If you are in the business of fitting or designing new kitchens then you will be aware that, like many other businesses in the UK right now, things have slowed down a lot. What I will talk about briefly in this article is how has the industry been hit in terms of companies online presence.
What you can do at the this time when nothing seems possible for kitchen retailers and how you can take advantage of some of the things happening in the industry currently so you can make sure to secure and increase your current position and keep yourself in the game while everything is slowing down.
What are the analytics saying?
People can’t come into showrooms and kitchens can’t be fitted, so what exactly can the industry to do make sur they are still able to offer their audience something?
The UK has been on lock down for about 5 weeks now, so we have looked through all of our kitchen retailer clients and have a fair amount of data to get an understanding of how exactly the traffic to the site has been affected and how users are nagging with the site once they reach it.
Now this might be a bit similar to another article I wrote about the real estate industry and how exactly they are dealing with the Covid 19 crisis. This is because, this section to do with site engagement, is very similar. After analysing all of our kitchen retailer clients, we noticed the same thing, that there has been a spike (slightly smaller than that of the real estate industry) in average session duration.
Weather your company has seen as spike or not there are very limited things that we can focus on when marketing kitchen retailers at the moment, but one of them is to make sure that your site is engaging as possible and that when you do get the traffic come through to the site that it is as easy for your users to get lost in what you have to show them.
This is key to knowing how you can spend your time to make sure that the users you are receiving get a good, smooth and last impression of your site so that you are at the front of their minds when it comes to thinking of their kitchen.
How can you take advantage?
If you are able to get new pictures and new slides up on your site, do that now. Make sure your gallery is a filled out as possible with the latest trends and designs.
If you are able to offer a virtual or 360 degree tour of one of your showrooms then you are really standing out from the crowd and are offering something new and engaging that you can not only promote on your site and social platforms, but can also use it to maintain your levels of engagements and position as one of the most advanced retailers out there.
Obviously, this isn’t possible for everyone and we have clients here who rent able to do that currently. So, what are you able to do? If you are a local company maybe there is little competition in your area or you aren’t in a major UK city where there are a lot of kitchen retailers, make sure you focus on reaching out to your local communities.
Unlike with estate agents, people are willing to travel a lot further to find the kitchen of their dreams and it is not unheard of for a client in Essex to go to reach out to a company in dipswitch say to get their ideal kitchen fitted.
Local SEO for kitchen retailers
Focus on your local SEO and offering a relationship with local communities. This should be a crucial part of your marketing plan anyway but while there’s less time being spent in the offices and showrooms make extra effort to grow your brand presence in local areas.
Build new pages to target them and reach out to them via brand awareness campaign’s on google AdWords and social platforms. Even if it is a message of reassurance or what your company can offer during these times.
The UK’s biggest kitchen retailer When are experiencing a bit of a nightmare when it comes to their PR and marketing. They have been critiqued online for on all their social media platforms for continuing to deliver and install kitchens and have came back with this response. It is important to not make these mistakes and to stay on top of your brand image during these times.
However, this can be a great opportunity for smaller businesses. For our clients, we continue to focus our efforts on our brand awareness, as a strong member of the community and also focus on our local SEO since it is important as ever to stay on top.
When the big companies are facing ridicule, their audience will only look toward more local and friendly companies that show a good level of outward communication. Don’t just disappear during these times, really make an effort to push your brand out there as a company that can be realiaed upon.
I hope this short article has given some light to as what efforts can be made by kitchen retailers in the UK to carry on mainting a strong brand image while still further their efforts to dominate local search results. Stay safe and if you have any questions about how you can take advantage of this time then feel free to drop us an email today.
