When it comes to local search, Google Places in one of the most effective, free, online marketing tools a small or new business owner might hope to find. It is by far one of the easiest and quickest ways to get listed on the Internet, and we all know how important it is to have web presence- at least I hope we do.
The great thing about Google Places is that its easy to use and edit. There is also a dashboard where you can check your stats to see how many visitors you had, what zip code visitors who clicked on your ad came from and you can use the words from the “impressions” list to help you determine what keywords to include on your website.
Here’s a quick story you may or may not relate to, but it will give you a good idea of what you can achieve simply from signing up for a free account with Google places.
I took my car in to have it painted at a local body shop that I found on Craigslist one day while searching for quotes on my paint job. Craigslist was actually a favorite spot of mine to look for electronics, etc., before it became “Spam’s List”.
I called the body shop to get more information and took my car over to them the next day. When I arrived at the body shop I was greeted by a very kind owner. Judging from the ad that led me to them in the first place, they were a much larger establishment than I ever thought they would be. The owner showed me around, gave me a tour of the facility and showed me some of their current projects.
Their work was impeccable. I used to paint and finish crown moldings. I have also been a welder and fabricator so I know what good auto body work looks like when I see it.
During our conversation I asked one of the owners if Craigslist was the only advertising he was doing and what was their main source of clientele. He told me they received the majority of their clientele through word-of-mouth from friends and referrals. I asked him if he had a website or if he was listed on Google. He answered no to both questions.
I told him, “Look, if you upgrade my paint job from a basic paint job to a factory paint job for the same price, I will show you a couple of really quick ways to get your phone ringing and bring in some new business. He agreed. I dropped my car off to get it painted and I went to work on his project.
The first thing I did was get all of the businesses information which included: all contact telephone numbers (office and fax), physical address, hours of operation, number of years in business, a brief description of services, associations, affiliations and certifications.
I then asked Andre (business owner) if he had pictures of his “before and after” work. Fortunately he had hundreds of pictures in his digital camera.
I then did the following
- Created three very short promo videos out of his before and after pictures using iMovie
- Created a Youtube Channel for the business
- Uploaded the promo videos to Youtube (complete with titles that match the businesses name and descriptions that include local areas they were most likely to service).
- Went to Google Places and created a “free” business page
- Included the Youtube video links on the Google Places account
- Uploaded a couple of pictures of the establishment (so that potential customers could see appearance of the business before they visited)
- Included them in as many categories as possible that were relevant to their business
- And added a printable coupon to the account
Two weeks later, when I went to pick up my freshly painted vehicle, I was sitting in the office waiting for Andre and Bart (another business owner) to finish with a client who had just stopped by for a quote to remove a couple of dents on their car.
Andre called me outside and said, “Hey Angela, I have someone out here who wants to tell you something”. I stepped outside. Then Andre introduced me as the Lady who got them recognized on Google. The guy they introduced me to said, “Whatever you’re doing, keep it up because when I was looking for a body shop in Hallandale that takes out dents, they popped right up in one of the top listings on Google” – he was referring to the local search results.
Another three weeks later Andre called me up on the phone to thank me again and to tell me that they went from receiving somewhere around three to four calls a week from non-referrals to now receiving four to five calls a day because of my help. All I did was set up a free Google Places account and create a couple of promo videos out of digital pictures.
The results we achieved just by creating a Google Places account for this business were outstanding and they don’t even have a website yet.
