Local search provides the easiest way of communicating store information, location, phone number and opening hours. Most brands have a lack of ownership of this channel (read more on this here): when DAC raise awareness that a company’s information, displayed on Google et al, does not match the brand’s website, brand’s acknowledge it’s far from ideal, and then very quickly follow up with questioning how fixing this will impact ROI. This should not be the motivating factor – as digital advertising is so measurable and accountable, digital teams are ignoring the basics and need to ask the following questions:
- Is it acceptable for opening hours to be wrong within the Google local pack?
- Is it acceptable for a potential customer to visit a store to find it’s closed?
- Is it acceptable for a potential customer to not be able to find the store because the pin placement is incorrect?
- Would you have wrong opening hours on your front door?
- Would you show an open sign visible when the store is closed?
Ask anyone these questions and the answer is simple–“Of course it isn’t OK.” Ask anyone at C-suite level and the answer is… “Of course it isn’t OK. Who’s responsible for this? And make sure it’s fixed.” However, drill down to the digital teams on the front line and you’ll find that they are so heavily focused on ROI and results, that requesting budget for digital activity that is not directly responsible for e-commerce ROI is out of the question. Is the ROI challenge suffocating and preventing digital teams from thinking holistically about the greater good of the business? Brands must realise that there’s more to digital channels than pure ROI. This would change the mind set and allow their teams to think openly about all opportunities available.While brands are comfortable allocating budget to ATL channels that can’t be tracked, as soon as a channel is digital there must be a ROI. If you want to check if all your business listings are accurate, get in touch with DAC London for free audit.
