Nowadays, whether someone wants to book a hair appointment, buy a car, or contact a plumber – there is one source they head to. Google.

When you input the service or product you need into the Google search engine you will be presented with the business profile of the companies nearby along with their location on Google Maps.

But how exactly can you get your own business profile to appear on these searches? Well, the answer is pretty simple – you just need to create your own Google My Business Profile! After this, you can start updating potential customers with all the information they need in a Google My Business post.

Are Google My Business Posts Free? or Do I Have to Pay Google?

The best news about this form of effective advertising is that it is free! Google wants to be able to present its users with relevant and updated information. So if you regularly update your business profile with Google My Business Posts, you will be rewarded by the search engine!

Why Should You create a Google My Business Post?

There are many reasons why you should take advantage of this free advertising opportunity, these include.

• Google is the most popular search engine globally, you will be reaching a lot more customers.
• The Google search engine will present your Google My Business Profile when local customers are searching for the products or services you offer.
• You can update your business profile with regular Google My Business Posts, this will allow you to give your latest opening times, advertise sales and add enticing photos
• All you need to do is keep your Google My Business Posts regularly updated and you’ll benefit from free advertising from the most powerful search engine!
• A more cost and time-effective way to promote your business than spending hours each week battling for views on social media.

Setting up a business profile and regularly updating the Google My Business Post section will result in your business being presented to potential customers immediately.

Your Google My Business Post will be presented to your Target Demographic

Someone is unlikely to put in the search terms “Plumber in Johannesburg” unless they need to find someone who will provide them with those services right away. So your odds of converting searchers into customers will be increased.

If your Google My Business Post is up to date with all the information your potential customer needs, they could book a few minutes after your business profile is presented to them.

Below we will talk you through everything your need to know about how to create a Google My Business Post effectively and what common mistakes you should avoid.

What is a Google My Business Post?

But first, the basics. What exactly is a Google My Business Post and how can you start using one?

Well, you can start adding your first Google My Business Post after you have set up a Google My Business Profile. Here is a breakdown of all the information you can include in a post:

• Text about your business of up to 1,500 characters.
• Photos of your business premises, products, and services.
• Seasonal offers and discounts you are currently offering to customers.
• Promotional videos concerning your business and services.
• E-Commerce listings for your products.
• Information about seasonal opening times, etc.

Your Google My Business Posts will be shown alongside your Google My Business Profile information, Google Reviews, and location on Google Maps.

What are the Different Kinds of Google My Business Posts?

There are six different types of Google My Business Posts for you to choose from. These are:

• Updates on Google My Business
• Photos of your company, events, and products
• Reviews of your Business
• The current offers and discounts are available.
• Upcoming events at your business.
• An FAQ Google My Business Post

Google has also made three different types of Google My Business Posts available for certain businesses. These are:

• A menu Google My Business post for Restaurants.
• Services business post for relevant businesses.
• A product Google My Business Post for e-commerce stores.

Are Google My Business Posts Effective for Brick and Mortar Companies as well as E-Commerce?

The answer to this is a resounding yes. In fact, making sure to keep the Google My Business posts updated on your Business profile is essential for brick-and-mortar stores. As we discussed in the introduction, Google is the go-to search engine for millions – including your local potential customers.

Taking the time to set up your business profile and regularly update it with Google My Business Posts should pay you back with lots of free traffic which you can convert into paying customers!

How Do I Create A Google My Business Post?

Once you have followed the easy instructions Google provides to set up your Google My Business profile, you will be ready to start adding Google My Business posts! Follow the steps below to quickly get your first post on the internet and in front of potential customers.

Decide on Which Type of Google My Business Post You Need

Your first step in creating Google My Business posts is to decide what information you want to share and what type of post is going to be most effective for that.

If you run a cafe or restaurant, a menu post might be a good idea. If you offer a building or decorating service, maybe you could include a video showing some before and afters?

You can see your available options for Google My Business posts by logging into your dashboard and selecting Posts in the navigation bar.

As we noted earlier, some types of posts such as menus will be restricted to certain business categories.

What to Think About While Creating Google My Business Posts

Remember, your Google My Business Posts and profile are likely to be the first introduction to your business for your target local customers. So a hurried, slapdash approach should not be applied here. You need to think about the best way to present your business so potential customers decide they want to discover more.

Here are some tips to get you thinking about how to approach your Google My Business Posts.

What is the overall purpose of the post?

What do you want potential customers to get from this information?

Who are you addressing?

For example, is this post aimed at introducing your company to new customers or giving established customers a new reason to use your business?

What is your CTA? (Call to Action.)

Give potential customers a clear step forward if they want to find out more after reading your post.

Are you going to promote a particular service or product?

Do you have any new products or services you need your customers to see? Are there any popular products with customers that you want new potential customers to see?

What are your Headlines?

What key phrases can you use that will attract your target customer base and make them want to engage further with your business profile?

How to Start Writing Google My Business Posts

Your next step is to take the plunge and start creating your first Google My Business Posts! Here are some key tips to make sure you make the most of your Google My Business Profile space and don’t waste this prime advertising opportunity.

Keep Your google my business posts brief and to the point

Google My Business posts have a character limit of 1,500. But if you don’t need that many characters to get the information across, then don’t use them. Your customers want to be able to see the most important points ad information quickly, without having to read through any fluff to get to the main point.

Add some visual interest to your google my business posts

Add an attractive image or include a video to capture your potential customer’s attention and give them more reasons to select your Google My Business Profile.

