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Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Business / Using Google My Business To Get Loads of Customers For Free (Nigerian examples) (2061 Views)
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Using Google My Business To Get Loads of Customers For Free (Nigerian examples) by BrandBrainBox: 6:00pm On Feb 15, 2021 |
Many Nigerian businesses are spending through their noses on advertizing. Yet, the current most effective way to attract loads of paying customers or clients to any local business is absolutely FREE OF CHARGE but most Nigerian businesses are missing out on it. That is Google My Business listing (also known as GMB - not General Muhammadu Buhari though). 5 Likes |
Re: Using Google My Business To Get Loads of Customers For Free (Nigerian examples) by BrandBrainBox: 6:03pm On Feb 15, 2021 |
To start with, WHAT IS GMB? It is a Google service that uses a combined power of Google Search and Google Maps to help users find the kind of businesses that they may be looking for. Another name for it is Google Local Business Listing. OK, instead of going academic on it, let me just show you Google My Business live: 3 Likes
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Re: Using Google My Business To Get Loads of Customers For Free (Nigerian examples) by BrandBrainBox: 6:09pm On Feb 15, 2021 |
Let's say that you are from Calabar and you are visiting Lagos to get some auto spare parts. You are likely to key in a key word that says, "auto spare parts dealers in Lagos". A part of your search engine research page (SERP) will look like what you have above. That is an example of GMB listing. If your business is one of those that show up when people search with such a popular keyword, imagine the large number of buying-minded customers you are going to be getting from far and near! And it's absolutely free and relatively permanent. So, that's why we're talking about getting your GMB listing right. 2 Likes |
Re: Using Google My Business To Get Loads of Customers For Free (Nigerian examples) by BrandBrainBox: 6:22pm On Feb 15, 2021 |
Or, assuming you are visiting Kano from Lagos, you might search for "hotels in Kano GRA". A part of your SERP will look like the screenshot below. That's an example of a Google My Business listing. 1 Like
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Re: Using Google My Business To Get Loads of Customers For Free (Nigerian examples) by BrandBrainBox: 6:26pm On Feb 15, 2021 |
Or, let's assume you live in Abuja but you are trying to buy some real estate in Enugu, you are likely to search for "real estate companies in Enugu" in order to help you in choosing the company to work with. A part of your SERP will look something like what I have below. Again, that's an example of GMB in live action: 1 Like
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Re: Using Google My Business To Get Loads of Customers For Free (Nigerian examples) by BrandBrainBox: 6:36pm On Feb 15, 2021 |
What Googlers are searching for are endless (property lawyers in Port Harcourt, poultry farmers in Ibadan, plumbers in Zaria, etc). But the challenge YOU have is how to make YOUR OWN Google My Business listing show up at the TOP of the GMB section of the SERP for popular keywords for your niche (ie. type of business). THAT'S BECAUSE OVER 90% OF SEARCHERS DON'T GO BEYOND THE TOP 3 ITEMS ON THE LIST WHILE MAKING THEIR CHOICE. Before we go ahead to talk about HOW to rank at the top of the pages, I think it's necessary for you to first understand WHY your GMB listing should be such an important consideration to you. So, let's go: 1 Like |
Re: Using Google My Business To Get Loads of Customers For Free (Nigerian examples) by BrandBrainBox: 6:58pm On Feb 15, 2021 |
GOOGLE SEARCH REMAINS THE WORLD'S BEST MARKETING PLATFORM - SEE WHY. Whatever you can do to get your business, product or service at the TOP of the first page of Google search for any popular keyword is worth EVERY energy, time, money, or any other resource that you can spend on it. You should know WHY I made the above categorical statement even if you have used the Worldwide Web for only 30 days. But, in case you don't know, I will tell you why: ONE REASON FOR THIS IS THE GOOGLING HABIT WHICH HAS BECOME A 'PANDEMIC' THAT IS FAR MORE WIDESPREAD THAN COVID-19 I mean that most people on Earth are in the habit of looking almost everything up on Google. According to Internet Live Stats at 4pm on Monday February 15, 2021, there are 89,658 searches conducted on Google every second. That translates to over 7.7 billion searches daily. You can click here to see the current record whenever you happen to be reading this. NOW, THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO OTHER PLATFORM THAT OFFERS SUCH A GIGANTIC OPPORTUNITY FOR BRAND EXPOSURE. 1 Like |
Re: Using Google My Business To Get Loads of Customers For Free (Nigerian examples) by BrandBrainBox: 7:22pm On Feb 15, 2021 |
