Need a New Vending Website? How to Know When It’s Time.
Emily / November 9, 2022
A new vending website can set your breakroom business up for sales success in a digital world that is crowded with competitors. Your website is a salesperson that works 24/7 and its sales pitch needs to be great. If your current vending website is not relevant, easy to read, and showcasing the best of your vending services, then it’s time for a whole new look.
Beyond that, there are three tell-tale signs that it’s time for a new website. They relate to performance indicators that impact how prospects will find your website and how long they’ll stay engaged. Read on for three questions to ask yourself to assess if your current website is performing at its best.
Is it easy to navigate?
A beautiful, well-designed website is a must. Not just the homepage either. 47% of users visit a vending website’s products or services page first, according to Zippia research. Therefore, it’s critical to ensure easy-to-access navigation with logical headings. The most important of these is the Contact Us page. Why? Because it’s crucial that potential customers can easily reach out to your business. Zippia also reports that 44% of users leave a site without contact information. Don’t let this happen to you.
While high-quality images are essential, large image files can slow a website down. This frustrates users and leads nearly 40% of people to stop engaging, says Webfx. In fact, lead conversion drops up to 20% for each second your site takes to load. Take a look at whether your website’s pages are optimized. They should provide a high-quality user experience with fast load speeds.
Is it ranking high on search engines?
Is your website traffic low? According to Fit Small Business, this is a problem for one in five businesses. A possible reason for low traffic is poor search engine optimization (SEO). Poor SEO affects your website’s rankings when breakroom decision-makers search for the services you provide. Check your search engine ranking by typing in a city in your service area along with the type of services you offer; like vending, office coffee, or micro-markets. Does your vending website appear? If you aren’t a top result, you’re SEO could be the problem.
A new vending website with proper SEO can move your business up the ranks. This is good news. It ensures your vending company will be seen by new customers looking for breakroom services in your area.
Is it mobile-responsive?
More people are using mobile devices to access the internet than ever. A Google Marketing Forum compared mobile vs. desktop viewing and found that shoppers access websites through their mobile devices much more often than through their desktop. Despite this, converting a customer via their mobile device is less than half as likely. Why do far fewer people take the extra step to contact a company through their mobile devices? Because many websites don’t load properly on mobile devices and it’s more difficult to keep a potential customer engaged. Zippia says up to 80% of consumers will leave a site that doesn’t display correctly on their mobile device. And, 57% won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed mobile website either.
Check out your current website on a mobile device. Does it provide the type of user experience that will turn visitors into leads? If not, it might be time for a new vending website that is mobile-responsive.
What to do if it’s time…
If your current vending website’s look and performance are not helping your sales, explore your options. Investigate a simple refresh of your existing site and compare it to starting from scratch. VendCentral can advise you on the best route to take for a website that attracts leads and helps drive sales for your business. For more information, reach out to info@vendcentral.com or (866) 699-8363.
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How Blogs Create a Deeper Connection with Customers
Jen / April 14, 2022
Operators and manufacturers are using blogs more and more to connect with customers, display their expertise, promote their breakroom products & equipment, and generate leads.
There are many ways to keep blogs engaging for breakroom customers. But what types of content work well in a blog? Read on to discover ideas for incorporating interesting and relevant blog content into your digital strategy. And stay tuned until the end to learn one of the biggest benefits of creating blogs.
Answer FAQ’s
It is easy for breakroom operators to identify frequently asked questions when servicing their clients. Write blogs that can be used as a customer service tool for answering them. Consider sending these blog articles to your clients proactively to show you are in tune with their needs and have resources to help them.
Promote New Products & Brands
Use blogs to let your clients know you are working hard to keep your snack, beverage, and fresh food assortments new and exciting. Blog articles are an interesting way to explore new flavors, brands, and seasonal items.
Explore Breakroom Trends
The refreshment services industry is constantly evolving and there are always new ideas to share. Blogs that identify and elaborate on breakroom trends are a valuable tool for your clients. They can also create opportunities for breakroom service and equipment upgrades.
