91% of national brands to up local marketing efforts in 2013

In their study, "National Brand Use of Digital in Local Marketing", Balihoo found that almost half (47.3%) of marketers plan to spend more on local marketing next year than this year while 44% intend to spend the same.

Furthermore, over two-thirds (67.5%) said digital tactics will play a big part and be "extremely" or "very" important to their brand's success.

When asked what digital tactics they weren't already using but would like to implement next year the national brands ranked mobile, local blogs and online customer reviews as their top three priorities.

What's just as interesting is that key digital tactics, that underpin local marketing, were not ranked a priority for national brand marketers - local search and local websites.

"Balihoo's survey results are in line with other industry research showing the growing importance of local marketing for national brands, but what's particularly interesting and even surprising is how national brands are prioritizing their local marketing tactics," said Pete Gombert, Balihoo's CEO. "Looking at use of digital tactics for local marketing, we found that local websites and local search registration are not top priorities for national brands, yet they form the foundation for a strong local marketing infrastructure."

Tags: brand marketing, digital marketing, local marketing, local search, national brand