When ever I come across a failed marketing campaign one of the short comings is often the fact that it lacked focus geographically. In order to develop a focused marketing strategy that will make the most of your budget, you must carefully gauge your geographic scope.
Great marketing campaigns rely on a good map as that is how you contextualize your activity. For example, a local retailer might define their geographic focus as a specific neighbourhood within a city, the city itself or the surrounding region. A larger manufacturer might determine that their geographic focus will be across a province or state, the whole country or even specific countries abroad.
Entrepreneurs, in rushing to get into the market as quickly as possible, often extend their geographic reach too far to start, into territories that aren’t strategically aligned with their organization; this merely serves to dilute the effect of their promotional efforts and wastes money. There’s nothing wrong with starting slower and solidifying your position in a smaller market before expanding to further regions—in fact, this will work in your favour and bring the rush you seek sooner than later.
For example, a college we worked with was spending 20% of their promotional budget in areas that accounted for only 1% of their total student population.
Even online businesses claim to have a “global marketplace,” which is true—but the majority of search terms are localized, and you can get your offline and online activity working together more easily and efficiently when you’re focused geographically.
So… the next time you start scheming up a marketing campaign grab a map and start thinking about how your message connects with those inside a specific area. Even the most successful online businesses, like Facebook and Yelp, started within a tight geographic region.