A new survey finds 61% of CMOs say local marketing has become too complex, and 89% say their tech investments have not fully delivered. For multi-location Australian businesses, the complexity is the moat.
The complexity is not a reason to ignore local. It is the reason your competitors are getting it wrong, which is exactly why it is worth getting right.
Most marketing leaders think local marketing has become too hard to manage. A new survey finds 61% of CMOs say local marketing is too complex, and the frustration runs deeper than the headline. 89% of leaders say their tech investments have not fully delivered, blaming the complexity of stitching it all together.
This is the problem of running marketing across many locations. A franchise with 40 sites, a trades business with branches in five cities, a retailer with stores across every state. Each location needs its own Google Business Profile, its own reviews and its own local search presence. Keeping all of it accurate and visible at once breaks the tools most teams have. The survey found 99% of senior marketers say a single layer to manage their presence across channels would be valuable.
Why it matters
Local search is where buying intent is highest. Someone searching for a plumber, a dealership or a cafe near them is ready to act, and the business that shows up accurately wins the job. For multi-location Australian businesses, that is a lot of revenue riding on data most teams cannot keep clean across every site.
The complexity is real, but it is also the moat. If 61% of leaders find this too hard, the ones who solve it own the local result in every town they operate in. Hard is good when hard keeps competitors out.
The share of CMOs who say local marketing has become too complex to manage.
What to do about it
Local is messy, which is precisely why it is winnable. Do the unglamorous work and take the towns nobody else can be bothered with.