Local Customer Journeys and Digital Marketing: Strategies That Work
- giuliapedrinivisio
- Jul 1
- 5 min read
Author: Giulia Pedrini
Introduction
In recent years, the concept of consumerism has been mentioned many times. This is because this socio-cultural phenomenon has increasingly become an everyday occurrence for all generations. Indeed, young people, adults and the elderly consume, in different quantities, but in very similar ways.
If young and old people consume more than they produce income, adults on the other hand produce more income than they consume. But all three of these generations have the same way of approaching the market: the Customer Journey.
The idea of the Customer Journey can be applied to many sectors. With regard specifically to the Customer Local Journey, restaurants or fast food outlets (especially in tourist destinations) must be able to exploit it and guide the consumer through this journey. Let's see how!
Local Customer Journey
What we have called the Customer Journey includes all the experiences a customer has from the moment they come into contact with a product or service until they promote it with reviews or by word of mouth.
The customer journey is usually divided into five stages, in which we find:
Awareness - the customer comes into contact with the business
Familiarity - the customer realises that they need or want a product/service
Consideration - the customer starts to think that the product/service of that business might be suitable
Purchase - the customer buys the product/service
Loyalty - the customer becomes loyal to the business
The Customer Journey can also be seen through a geographical perspective, so let us talk about the Local Customer Journey. Mapping the Local Customer Journey is a very important marketing strategy for the visibility of a business locally. This in tourist locations is especially crucial in sectors such as catering. This is because competition is high and restaurants have to study the right way to attract customers.
For instance the journey, which each customer goes through from the exact moment they find (not only physically) the restaurant until they leave the location, provides businesses with a trace of what the customer is looking for. This allows restaurants to follow this "trace" in their marketing strategy.
Digital Era in Local Customer Journey
While traditional customer journeys emphasised physical touchpoints such as supermarkets and retail shops, everything has changed in the digital age. Indeed, in the online journey, communication between company and customer is much faster and more intuitive. This can happen via social media pages such as Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok (especially recently), or via the business' own or third-party websites.
Usually the local consumer journey is omnichannel, i.e. offering a consistent brand experience both on the web and in shops. This allows businesses to reach consumers with 360° strategies.
In general, digital marketing in this era is a key strategy in today's businesses. This is because we live more and more through our electronic devices such as mobile phones, tablets and laptops and less and less in the real world.
This hyper-connectedness allows businesses to understand what to invest in and what products or services to drop. So it becomes crucial not only to identify where it is successful, but more importantly where the strategy is not working, in order to improve that segment of the Customer Journey.
The role of Local Digital Search (“Near Me”)
The query ‘near me’ greatly influences the local consumer journey. Local businesses often do not give it due importance, but the search for nearby shops or restaurants has a very important volume. Although this type of search excludes many businesses that are not nearby, for businesses that are in the consumer's search metre it brings an increase in organic local traffic. This will then convert into increased sales and thus profits.
To make the most of this query, it is not enough just to optimise the search with SEO, but together there are other methods that can be used. Let's look at them, always taking a restaurant as an example:
incentivise customers to leave reviews on websites that appear among the first results of restaurant searches
optimise the website using the words that were entered by customers in the reviews
collaborate with local media, guides or blogs to include the restaurant in their "recommendations"
collaborate with other structures in the surroundings to advertise each other, also on their respective websites
Proximity Marketing
Speaking of Customer Local Journey, it is also important to talk about proximity marketing. This type of marketing uses technologies such as Bluetooth, Wi-fi, NFC and others to “communicate” with customers who are in the vicinity of a shop.
This type of marketing certainly has many advantages because it allows you to:
"capture" the customer at the exact moment he/she is in the vicinity of the shop, increasing the effect of marketing campaigns
boost sales volume because the customer feels listened to by the brand and is therefore more inclined to spend impulsively
customise the offer on the consumer and create messages that attract the customer inside the shop
strengthen the relationship with the consumer and build loyalty to the brand
Personalisation of the Experience
A tailor-made experience, product, service or communication is the real breakthrough in marketing strategies. This is because in a world that is becoming increasingly flat, the customer wants to feel unique, special. This is why, in order to be successful in communicating with the customer, first and foremost businesses must adapt their strategies to the customer's preferences. Or at least make them believe it.
If this is already difficult in small businesses, on a large scale it becomes a real challenge.
But the solution is in managing data, which especially for multinationals are precious gems. This is because data makes it possible to study the complexity of customers and to understand their needs and desires.
Today's world, however, is changing rapidly, so it is not enough for businesses to know their customers today, but they must also be prepared to manage the changes. Today's customer may already have changed his mind tomorrow. Thanks to artificial intelligence, it is becoming increasingly possible not only to study customers in real time, but also to predict their future preferences.
Conclusion
In an increasingly connected and competitive world, understanding the Local Customer Journey has become essential, especially for businesses in certain tourism-related sectors. By leveraging tools such as digital marketing, local SEO, ‘near me’ searches and proximity marketing, businesses can improve visibility, improve the customer experience and ultimately increase both loyalty and revenue.
Personalisation will continue to be the key to success in the future for businesses thanks to data and artificial intelligence. Businesses that adapt to these trends will not only attract customers, but create a bond with them that is difficult to break.
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