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How To Manage Google My Business Effectively For Your Business

Angela RosalesOctober 28, 2021

In this article you'll learn all things about Google My Business. After reading this, you'll learn the following:

  • How to manage Google My Business reviews
  • How to enable Google My Business messaging
  • How to manage GMB - 100% hands off

It is important to have a Google My Business account for your business to increase your brand visibility and get more customers.

Setting up Google My Business Listing

Before you proceed with this article, you should have a verified Google My Business listing for your business. Click this link to learn how to create a Google My Business account. GMB listings with complete and accurate information receive 7 times more clicks than those with incomplete information. 

Your business listing should have the following information:

  • Business Name and Address
  • Trading Hours and Contact phone number. 
  • Website link. When linking your website from GMB, this will help you drive traffic to your website.
  • Other options relevant to your business and location.
  • Menu - for restaurant type of business
  • Booking link 

Quick Facts you should know about GMB

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  • A completed GMB listing can single-handedly improve a business's local SEO ranking. Having this, your business can start showing up on google maps, and google search results. It's now a matter of optimising and managing your Google My Business.
  • Google has over 90% of the search engine market share.
  • Google has reported that a staggering 46% of all searches have local intent.
  • 56% of actions on Google My Business listings are website visits. 24% of actions are calls to the business. And 20% of actions are direct searches.
  • 64% of consumers have used Google My Business to find contact details for a local business.
  • 16% of businesses receive more than 100 calls each month just from Google My Business alone.

These statistics can't be ignored by any business owner. GMB is necessary in today's world. So if you're thinking it's not important then, frankly you are wrong. 

Google My Business Reviews

In this section, we are going to do a brief discussion about how to manage reviews on your Google My Business account.
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What are Google My Business Reviews

Google My Business Reviews are reviews that your customers can write about your business. They will appear on Google Maps, Places and Search results pages, which is why it is important how your business handles and manages customer reviews. Customers can see what people have said about you, and it's a great way to funnel feedback from customers to your business.

How to get reviews on Google My Business

In order to receive reviews, you need to let customers know that they can review you on Google. Here are several ways to let your customers know to leave you a review:

  • You can do this by installing an "Add a Review Button" onto your website. The button will link to your Google My Business page that allows users to submit a review immediately.
  • Put a review sign with a QR code in your store or office.
  • Send them an SMS or Email to ask for a review

How to manage online reputation and why is it important

It is very important for every business to manage their online reputation. In this article, we will talk about some of the ways google my business reviews can be managed and some ways you can get google my business reviews on your google my business page.

Many people have google as a search engine on their phone. When they Google a restaurant or a service, Google will show them a Google map of the areas with a list of restaurants and businesses which they can choose from. If the person looking at the Google map sees one that has good reviews and a lot of reviews, they are more likely to go to that specific restaurant or store.

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And for SEO purposes, Google will factor in the amount of reviews a GMB listing has, and the rating that they have in ranking GMB listings for Google searches. This tells Google that this GMB listing is a legitimate business and that it has been providing great services or products to its customers. This is one of the benefits why you should take your GMB reviews seriously.

Businesses need to make sure they respond to all google my business reviews with an appropriate response that is clear and concise. This way, google can see that you are engaging with your customers in GMB and google will show your google my business reviews first. Here are facts that you should should know about online reviews:

  • Customer reviews can increase conversions by 270%.
  • 92% of consumers will hesitate to buy a product if there are no reviews left by customers.
  • 97% of consumers report that the customer reviews they read influence their purchasing decisions.
  • 84% of people trust online reviews as much as they trust recommendations from friends.
  • Reviews contribute to 10% of the Google SERP ranking

Google My Business Messaging

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What is Google My Business Messaging

Google My business messaging is a new way Google has made it possible for businesses to engage with their customers directly from google search results pages through Google My Business. It gives the business a direct line of communication to their customers. This is an effective strategy because it allows for more personalised interactions with customers and helps to forge connections and start a 2 way conversation between potential customers and businesses. 

Conversations lead to conversions and mainly because it builds a relationship. 

