When your customers don't know you even exist

My phone battery started failing.

It would lose the first 20% within 30 minutes of unplugging it in the morning, followed by another 40% by noon.

That’s about normal for iPhones as they age but I really didn’t want to buy a new one.

In the past I’ve ordered kits to replace the battery and they aren’t too difficult but there were too many difficult areas on this model.

I considered taking it into an Apple store and have them replace it for me but I’d lose the phone for several days while it was getting repaired.

Instead I had someone come to my house to replace it.

Last week Amazon used its massive personalization engine and sent me an offer to repair my phone in my own home.

No waiting for my phone to get shipping out and returned.

No driving around to find a store with open availability.

I don’t know what powered that recommendation but it was the perfect message at the perfect time.

I was talking to the technician when he mentioned that their company has been repairing smart phones in the home for over 3 years.

That’s surprising because I didn’t even know that was a thing until Amazon told me.

If I knew about it I would have had them come out months ago when the battery first started to fail.

This is why marketing channels are so important.

If you’re in the wrong channel or aren’t visible in it, there are going to be crowds of customers who don’t even know you or your products exist.

They might buy from a competitor.

They might choose to make due with what they have already (like I did).

Or they might give up entirely.

But without getting your store into the right channels, you’re going to lose out on these potential sales.

One great channel that works for most stores is the organic search results.

Everyone is using Google or another search engine to find things online. Not being present in them is just like that technician offering a service for over 3 years before an informed customer hears about it.

One way to help your visibility in Google is with Rich Snippets. They make your existing rankings more valuable by attracting more customers and convincing them to visit your store.

To get Rich Snippets you need structured data. To get structured data you can install JSON-LD for SEO and running in under 5 minutes.