What Should Be in a Local Marketing Kit?

What is a local marketing kit?

The set of marketing a brand gives each local partner to promote the brand in their own market: a franchise location, a dealership, an agency, a branch. A good kit isn't a folder of logos and a brand manual. It's finished, ready-to-use pieces, each with the brand locked and the partner's name, address, phone and offer filled in or easy to add. See local marketing and the complete guide to distributed marketing.

What brand basics should every partner have?

• Co-branded logo lockups with the partner's name, and rules for using them.
• A short approved description of the brand and the partnership, such as how to say "authorized dealer" or "independently owned and operated".
• Approved product names, claims and disclaimers.
• A photo library of products, people and places partners may use.
• Colors and fonts, for the local printer or designer who will need them.

What everyday pieces do partners use most?

• Business cards and email signatures.
• Brochures, sell sheets and product flyers.
• A short presentation for sales meetings.
• Email templates for customers and prospects.
• Social profile images, cover photos and approved bios.
• A local landing page or web page content.

Start here: these are the pieces partners reach for every week, so they set whether partners trust the kit.

What should the kit include for local search and listings?

• Guidance for local listings such as a Google Business Profile: the approved business name, categories, description and photos.
• The rule that name, address and phone match everywhere, exactly.
• Templates for local search ads, with the partner's area and offer.
• Review request cards and emails, and approved replies to common reviews.
• A local landing page that matches the partner's listing.

Local search is where many customers first meet a local business, and it's the part of the kit partners most often get wrong on their own.

Which campaigns should be in the kit?

A calendar of complete campaigns for the moments that matter in your business: the seasons, holidays, product launches and promotions. Each one should come as a set (the email, the social posts, the local ad, the flyer, the direct-mail postcard and the in-store signage, all matching), with a note on when to run it and for whom. More on building them in how to manage marketing across a franchise network and how to launch a new product through dealers.

What in-store and on-site materials belong in the kit?

• Window posters, counter cards and shelf talkers.
• Banners, A-frame signs and yard signs.
• Displays and product samples.
• Vehicle graphics.
• Uniforms and branded apparel.
• Bags, packaging and leave-behinds.

These have to be produced and shipped, so the kit needs a way to order them with the partner's details, not only files to print. See how to run a brand-approved catalog.

What helps partners with events and community marketing?

• An event kit: a banner or backdrop, a table cover, a tent, flyers and sign-up cards.
• Branded giveaways and merchandise.
• Templates for sponsorships of local teams, schools and charities.
• A press release template for local news.
• Social posts announcing and recapping events.

Which special-purpose kits are worth having?

• Grand opening: announcements, signage, an opening offer and an event kit.
• Hiring: job posts, a careers flyer and social posts.
• Customer retention and referrals: thank-you cards, referral offers, win-back emails.
• Holiday hours and closures, and notices for changes in service.
• Relocation or remodel: "we've moved" and "pardon our progress" pieces.

What guidance should come with the kit?

One page, not a manual: what to use when, a few examples of good local marketing, the handful of rules that matter (what partners may change and what they mustn't), how to order printed materials, and how to pay with co-op or MDF funds. Partners read a page; they don't read a brand book.

How should a kit differ for franchisees, dealers and agents?

• Franchisees: the brand leads, the location adds its details. Heavy on in-store materials, local promotions, hiring and grand openings.
• Dealers and distributors: co-branded, with the dealer's brand alongside yours. Heavy on product materials, displays, samples and co-op.
• Agents, advisors and brokers: the agent's own name and photo up front, with compliance language locked. Heavy on direct mail, email, social and personal branding. See compliant agent and advisor marketing.
• Service partners: credentials and service area up front. Heavy on yard signs, door hangers and vehicle graphics. See through-channel marketing for service businesses.

How should you deliver a local marketing kit?

As live templates and orderable materials in one place, not as a zip file or a PDF. Partners should open the kit and find each piece with their details already in, ready to download, launch or order. Updates happen once, centrally, and every partner gets the current version. A shared folder of files leaves the hardest work to partners. See DAM vs. distributed marketing software.

How do you keep the kit current?

Review it on a schedule, and every time products, offers or the brand change. Retire old versions so nobody uses them. Look at which pieces partners use and which they ignore, and ask partners what's missing. A smaller kit partners trust beats a large one they have to search. The reasons partners skip what you give them are in why don't partners use the marketing you give them?

Where does OnBrandify fit?

OnBrandify is the Marketing Hub for brands that sell through partner networks: the local marketing kit as one place partners use. Every piece has the brand locked and the partner's details filled in; digital campaigns launch from it, and print, signage, displays and merchandise are ordered from it, paid with marketing funds where your program allows. You update the kit once and every partner has the current version. See the Partner Marketing Hub, or request a demo.