Getting the customer in your neighborhood to drive to shop when they need your product or service wasn’t usually easy. You either have to erect enormous billboards that they will see on the driveway or you keep a bunny outside that tries to convince people.
All these strategies have high overhead costs but yield brief returns. So, ensure you opt for something that saves you time, money, and makes you the best option to your prospective customer. Setting up a Google My Business framework would do the job for you easily and speedily.
With Google My Business, you can list your business, display your value offerings, and the solutions you offer as well. This way, people easily locate you by clicking a button that draws them to your business. Listing your business on google is absolutely free, however, let’s give you more reasons to help you start the process immediately.
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Why you need a Google My Business Account?
A Google my business account is important for every business functioning in our digital world today. The benefits are enormous, however, I will focus on a few important ones. Some of these benefits include:
Increased Visibility
Everyone searches for anything online first. Today’s digital world has made the online search so easy and efficient. And if anyone is looking for a place to patronize or for a certain product, they will check the product or the store online before proceeding.
When your business is listed using Google my business, you can easily draw everyone looking to purchase a product or get a service in the line of your business. With your profile fully optimized, they can easily access a lot about you and that can easily draw them.
Although you might have a top website, this listing will help you show up at the forefront of customers within your community and it’s one sweet local SEO strategy.
Increased Customer Confidence
Customers build confidence in a product or a service when they’ve heard or read about what people who have experienced that product or service think. And a lot of business people don’t pay serious attention to this arm of the business.
Reviews work. Reviews help strengthen the purchase decision of any lead. A good review is a booster for the customer’s confidence, and a critical review can just harm their faith. Therefore, building trust on the web is important and a good listing can help you.
A lot of people trust online reviews a lot. In fact, a study shows 88% of people trust an online review from their friends and even strangers. So, if you want to strengthen your customer confidence, you need to list your business online.
Updates
If you run a business that demands individuals to come to your store, then listing your business online just became extra necessary for you. It’s quite important, especially when you have serious competition next door and you want to stay in business.
A great business listing will keep your customers and leads aware of all the updates happening in your business. Although your website can effectively execute this, many people won’t want to visit your webpage. Instead, they’ll only search for your business name on Google and take what they see.
So, listing your business on Google will help your customers stay on track with happenings in the business and this will help them trust you more.
How To Structure Your Google My Business
Even if you can see your business name on a Google listing, you must ensure other aspects of your Google my business account are in check. There are about five steps to start and complete the listing process and they include:
Sign in
This is where you have to search http://www.google.com/business and you sign in with your professional business email, and other necessary contact information.
Add your business
After you have signed in, you click on the “Add my Business” option. After adding your business name, you choose a category wherein most of your offers sit in. Immediately that process is complete, you head over to the next step.
Input Your Location
Your location is another important aspect of your listing. You have to input your location so people can easily find you when they want.
Add contact information
Your contact information is another primary aspect of your business. You have to upload the contact information of your business so interested individuals can call you.
Complete the Process
Completing the process involves agreeing to their terms and conditions. More so, you can allow the notifications option so you can be notified when an interested person sends a message.
Verifying your Business on Google
Verifying your business is another important and often overlooked aspect of your listing. A lot of times, a verification process demands you use a postcard. And this process is important as it helps Google and people know you’re a human entity and a viable business.
In verifying your business, you need to sign-in to your business account. After signing into this account, you have to click the business account you want to verify (this is important when you have multiple businesses).
There are different ways through which you can verify a business. However, using either your phone or mail remains the best option when you want to verify your business.
Further Reading: 15 Reasons Why Marketing Through Social Media is a Must For Every Small Business
Claiming & Editing Your Business On Google
If you’ve listed your business on Google, you need to ensure you claim it. When you don’t claim your business listing, you can’t secure it from hackers.
Claiming your business is really easy. First, you need to sign into your Google my Business account. Second, you have to click the button with an inscription “Own this business?” After you’ve clicked that button, you’ll get a form to fill that will enable you to own the listing.
Making changes in your business listing profile is important to keep your customers updated at all times. In case you need to close your business for some time, you will need to ensure people know you’re closed so they don’t constantly book appointments with you.
Editing any aspect of your listing is simple. To start editing information about your business, you need to sign in to your Google my Business account. On the right-hand side, you’ll see an icon that connoted “Edit Info”. When you click this icon, you’ll be able to edit any aspect of your listing information at all.
Optimizing Your Google My Business Profile | 5 Strategies
In optimizing your Google My Business profile, following the right steps is key. And I will be listing five strategies that have helped different business professionals build a strong online presence in their local community. These strategies include:
Fill out your whole profile
A complete profile will outweigh an incomplete one. In filling your profile, you must include every necessary information about your business. This way, Google can correctly list your business among other businesses in its category.
Google explains, “Local results favor the most relevant results for each search, and businesses with complete and accurate information are easier to match with the right searches.”
Ensure you fill your profile in terms of its relevance, ease of accessibility, and its prominence. When your business stands out among its peers, it will draw more customers.
Set Updates
Updates are very important in your business listing. When you use updates, it shows Google that your business is actively running and this can increase your conversion. Introducing your business hours and current information is a great place to start.
Additionally, you can create posts for your business to inform customers of different updates, new products, upcoming offers, and notable events. Keeping a fresh, updated profile is a good business move that drives conversion.
Use High-Quality Pictures
Graphic images are attractive. A study shows that 60% of consumers are more likely to consider or contact a business whose images appear in local search results. And another study shows visual content supports search optimization.
High quality pictures will give you a unique selling position that will draw a lot of customers to your business. When you make use of these images, people identify with your brand and it is also highly appealing.
When you run a service based business like a photo studio, creating an online album will give different people an experience of your professionalism and expertise. By looking at your pictures, they can make a judgment on the quality of your service.
Introduce Special Features
If you run a business that is highly competitive, your uniqueness will make you stand out in your community. In fact, you remain at the top of creativity/innovation or you would be in the mix with your other competitors.
Introducing special features to your business depends on the type of business you run. For example, when you run a hotel, you can decide to list out a wide range of booking options to make it easier for your customers when they want to patronize you.
Further Reading: 30 Digital Marketing Trends You Can’t Ignore in 2021
Get Reviews
Reviews can give your business a big lift. According to Search Engine Land, 87% of potential customers won’t consider businesses with low ratings.
Additionally, an astounding 92% of consumers read online reviews of local businesses in order to determine whether these businesses are good or not, with 80% considering reviews just as important as personal recommendations.
Getting your customers to review your business is very important, however, it’s not easy. A good trick would be to introduce a gift or something of value to many customers that gives a strong positive review for your business on the internet.
Conclusion
Google My Business has made a lot of businesses grow web presence and draw people to their business consequently. With every listing you make, you draw over 45% of people in your target market who will look up your business online before deciding about you.
Editing and rebranding your business is really easy on your Google business account from what you’ve read in this article.If you’re willing to take that step and don’t know how to start, you can book a consultation session with us by clicking “I want a Free Consultation Session.”
