Google My Business (or GMB) should be considered a vital aspect of your social media activity – at least, as critical as your Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or TikTok. When customers search for a particular store or location (whether by name or description, such as “fabric store near me”), they often do so through Google. Not only is it important to appear at the top of the list, but it is imperative to have a thorough description and to utilize the GMB features to hook potential leads in order to drive sales.
An effective GMB profile offers you an opportunity to market your brand, demonstrate what makes your business unique, and provide an easy, informative way for new and repeat customers to interact with your business. Additionally, it is yet another way to offer customers an opportunity to connect with your business. The more ways you can communicate with your customers, the more effectively you can reach a broad audience.
4 GMB Features You Should Utilize
Today we’ll be going over 4 key GMB features that can maximize your Google listing exposure and set your business apart from the competition.
Posts
Posts are an easy way to share announcements and updates, upcoming events, or new product releases. These 100-300 word blurbs function similarly to what you might post on other social media platforms, such as Facebook or Instagram. It can be a quick, eye-catching way to inform potential customers of a change in hours. Many businesses simply don’t utilize, or drastically underutilize, the potential benefits of GMB posts by failing to consistently create content.
You can maximize the benefit of the Posts feature by including a tracking link within the Google Post button. This feature allows you to measure the Return on Investment (or ROI) of your social media efforts by seeing how your posts are generating visitors or sales leads. It can also help identify problem areas – if people aren’t clicking the original post, why? If people are clicking through but then quickly leaving your website, what do you need to change to keep people interested?
When you take the time to create consists GMB posts and you have an effective marketing message, you increase your chances of converting casual searchers into potential customers.
Reviews
Reviews provide valuable feedback for your business and can provide meaningful information to potential customers. Business reviews are a key way to help your business stand out from competitors on Google. Although positive reviews starts with great customer service, many businesses suffer from failing to follow through with their customers. Accordingly, it’s important to remind your customers to leave reviews – which GMB makes incredibly easy to do, both on desktop and mobile devices.
Make sure you integrate reviewing and replying to reviews as part of your social media outreach. Replying to reviews will help build your customers’ trust, thereby securing repeat customers. It may also encourage them to leave additional reviews in the future. However, in order to reply to reviews, you must verify your business first.
Book an Appointment
Many small businesses or businesses with limited space can now encourage customers (or potential customers) to book an appointment online. This can be an especially valuable way of operating your business only as much as necessary to accommodate appointments, saving you the time and energy. It also offers you control in terms of how many people will physically be in your business – whether to browse clothing or to receive a salon service – and limit the risk of the spread of COVID.
Google offers some flexibility here, whereby businesses can choose a GMB scheduling provider or utilize an existing scheduling provider. From there, businesses can manage their customer information (so you can retain, for example, details like if a client is allergic to certain products or their credit card information). Bookings don’t have to be one-on-one either; businesses can manage booking services if they want to provide group classes or manage service availability in bulk. Businesses can also modify bookings – because sometimes, emergencies come up, and appointments may need to be canceled or rescheduled for a different time. You may also turn off bookings if your business must close temporarily for any reason.
Another bonus? You can see your booking history, from which you can glean the most popular days, times, and the frequency of which repeat customers return to your business.
FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions pages (otherwise known as FAQs) are an excellent way to respond to common queries from current and potential clients. GMB’s Q&A feature aims to offer the same function by allowing customers to ask a question directly within the business listing. These questions may be up-voted, which means that common questions with clear, concise answers will rise to the top to help others who may have the same questions or concerns.
Get Started Today
By taking advantage of the GMB features early, you can more effectively market your business and stand out from competitors. This is especially critical now in an economic recession and during COVID-19, when businesses need to set themselves apart or risk failure. Businesses that are operating successfully are largely utilizing the features offered by GMB – so in order to be successful, you should be utilizing them as well. If you need assistance setting up or managing your GMB listing, then contact us today!