Equipment Information
Breakroom equipment is constantly innovating. Write blogs that provide information on your most popular breakroom equipment – especially gourmet coffee brewers. These articles can help your clients maximize the use of their equipment and be helpful for troubleshooting problems too.
Industry expertise
Use blog articles as an outlet for demonstrating your industry knowledge. It will show you stay on top of what is happening in the industry and reinforce your company as a leader in refreshment services.
Build Trust
Blogs are a great way to establish a deeper connection with your clients, build trust, and enhance your company’s brand image. Use these articles to get a little personal. Share your company’s values, highlight outstanding employees, or explain what you are doing to contribute to your community.
There are so many ways blogs can be useful for your breakroom customers. The added benefit? Blogs are one of the best ways to attract new customers and generate leads for your website. Blogs are often rich in industry keywords, improving your company’s SEO and search engine ranking.
Blog articles published to your company’s website remain online far longer than any social media post. This means its content will continue to be helpful to your existing clients and effective in driving new website traffic for years to come.
VendCentral specializes in creating thoughtful and impactful digital marketing content for the refreshment services industry. If you would like to learn more about our marketing programs visit our website or call us at (866)699-8363
Breakroom Operators: Let’s Improve Your Organic Search Results
Jen / March 31, 2022
Organic search is a top way for buyers to discover a breakroom operator’s products and services. It also allows them to understand who you are as a business, where you operate, and what current customers are saying about you. Your company’s organic search results cannot be improved through paid advertising. Instead, achieving top ranking on search engines is the result of knowing how breakroom buyers shop online and how to influence your SEO.
Keep reading to learn the tactics breakroom operators can implement to improve their organic search ranking and get their business, products, and services noticed online.
What is Organic Search?
When a buyer enters a keyword or query into a search engine, the results they see are a combination of paid and organic search results. After advertisements, organic search results are ranked in priority order. If your website is fully optimized with industry-related keywords and content, it helps your SEO and allows your business to achieve higher rankings, gain organic traffic, and generate leads. Breakroom operators with high organic search rankings have a better likelihood of buyers of breakroom services finding their website.
Compared to paid advertisements, organic search rankings cannot be bought. They are determined by the quality and quantity of your company’s online marketing content.
But what types of content benefit your SEO and what can you do to improve your company’s organic search rankings?
A smart website
Your website is the #1 tool to represent your company’s services online, generate leads, and close sales. Your website should host a wealth of content to support and promote all aspects of your breakroom services, including pantry service, micro-markets, vending, and office coffee. But your website’s design and its content not only affect the user experience, it also impacts your organic search rankings. That is why it is important for breakroom operators to create an SEO-focused website that ‘speaks the same language’ your buyers do. A website with content that is rich in industry-related keywords and phrases specific to the refreshment services industry will make it easier for search engines to match your website with buyers searching for breakroom services.
Informative blog articles
Blogs are a great way to elaborate on topics of interest as well as highlight current breakroom trends. Plus, blogs boost SEO by positioning your website as a source for relevant answers to prospective buyers’ questions. Blog posts that use a variety of keywords and on-page SEO tactics are recognized as more relevant and can give your business more opportunities to rank higher in search engines. Another benefit? Blogs help your business gain industry authority and trust with breakroom customers.
Social Media Content
Posting regular content to your social media platforms helps your company stay top of mind with existing customers and potential buyers of breakroom services. In addition, having a social media presence helps increase your online visibility and supports SEO efforts to drive traffic to your website. Create posts with inbound links to your website and encourage those that engage with your content to click through. This will increase your site’s popularity and credibility for organic search. Posts that tag relevant fellow businesses or clients will increase their exposure – and so will the likes they receive. The more eyes on your content the better. You may even notice your social media profiles showing up near the top of online searches as well.
Online Business Listings
Finally, online business listings are important for SEO because they provide valuable information at a quick glance. Not only do they increase your visibility in local search, but they also increase your chances of ranking higher than competitors. Your business listing also provides a place for existing customers to review your breakroom business and drive more traffic to your website.
