21 December 2023
Let’s start with the obvious: SEO is a powerful tool that allows a business to gain traction with customers via organic traffic. What is less well understood is the multiple varieties of SEO and how each help a brand reach customers who are looking for specific products and/or services. Take local SEO, for example, we know that the intent behind the bulk of business-related searches is local, with most containing a variant of the ‘near me’ phrase. That alone makes it pretty clear that every business should invest in tools and techniques that get them to rank at the top of local search results.
You could easily spend hours of your time on this process, and that’s just for one directory. And if you have to do it for multiple franchise sites, it gets even more difficult.
What’s the solution?
One word: YEXT.
YEXT is a software tool designed to manage a business’s location-related information on a host of directory websites across the web. Known simply as an aggregator. Apart from its ability to monitor what your consumers are saying about you in real time, it also allows you to adjust or recommend operational changes based on said insights. For small businesses with just a handful of locations that aren’t going to be moving any time soon, YEXT is all but useless. But for large franchises such as Steers that need to manage hundreds of locations that may move, open, or close regularly, YEXT is the perfect tool.
How do we use it?
Gone are the days when casting your net as wide as possible yielded the best results. When consumers search for products, services, or businesses; they want results that are at arm’s length. Even when the phrase ‘near me’ is absent from a search, users want Google to use their location to determine the search results it sends them. According to Google, these searchers have grown by 150%.
Numbers don’t lie
From a resource perspective, it would be far too time-consuming to update each restaurant page individually. This is precisely why Famous Brands outsourced the responsibility of updating these pages to us. That’s all well and good, but what are the results?
Digital presence (since we started using YEXT):
2 577 individual locations
196 513 location fields
718 703 location changes
77 071 touchpoints throughout the digital ecosystem
Calls to action recorded (since we started using YEXT):
7 430 917 phone calls
2 921 313 driving directions calls to action
1 623 939 clicks to the websites
Parting note
The spray and pray approach to marketing is slowly but surely being relegated to the rubbish bin of history. Hyperlocal digital marketing isn’t an act of sabotaging: it’s an effective way to target prospective customers right where they are – at home, at the office, or the store around the corner. Why are we obsessed with communities? Because experience has taught us that catering to an individual’s needs (right down to minute details like their location) works better than trying to be all things to everyone.
