Direction of indirect research
In these times of covid crisis, sometimes it’s good to remember that the customer is king. Of course, this is not easy for traders forced to close, but sometimes the survival of the brand and the relationship with customers are at stake.
What multi-point-of-sale retailers have, and e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and bol.com do not, is a point-of-sale network. This is an extremely important asset when we know that the evolution of local research is in the direction of indirect research.
But what are local indirect searches?
They correspond to a search unrelated to the name of a brand and / or its address. For example, I am looking for “Organic bread in Uccle” or “a bakery in Uccle” are indirect searches. On the contrary, if I search “Le Pain Quotidien à Uccle”, I am doing a direct search. “Pain Quotidien” being the name of a business.
Today, in Google My Business, everyone knows that to be successful you have to achieve a ratio of “indirect searches to” direct searches. Amazon and bol.com do not have local outlets, so they are unable to compete with you in this area.
How can retailers benefit from this when points of sale are closed?
Just because your outlets are closed doesn’t mean you can’t use local pages as media. Our advice: activate your pages, publish content, products, menus, posts, and include, as a link, that of your product pages on the e-commerce site.
This will give you visibility in local searches and the ability to do business through your e-commerce site.
What if you are in the hospitality industry?
If you are in the horeca and are closed, unfortunately there is not much you can do. If you are in solidarity with your colleagues, redirect traffic to them via a post for example.
If you are open, animate your page, even more than usual and redirect to your take-out or delivery platform. This will allow you to keep your activity open, empty your stocks and why not make new customers!
Stay safe!
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