
In this day and age, the real estate business arena is incredibly dense, harsh, and competitive. In an environment like that, companies of all scales and sizes have no other choice but to invest all possible resources into establishing a strong online presence hoping they will be able to establish stronger brand authority, fend off competition, and transcend local market barriers.
However, strong online presence is admittedly a very broad term that if not approached carefully can spread the resources of one company way too thin.
Instead of taking this shotgun approach to marketing, you should take a more effective route and narrow down your channels to assets that provide strong exposure without requiring excessive investments.
Google My Business can definitely be considered to be one such online resource. Let's take a closer look at it.
What is Google My Business?
Let us start with the big question – what exactly is GMB? Well, in the simplest of terms, Google My Business presents a giant business listing repository where you can easily store critical information about your company and pinpoint its location on the local map.
This is incredibly important since, keeping in mind that about 29% of small and medium companies don’t have any sort of business website, GMB presents a simple and effective gateway to the online marketing space.
What’s even more important is that checking this repository doesn’t require any sort of dedicated search query. Based on the keywords you use to describe your services your company will pop up whenever someone searches for the said services on Google (e.g., ‘car mechanic near me’).
Last but not least, we would like to point out that using Google My Business is completely free meaning you get exposure to a massive user base without having to spend a dime. This makes using GMB services an absolute must.
The benefits of using Google My Business
Of course, even though GMB services are capable of providing the companies instant online exposure, the businesses in question shouldn’t simply go through the motions and use this tool without understanding the depth of its benefits. So, let’s quickly cover some of the actual goods GMB brings to the table.
Creating a powerful online presentation
As time goes by, GMB is growing into an asset that offers far more robust and in-depth information than simply your address, email, and phone number. Going through an in-depth professional GMB audit will uncover numerous areas you can use to make your online presentation even more engaging, informative, and vivid. For instance, the images you are going to use can present your products and services as well as discounts and pending promotional actions. That effectively makes GMB a good website substitute.
Displaying reviews of your services
Yes, the later iterations of GMB allow users to post a review of your company and your services as well as post short questions that are visible to all people checking the listing. This idea, as simple as it may be, is incredibly novel since, in a recent survey, 88% of consumers stated they trust online reviews just as much as recommendations from friends and family which makes them one of the most important social proofs out there. It is good to know then that GMB handles this issue in a simple and transparent manner.
Built-in insight and analytics
Running any sort of marketing campaign without being aware of what kind of effect your efforts are producing is nearly impossible. Good marketing results are the result of close observations, detailed metrics, and thorough analytics. The GMB is capable of tackling this problem as well since this tool comes packed with a reasonably robust 'Insights' section that allows you to inspect and analyze queries, views, user engagement, audience breakdown, and similar metrics that can drastically affect your future efforts.
Ease of use and zero maintenance
For the very end, want to point out that unless you want to use professional services to make your online presence as good as it gets, or you have a problem optimizing Google Maps, GMB is an incredibly simple and intuitive platform that allows even the people with only the most basic knowledge of the digital tech to go through the basic options and set up the listing. Furthermore, all the updates being released by Google are installed automatically and are very detailly explained which makes future maintenance a breeze.
In conclusion
We hope this short breakdown gave you a clearer idea about what Google My Business actually is and how this powerful asset can benefit your company. Most people look at GMB as a simple online listing so the effort they put into it often ends up being very lackluster. That, of course, is a giant mistake since Google My Business presents an incredibly powerful and robust marketing platform that allows businesses countless engagement and outreach options. The more time you invest into building it up, the more powerful, GMB becomes.