Grain. It’s different in that it’s commissioned storytelling, but it’s the same level of quality they bring to their weekly pieces.
A sampling of Bit & Grain’s local fare.
Stancil brought up their recent sponsored piece on a local restaurant as an example. While clearly labelled as “sponsored content,” the piece received the same aesthetic care and storytelling craft as any article in the publication. Stancil’s cofounder, Baxter Miller, echoed a similar sentiment in their sponsored content process.
“If anyone came to us about doing a sponsored content piece, we would vet them as much as anything we put on our editorial calendar,” she said “And really the process is much the same.”
I also spoke with Shawn Krest, the managing editor of local publication Raleigh & Company, which began as a fun side project/playground for Raleigh, NC-area journalists and has evolved into a blog-like online publication. The site was acquired by Capitol Broadcasting Company in August of 2015.
While Raleigh & Company covers the same region as Bit & Grain, the publications’ similarities end there. Raleigh & Company’s subject matter is more irreverent, with pieces poking fun at Presidential candidates, and others interviewing NFL recruits who will never see game day. Plus, Raleigh & Company’s copyeditors have no qualms about the first person appearing in its columns.
“We’ve had pieces where writers really open up and talk about issues they’re dealing with,” Krest said. “Addictions, things like that. I feel like when Raleigh & Company is at its best, you see the writer sort of bleeding on the keyboard as they’re writing.”
Local journalism is going niche in a way that daily newspapers couldn’t. For brands, this is another potential win, as you’re able to zero-in on a narrow audience in your city of choice.
Like Bit & Grain, Raleigh & Company is open to sponsored posts, but Krest is not willing to lose the tenor of the publication to satisfy a sponsor, as he explained when the blog was acquired by Capitol Broadcasting Company.
“We said at that first meeting, ‘we use the F-word and we’re not going to stop,’ and they were fine with that,” he said. “The first time they wanted us to look more like the local news, it would not work."
While as different as Eastern and Western NC barbecue, Bit & Grain and Raleigh & Company have similar limitations to their branded content philosophies. This shouldn’t be a problem for companies seeking true neighborhood flavor in their local content. For brands who want a bit more control, a collaborative approach with an influencer may be a better option.
Finding local journalists
Local media is transforming. For some, this is a frightening prospect; for others, it’s a moment of opportunity. During the recent Sustain Local Journalism conference, which I attended, a few local writers and publishers gathered in Montclair, NJ to discuss the biggest issue currently haunting their industry: how to keep funds flowing. While some local news sites, such as Philadelphia’s Billy Penn, have found success through events, many at the conference agreed that revenue diversification was the only way forward. Not every local writer will want to craft a piece for a brand, but others are willing to work with the enterprise in order to support their own local efforts.
Here are a couple online lists of local media sites:
Though both lists fall short of the total, as neither has Bit & Co. or Raleigh & Company among their publications.
2. Capture the photographer next door: Partner with local influencers
Influencer marketing is nothing new, but it is under-utilized for local campaigns. Whether they’re Insta-famous or a YouTube personality, every influencer calls somewhere home. And for local content creation, audience size is a secondary metric. The biggest offering local bloggers or vloggers provide is a local perspective and content creation experience.
My favorite rule of thumb when approaching bloggers (credit to a presentation by Molly McKinley of Adwerx): Give before you ask.
And "gifts" don’t have to be free products. They don’t even have to be physical items. Can you invite local bloggers to an upcoming company event? Do local offices receive event tickets in exchange for local sponsorships? Maybe you could allocate a budget to sponsor their existing local interests. For enterprise-size brands, links and shares of smaller bloggers can offer a big boost to their SEO and/or social media accounts. At ZipSprout, we’ve developed locally focused content by interviewing bloggers about their favorite area restaurants and day trips.
Local bloggers have both neighborhood and content creation know-how. While your competitors chase the influencers with the biggest following, consider first seeking the voice that matches your brand.
Finding local influencers
Bloggers and influencers are typically organized categorically, so I have to go back to some of the prospecting lessons I learned from my cofounder, link builder Garrett French, to find influencers based on location.
I find success using phrases a local would have on their blog, such as:
"here in philadelphia" intitle:"blog"
From which I found:
Sometimes it helps to get a bit more specific, since many bloggers don’t have the word “blog” on every page. So I tried:
"here in philadelphia" intitle:"my dog"
From which I found:
Want a local photographer? Try:
"here in philly" inurl:"instagram.com"
Photo by @bkerollis, a Philadelphia-based blogger and choreographer, on Instagram.
Of course, you can search for #Philadelphia on Instagram, but Google conveniently sorts (somewhat) by post popularity.
3. Brand Y x City Z = Local data
It’s not just “the top 10 cities for” — find local data in context with national trends. Good narratives find the context and connection to bigger stories. What does your data from City X say about how that area stands out from the crowd?
At ZipSprout, we’ve reported on the top corporate sponsors in a particular geographic region, finding that local news and tech companies, followed by national banks, are the most widespread donors to local nonprofits and events in Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina. We also visualized the most frequently used words in local organization’s "about" pages. Thanks to our data, we can write a similar article, but with very different results, for cities all over the U.S.
