Think Local continues to grow in local traffic, engagement and conversions, but we are seeing some content that is not reaching its full potential for one simple reason – timing.

Content is key to success on Think Local, but timing is on a level par.

Think Local is tied in with the monthly Peninsula Living and North Shore Living magazines, so our marketing campaigns run on one-month cycles. Therefore, content that is only live for a couple of weeks will not reach its potential.

To be frank, we don’t want to see an event going online two weeks before the event date, a ticket giveaway competition finishing one week before the ticketed event, or a deal providing an offer that is great today, but will not be as attractive in four weeks’ time.

We want Think Local content to have time to ‘breathe’ and engage the 10,000+ monthly users as we continue on our mission to turn local residents into your loyal customers.

Here are some very simple timing tips for you. If you follow the steps, you could see an increase of over 1,000% in traffic, engagement and conversions through Think Local. You could even be one of our advertisers who is seeing over 6,000% return on their advertising spend, and attract more than 100 new, local customers in one month.

Timing Tips for Think Local Products:

Competitions

  1. Competition lifecycle: Three months to plan, promote and remarket.
  2. Plan: Planned out your competition one month before the live date (last day of the month). That way we have time to get the assets designed, signed off and ready to go live across print, online, email and social media.
  3. Minimum time live on Think Local: One month. During this time, it will be promoted via print (Peninsula Living and/or North Shore Living magazines), online (Think Local), email (33,000+ database) and social media.
  4. Remarketing: Let’s assume it’s a ticket giveaway competition. Once the competition has ended and the winner has been drawn, the merchant will often have over 1,000 unique email addresses to remarket to. Merchants should allow themselves one month to remarket to that database – between the competition ending and the ticketed event taking place.

Deals

  1. Deal lifecycle: Four months between the deal being submitted by the merchant and the voucher period expiring.
  2. Plan: Don’t plan a deal that is perfect for today – plan for one or two months’ time. For example, you may be planning your deal in October, but the deal will be live during November and December, so you should be thinking about summer offers, Christmas gifts and school holiday activities for the family. Here are the most popular annual activities that should be considered when planning a Deal:
    • Easter
    • School Holidays
    • Winter (planning for summer)
    • Christmas
    • Valentine’s Day
    • Mother’s Day
    • Father’s Day
  3. Minimum time live on Think Local: Seven weeks. This seven-week period should be the time your deal is most relevant to the consumer, ensuring users will be engaged by the product via print (Peninsula Living and/or North Shore Living magazines), online (Think Local), email (33,000+ database) and social media.
  4. Voucher redemption period: Five weeks after the deal expires from Think Local. Therefore, you should ensure you are still able to provide the product or service 12 weeks after the deal went live on Think Local.

Events

  1. Plan: Three months in advance, ensuring that your event has time to engage the full Think Local audience, across print, online, email and social media. If you are planning a New Year’s Eve event, we would like to know about the event during September, so that it appears in print, and gets maximum exposure across our digital channels, too. If you event is ticketed, you could run a competition too, capturing a database to then remarket via email.
  2. Minimum time live on Think Local: Two months. Like with competitions and deals above, our marketing channels run in one-month cycles, so the more time your event is live on Think Local, the better. We suggest at least two months so that Think Local users see your event numerous times. Your event may attract over 1,000% more traffic, engagement and conversions if its live for two months or more, versus less than a month.

Promotions

  1. Plan: Be seasonal. Here is your opportunity to publish content that has longevity, so make it specific to the seasons. Think about what will appeal to the audience throughout the timeframe, and you will see the Think Local traffic turn into your local, loyal customers. Here are some successful past promotions:
    • Summer: Weekend sundowner sessions
    • Autumn: Roast dinners on Sundays
    • Winter: Laser packages, preparing for summer
    • Spring: Beach body fitness packages
  2. Minimum time live on Think Local: The longer the better, as long as it remains relevant to consumers. We suggest two months minimum. Like above, this gives your promotion time to utilise the full marketing cycle, across print, online, email and social media. Like with events, we see over 1,000% increase in traffic and engagement if the promotion is live for two months or more versus less than one month.

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Think Local – Turning Local Residents into Loyal Customers