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Written by Katie Waxman on May 14, 2024

Your vending company’s social media presence has never been more important. It can build brand awareness, reach new audiences, and help your company stay top-of-mind with existing customers. It promotes your vending services, products, and overall brand.

Businesses that maintain a strategic social media presence often have a competitive edge.

But, where does your personal social media account fit in?  And how can you use it to promote your vending brand?

Your personal social media accounts can play a large role in growing your brand – especially if you are an entrepreneur or thought leader in the vending industry.  Your personal social media platform can humanize your business and build genuine relationships with your audience.  It can also help differentiate you from competitors.

Here’s how to use your personal social media platform to promote your vending business:

Integrate your business and personal brand

Incorporate your vending company’s logo, services, and story into your personal profile.  Use your platform to showcase your experience and insight into the vending industry. A behind-the-scenes look into your company will help your audience connect with your brand. If you have a great entrepreneurial story behind your business, don’t be shy about sharing it!

Leverage your network

Your personal network is made up of some of your biggest cheerleaders.  Share your company’s posts to make them aware of the great things your business is doing. Add your own insights to create even more impact. Your network’s likes and comments will help further promote your brand.

Be sure to also watch what industry experts and colleagues are posting about.  Commenting on their posts will display your knowledge and interest in vending services and further promote your business.

Showcase your company culture

We know you are passionate about your business and its success, so let it show! Use your personal platform to give special thanks to hard-working employees and showcase what they are doing to make a difference. If members of your team are giving back to their local community, shine a light on their service to others.  These posts will show your audience that you are a great company to work with AND work for.

A well-managed company social media presence is essential. But, by thoughtfully integrating your business into your personal social media platforms, you can create a powerful, social selling strategy to promote your vending brand.

VendCentral specializes in social media content creation for companies in the vending industry.  Contact us to learn more about our services and how we can help grow your business.

Written by Katie Waxman on February 20, 2024

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a term you’ve likely heard before. It can be quite helpful to vending businesses looking to grow their client base as it gets their name higher on internet search results. Local SEO is a more specific type of SEO. It lets a company boost its ranking in a specific geographical area. Vending companies that maximize local SEO stand a better chance of attracting the right local audience. This can ultimately lead to new clients and more sales.

How does local SEO work? Keep reading to find out the ins and outs of local SEO as well as how you can enhance yours.

Local SEO is Vital to Break Room Service Providers

Vending, micro-market, and office coffee service providers often cater to specific service areas. Therefore, they want to focus on SEO results for those geographic locations. This is where local SEO comes in. Tailoring your online content to maximize keywords that are hyper-focused on city names, local area nicknames, and other local jargon will help improve your local SEO.

While local keywords have always been important for vending website SEO, there is even more urgency now. Google reports that more people are using keywords like “near me” than ever before. In two years, that query has risen 200%. If your local SEO isn’t optimized, you could be missing out.

4 Tips to Improve Local SEO

1. Include Your Address

There are several ways to optimize your website for local search. The first is to include your address. Search engines use this to decide if you are “near” someone using the search term “near me.”

Some operators don’t want to include their company’s physical address for personal or privacy reasons. But the benefits outweigh the risk of a client dropping by. Besides, having an address makes your company look more professional and trustworthy.

2. Pair City Names and Services

A second way to boost local SEO is to use local keywords in your website text. This means including city names as often as logical. Be careful not to over-stuff your site.  This could actually have a negative effect and lower your ranking. The rule of thumb is if the text reads well, you should be okay with the number of keywords.

Tip: It’s best to pair local keywords with the names of services your customers are searching for. For example, write about your reliable “CITY vending machines” to help connect your company with those searching for vending machines in your “CITY”.

3. Add Local SEO to Blogs

Third, write blogs and publish them on your social media platforms. Blogs are a great way to add content that is recognized by search engines. Highlighting local search terms throughout your blogs will boost your rankings for these keywords.

Be sure your blog includes backlinks to your website too. When readers click on your blog’s backlinks they will go directly to your website and discover more relevant content for their local area.

4. Consider Multiple, Local Landing Pages

Finally, get in the mind of someone searching for your services. If they want vending in a certain city and click through to your website, will they see that city named? Will there at least be a nearby city or region that tells them you service their area? This is what the user expects.

Some vending operators have multiple locations that aren’t close to each other. In this case, the operator might want to have a different website landing page for each location. That way, each page can contain words with a local focus that makes sense to the person searching. You’ll get a better sales lead this way, too.

Don’t Forget a Google Business Listing

A Google Business Listing will benefit your local SEO. How? Google Business Listings display prominently on Google search.  Plus, Google uses it to understand where your company is located. This allows it to show your company in a list of appropriate results for a “near me” or “city” search.

Ensure your Google Business Listing is complete and promotes your company and its services. It should contain a clear description of your offerings. Be sure the hours of operation and physical address of your workplace are current. Remember, your address also boosts your local SEO. You will also want to include photos of your services and company in your listing. This will help you make a personal connection and seem more attractive to someone searching for your services.

Tip: Encourage your local customers to provide reviews on your Google Business Listing. This validates your services in the eyes of potential clients. And be sure to respond to the reviews. This will show your company cares about providing great customer service and values customer feedback.

Optimize Your Website with More Local SEO Keywords

Strong local SEO is vital to vending companies. Utilizing keywords that reflect the city and regions you service, including your address on your website, and optimizing your Googe Business Listing will help you attract the right clients in the right service areas. Simply put, it will make your business easier to find when a client types in “vending near me.”

For more information about vending marketing, reach out to VendCentral. We offer digital sales and marketing services and specialize in top-notch local SEO for vending operators.

Written by Katie Waxman on March 9, 2023

Running a vending contest or promotion for your vending customers offers many benefits. Both can boost excitement about your services as well as build loyalty to your brand. In addition, using social media for your promotional efforts can enhance engagement and gain you followers.

Read on for a look at how vending contests and promotions can increase your vending sales.

Add Excitement

One reason to run a vending business promotion or contest is to create excitement. Why does it work? Because people love a chance to win. That means they will want to enter a drawing or buy a certain product to get a discount. It gets people excited to use your services and enjoy the products you’re offering. That drives up sales at your machines and markets.

Build Loyalty

People are looking for connections and brands to follow. In fact, a survey by Merkle in 2021, showed that over 80% of consumers want to form a relationship with a brand. And, these customers are willing to go out of their way to buy from brands they are loyal to. Promotions and contests give your customers something to be excited about. They can connect to you through a contest or promotion and ultimately become loyal customers.

Increase Engagement

Online contests and promotions that use social media are great ways to engage your customers. Social media makes it easy to post about promotions and contests. It’s also easy for your audience to react. They can follow a link to a contest page or post their thoughts on it instantly. Doing so shows that they want to engage with your vending company. And an engaged customer spends more and is more loyal.

Grow Your Following

Having followers on your social media strengthens your vending marketing efforts. It means more people will see your brand and messaging. This includes facility managers and human resource professionals.

Hosting online contests and promotions is a tried and true way to get more followers. People want more opportunities to play and win. Therefore, they will like and follow your company to get them. Plus, they are likely to share the contest or promotions with their social media connections. Who might then also become your followers. It’s a great way to get leads and grow awareness of your vending operation.

Give promotions and contests a try. There’s little risk and lots of rewards. You gain exposure, followers, loyalty, increased sales, and leads.

Struggling with time and resources to make vending contests a reality? VendCentral can help. We help vending operators increase sales with successful branding, marketing, and sales strategies. Contact us at info@vendcentral.com or (866) 699-8363.