The recent global health crisis has seen sea changes across the board, but arguably one of the hardest-hit sectors has been high street retail. Not only did stores have to close at short notice, and for a relatively extended period, but once it became clear that this wasn't just a short, sharp shock, many faced the prospect of pivoting or closing for good.
Each niche within retail had its own set of options, explored in the article "Innovations for retailers to launch in lockdown" on the Business Rescue Expert blog, including click and collect, home delivery services, and even subscription services.
However, this also had a knock-on effect on the existing services: it's easy to see that if a restaurant opens a take-away service next to an existing takeaway, then a certain amount of cannibalization is going to take place.
Similarly, if a retailer starts to offer online shopping and overlaps with existing - sometimes even established - online retailers, then the clicks and mortar store will potentially have to share a certain number of their customers.
Of course, they'll also bring some new ones. Those customers, for example, who don't shop online normally, but who are now being told that for certain items, they can only buy them online, will now have a choice between the bricks and mortar shop they are familiar with, and many others that they are not, and who, perhaps, offer the same, or a similar service.
Enter Google; those of us watching UK television will have seen various celebrities appearing to extol the virtues of Google Local. Besides imploring us to shop locally to help save local businesses, the advert is also aimed at local businesses themselves with the message that by engaging with Google, they can help boost their bottom line.
Google Local Alone Can't Save You
Having a Google Local presence (and keeping it up to date) is only part of the pivot solution.
This will undoubtedly bring you in physical and virtual traffic, but it's not enough for your Facebook Page, web site or LinkedIn Business Profile to score highly in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). Since most people go to a search engine - Google still has the lion's share - as a first stop, it makes sense to have a proper traffic acquisition strategy in place once you've decided to take the plunge.
The Traffic Acquisition blog is an excellent place to start, specifically their How to Get More Traffic 101 post, which is a lengthy read (so grab a beverage and settle in) and literally packed with tips.
The blog deals with three types of traffic:
- organic - typical search engine traffic;
- paid - online adverts and Pay Per Click;
- social - everything via social media, such as Twitter and Facebook.
There's also a separate section on email traffic, which is very useful if you have been gathering people's email addresses (along with their permission to be contacted, with a proper GDPR policy in place) and want to engage with them as part of your retail pivot strategy.
Failing that, your first port of call will be to learn all about SEO and Keyword Research.
Keyword Research and SEO for Online Retail
Competition is pretty fierce in online retail. However, clicks and bricks businesses concentrating on local customers bring something unique to the table: they can serve a local market with the local touch.
Finding out how to tap into that market is made easier by leveraging decent keyword research techniques, but is only valuable if it translates into proper Search Engine Optimisation and engagement.
For some general guidance on SEO for novices, The Keyword Coach offers some great insights and a few cheap, but thorough introductory texts available as ebooks.
The general idea is easy to grasp: since Google sees a lot of the world's internet search traffic, and Alphabet's other money-spinner, AdWords sees much of the online advertising, it is worth their while to deliver tools that help connect people and businesses.
The medium of exchange is the keyword phrase.
Each keyword phrase used by a visitor to Google has a value to someone. That value can be represented as the amount of money that an advertiser is prepared to pay for their advert to be associated with the search term (Sponsored Results), which also reflects the amount of money available in the market.
Combinations of so-called root phrases with long-tail qualifiers are extremely useful in gauging where the market's attention is focused. The excellent KeywordTool.io is a great, free, online utility to expose some of these search terms which can then be analysed using the AdWords Keyword Planner to reveal approximate search volumes and advertising values.
The process is easy enough - type your root phrase into KeywordTool.io, copy the resulting list of long-tail keyword phrases to the clipboard, and then use them in the AdWords Keyword Planner's "Get search volumes and forecasts" tool (via Tools->Keyword Planner in AdWords).
Just make sure that you limit the scope of your research to your precise geographic location, or you'll be looking at data that refers to worldwide customers; desirable, but not usually part of a clicks and mortar pivot strategy!
For a fascinating discussion of the rise of long-tail keywords and online retail choice, I recommend Chris Anderson's "The Longer Long Tail" (disclosure: the link goes to Amazon, where I will earn a small commission should you choose to purchase the book.)
Staying on top of Trends
Another great free service that can be very useful for local keyword research is Google Trends. One of my favourite examples of its use to highlight opportunities for businesses is the "near me" search. For example, here are the trending "near me" searches for the UK, in September 2020:
On the left are the Topics - Plan nursery and Post box - and on the right the actual queries. There are 25 queries, and they can be downloaded by clicking the downwards arrow button, for use in a tool such as the AdWords Keyword Planner to either find related keywords or test the volumes and values for a more precise geographic area.
Notice that I have selected "Rising" in both cases. If you want a less tactical, more strategic view, select "Top" instead:
It's important to remember that these are just starting points and if you really want to take advantage of this technique, you need to dig a little deeper below the surface to get hold of the really useful keywords that will help uncover opportunities are drive traffic.
The Keyword Research Strategy blog offers some great advice on how to use a variety of free services such as Quora, Amazon Alerts and the AdWords Keyword Planner to help react to, and even predict trends.
I'll leave the final word to Sun Tzu. Two quotes come to mind:
- "In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity."
- "Opportunities multiply as they are seized."
Adding some form of online aspect to an existing bricks and mortar business, and becoming part of the clicks and bricks brigade, is an opportunity to build long-term resilience into your business strategy. It's an opportunity that stems from the chaos brought by the health crisis, and those who seize it with both hands will find that their business will be open to more and more down the line.
Keyword research will be one of the keys to unlocking those opportunities. Whether it's finding out what your visitors are looking for by examining Search Console logs, tracking their journey through your site using a tool like StatCounter, or using KeywordTool and Google Trends together to spot new skews or content ideas, keywords are a vital marketing tool that you can't ignore.
To take advantage of Guy's 20 year plus business career, and get valuable advice from a Master of Strategic Management, drop him a line - guy.leckythompson (at) gmail (dot) com - with Keyword Strategy Advice in the subject.