It can take some developer time, but local data can be automated on city pages. What’s the most popular Starbucks order in Omaha, Nebraska? What’s the most frequently rented Hertz car from the Dallas/Fort Worth airport? What are the most and least popular times to ride a Lyft in NYC?
Locally focused blog posts and landing pages can be fun. Showing customers we know they’re unique says a lot about a brand’s local presence, without saying anything at all.
Conclusion: Write local, right
If you really want to have hyperlocal visibility, in the SERPs and in local publications, you need hyperlocal content, at scale.
The Woodward and Bernstein-style newsroom may soon be old fashioned, but we’re also in an age that appreciates authentic, quality storytelling, and local branches often don’t have the personnel or resources to develop local content. Neighborhood know-how can’t be fudged, so why not partner people who can tell your brand’s story with a local accent?
Hi Megan,
Nice work, I totally agree with you, maybe the main work is doing the database of this journalist and photo's on local places, you know, tons of hours for doing it and segment right ;)
What do you think?
Hi Sergio - thanks! I think that work is worthwhile, by either a brand or even as a potential agency offering to curate content that's authentic to a region.
Sure, I think it's worthwile too, but somethings it's really a hard job ;)
On the otherside of steep barriers to entry is always a good place to be
Sure Brendon, usually hard work it's for big prizes ;)
Love the search ideas for finding influencers. Definitely a lot of untapped opportunities out there with local influencers. The most difficult aspect for me is finding the right angle for the content itself. With some clients, it's obvious. With others, it's like.... "Who's going to want to read about this?! What angle should I take to make it more interesting?"
Some local service-based businesses just aren't that interesting, so the content ends up having to be something somewhat relevant to the nature of the business.
Thanks Ria. I know what you mean. "Who are the 5 best refrigerator repairpeople in Omaha?" probably isn't that tantalizing... even if it's written by an Omaha native who's had serious fridge issues. But then again, maybe the real story here is the biopic of how and why one Omaha resident had to go through 5 different refrigerator repairpeople in the first place! What I mean is - the neat thing about working "on the ground" is that content will look different in different places, depending on the people who live there and the stories they have to share. However, this route takes much more leg-work, so trying to cover every city at once, depending on the size of your team, may be a lot to ask.
Great content, Megan. And thanks for the shout out!
Thanks! You gave a presentation to the Raleigh SEO meetup many months ago, and that snippet - "give before you ask"- just stuck with me :)
I like this hyper local approach as it recruits more than just having local content for a business but actually working with the local influencers to get the word out there. I think this also provides a sense of online community that can be lost in some areas. Actually I plan on using one of my clients as a test case for this by having them reach out to some local sources about their contributions around their city, but instead of pushing that on their site have the other sources be their outlet.
Great approach to creating local content that works.
Thanks Tim! I'm excited to hear how your test project goes.
Completely agree. As a marketer for a real estate agency I know it is important to connect with people from your own city or the same neighbourhood. Hyperlocally for this sector means connecting with people living next to you. Good strategies that were usefull for us include Facebook to spread posts with very local information or campaign.
For bigger companies, local people is essential for their marketing strategies because only that people know the area and what is happening there. "It’s necessary to do some research on local market and try molding your content to suit their needs on your own first, before engaging hiring journalists."
How could anybody in the other part of the country know my city as good as I do? The risk of not connecting with the readers/ potential customers increases here.
To sustain for a longer time in SEO we need to know how to create authentic local content. Because besides of all on-page tactics content comes at first and we need to focus on it a lot for the better result, and this post is going to be a milestone for that.
Hello Megan,
Very helpful post, above three methods really gonna rock when it comes to creating quality content for local targeted audiences and its very useful towards national brands. I would appreciate the tips to finding out the local influencers based on location such as "here in philadelphia" , "here in philly" inurl:"instagram.com"intitle:"blog" etc.
Thanks Bhushan!
My Pleasure Megan..
In order to be very effective for local content - this applies to all local businesses and to those in the travel sector in particular. If you want to target this sort of traffic, for example a hotel operating in a particular place - make sure you have content that covers all of that places attractions like monuments, forts, botanical gardens, beaches, parks, museums, shopping areas, restaurants etc with really good content backed up by good photos. You should also make it a point to interview local people to know more about the place.
A similar strategy can be applied to other sectors as well only the topics covered will be different
Some solid ideas, especially around search, for finding local talent and content.
I think we also have to redefine what local means. Many times people think local means at a city level. When it could mean at a province/state level or even a county. It's much easier to create content for ten provinces and three territories in Canada or 52 States in the USA than if we had to do something for all the major cities in each country.
Very true - and I also think that it's okay to cherry pick and take it slowly and expand focus as you go.
Thanks for the search tips! Great guide on connecting with local influencers. Found quite a bit of people on Twitter but there are many more areas and ways to connect with others. Time to get to work :)
I think finding local content in line with national trends will be hard. While this kind of message will have a positive impact on the region you're targeting, other regions might get confused. Don't you think that your overall brand message will get a little blurry?