But that's not even the number 1 reason why getting at the top of a popular Google SERP is a real goldmine no business today can afford to miss. The bigger reason is INTEREST. How do I mean? Interest is EVERYTHING in marketing. For example, if you are thirsty, you are going to be more INTERESTED in a sachet water seller's product than if you are not thirsty. Or, wouldn't you buy the water more readily when you are thirsty than when you are not? Of course, the answer is clear. You are going to buy any sachet water that comes around irrespective of the brand. Or, if a number of brands show up, you can only choose from what is available. www.nairaland.com/attachments/13149736_screenshot20210216091522_jpegaa4dc653cf88b7289a79a419aba8415d Similarly, people who are searching for information related to your business on Google are far more likely to be INTERESTED in any offer they get alongside their search than the people who are catching fun on Facebook. That's because they are already VERY INTERESTED in the kind of product/service you offer before they found you. THEY ARE TO YOU LIKE SOMEONE WHO IS THIRSTY AND IS SEARCHING FOR WATER. Thus, they're far more in 'buying mode' than users elsewhere. In 2019, a client asked me if SEO was still relevant in the age of social media. I laughed until he thought I was out of my senses. But then, after giving him a few simple facts on the issue, he admitted that he should have thought himself insane instead. Before then, he had been spending five figures monthly on social media ads. But, since then, he has never spent a dime on social media ad again. I'm going to write another article where I will answer that question in case some of you here are thinking the same way (I will also link the article here). No doubt, social media has its great advantages over the search engines (like the opportunity for social sharing or the psychological use of the heightened dopamine levels). But, none of them equals the value of the EXPOSURE and INTEREST TARGETING available with Google search by even a thousandth. But, as you are going to see: GMB MULTIPLIES THE ADVANTAGES OF GOOGLE SEARCH OVER AND OVER AGAIN FOR ANY BUSINESS THAT KNOWS HOW TO EXPLOIT ITS SECRETS. Meanwhile, I will also show you how to blend social media marketing with Google search for maximum results. 1 Like |
Re: Using Google My Business To Get Loads of Customers For Free (Nigerian examples) by BrandBrainBox: 7:32pm On Feb 15, 2021 |
LET ME ENTERTAIN QUESTIONS OR OBSERVATIONS (IF ANY) BEFORE I CONTINUE. |
Re: Using Google My Business To Get Loads of Customers For Free (Nigerian examples) by IdJack(m): 4:48am On Feb 16, 2021 |
Thanks for this. Waiting for more information |
Re: Using Google My Business To Get Loads of Customers For Free (Nigerian examples) by BrandBrainBox: 7:17am On Feb 16, 2021 |
IdJack:Okay, sorry I slept off last night. May be, you can consider reporting that to EFCC. Oh yes, that was an economic crime I committed when I kept the Nairaland business community waiting while I was sleeping Well, I hope you understand that I'm joking. Meanwhile, how was your sleep? I'll be making a post shortly. 1 Like |
Re: Using Google My Business To Get Loads of Customers For Free (Nigerian examples) by BrandBrainBox: 7:59am On Feb 16, 2021 |
SEE HOW GMB BLENDS THE ADVANTAGES OF ONLINE AND OFFLINE MARKETING We all know that the digital culture has a lot of advantages over the traditional brick-and-mortar style. For example, the digital removes the physical limitations, making it possible to easily reach people far beyond your vicinity. But, does that mean that the digital has all the advantages over the physical? No, of course. One of the biggest disadvantages of the web-based business culture is the issue of trust. Not just that people are afraid of getting scammed outright. But they also care about making a direct evaluation of what they intend to buy BY THEMSELVES before releasing the payment. For example, see a story a Nairalander told here in this 2016 thread entitled "Photos: What I Ordered Vs What Jumia Delivered": Crystalline: |
Re: Using Google My Business To Get Loads of Customers For Free (Nigerian examples) by BrandBrainBox: 8:08am On Feb 16, 2021 |
THE POINT IS THAT THE ISSUE OF TRUST (WHETHER TRUST OF GENUINENESS OR OF JUDGMENT) IS A MAJOR PROBLEM IN WEB-BASED BUSINESS DEALS. TRUST ME, THAT ALSO HAS ITS NEGATIVE IMPACT ON THE SALES VOLUMES OF YOUR PRODUCT OR SERVICE. YOU can see the comments on the thread I just cited and you'd realize that such trust concerns can stop so many people from patronizing an online business:
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Re: Using Google My Business To Get Loads of Customers For Free (Nigerian examples) by BrandBrainBox: 8:36am On Feb 16, 2021 |
