WHAT DO YOU LOOK LIKE ONLINE?

Perhaps the most important step in successfully marketing your business is to look at it from your customers’ point of view. Thinking about what they’re searching for and why they’re searching for it will inform the choices you make about marketing, as Philip Montague explains.

PERSPECTIVE MATTERS

The first step is to see your business from the customers’ perspective and make certain you’ve covered the basics when it comes to them getting in touch or finding you easily.

To begin understanding that perspective, imagine for a moment that you’re considering the purchase of a new gun or optic. There’s a tiny adventure that you go on to explore the things you want to buy, and a series of places and people you connect with before you spend the money; the reviews you read, the videos you watch, the people you ask about it and the questions you ask.

This process that you and your customers will go through, often subconsciously, is well understood and at a basic level looks like this:

1 Recognising that you desire a thing

2 Searching for information about that thing

3 Evaluating alternatives to settle on the right thing

4 Purchasing that thing

5 Deciding if you’re satisfied with the thing

Think about how you would search for and understand what you want to buy before you go to buy it. Act this journey out online as though you’re a customer for your own business and you’ll begin to understand what they’re experiencing and what you need to improve.

Your goal is to be available to the customer at each of these stages. Particularly online, as your customer will be exploring their next purchase outside of your operating hours; looking at you on their mobile phone or a computer before they ever step into your gunroom.

GETTING STARTED

Here are my best free steps for creating an online presence that will begin to cover those bases:

“SEARCH FOR YOUR BUSINESS ON A PHONE OR LAPTOP THAT’LL NEVER HAVE LOOKED YOU UP BEFORE. THINGS LIKE GOOGLE WANT TO MAKE IT AS EASY AS POSSIBLE FOR YOU, SO IF YOU’VE LOOKED YOUR OWN BUSINESS UP BEFORE IT ALREADY KNOWS WHAT YOU’RE INTERESTED IN.”

GET A GOOGLE BUSINESS PROFILE

On the internet, visit business.google.com and set up a Google Business Profile. Here you’ll be able to define where you are, when you’re open and how to get in touch. It’s also how Google’s tools find information about your business — Google Maps, for example. My only caution is if you’re home based and you don’t want that location to be online and connected to your firearms business.

MOVE THE GOOGLE MAPS PIN

If you have an entrance that’s not easily found, an address that’s a house name instead of number or you otherwise have people say things like “your postcode didn’t bring me here”, then you need to move the Google Maps pin. You can do this once you’ve set up your Google Business Profile. It’ll make it easy for anyone wanting to visit by putting them precisely where they need to be when they are on the road.

GO TO BUSINESSCONNECT.APPLE.COM

This is where you can set up your business to be seen on Apple Maps and found with Siri. It’s the same kind of process and information as the Google Business Profile but with iPhone representing 45-50% of all mobile phones in the UK, you’re going to want to be here, too. Set your location, opening hours, contact details and an accurate description of your products and services.

ASK SIRI, ALEXA, AND GOOGLE ASSISTANT

Use voice search on your mobile phone or smart speaker to ask questions about your business and the area you’re in. Things like “Siri, get me directions to Barbury Shooting School”, “Siri, are there shooting schools near Swindon?”, “Siri, I want to go shooting near Swindon” or “Siri, can I go clay pigeon shooting in Swindon?” The first two work well for Barbury, the second two point elsewhere. Find the gaps for your business and work on fixing them. This is how more and more people are looking for new products and experiences.

SEARCH FOR YOUR BUSINESS ON A FRIEND’S DEVICE

Search for your business on a phone or laptop that’ll never have looked you up before. Things like Google want to make it as easy as possible for you, so if you’ve looked your own business up before it already knows what you’re interested in. You need to see what a first-time customer will see. Make sure to use Google, YouTube, DuckDuckGo (yes you read that right), and Bing. This is what your customers will see when they look for you with those tools. Then ask, if they look for me, is it easy for them to find me? You can clear your internet browser of any information about your business if you don’t have access to another device to do this.

HAVE FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, LINKEDIN AND YOUTUBE

You don’t need to run social media on multiple platforms, but your customers will search for you on those platforms. Make certain that you at least have a business page or profile on each. Provide your website address, email address, telephone number or a direction to your preferred way to stay in touch. For example, the one social media channel you do use.

If you have any queries please feel to ask me via Instagram @montyshoots or alternatively by emailing monty@mk38.co.uk

MK38 -Software, digital marketing and industry insight for the gun trade. Visit mk38.co.uk