Peak Season 2022: Strategies for success

With Black Friday and Cyber Monday around the corner, the peak season for retailers has started, given that it’s a fact that these dates will bring out the hardcore shoppers. Whether they’re consummate bargain hunters, holiday shoppers on a budget, or just people who love the thrill of the hunt, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the defining events of the season. They’ve grown so big that stores almost cannot afford to not run some sort of special promotion on the day, for risk that they will miss out on a huge chunk of consumer spending.

According to a study conducted by Klaviyo,  Black Friday is going to be huge for European retail this year, even bigger than Boxing Day, with 67% of UK consumers planning to buy something. For retailers, this is an opportunity to engage with customers and end 2022 with a bang.

74% of businesses plan to increase marketing spend, increase product offerings, and do more promotions as a result of inflation. 

But, what does this mean for retailers? That marketing will only get more competitive in the coming months. In order for you to stay ahead of the game, we’ve put together a list of essential local marketing tactics that can be quickly implemented to help give 2022 that last extra boost through improving your search rankings, online traffic, and establishing your business in your local community.

How can you ramp up your local presence?

1 — Make fresh updates to your local listings: Is your business offering special services like delivery or click and collect during the holiday period? Do you have new photos that your customers would love to see? Then make sure your customers know this! Updating your profiles for your retail network will not only bring traffic to your store, but it will help you display better what’s going on in each of your locations. Keep in mind that platforms like Google, Facebook or Bing take the “freshness” of the data into account whilst calculating relevancy and visibility. A bit of shiny new data can only help!

Hospitality brands – take advantage of Localistico’s Google menu feature! Maybe you have a special holiday season set menu, or you want to show potential customers in the local area that you are open for breakfast, lunch and dinner! You can upload your menus in the Localistico platform which will then automatically push out to all your Google profiles – pictures of your tasty dishes included!

2 — Opening hours & special hours: It’s a good idea to confirm your hours for official holidays, even if those hours are the same as your regular hours. This way, you’ll make it clear to customers that your holiday hours are accurate. Failing to update this information can result in a loss of customers. Did you know that 73% of consumers say they lose trust in a company if their listing information is incorrect? Also, if your store is closed on the 25th December, for example, make sure you explicitly add that information. That way you will avoid the typical “hours or services may differ” Google notification that only generates confusion to customers. 

3 — Utilise Google posts: As part of your Google Business Profile, you have the possibility to run posts on your Google profiles when someone finds you in Google search or maps. Google posts act as helpful communication with customers that can let them know about events you’re hosting or sales and offers you are running. They’re short posts (aim for between 150-300 characters,) that include an attention-grabbing picture or video and provide important, timely information to consumers, along with a call to action. Hosting an author signing at one of your bookstores? Offering peak season discounts? Or maybe you’re running a discounted rate on prosecco over the holiday period. If it’s time-sensitive and will attract customers, a Google Post is a must.

And remember, by using Localistico you can launch posts for several locations at once, instead of having to do it manually.

4 — Be on top of your local reputation: This includes Reviews and Q&A. With more customers doing last-minute shopping, it’s important to be on top of their comments, questions and concerns. Plus, as this is the season to be jolly, hopefully good moods mean more great reviews! It’s the perfect timing to connect with your customers, either by addressing their concerns and wishing them a nice holiday or thanking them for whatever they highlighted about your store or service. As discussed in one of our articles, How to Successfully Manage Your Business Reputation, 79% of customers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations and they read an average of 10 reviews before trusting a local business!

Managing your reviews in the Localistico platform couldn’t be simpler! First of all, to help you deliver timely-replies to customers while saving hours of work, you will have the ability to setup automated replies based on the sentiment of the review, whether the review contained text, or based on the keywords present. This way you can customise automated replies and deliver a personalised response to customers.

Analyse your reputation performance with Localistico’s integrated review dashboard, containing all the key metrics, trend graphs and best and worst performing stores. As a plus, in Localistico you have the ability to do some Social Listening with our “keywords topic tagging” so you can analyse what the recurring themes, conversations and concerns are and react quickly.

5 — Boost your local social media: Social media is probably one of the quickest and most efficient ways to connect with customers. But how can you keep your strategy local? Here’s a list of things you can do:

• Set a location to your profile
• Tag the location in each post
• Use local hashtags
• Start conversations that are happening locally
• Share local pictures and videos.
• Create local marketing content to share

Like Google posts, posting on your Facebook and Instagram Page is a way of engaging with your consumers in a way that feels more authentic and targeted than a generic ad. A post on your business’ social pages is a little different though, as it will be targeted towards people who follow you – presumably, existing customers.

As with Google Posts, the best use of a post on Facebook or Instagram is to alert users in a specific area of events, deals, or important news. Since the people seeing your Facebook and Instagram posts have chosen to follow you, they’re the ideal target for these posts: primed to shop with you and just looking for an excuse to do it.

It’s worth noting that all post types can be scheduled in Localistico, ensuring that you can maximise your potential reach. Also, you can create templates that can be automatically shared to your regional or store managers, ensuring that brand messaging across all posts is consistent. 

6 — Keep your Store Pages fresh: If you have already created Local Store Pages in your Store Locator website, we highly encourage you to update them before the peak season starts. Some of the things these pages contain are opening hours, stock availability, promotions, appointment links, and much more. If you have invested in giving customers locally customised content that they are looking for, then make the most of it! Remember that 76% of local searches end in a visit to your store. If you want to learn more about Store Pages, check out this blog post out. 

7 — Launch Hyper localized Ads campaigns: Geo-targeted ads are the present and future of advertising. Ironically, as business has become global, shrewd retailers have gotten even more local. Consumers are bombarded with ads day and night, so the only way to break through the noise is by reaching them with targeted ads that speak to them where they are.

Through Localistico’s Local Ads feature, you can run a single Google Ads sales campaign for multiple stores whilst ensuring consumers see the information that is most relevant to their location. Local/location-targeted advertising allows you to provide the most relevant and specific information to both existing and potential customers, whilst making the most of your budget and improving conversion by reaching only potential customers close to you.

How can we help?

From the Localistico platform, you can update all of your information in bulk in just a few clicks. This will save you a significant amount of time and ensure that you keep the information synchronised across local platforms and in your store pages on the website. We can also help you launch Ad and Post campaigns in bulk for your promotions, whilst collecting all your analytics across channels, making your job simpler and more effective.