City in need seeks creative ways to assist merchants, shops and restaurants during Pandemic

OVERVIEW

As we went through unprecedented times in 2020, moving into 2021 was not exactly turning out to be much brighter for many local merchants. In a small community like Hudson, Ohio the many local shops, restaurants, and service businesses are dependent on regular steady foot traffic to survive. When we initially reached out to the Chamber of Commerce and became more in tune with the Shop Local Shop Hudson campaign that was trying to get traction, they needed help! There had been some basic marketing involving social media, local signage and mailers but the program was in need of a big push. How do we get more people into the city to spend time and money? Not just visiting one store or restaurant but staying in the town for an afternoon or evening, much like we used to do pre-COVID. We worked together with the Chamber and the Shop Local Shop Hudson team to compose a plan quickly and present it to City Council for review. We were approved for funding for a two-month kickoff campaign in the Spring with our main objectives being to boost awareness, sales and drive more visitors into Hudson.

The APPROACH

With our pulse constantly on the local area, and being fully entrenched in the area (work and live in NE Ohio), we knew where people engaged with each other and also local businesses.

We worked to put a strategic plan together to not only build more awareness, but to also be able to track engagement and visitation to the area merchants. With more robust data and targeting, we knew the results would come with a solid strategy and our proprietary marketing process in the local area.

THE CHALLENGE

When we began thinking more about how we could get involved to help local merchants, we knew it would be a difficult task to try to obtain funding for a city-wide marketing plan. Trying to boost the traffic of hundreds of businesses is no easy feat! We reached out to the Chamber of Commerce, City Council members, as well as the city directly to see if there were any initiatives in place.

While we got a few no’s we did continue and worked with the Chamber to submit a proposal to City Council as an idea. After a couple meetings and presenting to the Council, they did approve a kickoff campaign for two months to help boost traffic. It was an exciting win!

THE SOLUTIONS

Once we had worked through the analysis and needs, our marketing strategy involved the following:

> Saturate the Hudson area as well as neighboring cities with Geofencing ads to raise awareness and bring people into town. Those that visit on occasion more regularly and those that do not to come and see our great city!

> Grow new audience engagement to learn more about all the shop, restaurants, services, and events that are going on in town.

> Establish a regular presence with ongoing reminders to come and shop, dine, visit the salon, and much more.

Key Performance Metric were tracked closely to ensure optimal success, while adjusting for business demand

FIRST 6 MONTHS RESULTS

Impressions – Total ads served: 5,626,377​

Dollars Generated to Local Merchants (Est. Not including social media visitors): $655,980

Return on Investment Per Visitor (Est. Not including social media visitors): 32X

Dollars Generated Per Merchant Tracked (Est. Not including social media visitors): $5,856