Welcome to the next installment of discussing your Digital Presence. In this edition, we are going to cover an extremely valuable component of your Digital Presence that can boost your business and increase your sales without costing lots of extra cash.
We are talking about the listing service, Google My Business. The base listing is free to use and relatively simple to set up. The goal is to help people who use Google to find a business get more information about the business before making a decision to visit and or purchase from them. If you have followed my previous posts on managing your Digital Presence then you know that getting found in the digital world is a key to getting customers. In fact, in today’s age of the internet, it is likely your Digital presence has a significant impact on your business from a marketing and sales perspective.
Getting found and making it easier for prospective customers to learn about your business seems like a worthwhile endeavor, right?
Whether you are in the 60% that do or the 40% that don’t there are likely features and aspects of Google My Business you may not be aware of. Or if you are aware of them you don’t have the time to spend on them.
Let’s start with what kind of information can we find on a Google My Business listing? Beyond the basics, like the location, description, website and contact information, Google My Business has customer feedback, pictures and more. The biggest benefit that most people overlook is that Google my business is local. If your a standard business that relies on customers walking through your front door showing up on local results for people looking for your service is kind of a big deal.
Ok, we have established the essential of what the service is and why it might be important. Let’s move onto how you use it. There are tons of great videos on the Web about how to set up your GMB listing. At a minimum, I recommend everyone who owns a business does that. It’s simple and easy to follow.
However, if you are like most small business owners one of the most valuable things you have is your time. There is never enough of it and there is always something else grabbing your attention. If that’s the case, you may want to consider getting some help from a company that specializes in managing your Digital Presence like Web Anatomy. They will meet with you to go over your business and help you build out your Google My Business listing and if needed continue to help you maintain it. That way your most valuable asset, your time is spent on what you do best, running your business.
The next question that everyone will ask, is, how much time does it take to maintain my GMB listing? That answer is a little more complex and largely depends on what you want to get out of it. There are some key things that should be monitored and maintained like customer reviews and feedback. A bad review caught early can be turned into an opportunity for a major win for example. You can also use it as a sales tool, posting weekly specials, or advertise upcoming events for your business, etc. It should become part of your everyday operational processes and the amount of time you spend will be up to you.
Great you are convinced. Google My Business is a great addition to your Digital Presence. You googled yourself, were not impressed by what you saw and realize you need help. Web Anatomy and other companies like them can help you. Either by walking you through the initial setup or by crafting a build and maintain a package that works for you.
Now your Digital Presence just got a little more polish, people can find you locally, you invested very little time and you have a partner who will let you know if there is anything that needs your attention. Your Digital team just got stronger!
The result, your business flourishes, and isn’t that what it’s all about?
at exactly is Google My Business? Whether you realize it or not, most of us have used this service when we look up a business on our smartphone. It’s actually been around for a few years and yet surprisingly statistics show that close to 40% of business either don’t take advantage of it or don’t actively manage their listing.
Your listing looks like this, looks familiar?
