Marketing your business comes in many forms, because in the end, marketing is about creating a relationship with your potential clients. Marketing is also being there when your clients need you – that they can find you when they are looking for your services.
Everything in marketing boils down to understanding your clients’ needs because when you truly understand them, then you know how to make yourself available to them (this applies to media and messaging – Creating Marketing Conversations).
One of the most basic ways that you can do that is by have a Google Business Profile.
This is especially important for businesses with physical locations, but also helpful for businesses with service areas so that you can show up on Google maps.
More and more of consumers are on their phones and searching for services by location or mobile search.
Morning Call - Marketing With Your Google Business Profile
I was recently in New Orleans for a trip for a few days and when I travel, I use a combination of Google Maps and Yelp to find restaurants and businesses that I need. (Not to brag, but I am a master at finding AMAZING restaurants when I travel).
One of my goals was to have a beignet showdown (that means buy beignets from multiple locations so that I can compare and know which is my favorite). One of our friends is a local and he highly recommend Morning Call, a café with food and beignets. The problem was, when I went to search for them, they didn’t show up on Google (in fact, Google Maps redirected me to their competitor 2 blocks away) and they didn’t have a web presence so I couldn’t actually find them.
I sleuthed and found their address mentioned in a press release from 2 years ago and entered it in my map. I figured, if they weren’t real, we could still go to their competitor right down the road.
We arrive at the address and they were open! While we were placing our order, the owner of Morning Call started talking to us and I mentioned that we couldn’t find him on Google Maps. He told me he tried multiple times but could never get it to work and of course I said “Oh this is what I do for my business, I’ll help you set it up!” We exchanged business cards, ate our beignets in a snowball delight and also sampled the rest of his food and Café Au Lait. It was all delicious!
When I returned home, I started the process of setting up his Google Business Profile. We had a bit of back and forth, and it took a few days for the listing to start showing up to the public.
Within a week and a half, his profile already had 9,300+ views! Imagine how much business he was missing! I’m excited to have been able to help him with this project and to make such an impact in helping others find him too.
