Allow us to reserve the finest seat in the house for you: a local company owner or marketer who has seen it all in the last two years. You deserve a warm chair by the fire and a celebration cup of hot chocolate as we talk about how to prepare to take good care of your clients throughout the forthcoming holiday season. Thank you for rising to innumerable obstacles every day, keeping communities stocked, and even making some dreams come true this winter when people exchange presents as demonstrations of love, hope, and generosity of spirit.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO):
By identifying and addressing six sorts of scenario-specific client inquiries, as well as determining where to promote the answers, we can help your local company be both popular and successful throughout the 2021 Christmas shopping season. Comfortable? Let’s get started!
The [x]:
It’s the most fundamental and apparent question at the start of any transaction, but owing to the pandemic and related supply chain concerns, the answer has gotten more complicated in the last two years. Customer satisfaction is now more than ever linked to simply conveying availability through the techniques listed below: Customers should be notified if local inventory levels are low or things are out of stock using best-in-class e-commerce systems. If your solution is missing features, it’s a hint that you’ll need to update to keep your clients pleased.
Add your items to Google’s Merchant Center for free, and make sure to keep a check on them for correctness. As a type of virtual window shopping, add goods to your Google My Business listings. Consider investing in video sales if you’re marketing one of those Cabbage-Patch-Tickle-Me-Elmo-iPhone-hot things. Even if your product isn’t as hot as QVC’s, we believe we’re on our way to a QVC-like eCommerce destiny, and now is a wonderful moment to try it out.
Social commerce is also on the increase, and you should be present if your consumers purchase on Instagram or Facebook. Meanwhile, strictly informative social media posting might assist you in signaling the presence of the sought product. Of course, make sure that every member of your team is well-trained and has access to an up-to-date inventory database so that walk-in, phone, chat, and text-based inquiries can be handled swiftly and accurately.
Getting An [x]:
Once a buyer has determined that they have an item they want, the obvious next concern is how they will get it, and success now hinges on providing a variety of possibilities. Along with in-store pickup, at-home local delivery by in-house or third-party drivers, curbside collection, and shipping are now the standard. In some sectors, customers may also want to know if things can be gift-wrapped or combined as a present.
Setting expectations for these services and their associated pricing requires accuracy and honesty. Remember to provide purchase-by dates to assure holiday delivery. Make a list of all your fulfillment possibilities here: Merchandise pages on your webpage, a Christmas shopping guidance on your webpage, shipping and provider pages on your webpage, client satisfaction guarantee pages on your website, site-wide or section-wide banners, and the Q&A section of your Google My Business listing are all excellent places to ask and answer basic fulfillment questions.
Location And Timing:
It’s never been more critical for your website and local company listings to have up-to-date contact information and operating hours. Your clients will most likely fall on a continuum between those who like to purchase in person. And those who are adamant about avoiding public spaces. However, one wish that unites them all is to avoid the annoyance caused by driving to the wrong location for in-store or curbside pickup, phoning the wrong number to place an order, or attempting to contact them during incorrectly stated hours of operation during these hard times. It’s now or never to ensure that:
An accurate name, address, phone number, text line, and email address. And holiday hours are all included in your local company listings throughout the web. You’ve gone through all of your website’s pages looking for the above information anyplace it’s referenced, and you’ve changed it for 2021 correctness. This is also reflected in your social media platforms. If their information about your company is outdated. You’ve contacted websites, blogs, industry journals, news sites, and other sources of unstructured citations.
How Much Does It Matter To You?
Customers will find the full of your COVID-19 safety measures to be a valuable source of knowledge. Vaccination regulations, mask mandates, sanitation, contactless services, and self-imposed closures. And all other public health procedures should be disclosed by any firm that wants to show that its leadership cares about its employees and consumers. Our news and social media in the United States tend to focus on those who disregard safety. But our actual lives are packed with vulnerable loved ones. Youngsters with autoimmune disorders, senior citizens in danger, and pals with asthma.
By publicizing your pandemic safety procedures. The local brand you’re advertising may demonstrate its concern for the entire community. And let consumers make an informed decision about the safety of buying with you. Here are a few solid choices:
Create a COVID-19 policy page on your website and link to it often from key transactional and informative sites. Include a mechanism for customers to report instances of employees. Other customers fail to follow the advertised policy so that you may rectify the problem. We strongly hope that Google will do the right thing. And include “vaccination card necessary” to the GMB dashboard’s accessible characteristics. Meanwhile, make sure you’ve selected as many qualities as are relevant to your policy in the Health & Safety area of the dashboard so they show up on your listing.
Your Interest:
The two are closely linked: in-person service and online reputation. Mike Blumenthal of Near Media recently presented interesting research on how Walmart’s online review counts increased and ratings decreased as a result of consumer dissatisfaction with inventory shortages. Unfortunately, supply chain issues are sometimes beyond the control of a small firm. But communicating with consumers who take the time to complain is nearly always possible.
Source: The SEO Expert