Feb 07, 2020
Remember those un-refoldable paper deals we used to buy at the gas station? Those days are long dead. Digital maps abound, and their uses are no longer limited to geographic location. Your various addresses, site photos, recent news, recent activity, plus reviews and ratings can be integrated with Google Maps at the click of a button. And using these free features you can fairly easily influence consumer behavior in extremely targeted ways.
So it’s crucial, if you have a brick-and-mortar storefront, that you start thinking about building your online presence through Google Maps. And it doesn’t matter how big your brand or company is. Here are my four TopRight tips for getting more eyes on your brand through Google Maps.
1. Take Advantage of All Google Account Features
Before you can use Google Maps, you’ll have to create a Google Account. This has a ton of benefits that small and medium-sized business can sometimes ignore, such as Google Web Tools, Calendar, Docs, and My Business.
Using features like Google’s My Business, you can claim and verify your brand name, location, and tons of other information regarding your business, thereby making it easier for users to find and view you. Other features make it easier to store all your necessary brand profile info in one place. This creates a new level of convenience for when you’re sharing business data with either your internal team or the general public. With these features, anyone on your team who needs to make internal changes can do so while you track their activity and record their impact on public response.
Plus, with Google Maps directly embedded in your Google Account, there are methods of maximizing the use you get out of all the other non-Google apps or programs in which your business is listed. For instance, you can get quick and up-to-the-minute access to aggregate reviews, ratings, feedback, and other fresh data right in real time.
2. Install the Easy Plugin
Google Maps Easy Plugin was developed so that users can find you or your business as easily as possible, but it boasts plenty of other features with incredibly useful functions. These include:
- Multi-Layer Display: This enables you to add more travel time info for users. People can find out how long the trip is on foot, via public transit, by bicycle, car, or even other means like scooter. Users also get up-to-the-minute traffic jam alerts.
- Personalization: With this plugin, you can personalize individual consumer experience with your brand online. Using tracking and data analytics, your store’s prices, appearance, responses, and other info can all be individually customized.
- Marker Clusterization: This refers to the process of assigning digital marks on multiple buildings, making it easier for clients to see clusters on their phone at an appropriate scale. But this also comes in handy if your business is spread across several locations, or if you have more than one brand or store. If your main store is closed for the day, offer users one of your own alternatives!
- Location Detection: Detecting a new location helps the process of navigation. With this feature, it’s effortless to enter a new address for a new route and super easy to find your store.
- Markers List and Appearance: This feature makes it easy for your clients to mark your business so that it pops up again when they’re in the area.
These are just a few of the features available on Easy Plugin. Making use of all the features listed here is a relatively easy way to expose new audiences to your brand and expand your reach locally.
3. Take Advantage of the Virtual Tour
The virtual tour option on Google Maps allows you to give potential clients a look under the hood of your business with a truly incredible virtual visit of your store. Using hi-def VR, you can show a potential customer that your beautifully decorated store or top-notch service is seriously worth the trip. Plus, a virtual tour offers a sneak peek of the experience while also initiating the brand bonding process: if consumers like your interior decorating style chances are they’ll like what you have to offer, too.
Google offers plenty of embedded features that you should jump on right away. These include the Step Inside Stickers, Trusted Badges, and features on the popular Google Cardboard.
4. Show Off On Street View
Effectively using Street View in your digital marketing strategy can enhance your brand by strengthening and elevating your online presence. It’s like availing yourself of free advertising, whereby consumers can learn exactly where and what your brand is without the need to see a billboard or digital pop up.
Street View isn’t just for getting familiar with the area anymore. It is a powerful tool that allows viewers to interact, look around, and notice your brand. With Street View advertising, you’re able to give viewers information such as hours of operation, reviews, points of interest, indoor mapping, and parking. The availability of parking is actually a far more critical indicator of whether you’ll see new business than most business owners care to admit!
The Takeaway
Google Maps helps to satisfy the natural curiosity we all have for new products and brands, so take advantage of that and start marketing with Google Maps.
Not a lot of businesses know how to maximize the full potential of Google Maps and influence customer behavior. But today it is one of the most essential tools used for not only locating nearby establishments, but for engaging audiences with promotions as well as reviews. Successfully engaging on Google Maps can mean the difference between attracting customers to your store and the store of a competitor.
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