Soup on the Map.
I’m going to take a stab in the dark and guess that most small to medium businesses in New Zealand do not know about or understand Google’s Local Business Center. In the many years I have been in the digital business I have not seen a better example of a more powerful, easy to use and free business tool that will allow you to grow your business cost effectively.
But why is the Local Business Center so good for your business?
- Location search with Google Maps embedded at the top of search engine results aka Google 7 Pack. This essentially means that if you list your business correctly and provide all the relevant information including location then you will begin to appear at the top (although then you will compete in the order of the 7 Pack) of search results within Google’s embedded map results. Obviously appearing “top” is dependent on a major factor, location but it still provides a quick way of getting local business leads without pumping cash into Search Engine Advertising (although this is a very useful tool and something we will cover in another blog post). An example can be seen below when you search in Google on “auckland restaurants”.
An Example of Google's 7 Pack
- Free Coupons. Yes thats right you can create your very own Coupon or offer from your Local Business Center dashboard and no need to be a designer. You can set it up, design it how you like, set an end date of the offer and then distribute online and even on mobiles all for zero cost!
Soup Digital's Coupon.
- Analytics. Sure it’s reasonably basic but it is a lot more comprehensive and useful then other analytics dashboards out there and provides more than enough information for small to medium business owners to use to their advantage. E.g. If you notice that Thursday is your peak traffic day for your business listing you could promote your coupon through your “Post to your Place Page” feature.
Soup Digital's Analytics Page
- Place Pages. This is your info page for your business and it is evolving every day. Not only does it display all the information that you have supplied including coupons but it also aggregates content from around the web such as; Trip Advisor reviews, Finda images, flickr even your own website. The page also links your Youtube videos of your business, allows reviews and has even just added a new feature which allows you to post content to your page in a Twitter-esk fashion known as “Post to Your Place Page” (as mentioned above).
Soup Digital's Place Page
The Local Business Center is a great example of creating a tool for small to medium businesses that will not only allow them to be found easier but also provide greater insights into how their business is found through the Analytics Dashboard. To be honest though this tool has to be good as one of the things Google don’t have going for them in New Zealand is a sales force that can preach the benefits and educate the masses….but then again do they really need to?
In the next few years you will see Google form more strategic partnerships with businesses in New Zealand that have a close relationship with SME’s so that they can spread the “Google Love” vicariously. To those businesses considering this I would be excited but also recommend you have a sound road map and exit strategy that will allow your business to remain successful and in soul control of it’s IP.
Contact Soup Digital if you want to find out more about Google Local Business centre and how it can work for your business in conjunction with other online applications targeted at generating leads for Small to Medium Sized Businesses.