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE GOOGLE MARKETING KIT WHEN CREATING GOOGLE MY BUSINESS POSTS

If you don’t have any bright, attractive images of your company yet, then head to the Google marketing kit to source a related and suitable image for your post. (Although it really is essential that you manage to get some high-standard pics to be taken at least off your storefront. Real photos of your products and services will also be more effective than constantly relying on stock photos!)

don’t forget to customize your google my business cta button!

By default, your call to action button on your Google My Business posts will say “Learn More”, but you can add more immediacy by changing this text to “Book Now” “Contact us Today” “Sign Up Here” etc.

You can add CTA buttons to your Google My Business Posts that will send your target customers to your website landing page, a particular service or product page, or even give them a coupon code if you are promoting a sale or discount.

track any offers you make on your google my business posts

To track how effective the offers on your Google My Business post have been, you can add UTM links. This will help you to assess which offers have been most effective and help you to plan which similar campaigns to run in the future.

What Are the Pitfalls to Avoid on Your Google My Business Posts?

• Don’t use hashtags on Google My Business Posts, they aren’t effective and will make your posts look messy and cluttered.
• Make sure that you are up to date with what the rules are on Google Business Profile content. You need to make sure that social issues and meme trends you apply to your posts on Instagram and Facebook don’t bleed into your advertising in this space. Google wants your customers to be presented with purely factual and practical information about your business. You can read through the guidelines for Google Business posts here.

How to Create a Review Post on Google My Business?

A great way to advertise your business in a Google My Business post is to head to the Google Marketing Kit and learn how to create a graphic from a great customer review. This is a great way of providing social proof to your customers and giving them confidence in hiring your business or buying your products.

How to Create Pictures ad Videos for Your Google Business Profile and Posts

You need to make sure you know the correct image sizes and ratios on Google My Business if you are to display your company to your customers in the best light. You can follow the tips below to make sure you are creating images in the best ratio to display on Google My Business posts.

what ratio should you use on google my business?

Upload images ad videos on Google My Business with an aspect ratio of 4:3. (Although you will be able to upload other rations on Google My Business, this will make sure your upload is centered and uncropped.)

What image format should you upload?

Use an image format of JPG or PNG to upload on Google My Business.

what photo size should you use on google my business posts?

You should set yourself a limit on your photos so they are no larger than 1200px x 900px. You can upload larger images but Google will compress them ad this will result in fuzzy and unclear images. You can upload smaller photos to a minimum size of 480px x 270px)

how to create videos to post on google my business?

You can create videos of up to 30 seconds long to post to Google My Business. The video should be a minimum of 720p resolution and 75Mb to post on Google Business.

Publish your Post to Google My Business

After checking and double-checking that all the information you have included in the post is correct, you can now publish to Google My business.

Your Google Business post will be live for one week. After this, the post will be automatically removed from the profile.

How to Engage with Customers on a Post?

Sometimes when you put up a post, you may find that customers take the opportunity to post their questions or a review on the post. It is essential that you don’t ignore these comments and take the chance to engage with your customers.

Your reviews will show up along with your Business profile on Google Search and Maps, so you need to make sure that you are aware of what is being presented to customers. if an unanswered scathing review is the first thing a customer sees, they are unlikely to explore any further. This could be disastrous for your business.

So make sure to answer all questions about your business from prospective customers about the business opening times, products, and what types of services you offer. Not only will you seem professional and efficient to that client, but other prospective customers will also be presented with eh same information when they search the business profile themselves.

With your negative reviews, it can be tempting to either ignore them entirely or fire off an angry denial as you become defensive and protective of your business. While this is entirely understandable, it is one of the big mistakes to make either on Google or Social Media. Keep calm and address each point raised in a reasonable manner.

When formulating your reply to the post don’t think just about the person you are talking to, but all the prospective customers in Google who will also be reading this reply. This mindset allows you to turn what can be a negative post into a chance to showcase your customer service skills and mitigate bad feedback on your post.

Schedule some weekly time to post on Google Business and check reviews and comments on the post

Learning how to keep on top of Google Business admin along with everything else you have going on in your business can be daunting. But you can schedule small periods of time throughout the week to work and post on Google Business. Here are some tips about maintaining the information about your business and making the most of your profile.

Respond to the post comments in the post regularly

Ideally, this should be done on a daily basis, but you can schedule a few times a week if your schedule won’t allow this.

This shouldn’t take more than ten to fifteen minutes on a daily basis. if you have questions to be answered these will usually be simple and easy to reply to.

don’t leave questions unanswered

If you have questions on a post, take the time to address them even if you’ve answered a similar query before. Each question is an opportunity to advertise. Take advantage of each question on a post to sell your business to your customers even more!

REPLY To ALL Comments

Even if you have a comment on your post which isn’t a question. take the time to reply. If someone simply comments how much they like your store, take the time to thank them. You will appear polite and courteous and Google will reward the engagement.

Make Sure You Keep Your Information Up to Date

Ensure that you keep your information on the profile up to date. It will not look professional if your Christmas opening hours are still up in July! Make sure your customers have everything they need on the profile to get started engaging with your company immediately with no further research required!

What Should I Include in My Google My Business Post?

When crafting your Google My Business post, make sure to include important information such as promotions, events, and updates. Use the platform to engage with your audience and provide relevant content. By utilizing keywords strategically, like test blog post, you can attract more potential customers to your business.

Summary: Google My Business Post – What You Need to Get Started

Making sure that your business appears on Google Search and maps when a local customer inputs a search for products and services isn’t as difficult as you may think. And best of all it is free! Google is one of the most powerful search engines on the web and you can’t let the opportunity to advertise with them pass you by.

As you have seen above, learning how to post on Google business isn’t all that difficult and it can pay dividends when it comes to how to attract target local customers to your company. So take advantage of this easy way of staking your place on Google maps and get started setting up your post today.