Managing your online content to maximize SEO will help ensure your company ranks high in organic search and new leads discover your website. Prospective buyers are looking online for breakroom solutions every day. When your website is optimized, potential customers have an easier time finding the breakroom refreshment products and services you offer and reaching out to you first.
If you’re a breakroom operator looking to improve your online presence and SEO, contact VendCentral. We are 100% focused on the refreshment services industry and develop results-oriented online marketing strategies for breakroom operators.
A healthy website is a cornerstone of business success. More consumers are opting to shop online rather than in-store, so a robust digital presence is more essential than ever before. In fact, it takes a user about 0.05 seconds to decide if they’re going to continue exploring your website or jump ship. That means if your site is outdated, unattractive, or tough to navigate, you’ve just lost a potential customer in less than one second.
Just like regularly maintaining your health is necessary for a thriving body, continual updates and enhancements are key to an optimized website. Your site is a living, breathing mechanism that need to be reviewed, updated, and maintained regularly.
If your website has been collecting dust, the beginning of the year is the perfect time to take a deeper look and reassess the health of your company website.
The Importance of a Healthy Website
Your business website is your brand’s piece of digital real estate on the internet. You wouldn’t walk into a dilapidated storefront expecting five-star service, would you? The same thing applies to online shoppers. If your website is poorly designed, consumers will surely look elsewhere.
While 38% of people will immediately stop engaging with a site if the content or layout is unappealing, 88% of consumers are less likely to return to a website after a bad experience. That’s a significant number! If your website crashes, hasn’t been redesigned since 2009, or is stuffed with irrelevant information, it will cost you valuable leads.
A website health check is a valuable way to identify how to optimize your online presence, generate leads, and boost revenues.
Your Complete Website Health Checklist
When conducting a health check of your website, be sure to ask yourself the following questions:
1. Is my website user-centric?
A high-performing website is all about the user experience (UX). To be successful, your site must be visually appealing, easy to navigate, and provide immediate value to the customer. It’s important to keep in mind that every visitor who comes to your website has a problem to solve. Whether they want to buy a new sweater or find a new vending machine for their office break room, they have a problem. Your website’s goal is to help them solve that problem as quickly as possible.
A site that is visually appealing and clearly laid out will intuitively guide a visitor from one step to the next.
2. Does it have clear branding and effectively represent who I am as a company?
Your site is a digital representation of your brand. When a user lands on your website, they should immediately know what products or services you offer, what pain points you solve, and what your brand’s personality is like. Branding can effectively be conveyed through engaging copy, color palettes, and imagery.
3. Is it updated and fresh?
Websites that are outdated or include irrelevant information will negatively impact your marketing efforts. Ensure that your company site highlights your latest products and services and highlights pertinent information.
4. Is it mobile responsive?
Consumers engage with their smartphones for an average of 2 hours and 55 minutes on a daily basis. If your website isn’t mobile friendly, you could be losing potential customers. Your site needs to quickly load, be easy to scan on a smartphone, and provide a seamless experience across all devices.
5. Is it optimized to ensure your website ranks high on search?
Search Engine Optimization is crucial when it comes to your website because it makes it more visible, and that means more traffic and more opportunities to convert prospects into customers. It’s also a valuable tool for brand awareness, building relationships with prospects, and positioning yourself as an authoritative and trustworthy expert in your industry.
6. Is it accessible to all users and ADA compliant?
To be successful, a website must be inclusive. This means that its content is accessible to all users, regardless of physical or situational disabilities. It isn’t just good business practice; web accessibility legislation is continuing to evolve. Making your site more compliant with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) could reduce your exposure to hefty fines.
The Reality
Your website can make or break your business. Regular site health checks, now and throughout the year, ensure that your website is user-friendly, updated, and inclusive.
To learn how VendCentral’s marketing solutions can benefit your website, contact us today by calling (866) 699-8363.