Thanks,
Stacey.
Stacey, that's a good point. There is a fine line, and I think this is where brand values or brand guidelines come into play. If you're a brand that targets families, then sponsoring a piece on a local bar scene probably doesn't make so much sense. But working with a local writer to cover the new park in town is a great fit. We see this a lot at ZipSprout with local giving. Certain brands, like Whole Foods and Dick's Sporting Goods give to local organizations across the country, but they do have very specific parameters around the types of organizations they put money behind. Whole Foods is very 'health and fitness' oriented, whereas Dick's donates often to youth sports. Creating a plan beforehand around the type of stories you want to tell can help create consistency from region to region.
Also, depending on the type of campaign, it may be possible to give local writers very specific guidelines around what you're looking for. Most copywriters want brand guidelines to avoid major edits later, so this can be a great way to suggest that writers bring their piece back to a national trend.
Hi Megan, thanks for elaborating. I get it now. It's like if a company sells camping gear, and they decide to target families and encourage them to go hiking/camping together, they could collect stories from different regions on family traditions and how they spend time together.
Whilst local content is important, I worry that hyper local has a negative impact if you service a wider area. Whilst this is a great guide to creation, what are the impacts of large scale hyper local if you've focused on a wider area?
Hi Rhys - I think that all depends on your marketing channels. Even if a brand services say, all of Northern California, many will still have landing pages focused on specific, more-local slices of their service area pie: one for Sacramento, one for Oakland, one for Marin County, etc. In that case, hyperlocal content is essential on those pages, to prevent duplicate content.
And even if you don't have more specific landing pages, I don't see how hyperlocal content on a blog, for example, can hurt your brand. Hyperlocal content isn't just about getting the right keywords on a page to rank in a certain region; in that case, just hire a copywriter with access to Wikipedia. It's also about connecting with people, to show that a brand is about more than a list of service offerings. But anytime you get specific with a particular story, you're going to have to get specific with setting too. So if this business serving all of Northern California has a blog post specific to Oakland, then another specific to Marin County, will a site visitor from Sacramento feel like the brand isn't "for" her? My guess is that, as long as the brand's service areas are well-explained on the site, that customer will appreciate local content about neighboring regions, and may anticipate upcoming content featuring her hometown.
Hi Megan, Great read. Loved it. I must say that writing great content is really a talent worth having and this is not something GOD gifted, if we try and persue learning and remain determined to write high quality content for our own blogs or for clients, we can do it. I would also say that the key to high quality content is always research. One who knows, how to do perfect research can write good articles.
Thanks, John. I agree - research is huge. And also, good writing, especially at scale, stems from good planning and editing. Having the right person doing the right piece, making sure writers know the focus, etc. I've done a fair share of copywriting for many different brands, and it's so much more fun when you have more direction, as opposed to "oh just put something together on [TOPIC]."
I believe every good business has own USP but if we can put only thing how we sell or promote this through our content. If we beat somehow big brand in some features and show in our content and spread it then it will work great for influencing local channels including journalist, blogger etc.
Fascinating for sure. I'm always searching about hyperlocal stuff and now, I am about to launch my own. My community is much smaller than most, so it should be interesting. The biggest challenge, I think, will be a business/revenue model.
Hi Megan. Congratulations on creating a great, informative, well-researched article.
I think your article touches on an interesting point. Because of the decline of local print journalism – particularly local newspapers – people seem to think that local journalism itself is on the decline. This isn’t true at all – it has simply moved online. There are any number of outlets – be it social media, blogs or news websites – which still fill this area.
Hyperlocal content is more important than it’s ever been. It’s not dying – it’s just moved to a different place.
Thanks Hitesh. I agree - hyperlocal journalism is not dead. Even online, it's still struggling, because it's very difficult to sustain a business on digital ads alone, but there are a plethora of talented, motivated local writers out there who care about their cities, and who care about real issues, and who want to work. That may be why it bugs me so much to see bad writing on local city pages for businesses - because I know there are folks out there, hungry for work, who could have done a great job.
Hi Megan. I agree with the idea of engaging local journalists, influencers and photographers to acquire a share in the local market. Freelancers can also help. But quality control is a challenge national brands may have to face. For instance, if I’m trying to market a national brand to a local market, I won’t be interested in local journalists who’d create unnecessary hype or expectations about my brand, with unreal promises. It’s necessary to do some research on local market and try molding your content to suit their needs on your own first, before engaging hiring journalists.
Hi Patrick - I agree. I think quality control is one of the biggest challenges of scaling hyperlocal marketing, with any medium. As I mentioned to Stacey above, I think developing brand guidelines and key points first is a good way to make sure everyone's on the same page. For ex, we've worked with local writers for some of our ZipSprout city pages, and I provide an outline of what to include to each writer, such as "interview a local organization leader." The articles aren't sales pieces at all, just like how this piece isn't sales content for moz. Rather, it's content related enough to the business that it piques the interest of the business's target client base.