Black Friday is very important for any company that sells products during the holiday season. Many local businesses can be pushed behind by the big box stores and national chain stores. To compete, local businesses need to be seen. You don’t want to be lost to your potential clientele during the craziness of the holiday shopping season.
A lot of small business owners don’t realize that there is analytics that they should take advantage of by implementing local search improvements for their business.
An important piece of the local reach puzzle is ‘why?’. Here’s the important numbers to know – over four out of five consumers now utilize search engines to find local business information. And, well over 50% of those searches are being done on smartphones. Many of those searches are related to looking up store locations and directions to those stores.
Increase Black Friday Sales with these tips
Check your current search footprint
If you use Google Chrome as your browser, open an ‘Incognito window’. This is a generic way to do searches that are not influenced by your past searches or any information about you. It is kind of a blind test.
Now, do a search related to your products and industry, including your city name. Example: “camera store sacramento”. Do you show up? Is it easy to find your address? Is it easy to find your phone number?
Outdated or inaccurate information can make it really hard for your new potential customers to find you. Make sure that all this information is accurate and easy to find.
Local Search is not just about Google
Local directories are found far and wide across the internet. You need to make sure that your information is available in more places across the internet. Your local profile needs to be found in multiple sites like yp.com, Yahoo, Facebook, Yelp, and others in addition to Google.
You can do this yourself or you can use a ‘listing service’. Listing services can make it easier on you – but I have found that most of them do a mediocre job in representing you. Only you or someone that truly cares about your results, can truly do a great job of getting your information into these listing sites.
When you do your local listing services, you should be prepared to enter a lot of information. Don’t skimp. Have 30+ pictures ready to upload. Have a short version and long version of ‘your story’ for the listing sites that ask for it. Check yourself to make sure you enter your information accurately on every listing service site.
Prepare For Mobile
With nearly 88% of people utilizing their mobile phones for information about local business addresses and directions, make sure your website is ready to be seen on these devices. That’s called ‘mobile responsive’.
Try it. Call up your website on a smartphone and see if you can see your address and phone number easily. Can you click on your phone number and your phone dials it? Can you click on the address and the phone brings it up on a map and offers to guide you there?
Mobile matters. Many people will be sitting in their cars when they try to find and reach you.
Imagine – your website is mobile responsive. Now, add an advertisement to your homepage just for Black Friday. That type of engagement will bring new customers walking through your door!
Engage your new potential customers with great information
It’s time to create a relationship with your potential customers. Let them see that you have character and that you are the kind of business that they will be able to be excited to visit. Talk to potential clients on social media. Learn to use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest to put out quality content and helpful advice.
You don’t have to be a big box store or a mega brand to have a great Black Friday – but you do need to be found and have an engagement plan for your small business. Get ready now for Black Friday success.