Whenever
an online sales project involving a manufacturer and its sales network
is faced, the main objection is that selling online would take away
space and profits from traditional sales.
Online sales are seen
as an enemy by the distribution network and the manufacturer tends to
mask his intentions because he doesn’t really know what to do.
It
is often the result of a general lack of preparation: online sales are
thought of as the last resort of a situation in which sales are
languishing and it is thought that selling online will improve the
fortunes of businesses.
Or it is believed that there may be
avenues of escape forward, such as making sure that each store in a
chain has its own independent e-commerce, without the brand, defining a
common commercial and marketing policy.
Stores Will Never Die
Already
written, said several times and repeated. If 90% of purchase intentions
start with an online search and 90% of sales take place in traditional
distribution, what should stores be afraid of and how should they gear
up?
● Local businesses just getting started with online
marketing often don’t know the web strategies they need, even if they
know what their business goals are.
● Local businesses that
have experience in online marketing need to keep up with new web tactics
and decide which ones are most effective for their goals.
●
The companies that govern retail chains, affiliated stores, franchises,
must give the most appropriate tools to their retailers to be able to
sell better in their channel, using all the opportunities available
online.
It doesn’t matter where the local stores and businesses are compared to online marketing
and various possible tactics. All companies want to make more traffic,
more sales, more or fewer phone calls (do you know how much you always
sell with the phone?), Fewer dissatisfied customers, more customers who
pay with electronic money. They want to know how customers find them and
they want to know which channels give the best return on investment.
Make Key Decisions
The first part of any successful strategy is deciding the purpose of what you do. This also applies to online marketing.
● Define business goals: Providing information, collecting leads, receiving phone calls, selling products, selling services.
● Target the right customers: What do they need, why do they need it, where, when, and how will they get to the content?
● Decide on technical resources and platforms:
What device or devices will customers use to access information –
desktop, tablet, smartphone, or all three? Do you need a website on
purpose? How is this site created? Can a fan page on Facebook be used as
a website?
● Determine the content of the website:
What are the contents, what contents do you need? Content must meet
the needs of your customers and prospects and help achieve business
goals.
● Develop a plan: How do you plan to spread your content so that you can attract traffic?
● Determine how success is measured: To get ROI (Return on Investment) insights for future you need to find a way to measure it?
Building
an e-commerce site might not even be necessary for a street shop.
Always pay attention to the numbers, because if the goal is to make 10%
of my current turnover, the necessary effort may not be worth it. While
an increase in traffic at the point of sale, also managed online, with
adequate tactics and strategies, would prove to be much more productive
and effective (as well as less expensive).
Crucial Tactics For A Local Business
The
next stage requires the implementation of strategies and tactics, not
all of which are necessary. It depends on the goals of your business,
resources, people, and the ability to effectively execute the tactic.
This is a non-exhaustive list.
● Integrate your online and offline marketing efforts and coordinate a strategy for how you intend to do it.
●
Use of web analytic tools to measure the data, goals, conversions,
and ultimately segmentation, behavior, and attribution. It also applies
to Facebook Insights and data from the correct management of mail
marketing campaigns.
● Create relevant, quality content, in
line with customer needs, and with intentions that are the focus of
specific keywords (those with which people search for your products).
Such content might include images, videos, text, infographics, blog
posts, press releases, etc.
● List contact information on
your sites such as your address and phone number so people will know
where your business is. Also applies to Facebook: if you are a business,
put your phone number !!
● Update profiles on local search directories.
●
Go to local sites and fill out your profile by putting accurate
information. In many cases, you can reply to comments, add images, and
event announcements.
● Always verify that your business name, address, and phone number are consistent across all the platforms.
● To get started you should be listed on Google Places for Business, Bing Business Portal, Foursquare, Yelp
●
Build your presence on social media sites and interact with those
who follow you – Twitter, Facebook, Google, YouTube Channel, and
Pinterest.
● Create short videos, useful videos, optimize them for YouTube, and use them wherever possible.
● Short videos are watched more than long videos unless the content is very engaging.
●
If you have long videos, use a short version to get attention.
Promote videos on social networks and even put a call to action on them.
● Create a mobile-friendly site.
● Use mail
marketing services with MailChimp, eCircle, Mailup, MagNews… The
important thing is to use them wisely and wisely.
● Use pay-per-click even with budget limits for keywords, but use and experiment
● Review the tactics above to determine their effectiveness and improvement and then modify and repeat.
It
is true that the network abolishes borders, but a local approach can be
smarter and more efficient. For local businesses, for street shops, it
is much easier to sell to local customers, win new local customers, and
aim for repeat sales than trying to sell online across borders,
especially since local search, thanks to the smartphone, it exploded.
Nearly
one in two people use their mobile phones to search for local
information, and that’s just the beginning, more is yet to come.
Guest Post by Raunak Pandey
Raunak is a Mechanical Engineer by qualification & Marketer by passion. He is the founder of Maiden Stride,
a leading digital marketing company that provides world-class search
engine marketing services and website & application development. You can also find us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
