The Secret to Maximizing Local Marketing Results (With Minimal Effort)

We all know what it feels like to be buried under a mountain of to-dos. 

Today, you need to: 

Go to work. Pick up the kids. Clean the house. Go grocery shopping. Make dinner. 

With such a packed day ahead, you decide cleaning the house can wait. It’s an important task, but there are bigger priorities at hand. So, you put it off for another day. 

Then another day. Then another day. 

Your affiliates experience a similar cycle. 

As local business owners, they have no shortage of tasks on their plates — and local marketing is often one that goes by the wayside. It’s undoubtedly important, but their time is limited, and other responsibilities take precedence. 

So, how do you get your local partners to maximize local marketing results with minimal time? 

We surveyed 3,192 affiliates to bring you valuable insights on how to maximize your partners' marketing outcomes. 

You can dive into the full Local Marketing Gap Report or keep reading for instant insights. 

Your Affiliates Don’t Spend Enough Time Marketing (And It’s Impacting Revenue) 

The data shows that 78% of local affiliates spend less than 40 hours per month on marketing activities.

Let’s put that into perspective. 

When you do that math, that means the average partner spends less than 10 hours a week on local marketing (or less than 2 hours a day, if you want to get even more specific). 

The majority (35%) of affiliates only spend between 1 and 9 hours per MONTH on their marketing efforts. That’s less than 30 minutes of marketing per day. Yikes. It’s safe to say that’s not enough time to write marketing copy, build assets, and launch and optimize campaigns... At least not well.  

You know running successful campaigns takes time — time that most affiliates simply don’t have. So, their marketing outcomes reflect their minimal efforts.  

Read the full report to access even more insights. 

How Do I Get My Local Partners to Maximize Impact? 

Just because your partners have limited time to market doesn’t mean they can’t drive results with the hours they do have.  

The key is introducing processes and tactics that boost their marketing efficiency. By embracing efficient marketing tactics, your affiliates can generate greater marketing outcomes while spending less time, money, and energy. 

Sound too good to be true? 

Here are the top 6 ways your local partners can drive the most impact with the least effort. 

1. Eliminate Manual Processes 

The biggest culprit in wasting your partners’ time? Manual marketing processes.  

Too many affiliates spend hours building complex spreadsheets and entering data by hand for little payoff.  

That’s why it’s essential to provide your partners with the tools and technology they need to eliminate manual efforts from their marketing processes. With streamlined workflows, you can expect greater process efficiency and better marketing results.  

2. Provide Brand-Compliant Marketing Assets 

Creating marketing materials from scratch is a tedious and time-consuming process for affiliates — especially with so many compliance requirements to tiptoe around.  

You can make their job easier by providing pre-approved assets they can choose from to promote your brand. You can also create flexible templates your partners can easily customize to generate high-quality, brand-compliant marketing materials. 

With these user-friendly templates in hand, getting campaigns out the door just got a whole lot easier (and less risky). 

3. Utilize Artificial Intelligence 

When it comes to doing more with less, AI takes the cake. Here are three ways your affiliates can use AI for marketing: 

• Content generation: Content creation is one of the most time-consuming parts of marketing. With generative AI, your partners can produce everything from blogs and emails to press releases and review responses in just a few clicks. 

• Automation: Repetitive tasks may be easy, but they use up precious time. Automate routine processes like campaign setup, co-op claims submissions, and marketing execution with AI.  

• Marketing recommendations: Affiliates can get personalized marketing guidance via SMS text, email, or chatbot to determine the best marketing tactics and campaign improvements.  

4. Invest in Do-It-For-Me Programs 

In the digital age, social media cannot be ignored.  

But, your affiliates don’t always have the time or expertise to manage their accounts. With do-it-for-me social media programs, they can sit back and tend to other priorities while the experts handle everything from content creation to posting. 

5. Educate Your Affiliates 

As a marketer, marketing is second nature to you — which is why it takes you less time to execute campaigns than it does your affiliates. But with the right education, marketing can come more easily to them, too. 

You can help your partners better understand local marketing by providing: 

• Educational resources 

• Training sessions and videos 

• Expert support 

• User-friendly tools 

When affiliates have a greater grasp of their local marketing, not only will it become easier for them to execute, but they’ll also understand the importance of these efforts. And when they see the value of their marketing, your partners will be more likely to prioritize it. 

Learn more about how to activate your affiliates by reading The Local Marketing Gap Report.  

6. Get a Streamlined Local Marketing Platform 

You can optimize your partners’ local marketing by investing in an all-in-one local marketing platform. These solutions are designed to unify your brand and channel partner network by serving as a centralized hub for all your marketing resources, tools, and processes while delivering a seamless user experience. 

To drive the most marketing impact, look for a channel partner portal that: 

• Is user-friendly 

• Delivers actionable performance metrics 

• Provides a centralized experience 

• Ensures easy integration with the rest of your tech stack 

Specifically designed to streamline marketing efficiency, a local marketing portal will help your affiliates tackle their campaigns faster and more easily than ever. 

Ready to Drive Next-Level Local Marketing Results? 

It’s time to help your affiliates reduce friction and maximize impact. 

To get all the insights you need to activate your local partners and drive more results, read the full Local Marketing Gap Report.  

For monthly local marketing data, subscribe to The State of Local Marketing newsletter.