Presence management: the foundation of a successful drive-to-store strategy

1. What is “presence management” and why is it important?

1.1. What is “presence management”?

Presence management refers to all the tools and devices intended to boost the local visibility of a network of points of sale. More concretely, it is a question of managing all the content on the web allowing the point of sale to be referenced, and visible on all digital platforms. It is an approach that allows consumers to find their local stores on search engines, GPS itinerary applications, directories, social networks, etc.

1.2. The objectives of “presence management”

The term presence management is particularly used for networked points of sale since they need to communicate locally, and in a coherent way, in order to boost in-store traffic. Finally, it makes it possible to manage the entire local referencing of each store, in connection with three main objectives:

• Ensure better local visibility

As we know, consumers still go a lot to physical stores, and that’s where they spend the most. But with the rise of digital, the journey is very omnichannel, and customers use the internet a lot before going to the point of sale. SEO is therefore crucial to move stores up in local consumer search results. It should also be noted that presence management saves considerable time when it comes to dealing with different establishments at the same time and standardizing information.

• Provide information to customers

But that’s not all, the consumer is also looking for all kinds of information before moving, and the objective of presence management is therefore to answer the consumer’s questions at any time.

• Harmonize point-of-sale communication

Finally, having consistent, identical, and complete information on the entire network of brands is an added value for brands, and the customer experience will be optimized.

2. Presence management: three key issues

2.1. The customer experience

When consumers search for a local business, they almost always do so online (97%) (Hubspot). Thus, to meet this need, the brand must optimize its local referencing, and the information disseminated via this referencing. In addition, as customers are increasingly demanding, it is important that the brand offers, via its content, total support to the point of sale (updated information, route to the store, etc.)

2.2. Drive-to-store and sales

Presence management is a considerable lever in drive-to-store strategies, which are largely based on the quality of digital content: 76% of Internet users who have carried out a local search go to the desired point of sale during the day. (Google). In addition, presence management has a direct impact on the purchases made. The proof, 28% of local searches are followed by an immediate purchase. (Google).

2.3. Brand image

Beyond the “business” objectives, the brand also has an interest in taking into account the image reflected by its points of sale, on the various platforms used by users. Since consumers are looking a lot “locally”. The share that local platforms represent in the brand image is far from negligible. It is therefore appropriate for brands to master these “bottom of the funnel” levers to the end.

In addition, presence management also includes the management of consumer reviews at local outlets. These opinions have a very strong impact on a brand, and must therefore be monitored and moderated by the brand, which must encourage the sharing of positive opinions on the various platforms.

3. The levers of presence management

3.1. Platforms

Presence management therefore aims to create, nurture and control the referencing of points of sale on all local platforms.

Here is a (non-exhaustive) list of platforms that should be taken into account for optimized local presence management:

GPS platforms:

• TomTom
• Uber
• Google Maps
• Apple Maps
• Waze

Guide, directories, review platforms:

• Foursquare
• TripAdvisor
• Hot frog
• abclocal
• Guidelocal
• Yellbo
• Hood spot
• Nextdoor
• Trustpilot
• Verified reviews

Search engines and assistants:

• Google
• Google assistant
• Siri
• Yandex

Social networks:

• Facebook
• Instagram

3.2. Presence management solutions

A local business can easily manage its presence by referencing platform by platform. In particular, by taking control of your Google My Business account, which already allows you to do the main job, namely to be well referenced in the Google ecosystem. It is also the first step to piloting local SEA campaigns.

However, for a brand network, it is essential to create a centralized system. The information disseminated is generally the same, but the fragmentation of SEO solutions makes the task extremely tedious on a network scale. In addition, it is not only about the setup, but above all about the continuous update. To do this, it is advisable to bet on a complete presence management solution, adapted to the context and the objectives of the brand.