My latest guest blog is by Sue Thompson, owner of Catch Designs.
Sue is an experienced marketer having worked in both the private and public sector for a number of years. She has worked in the Forestry Commission, Environment Agency and numerous design consultancies in Bristol and Bath working with big brands such as Argos, Hasbro and Toys R Us.
Since setting up Catch Designs over a decade ago and relocating to North Yorkshire, she has continued to grow and expand on her skills in the digital sector and provide cost-effective marketing services to businesses.
I met Sue through Digital Women, and have listened to her expert advice on Google My Business. I wanted to include it a a blog topic this year, and am delighted that Sue has shared her expertise.
Have your notebook ready (or your Google business account open) and discover Sue's top tips below.
Firstly, are you using Google My Business?
Getting an online presence for your business probably relies quite a lot on Google as a search tool. Any bricks and mortar businesses have already taken advantage of the FREE profile, that Google My Business offers and added their basic details. (If you haven't, we need to talk!) But did you know how much Google My Business has to offer your business for free? Well, read on and we shall share.....
Google My Business has had a little bit of a makeover and has been rebadged as the Google Business Profile, not that catchy but it is the same interface as the predecessor Google My Business and offers up a more streamlined approach to finding it, using it and allowing your customer to view it.
There are plans to delete the GMB App, so all of the editing searching and access to your profile can be done from your Search or Maps page on Google. But first off, we need to make sure our profiles are optimised to get the most out of them. Here are my top 10 tips to optimising your profile ( suitable for the original or new version)
1. Claim and Verify your profile, no-one can see it and your edits are private until you get that account verified. Easy to do, following Google's simple instructions.
2. Complete the Info section on your dashboard, make sure you fully complete all of the sections, including,
Company name (the name Google will recognise)
Your Business category
Your Address
Your Service area
Your opening hours
Any special hours you will be closed
Your Attributes
Your Description
Your Services
(Catch Designs can offer additional guidance on how to optimise these fully if you wish to know more.)
3. Add photos and videos to your profile. Be led by their format guidance as to the quality and size of the photos, and make sure at least you have your Logo and Cover area optimised as this will probably be shown on the front end of your profile, directly to your customers.
4. Add Posts to your profile you have a wealth of options of 'types' of post, do get familiar with them and use them with the most suitable call to action link. These posts are the lifeblood of your profile and can work well to show your potential customers what your business can offer and the many ways they can get in touch with you. There is no need for hashtags or too long captions, and you can easily complete posts from your phone as well as your desktop.
5. Take advantage of the FREE mini responsive website which can be created with the optimised content you have already added within your info section. If you don't currently have a web presence this is a good digital start point to share with your customers and Google Business Profile will maintain it all for you, as soon as you add content to your profile, they will gather it up and add it to your website for you.
6. Make good use of the reviews section ion your profile and encourage your customers to do the same. At the end of every project or after a sale, ask your customers to review you, you can even send them your own personalised URL to make it fool proof way to provide you with a 5-star review, these make all the difference to Google and to your searches online. TOP TIP - Good or bad, always reply to your reviews too, it shows you are a conscientious business owner.
7. Like many other social platforms, customers expect instant answers and the messaging service featured in Google Business Profile allows you to respond via your phone or desktop to any external queries which are vital to help convert that enquiry to a customer. Make sure you stay on top of these messages at all times, Google Is watching! You will need to activate this on the desktop profile.
8. Don't forget to delegate within your business, get your site managers to become users and enable time to add content, respond to customers to help support your team.
9. Check your insights, like all platforms these are provided for free and can give you all the knowledge you need about HOW people are finding you online and WHAT they find when they get there. This is valuable information to have at your fingertips and you continue to add to your digital footprint.
10. Continue to update your profile with new information to make sure you are always providing correct information to your potential customers. The more they know and trust about your business the better.
If we can help you to optimise your profile and show the basics in real time, we are here and happy to help, please contact sue@catchdesigns.co.uk anytime. If you want to leave us a review please check our link here. Thanks in advance!