Communicate‌ ‌tu‌ ‌business‌ ‌a‌ ‌los‌ ‌clientes‌ ‌que‌ ‌are‌ near‌

Almost all regions of the world have seen a change in the way businesses operate, due to the isolation measures caused by COVID-19. While each region is taking different measures to counter the spread of the virus, many companies are already reopening their doors, while others still have limited operations due to local ordinances. 

This is how many consumers are looking attentively which nearby businesses are open, what their security measures are and what is their available inventory. For example searches for “open clothing stores” increased by 900% from last year and searches for “open restaurants” increased by 1000% year-on-year. Similarly, searches for “open restaurants with home delivery” and “restaurants with pick-up service in a nearby area” increased.

 Source: Google global data, March 25 to May 23, 2020 compared to the same period in 2019.

 Source: Google global data, March 11 to May 9, 2020 compared to the same period in 2019.

While the digital upgrade process can be complex for many companies, considering that many have had to downsize, there are several ways to take advantage of Google's automated solutions, especially if you have a local business that is open.

• Allow your customers to plan their next visit to your business.

Google local campaigns are used to get more physical visits to your business, so they are an excellent tool to communicate with your closest audience. This is very important when you decide to open the doors of your business, so I recommend that you create advertisements whose information offers opening hours and safety and hygiene measures when receiving your customers. You can also highlight aspects of your available product inventory, if you offer "contactless purchase" and special promotions. I recommend that in the event that you have several stores, you have updated the information that corresponds to each one. 

With local campaigns, in addition to generating visits to your physical store, you can create objectives such as generating clicks on the "call" button or obtain "How to get" directions to your store. When creating your Google for local business campaign, you only need to provide your business location, campaign budget, and creative resources. 

Once your campaign has started, you can easily update the goals you initially set, based on changes in the market and local conditions. Remember that user information is private, so your ads cannot be specifically linked to specific people.

• Communicate your inventory so users know you have what they are looking for. 

Because the pandemic has caused most people to buy online, product shipping times have become very important. This is how making a purchase in a nearby business may be the best option. That is why I recommend that you inform your customers if you offer purchases with local withdrawal since that is a differential compared to the delivery times of the large online distributors. To communicate this, you can also use local inventory ads, where you can alert your audience if you offer contactless sales. 

If you have a store, you can use local inventory ads with Pointy, Google's tool that allows local users to see what items are available in nearby stores. To start you just have to define a daily budget and the radius in which you want your ad to be displayed. 

I recommend that you transmit this digital update as soon as possible so that you can offer the best tools to your customers when buying your products. Send me your message if you want to know more about how to get the most out of your business in the digital world.