Google My Business is an incredible marketing tool for a local service-based business which will SKY ROCKET your revenue when leveraged strategically.
It makes me so sad that so few businesses use it well, especially given the fact it is a completely free tool.
Another reason why I love this marketing tool so much is it can be used for both sides of the marketing strategy focus. It is a great tool for a long term marketing strategy but at the same time can bring short term rewards like more traffic to your website and calls to your business.
When your customers go to look for your business online either to get directions or for other information your Google Business Places is the first thing they see.
They see reviews about your business and how you talk to your customers. That’s why it’s a good idea to ask all your customers to give you reviews and also respond every time they leave one for you.
Additionally, did you know your Google Business Place could give you a huge Internet ranking boost?
When people go to the Internet and conduct a search Google Business Pages take up a large portion of the landscape.
If your page is completely populated meaning all sections are filled out and optimized AND you get great reviews yours can rank above your competitors!
A greatly optimized Google Business page with a ton of good reviews has 2 major benefits to your local marketing strategy:
- It helps you to rank higher in organic search results.
- It shows people who find your business online how well you conduct your business. Remember the rule, a one-star increase in a business rating can equate to a 5% to 9% revenue increase! (And I have SEEN these results happen – it is REAL!)
Google Business Places – A Client Case Study
This is a client of mine who owns a handyman service in Alpharetta Ga. I also want to add that he is located in the Atlanta area, which is very competitive for his niche. He has handyman businesses all around him! So how do we get more exposure in a very crowded environment?
We outsmart them. Truthfully, it isn’t that hard. Most businesses are very lazy when it comes to their marketing efforts. They aren’t consistent and this is how we go in and beat them!
Referencing the graphic above, when I first started working with this client you had to click more places in order to see his. As you can see now he is at the top of the heap and this alone increased his revenue by over $200K last year.
Here is another huge factor: Due to the fact that our organic reach is so strong we were able to scale back on our Google Adwords. Last year we spent only $6K in Google Adwords and still brought in a ton of revenue leveraging the Internet.
The additional revenue was gained merely as a result of consistent growth of reviews. Those reviews made his Google Business Place rank 1st in the search, this grew his visibility, ranking and CLICKS. Those clicks turned into customers!
If you haven’t, claimed your Google Business Page look for yours and claim it today! It’s critical to your local marketing strategy!
Additionally make sure you don’t have multiple business places and if you do delete the duplicate(s) immediately as this will be counter productive to your efforts.
Populate your Google Business page until it reaches 100%.
Here are your action steps:
- Make sure that your profile is 100% completed.
- Include product or service keywords in your listing description also list one or two of the cities or suburbs where your target market lives. Be sure not to overuse your keywords.
- When your Google Business page is finished and completely optimized then encourage all your best customers to leave positive reviews on your page. Remember this can impact your search status almost overnight!
- Consider launching a campaign with an incentive to customers who leave feedback for you on Google. It can be a coupon, a special discount – whatever you want to be. I revert back to an earlier statement remember those reviews equate to sales! So it’s worth a well thought out effort to create a marketing strategy that increases reviews.
- Include your Google page link on your newsletters and your website making it easier for people to leave reviews for you. You can go here to generate a link easily https://supple.com.au/tools/google-review-link-generator/ .
- Once you open up this effort you can’t just leave it! You should check your reviews weekly. Even when you get good reviews you should respond and say thank you, it just looks good. When you have a bad review make sure you address it immediately! Nothing is worse than people seeing bad reviews on your Google page that go ignored.
Use Google My Business to REALLY Stand Out Locally
GMB has a few new features that most business owners don’t know about which is a great opportunity to SEIZE and stand out in the search while their eyes are closed.
Once logged into your GMB look to the left and click on posts:
Once you click on create post you will see the box below populate:
As you can see you choose to create just a regular post, an event, an offer or promote a product. Then simply select a quality attention-grabbing image, and then write 100-300 word description. Note the ideal Google post image size is 750×750.
You can also choose a call to action button:
Which means someone can click and instantly connect with your business.
I have been using this tool for the past year with all of my clients and I am here to tell you it has more than tripled our engagement on our GMB for every single client. This is huge!
By the way MOST businesses are STILL not using this!
Here is how it looks in the search:
Also too, take special note of the area above the post in the image above. That is an extra area whereas you can write a brief description of your business up to 750 characters – just one more thing that makes it POP!
To locate the business description area simply go to your business place and click info. Then look for the business description area. All you have to do is click and write something in, it will appear on GMB once it is approved by Google.
Small Thanks with Google
I want to also take this opportunity to share with you another amazing tool Google provides for business owners absolutely FREE! While you are logged into your GMB account click on this link: https://smallthanks.withgoogle.com
You should see a page like this populate: (By the way you need to have received reviews to be able to use this.)
You can create customized graphics that contain your reviews you can use to promote in your business, your website and on your social media.
Once you click choose other style and reviews you will be able to choose which one you want to feature:
Then once you click next at the bottom of the page you can choose a style and color, and then click finish:
Once you click finish you can download your files and send them to a printer to make posters or pop up tent cards you can display in your business. Additionally you can create graphics you can share on Instagram and Facebook etc. These are great (FREE) tools that go unused by businesses.
If you haven’t been leveraging your Google My Business tool I hope this post encourages you to immediately do so! It is a tool that will add revenue to your bottom-line I pers0nally guarantee it! (So will my clients!)
