With any aspect of marketing, the standard tradeoff is between cost and reach. The more expensive a marketing measure, the longer its reach, and vice versa. That’s where Google Business Profile (or GBP) breaks the mold. As both completely free and reaching everyone who can Google your business, GBP is a powerful component of any effective digital marketing strategy.
GBP is among your most effective digital assets to grow your customer base without breaking the bank. Leveraging GBP means learning how to use it effectively. Below are seven ways to leverage your Google Business Profile that and get the biggest search engine working for you.
1. Provide Accurate Information
The first benefit Google Business Profile provides is a convenient spot for interested customers to find your contact information. While you are the one responsible for inputting your information and ensuring that it is accurate and up-to-date, GBP makes finding and viewing it easy.
Think of GBP as a digital business card. Anyone who finds your site on a Google search will see your information immediately, disseminating your information to the widest possible audience. Sometimes, the difference between you and the competition boils down to how easy it is to find contact info.
2. Pair With Engaging Images
Images remain one of the best ways to drive engagement. In a field of text, an image can draw the eye and make it stick around for a message. Providing visual content attracts attention while giving visitors an idea of what they might expect from your business. Showcase what makes you unique and attractive to a potential customer.
GBP allows you to upload high-quality images and using this aspect well can be tremendously effective for your marketing. Choose images that best display aspects that highlight your business, especially those that work with your branding. In sum, you should attract attention and drive engagement with images.
3. Encourage Reviews
Word of mouth was once a reliable way to obtain new customers. It still is, though the particulars have changed. Nowadays word of mouth comes in the form of online reviews. We are essentially crowdsourcing trusted opinions and consulting online ratings and reviews when looking for a good or service. Google Business Profile provides another place for satisfied customers to submit reviews where they are guaranteed to be seen, thanks to Google’s dominance in the market.
Encourage happy customers to submit reviews. Engage with reviews posted, both positive and negative. Be direct and friendly in your tone, and always remain professional. Positive reviews can be responded to with a simple thank you, while negative reviews require a bit of finesse. Never get defensive or deny a reviewer’s experience. Simply pledge to do better. While it might not repair this relationship, it shows your commitment to good service to other customers. Remain brief, upbeat, and non-confrontational.
4. Offer Promotions and Specials
GBP also allows you to post promotions or specials, keeping them at the forefront of your customers’ minds as well as advertising them on the most-used search engine. By continually updating your GBP with specials and promotions, your profile remains active, and you more easily engage potential customers.
When designing your promotions and specials, do so with an eye to your branding. Pinpoint what makes your business different from and better than the competition. Highlight those aspects in your copy for more effective engagement. A simple price break is often enough to convert a customer who is on the fence.
5. Include a Q&A Section
Additionally, your GBP includes a Q&A Section which is a boon to the savvy marketer. Too many businesses ignore this powerful tool, and by harnessing it, you’re already standing out from the pack. You can even take advantage of the FAQ feature by setting up Custom or Automatic FAQs.
Much of your engagement online begins with simple questions. Responding to questions in a timely manner keeps your information correct and up to date. Incorrect information that goes unaddressed has a way of becoming fact in the digital world. Much as with your review responses, keep your tone warm, friendly, and professional. Remember, even if the question is one you’ve answered thousands of times before and appears on your FAQ, this is an important moment for the customer.
6. Use Timely, Professional Messaging
Next, consider that modern customers want to be able to contact you at will on any platform. Enabling messaging on GBP streamlines an important avenue of contact. Most of the searches that lead to your site will be via Google, and customers can jump right from the most used search engine directly into contact with you.
As with any method of contact, you need to respond quickly and in a professional yet friendly tone. With speed and a good attitude, simple inquiries can easily become leads. Because responsiveness is so vital, Google has been known to remove the Chat buttons from those accounts that don’t respond within a day.
7. Create Clear Calls-to-Action
Finally, your Google Business Profile should have a clear and concise Call-to-Action that leads directly to a contact form. A button labeled something like “book now” or other easy-to-understand directions gives your visitors an easy path to convert. An effective sales funnel is one with a bare minimum of roadblocks.
In sum, your online presence is a vital part of your sales funnel. You take traffic that comes in via organic search and PPC models and convert visitors into leads. Part of doing that effectively is making it easy for your visitors to submit leads with clear calls-to-action.
At Lead Science, we understand the new paradigm of digital marketing. We have over two decades of experience in crafting a sales funnel that starts with a Google search and ends with a new customer for our clients. Come to LeadScience.com and take advantage of a free digital presence audit and discovery demo today. Leveraging your GBP for lead generation is just one of hundreds of techniques we’ve developed to propel our clients to the top of their fields.
