Google Maps

Everyone knows the digital application, existing since 2015, Google Maps as a navigation platform to get from A to B quickly. In recent years, in addition to the pure Google search, the direct search on Google Maps for shops, restaurants or other services in a certain area has become more and more important and frequent. With already more than 1 billion active users worldwide, Google Maps linked more than nine billion users with companies every month for its 15th birthday in 2020.
Find out how also you can turn users of the app into your customers with the help of a Google Maps entry.

How important is Google Maps Marketing for your business

Nowadays, your customers are no longer just searching for stores on Google itself, but also increasingly directly on Google Maps. And Google Maps can do a lot more than just show your location or navigate your way on a map.
With Google Maps search queries such as “best mobile phone shop near me” or “best hairdresser here”, customers want to find the best shop, restaurant, pharmacy, or insurance office in their current region quickly and directly. Imagine a customer being new to a city and notices that his cell phone holder, which he bought a few years ago in an electronics store, broke. At this moment he would like to find a store quickly and easily where he can buy a new phone holder.
He opens the Google Maps app on his mobile phone and types into the search field “Electronics shops near me” – of course he doesn’t have much time or the desire to look at all the results and will most likely choose the first or one of the first three results. If you are in the top 3 on the search results, you might have just won a new customer.

Four new clever  features for local shopping

Just in time for the prime time of sales in the year, the festive season, Google Maps is introducing a few new functions so consumers can quickly and easily find gifts for loved ones or the restaurant for the New Year’s brunch with friends, which had to be cancelled last year.

🆕 1. “Area Busyness” – How busy is the region where you are heading to?

According to Google, more than 80 million people use live information from Google Maps to see if it is currently busy and crowded in the area they want to visit. The feature now also shows when that area is visited the most, so users can adapt their visit accordingly, either to save time and avoid crowds or to get there where is the busiest time of day or night.

🆕 2. “Directory Tab” – the table of contents for large buildings

Are you at the airport and want to know whether your preferred car rental company has a shop there or are you strolling through a shopping centre looking for an XY store? Google Maps will help you regarding such data in the future. Thanks to the directory tab, you no longer have to wander around looking for a display board or the store itself. Google Maps not only lists the shops themselves sorted by category, but also the floor on which they are located and their ratings.

🆕 3. “Pick up grocery shopping” – shopping trolleys in the supermarket are becoming obsolete

You are expecting guests this evening for dinner, have not yet bought and groceries and are running out of time? If you’re a US citizen, open Google Maps. The pilot of the application currently covers 2,000 supermarkets in over 30 US states and allows users to track the status of their supermarket purchases via Google Maps and to transmit the estimated time of arrival of the customer at the store for the sales clerks. Google estimates that consumers who use this feature wait less than five minutes to pick up their daily goods.

🆕4. User generated content – rely on other visitors when choosing a restaurant

Are you going on a weekend trip and want to try local dishes? Do you ask one local, or do you rely on the opinion of several people? The importance of online reviews from other consumers is now known to everyone and companies have also recognized the importance of having many good reviews from their customers and guests. Google Maps is now expanding the rating function for restaurants and other locations to include details like price categories, outdoor seating, delivery service and pick-up. This information, which is useful for other users, is provided by users and displayed directly in the company’s main entry.

How to rank in the top 3 on Google Maps

With the top 3 in the Google Maps ranking it is like a general Google search: the higher you are in the list, the more visible you are to your customers and those who are supposed to be. Many factors that are important for ranking on Google Maps can be directly influenced by you. On one hand, it is very important that your Google Business Profile is filled out correctly. Data such as the name of your company, your address, telephone number and business working hours must be stated correctly there. Sounds very simple, but is extremely important to have this information corresponding exactly to the same format on your website and also in the local directories in order to avoid contradictions. Any potential contradiction can affect your ranking.
With well-made photos and videos stored in your Google Business Profile, you can help your customers decide in favour of your business, since images and videos appeal to our emotions and are staying longer in our memories than plain texts. Link your website here as well so that you can provide your customers with as much information as possible about your business with just one click and at a glance. If you decide to enter your website URL, please double-check that it also looks appealing in the mobile view, as search queries via Google Maps are mainly done with mobile devices. Not only images and precise information help you to achieve a better ranking, but also online customer ratings. Many good reviews from your customers help you to become more visible and to level up in the ranking. Of course, you cannot influence the fact that your potential customer is near your business right now, nor the exact rating they give about your business. However, you can motivate your customers to write an online review about your business after a visit.

How mPocket can support you

With mPockets’s app, you can create a direct connection between your customers and your brick-and-mortar retail. The app helps you to send review requests with just one click or directly in your store. Your customers will find it easier to write reviews about your stores that will help you to better position on Google Maps and increase visibility online and offline. On average our customers receive 40% more reviews with mPocket than before. Achieve your place in the top 3 on Google Maps together with mPocket.

*For reasons of better legibility only the simultaneous use of male and female language forms is not used. All personal names apply to both genders. 

Picture credits: ijeab, Freepick.com

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