If you've recently started your business, or you're trying to expand your marketing efforts, you probably know all of the standard tricks, right?
You're working on your social media marketing. You're working on your word-of-mouth marketing. You're trying to have the best business possible in order to attract more organic customers and clients.
There might be an avenue that you haven't explored yet though, and it's great for finding local customers who might not even know that your services are available yet. Have you tried Google Maps marketing?
If you're not optimizing your business marketing strategy to get local customers and results, you could be missing out. Here's how to do it.
Google Maps Marketing is using Google Maps to make your business easier to find for your potential customers.
More and more people are using mobile searches now, and mobile search often uses the phone's physical location to give the first responses.
If your business is optimized for Google Maps, you might just be one of those responses. But how do you get there?
You're going to have to claim (and verify) your Google My Business listing, or make sure that it's updated if you already have one. You need to have all of the necessary information on there, like phone number, address, and areas within your serving range.
It's also important to specify the industry that you belong to. Customers searching for this industry want to see pertinent businesses pop up in their search engine results. If you're one of those businesses, they'll be more likely to see you.
Make sure that you upload relevant photos to help boost your ranking. These can be things like product photos if you run a retail business, menu or food photos if you run a restaurant, or photos of your business itself.
You should also optimize your introduction on My Business with relevant keywords that a prospective customer might be looking for. While "keyword stuffing", or overusing keywords without placing them sensibly and organically, can lower your ranking, good use of keywords will help customers to find your business.
It would also benefit you to solicit previous customers for reviews (or keep that in mind for future customers as you try to build your ranking). Businesses with (positive) reviews tend to compete better in ranking against those without them, though it's not a deciding factor.
All of these things together will build a nicely optimized Google Maps listing.
It might be important to ensure that your business address on Google is where you actually serve customers. This may sound silly, but it's an easy mistake, and it could end up losing your valuable business.
After this, evaluate if you're going to need more help with management after your online growth. There are services available to help you out while you're expanding and reaching new goals (you can see Netsuite pricing and guides online)!
If you're not utilizing Google Maps marketing yet, now is the time to jump on it. With the shift to mobile searches, more and more people are going to be looking for businesses near their exact location. You want them to find you first.
If you do this right, you'll be impressed with the amount of organic growth you receive.
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