Priority Number One
Credit @mitchel3uo
If you’re recently launched your business online, Google should be your first priority. Social media is great for brand awareness. However, people need to find your business, business hours, reviews, and get relevant updates about your business as well.
Need to find the hours of a business? You probably click on your default browser on your computer or your phone. Without thinking about it, you type in the search bar your query for business hours of Restaurant A. Having your information be instantly accessible is extremely important to the success of your business. People make decisions through a process; in marketing, we refer to this as the consumer decision-making process. This five-stage process starts with need recognition (awareness), followed by searching for information (research). Research is precisely where you are at when deciding to search for that restaurant’s hours online. According to one study, these decisions are made between 50 ms and 500 ms—Yes, ms, as in milliseconds!
Having your business listed on Google is the first step in your digital marketing journey. But why Google? There are plenty of other search engines, but that process of searching on your default browser is a billion-dollar industry. Google paid Apple $9 billion to remain the default search engine on iPhones in 2018. Google dominates the search engine market. Take a look at Statcounter’s Search Engine Market Share.
(Play with the tool by visiting Statcounter.)
With over 80% market share, Google is the largest of all the search engines. So, what do you need to do to make sure your business is found on Google? Claim your business now, utilizing the free Google My Business tool. The process is relatively quick; however, you must wait for a postcard to arrive by mail to authenticate you are the business owner. So, don’t wait! Seriously, leave this blog now and get started!
Come back after you receive your code for an in-depth conversation about the power of this free tool.
Next week, we will go over Google My Business in detail.
Can’t wait? If you are a small business, reach out to us now for a free consultation. Our goal is to help. We are even offering some small business FREE services to survive and thrive throughout the current pandemic.