There's also the disadvantage of time. For example, imagine ordering lunch and it ends up arriving at 5pm all because the delivery boy was arrested by a thoughtless cop for singing Timaya while riding a bicycle! Think about that. These are just two of the many advantages that offline business connections could have over their online counterparts. But GMB removes the disadvantages, making you to have the best of both worlds: People can order lunch on a restaurant's website and drive over to pick it up during lunch break, thereby overcoming the trust, time, and space disadvantages at once. I hope YOU got this point right. If you need any explanation on it, feel free to let us know. I'm taking time to tell you all these things in order to help you to really appreciate this opportunity you have to learn how to get a grand permanent exposure for your business ALL FOR FREE by making a creative use of your Google My Business listing. Imagine the billion-dollar value and yet, it's all free. Yes, you need to appreciate this enough or else, you will look down on this opportunity and miss its great value. The famous political economist Peter Drucker predicted that this was going to be the era of "knowledge-driven economy". It's now frequently the case that THE ONLY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SUCCESS AND FAILURE LIES IN WHAT YOU KNOW OR DO NOT KNOW. So, you'd better taken this seriously enough. ANNOUNCEMENT: I'm thinking that some of you would like to be getting the audio versions of each post also. You know, reading can be hard work sometimes. So... I have created a Telegram Channel where I am going to be using other media (like video and audio) to reduce the amount of reading that you have to do. If you'd like to join the Channel, send your Telegram Phone number to raymorepartners(at)gmail.com to be added. Use your Telegram phone number as both the subject line and the body content of your email. But, don't ever listen to the audios while driving... or, I'll call LASTMA for you . 1 Like 1 Share |
Re: Using Google My Business To Get Loads of Customers For Free (Nigerian examples) by ekowo: 8:57am On Feb 16, 2021 |
Thanks for the topic. Waiting for more lessons. I appreciate |
Re: Using Google My Business To Get Loads of Customers For Free (Nigerian examples) by BrandBrainBox: 9:59am On Feb 16, 2021 |
ekowo:Thank you for the appreciation. It is written that "my people perish for a lack of knowledge". There is no place that this is truer than in Africa. We are perishing economically and otherwise because we don't value knowledge enough. It's one reason I'm here. So, I appreciate you for being one of the few Africans who appreciate the value of knowledge. Believe me, you're one of those to lead the next generation of the African (and yes, world) economy. 2 Likes |
Re: Using Google My Business To Get Loads of Customers For Free (Nigerian examples) by BrandBrainBox: 12:03pm On Feb 16, 2021 |
Please, I'll soon be making posts. I got busy with something else but I'm almost through now. |
Re: Using Google My Business To Get Loads of Customers For Free (Nigerian examples) by olenyi: 4:03pm On Feb 16, 2021 |
Ride on bro. |
Re: Using Google My Business To Get Loads of Customers For Free (Nigerian examples) by BrandBrainBox: 12:44pm On Feb 17, 2021 |
4 CARDINAL STEPS FOR A SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATION OF YOUR GOOGLE MY BUSINESS LISTING NOTE: Don't DO anything yet until you have read through ALL the steps first. Otherwise, you might make a serious mistake that will be impossible to correct later on[. Please, don't mar your efforts and your GMB results with such mistakes. So, again I say, read through the steps first before you start to implement them. STEP 1: Have A Google Account If you have a Gmail account, then, you already have a Google account. A Google account is free to sign up for and most people these days have it. So, I believe you have one already. But please, take this very seriously about your Google account: Make sure that the Gmail address associated with your Google account is one of the business emails found on your other online platforms (such as your website, Facebook page, company LinkedIn profile, etc.) and also on your offline displays (such as the billboard or banner at the facades of your shop or office). Don't have any other Gmail address on any of these online and offline platforms. Also, this is the account that you will be using to log into Google Map either on the web or the mobile app. Doing as I have said will help to make the verification of your GMB listing faster later on. So, create a new Gmail account to use for your GMB listing if you are not ready to use your current Gmail address as your business email also. Go to accounts.google.com to do that. REMEMBER: DON'T DO THIS YET UNTIL YOU SEE ALL THE STEPS (UNTIL THE 3RD STEP AT LEAST). |
Re: Using Google My Business To Get Loads of Customers For Free (Nigerian examples) by BrandBrainBox: 1:09pm On Feb 17, 2021 |
STEP 2: Register or Claim Your GMB Business Profile There are businesses that are already registered on GMB but are not yet claimed by their owners. So, you will check first to know if you are already registered. If so, you start by claiming the business profile. Otherwise, you will need to register your profile from scratch. To begin to do that, click here to get to the official GMB page for Nigeria. Note: If your business is located in Nigeria, your verification will be smoother and faster if you use the exact link shared above (or you click here). If you are outside Nigeria, you can ask me to assist you to get the official link for your country. You can also use Google search to get it but be careful not to get confused by other search results that don't link up to the right page. Once you are on the right page, take time to get familiar with the page by reading it up. Then, at the end, you click on "Manage Now".
