In order to create a positive local experience at every touchpoint, it is important to meet customers in their decision-making moments. Often, the first time they interact with your brand is when they find it in search results.

When we think of search results, we usually associate them with the content we find on Google searches, but it’s important to consider other popular search platforms as well. For example, the default mapping application on every Mac and iPhone device is Apple Maps. In turn, Apple users often use Apple Maps to find businesses near them.

Additionally, iOS has taken over 55% of the US operating system market in January 2023, and our investigations have recently revealed that 84% of US consumers use Apple Maps to search for business information. There’s no question—Apple is an essential piece of the local marketing puzzle for multi-location brands.

Apple Showcases are a unique opportunity to increase your brand’s visibility and be found in search results on Apple devices. They’re also a great way to promote your products, sales, and services on your place card. If your company isn’t currently using Showcases, now is the time to start.

In this post, you’ll learn how to use showcases to increase engagement, drive more conversions, and strengthen your brand presence. We also answer frequently asked questions about showcases. Let’s start by defining what exactly an Apple Showcase is.

What is an Apple Showcase?

A showcase is a place card module and promotional post that businesses can use through Apple Business Connect to highlight and promote timely, relevant offers and other content that can help attract and convert local searchers.

How will Apple Showcases benefit my business?

Accordingly Apple“Showcases are designed to highlight something new for each location to keep your business coming back.”

Here are some other benefits for your business:

• Showcases provide a platform for presenting relevant and time-sensitive content that builds urgency and increases engagement with your audience.
• Brands can use showcases to highlight offers, special offers, new items, and other promotional content.
• Showcases feature a call-to-action to seamlessly convert searchers into buyers or store visitors.
• Businesses can plan a showcase in advance to ensure searchers can always consider current, relevant offers.
• Showcases add rich, visually interesting content to place cards that help capture seekers’ attention and move them to action.
• By presenting a topical showcase with a strong call-to-action (CTA), e.g. For example, by highlighting a seasonal or trending product, you can influence customer decision-making and potentially increase website visits and store traffic.
• A showcase adds visual content to your place cards that grabs attention and helps them stand out from your competitors’ place cards.

Home Depot display case

How can I start adding a showcase?

The first step is to set up and verify each location. For corporate organizations with 25+ locations and a current Rio SEO client, you can delegate this task to our team.

Rio SEO is a Third Party Partners of the Apple Business Connect API, a designation that allows us to greatly streamline the management of your local listings. Our integration with Business Connect allows us to publish important business information, updates and showcases directly to your brand’s place cards across the Apple ecosystem, including Maps, Siri, Wallet, Safari and more.

Learn how to set up a corporate account with Business Connect and delegate access to a third-party partner Here. Once your locations are verified, Rio SEO keeps all your place cards up to date and can plan and publish showcases on your behalf.

What are the specifications for an Apple Showcase?

So what’s in a display case and how do they appear on a place card? Let’s take a look.

It’s important to keep these specifications in mind as your digital marketing team strategizes and creates content for this advertising space.

headers

The headline or showcase title is limited to 38 characters. So make good use of this space by writing persuasive texts and a clear offer. Please note that headers cannot contain URLs or numbers.

Body

The main description in each showcase must be less than 58 characters and cannot contain any symbols or special characters. Be as descriptive and concise as possible here to entice searchers to convert and move on to the next step.

Picture

Showcase images should have an aspect ratio of 1:1 and be between 492 x 492 and 4864 x 4864 pixels in size. Everyone has to stick to it Apple’s photo and text standards and guidelines. Presentation images should not contain any text and should be directly related to the accompanying title and body text.

action

As the name suggests, these are calls to action that you can add to the showcase to move customers to the next step. Preset actions include Website, Call Now, Get Directions, Add Photos, Add to Favorites, Add to Guidebook, Rate, Save as Contact, and Share this location “. Corporate brands with more than 25 Business Connect entries can have one developer Create custom actions to promote different conversion experiences.

start and end date

Choose a start and end date for each showcase or let it expire automatically after 30 days. Businesses can only display one showcase for each listing and the dates cannot overlap. It takes Apple up to three days to review the content of each showcase. So take this into account when planning and scheduling.

Tips for improving the local customer experience with Apple Showcases

As a prominent, highly visible feature in search listings on iOS devices, showcases are a great way to engage and engage with customers.

Here are some ways you can make the most of this innovative content format:

• Focus on adding value instead of selling.
• Create offers that meet a need and highlight user benefits in showcase content.
• Use professional, high-quality photos that accurately represent the location, product/service, or other topic to really make content stand out on Apple Maps and other listings.
• Ensure a seamless experience when creating custom promotions (available for corporate brands only) by pre-populating location and promotion information.
• When using the website action in a showcase, ensure that the customer can perform the specified action on the landing page without navigating further into the website.
• Also, make sure the customer can complete the call-to-action without signing up for an account or doing other tasks that will stop the conversion.
• When developing custom actions for showcases, incorporate inclusive design elements like voiceover or large text size to provide a seamless customer experience for everyone. For more information on accessibility, see the Apple Developer website Here.
• Remove showcases immediately when the content is outdated or no longer actionable. For example, if the product is sold out and an offer is no longer available or the stated shipping conditions cannot be met.
• Avoid using URL redirects in Showcase Actions. Customers should land on the same page they thought they were navigating to.
• Benefit from having your third-party partner publish targeted showcases in select markets to personalize and customize offerings for those customers.

For more information on how to get the most out of Apple Showcases and Apple Business Connect in general, download a copy of our free Get started with Apple Business Connect for corporate brands.