Why having a messaging tool is important

Google my business messaging is not only beneficial for potential customers who want to be able to ask your company questions about your products and services, but it's also an opportunity for you. Google my business messaging gives you the opportunity to engage with them wherever they are! even if they're not visiting your website.

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Google's messaging option boosts conversions by 20%, and 71% of consumers are willing to use live chat or messaging features for customer service, so this is a great way for companies of all sizes--large or small--to increase their conversion rates. Here are other benefits of having a messenger tool for your GMB:

  • More than half of customers are more likely to make a purchase when a business has live chat available.
  • 38% of customers actually end up making a purchase because of a live chat encounter
  • 29% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase with the option of live chat even if they don't use it.

How to use Google My Business Messaging

When GMB launched messaging back in 2017, it was only available on mobile app. Now, starting February 2021, Google My Business Messaging is also on desktop. It's a convenient option for business owners who do all their activities on their desktop computers.

To start using Google My Business messaging, follow this steps below:

  1. Sign in to your Google My Business Account
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2. Turn on Messages

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The Konnect Marketing way to manage Google My Business

At Konnect Marketing, we take our client's business online reputation seriously. We have created a process flow on how we manage online reviews for our clients using the Konnected CRM app.

Best practices on managing online reviews

  1. Streamline your review request process.

Streamline your review process and make sure that your customers take minimal effort when submitting their reviews. Don't wait for them to search your business on google maps, then go to reviews, and submit a review. It is best to guide them in doing that by having a review funnel as shown in the image above.

konnect marketing way on how to manage google my business

With a review funnel, you can ask reviews from your customers from any review website, not just Google. You can place an option for your users to leave you a review on facebook, or yelp, or any site you wish to add.

reviews funnel from konnect marketing

2. Respond to reviews

Whether it's a negative review or positive review, it is important that you respond to reviews as quickly as possible.

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In the Konnected CRM app, you can respond to your reviews as soon as the user submits them. You can respond to reviews from Google or Facebook with this app.

3. Showcase your reviews to your website

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When you have a positive review on GMB, it is always recommended to show them off on your website. This creates credibility and trust to your business. You can simply copy the code from the reputation widget on Konnected CRM app, and paste it anywhere on your site.

4. Quickly address negative feedback before it goes public

Online reviews can make or break your business. Don't worry about getting one or two negative reviews, it happens, we can't please all our customers as much as possible. When this happens, make sure to respond to the review immediately. Explain what happened and offer something in exchange if possible. This tells your potential customers that you are a customer-centric business, that your customers are your top priority. So it is important that you should quickly address negative experiences from your customers.

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With Konnect Marketing, we provide a way  for our clients to avoid getting negative reviews. Our review funnels are structured to do this. It allows us to segment negative reviews and quickly manage dissatisfied customers before they leave you a harmful 1-star rating online.

Best practices on managing Google My Business Messages

  1. Set up a welcome message

The welcome message is a great way to thank customers for reaching out and asking how we can help. This is the first thing they see when they try to make contact with your business from your GMB profile. Tailor your welcome message according to your business.

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2. Respond within 24 hours

There's a reason why users are contacting you through the messaging tool. They are seeking information that needs to be addressed quickly. So it is important to reply to them as soon as possible.

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We know how busy business owners can be, and how there are several communication tools that a business has to manage in order to cater to all of their customers. So Konnect Marketing provides a solution for this in Konnected CRM. It allows you to set up auto responses to your customer inquiries while you are away, it even asks for contact details from your customers so you can call them or message them by the time you are available. And this way, you don't leave your customers hanging dry waiting for a response.

3. Turn on notifications. 

Don't miss out on inquiries, send out an SMS or email notification to yourself when there's an incoming message from GMB. You can do this though Google My Business interface (email only), or through the Konnected CRM (email, SMS, mobile notification alert).

4. Keep the conversation relevant and specific

5. Share photos

GMB messaging allows you to send images, so use this feature when you can. Most people tend to understand things more clearly through graphics than plain text.

Use Konnected CRM to communicate with your customers via Google My Business and all your other social channels. Save time from accessing and opening multiple channels and responding to each of them. You can even set up messaging automations in your Konnected CRM app. Watch this video below to see how GMB works on Konnected CRM, or contact us for a full demo.

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