Getting your business on the map

For many people marketing their business is all about getting shown in Yellow Pages or creating a flyer, brochure, prospectus or catalogue.

All of the above can work but like it or not, not only are you online as you read this; the majority of your consumers are also online on a daily basis. As a matter of fact an amazing 25% of the world population have the capability to go online … and in this country the majority of the population regularly go online to look for new services and products …… and more importantly to buy.

So how do you keep ahead of your competitors? What marketing techniques do you need to employ to tap into the thousands of online searches that are made every second?

Well obvious things like a website will help? But to really “get on the map” you literally need to be visible on an online map like Google Maps.

Google Maps are a means of marketing without cost, take just a few minutes to set up and can run for years with no additional intervention. I’m not promising they will bring you the bulk of your future business – these days we need to run many different marketing channels at the same time - but, integrated with all the other methods I advise, your results will aggregate into considerable business over time.

Think like a consumer
Now step for back a minute and think like a consumer.

Say you are travelling to a client and need to stay overnight; you have to find somewhere to stay and a place to eat. You need a hotel and a restaurant.

In the past you might have looked in the telephone directory or Yellow Pages. The issue was, and still is, these give an alphabetical list of whatever you are searching for WITHOUT a geographic location you can visualise with regards to its proximity to your client. In other words, as they do not display the location of all your searches on the map, you can’t see which of the listings are near to your client. All it gives is an address, and of course, if you don’t know the area it means very little. (In the UK Yell.com gives a little more functionality but many people feel it lacks a lot of the extras that Google Maps offer)

Now take a look at what happens with Google Maps.

1.You go to the Google Maps page at http://www.maps.google.com/

2.Type in the place you are visiting

E.g. My next Masterclass is in the “Avenida Marginal, Armacoa de Pera” so type it in and click return

As if by magic up comes the location on the display screen

3.Then type in the word “hotel”

And up comes a list of hotels, in that area, with their locations on the map. The first one on the list when I did this was the Hotel Garbe, which by the way is where my Marketing Masterclasses are often held.

With Google Maps it is so much simpler to find things like hotels, places to eat, supermarkets, petrol stations, aquatic centres …... well you name it and it can be identified on a map relative to your current position or preferred location.

Putting your business on the map
Clearly when you can ensure your business is on Google Maps it will benefit from this type of search and you are able to access the millions of people that search Google Maps on a daily basis.

Well, the great news is that putting your business on Google Maps is absolutely free of charge.

Not only is it free, Google Maps has extra features that makes finding businesses even easier. For example there's a “Get Directions” function that will produce directions of how to get from your location to the hotel, restaurant etc. Additionally there is a “Ratings” function that will list hotels by their star rating and of course each listing provides a link to their website and customer reviews.


So the why not put your business on the map with Google Maps?
It is free, millions of people use it every day and the numbers are increasing. I will explain the simple steps to on how to put your business on Google Maps in one my next article.