During this COVID 19 crisis I’ve had the opportunity to speak with hundreds of worried business owners, people just like you and me, that are concerned about the survival of their business. We’re lucky to be in a country surrounded by so many creative entrepreneurs that are determined to survive AND keep their employees earning a paycheck so their families are fed and cared for. I’m talking about salt of the earth, hardworking people that want to do right by their people. This has really brought a few things into focus for me.
The biggest takeaway I have from these conversations is the importance of nailing down the basics, or the fundamentals, as my little league coach always said (who happened to be my dad, and said lots of other things like clean your room, take out the trash, stop painting the cat blue!…). In marketing, it is no different, but a surprising number of really talented business owners are missing the fundamentals.
What Matters
With quarantines in effect all across the country, it is more important than ever for your potential clients to be able to find you online and find out if you’re open, serving customers and provide some type of delivery or curbside pick-up.
With that in mind, I noticed that Google was highlighting new information, such as what places offer take-out and delivery, on local restaurants in my area. You can see that in the 3pack listing below:
If you haven’t optimized your Google My Business Listing, then you’re losing business right now!
Small Advantages
Now, this may not sound like rocket science, but it does have an impact on local businesses. Wondering what that impact is, I decided to run an impromptu survey to see what kind of impact this extra bit of information is having. Keep in mind this is small scale and somewhat anecdotal, but a surprising number of people I know are only calling businesses right now that have the attributes “Takeout” and “Delivery” highlighted. They are scrolling right past the businesses without. I brought that up to my wife today and she laughed and said that’s how she decided on who to order takeout from last night!
Score one for the businesses that have the fundamentals dialed in! The reality is that a large majority of local businesses that I speak with are missing most of the basics. It’s common and when you run a business and have 15 different hats to wear in a day, sometimes things get overlooked. So let’s help you out.
How To Get That Advantage
If you are a local restaurant, or any business providing deliver, then you’ll want to make sure that is reflected in your Google My Business listing. To do that all you need to do is log into your GMB account, click on “Info” and then scroll down to the “Attributes” label. Once there make sure you select the takeout and deliver options and then “apply” those selections before you leave the pop-up window as shown below.
Google My Business Attributes List
And while you’re in there its probably a good time to make sure all your other information is up to date, such as hours of operation, online ordering links, menus and any other information you’d really like the public to be able to find right now.
We Can Help
This may seem overwhelming and just one more thing to do, but it really is the fundamentals that can make all the difference. Now is a great time to revisit your digital marketing strategy and make sure you’re headed in the right direction. If it’s been a while since you made any adjustments to your local SEO and you need to update your strategies, free to reach out to us. We have a team of experts that is willing to jump on a short call and share some of our latest tactics and share a little encouragement. In fact, now might be the perfect time for us to show you how well your website ranks compared to your competitors and what Google thinks of your site. If you’ve never had a website/LocalSEO audit done, then now would make a great first time. Click here to reach out to us!