What we find fascinating is that many South African brands are fearful to engage with Google and how they can actually grow their businesses online. With over 8.5 billion searches in google per day where 63% of the global online community use their mobile devices to perform Google searches, marketing your business through Google - basically the internet - is an important strategy for businesses to consider when it comes to their marketing plan.
Rucien Petersen, founder of Spottmedia, shares five Google tools available for business owners that can be used to grow their business online.
The Google My Business page helps businesses to be found online when potential customers are looking for a product or service in a specific location. You can create your business page and update it regularly with information related to your location and offerings.
If you are running a promotion, have an up and coming event or want to share the latest company news, you can do so under your page. You can also request customers to review your business, increasing the feedback on your business and service offerings.
Many business owners spend loads of money on a website developer to create a website but the reality is if your site is not optimised for speed and mobile, it won’t capture the attention or convert visitors into paying customers.
Test my site is a feature provided by Google that allows you to test your website and how well it is optimised. After testing your site, Google will provide you with a full report on where you need to improve.
The best way to create solutions and to solve problems is to understand what your customer is looking for. Google Trends allows you to find out what consumers are searching for and the key words related to specific terms during a specific period.
For example, if you search “marketing” in Google Trends, you will find related topics like “affiliate”, “consultants” and “certificates”. You will also receive a breakdown of which countries and cities had the highest search over a 12-month period.
We know that Google Ads are very expensive but they are also very effective. Consumers are bombarded by marketing messages every single day and Google Ads allow your business to stand out breaking through the clutter.
Google Ads are purely created to target individuals based on their key words entered into the search engine and also allow you to rank first out of all the thousands and millions of businesses listed online.
Where do you go or start to find your ideal audience and market? Market Finder is the perfect feature that can assist your business.
Market Finder uses terms related to your business to match and connect to your ideal audience based on a global online search. You will receive a report that gives you an indication of the ideal country and location that will be best suited for you to do business.
Being found online involves a process of feeding Google content consistently and regularly. These Google tools will not only help you to create an online presence but also help you to grow your business and connect with your ideal audience.