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Re: Using Google My Business To Get Loads of Customers For Free (Nigerian examples) by BrandBrainBox: 4:36pm On Feb 17, 2021 |
You'll be prompted to type in your business name into a field as shown below. While doing so, if your business is already registered, it will show up with an option to "claim it". So, you follow the prompt accordingly.
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Re: Using Google My Business To Get Loads of Customers For Free (Nigerian examples) by BrandBrainBox: 4:38pm On Feb 17, 2021 |
But if your business name doesn't show up, you will have to register it anew. So, click on "add your business to Google" and follow the prompts until you are registered.
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Re: Using Google My Business To Get Loads of Customers For Free (Nigerian examples) by BrandBrainBox: 4:44pm On Feb 17, 2021 |
STEP 3: Verify Your Business Profile This is one of the most important steps in this journey. You can begin to succeed with GMB if only you scale through here. If you asked me, I would have told you that the greatest secret of successful GMB profile verification is to understand why Google is doing the verification in the first place. So, what's the reason? It is simple: Google wants to be sure that your business is real. That's because Google's aim for starting GMB itself is to help people find real local businesses through the combined algorithms of Google Search and Google Maps. You can now see why they take your verification extremely seriously... and why you should too. |
Re: Using Google My Business To Get Loads of Customers For Free (Nigerian examples) by BrandBrainBox: 4:50pm On Feb 17, 2021 |
VERY IMPORTANT: DIFFERENT WAYS TO VERIFY YOUR GOOGLE MY BUSINESS PROFILE |
Re: Using Google My Business To Get Loads of Customers For Free (Nigerian examples) by BrandBrainBox: 5:18pm On Feb 17, 2021 |
STEP 4: Optimize Your GMB Listing 1 Like |
Re: Using Google My Business To Get Loads of Customers For Free (Nigerian examples) by BrandBrainBox: 6:15pm On Feb 17, 2021 |
I'm now ready to entertain questions and observations before we continue. |
Re: Using Google My Business To Get Loads of Customers For Free (Nigerian examples) by Welcum: 6:22pm On Feb 17, 2021 |
BrandBrainBox:Mine is APPRECIATION. Thanks for your generous heart. It's so detailed and insightful! |
Re: Using Google My Business To Get Loads of Customers For Free (Nigerian examples) by BrandBrainBox: 5:31pm On Feb 18, 2021 |
Welcum:OK thanks, we'll soon continue from where we stopped. |
Re: Using Google My Business To Get Loads of Customers For Free (Nigerian examples) by Jossyroyal1: 3:50pm On Feb 20, 2021 |
Thanks very much for this information Google my business has been very helpful |
Re: Using Google My Business To Get Loads of Customers For Free (Nigerian examples) by BrandBrainBox: 2:52pm On Feb 21, 2021 |
EFFECTIVE GMB OPTIMIZATION STARTS WITH A GOOD KEYWORD RESEARCH Yes, just like SEO generally, local SEO runs on keyword research and implementation. What this means is that you have to discover the exact arrangements of words that most people are using to search for your kind of product or service. Those arrangements of words are known as keywords. Usually, there will be numerous keywords being used by many people. The best bet is to look for a couple of keywords with HIGH TRAFFIC but LOW COMPETITION and work with them. |
Re: Using Google My Business To Get Loads of Customers For Free (Nigerian examples) by BrandBrainBox: 2:53pm On Feb 21, 2021 |
For instance, let's assume that one of such keywords being used by prospective buyers to search for cars in Lagos is "Cars for sale Lagos".
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Re: Using Google My Business To Get Loads of Customers For Free (Nigerian examples) by BrandBrainBox: 2:54pm On Feb 21, 2021 |
The GMB section of the search results will look like this.
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. / Lucrative Businesses That People Don't Know / Where Ikeja Computer Guys Buy Products Cheaply And Resell For 100-300% Profits
(Go Up)
Sections: politics (1) business autos (1) jobs (1) career education (1) romance computers phones travel sports fashion health religion celebs tv-movies music-radio literature webmasters programming techmarket Links: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) Nairaland - Copyright © 2005 - 2024 Oluwaseun Osewa. All rights reserved. See How To Advertise. 85 |