This week brings with it something that those of us in the upper Midwest look forward to with anticipation each and every year… the arrival of spring! And with that tends to come spring cleaning. But it’s not just about cleaning out closets, spring cleaning is also a great time to fine-tune your marketing plan to make sure it’s on point and delivering the type of traffic you’re seeking.
When it comes to shaping up your marketing plan, the goal is to maximize what’s working, ditch what’s not, and tweak what could be better. But let’s be honest, what we really want to focus on are those things that are easy, but impactful right?
If that’s you, we have you covered. There’s basically three, very impactful things that you should review each year: your Google my business profile, your website, and your social media accounts. We are going to discuss each as part of a three part series over the next few weeks.
This week’s topic: your Google My Business profile
It’s important because, many times, this is where people first find you! It can also have a big impact on what they do next, like interacting with your business and initiating a sale.
If you’re asking how you find your Google my business profile, just google yourself! More specifically, if you Google your business category, you’ll see yourself and your competitors listed in our special categories box. This is probably the type of search result you get when you type in restaurants near me, so it will look familiar.
Get the basics down
Once you’ve found your listing, we recommend starting with the basics. Are your name address and contact information up-to-date? Does it show an easily identifiable photo of your business or logo? Is there more information like hours of operation or a menu that makes sense to have listed there as well? The more information you provide your audience, the better your ultimate customer experience, so make sure your profile is complete.
Beyond Basics
Now , let’s start thinking a level beyond basic contact information. Adding things like photos and videos are a great way to convey your culture, your brand, and illustrate the types of products/services you are selling. Remember, just like students in the classroom might learn in different ways, your audience might absorb information in different ways. Having things presented in text and visually helps you communicate better with your audience and increases the chances of converting.
Pro Tip
Lastly, check out how many reviews you have. Online reviews are becoming increasingly important to online audiences and shoppers in particular, so they’re vital. If you have more than five, congrats, that’s a great start. We would recommend having 10… at a minimum.
An easy way to get started with reviews or adding more reviews is to simply reach out to your top clients and email them a link, thank them for their business, and then simply ask them for a review. Odds are you’ll be successful; it’s hard to deny a personal ask from a good partner and providing the link makes it instantly accessible and easy for them to do so.
Doing this simple task once a quarter will give you great reviews to boost your credibility AND Supply you with great content for social media and other marketing channels. That’s right, get all of the mileage you can out of your reviews.
The icing on the cake is that all of these things will also help you rank higher organically! So, the impact of just a few minutes of your time can be pretty profound. Please also know that there may be directories and online listings that are pertinent to your industry that may be worth your attention as well. We focused on Google for this exercise because it’s the most used resource globally and also a great starting point.
We hope you’ve found this helpful! Be sure to check your inbox next week for the second installation of our spring cleaning series where we talk about a quick and easy refresh for your social media efforts.
Until then, happy meteorological spring!