The multi-location brand is a unique animal in the local commerce ecosystem. They have the benefit of national-brand marketing support but the barriers of decentralized operations. This particular mix of variables continues to inspire innovation from tech providers, which we broke down in a special Street Fight-run guest panel at Localogy 2022.

Key Takeaways

Here are a few key messages or insights that we gleaned from this session.

• The key to enable brands to better utilize data for marketing is first-party data.
• Fortunalely brands have ample first party data from their customer interactions and operations.
• The name of the game is corralling and processing all that data (easier said than done).
• The other challenge is less about data and more about day-to-day operational matters.
• For example, 60-70 percent of reviews go unanswered. That leaves lots of room for improvement.
• But getting all those location managers or franchisees to respond to reviews is challenging.
• It’s not in their skill sets, and they’re too busy operating their locations to wear their marketing hat.
• This can be alleviated through gamification and incentives to motivate best practices.
• Beyond reviews, the above applies to other digital marketing areas such as profile completeness.
• Whoever can nail these issues and pain points for multi-location brands is well positioned.
• We’re seeing lots of innovation on that front from location-tech players… and lots of opportunity still ahead.

StreetFight II: Technology and the Multi-Location Brand

Multi-location brands are inundated with pitches from technology companies claiming to help them better understand, reach, and convert prospects into customers. How are tech companies helping brands navigate privacy regulations making collecting and storing customer data more complicated? Where is location intelligence headed as a growth driver for multi-location brands? What does the online-to-offline marketing tech stack look like?

Joe Zappa, Managing Editor – StreetFight
David Lehman, President – Birdeye
Stephanie Klimaszewski, SVP Marketing – Aki Technologies
Kevin Hill, VP Digital Strategy – Sproutloud