March 13, 2025 • 15 mins
Discover the untapped potential of Google Business Profiles with digital marketing veteran Marilyn Jenkins as she reveals how this free tool can dramatically increase your local visibility and phone inquiries.
Many business owners make a critical mistake – setting up their Google Business Profile once and forgetting about it. But as Marilyn explains, treating your profile like a social media platform that demands regular engagement can be the difference between being buried in search results or appearing prominently in the map pack where 50-80% of searchers click.
The conversation reveals surprising insights about how Google evaluates and ranks local businesses. Contrary to popular belief, you don't need hundreds of 5-star reviews to outrank competitors. Marilyn shares a remarkable case study where simply optimizing a neglected profile increased a client's incoming calls by 42% in just six weeks. The best part? Maintaining this valuable digital asset requires only 10 minutes weekly.
For podcasters who also operate local businesses, this episode delivers practical, actionable advice on maintaining consistent information across platforms, selecting the right business categories, and creating a seamless review collection process. Don't miss Marilyn's counterintuitive tip about who can leave reviews (hint: it's not just customers) and why a perfect 5-star rating shouldn't be your goal. Whether you're a seasoned digital marketer or just starting to explore local SEO, this conversation provides the blueprint for dominating local search and turning Google searchers into paying clients.
Got a question about something you heard today? Have a great suggestion for a topic or know someone who should be a guest? Reach out to us:
askcarl@carlspeaks.ca
If you're ready to take the plunge and join the over 3 million people who have joined the podcast space, we'd love to hear your idea and help you get started! Book your Podcast Strategy Session today:
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Communication Connection
Community, the podcaster'spodcast.
This podcast takes a deep diveinto modern day communication
strategies in the podcastingspace.
We chat with interesting peoplewho make the podcasting and
speaking spaces exciting andvibrant.
We also dive into thepodcasting community with news
(00:24):
updates, latest trends andtopics from this ever-evolving
space.
So strap in, it's going to beone amazing ride.
Let's dive into today's episodeand my guest today is Marilyn
Jenkins.
She's a digital marketingveteran with over 16 years of
experience.
The founder of MJ Media GroupLLC and Law Marketing Zone.
(00:48):
Her expertise lies inleveraging paid advertising and
SEO, particularly for optimizingGoogle business profiles to
propel business growth.
Her recent published book, theGoogle Business Profile Training
Guide, which is available we'llmake sure the link is posted,
by the way, in the show noteslater delves into the
intricacies of local searchdomination by maximizing Google
(01:10):
business profiles.
She is also a fellow podcasterand a podcast guest.
Marilyn, welcome to the podcast, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I'm very excited to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
I have to say, firstly, congratulations on
taking the huge leap maybe evena leap of faith in some ways to
joining the world of podcastingas a host.
How does that feel so far?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
You know it feels really good.
I've gotten a really goodresponse from asking people to
be on the podcast and, yeah, I'mjust excited.
I just enjoyed being a guestand it just made sense to take
the step.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
And at the recording of this episode, it's the summer
of 2024.
You're getting started in thespace and, as I said,
congratulations.
I know it's going to be aphenomenal place and you'll just
continue to meet some greatpeople as you go.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Certainly happy to have a conversation with you
after today, but you know what?
It's a really great place to be.
We've met through a greatplatform as well, called
Podmatch, which you know.
Alex Sanfilippo is a great guyand he's done some great things
set up here.
We're going to talk today aboutsomething, though.
That is something that I thinka lot of business owners just
really drop the ball on, andthat's why you've made this.
(02:20):
You know a huge part of whatyou do the Google business
profile and the importancebehind it.
So why is it so important thatthe Google business profile is
something that we should sit upand take notice of?
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Well, first off, it's a free service provided by
Google, and most of us mightremember it, and a lot of people
still call it Google myBusiness.
Well, google business profileis basically like the eighth
iteration of Google Places.
It seems like they rebrandedevery time.
They add a bunch of newfeatures to it.
But this is one place where youcan, for free, tell Google
(02:55):
exactly what kind of search youwant to be found for, and if you
do it right and you get theengagement that Google wants,
you can be in that map packright.
There's always three in the map, so think about when you're a
consumer, what do you do?
You Google it right, so youGoogle it on your phone.
50 to 80% of searches,according to Google, click on
(03:15):
the map pack.
So that's where you want to beand that is your Google business
profile.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
And, let's face it, let's address maybe the elephant
in the room, google.
Even though it's a noun and averb, it definitely is probably
the most popular search enginefor most individuals.
Would you say that's true?
Speaker 2 (03:32):
That is true, that is statistically true.
And then, of course, youtube isthe next one.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Google.
What an ingenious thing to have.
There's no monopoly or anything, because there are others, but
everyone says, even if you'renot using Google as your search
engine, people will say Googlethat right, so it's clearly
evident that it's very importantto sit up and take notice of
this.
What are the most importantaspects, though, of your Google
business profile that maybefolks aren't aware of?
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Well, the most important is your name, address
and phone number needs to beconsistent across your Google
business profile, as well asyour website and any other place
you're listed online.
I mean the name has to be theactual legal name of your
business.
It can't be adding keywords toit or your city to it.
They'll reduce your ranking forthat.
(04:18):
So that's most important.
The second is choosing yourcategories.
You can tell Google exactlywhat you do with your primary
category and then the lessimportant categories, so now
they know where to show you whenthe searches come up.
So those are the two biggestones that you should do.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
What are some of the challenges that you're seeing
that individuals have when itcomes to having an effective
Google business profile?
What are some of the mainthings that come up for you time
and time again?
Speaker 2 (04:47):
The biggest thing I'm finding is people set it up
once, they don't completely setit up and then they never go
back.
So they look at it as a placeto store reviews and then they
never do anything with thereviews.
So you have to think of Googleas I know this sounds weird, but
as a social media platform.
They want engagement and theywant a good user experience.
(05:08):
That's how they stay the numberone search engine right.
So if you're consistentlymaking sure that you reply to
reviews, positive or negative,you add Q&A, you add services,
any little thing that you canadd, do something little every
week, you're showing Google look, I'm engaged, I'm interested.
I want to make sure that theusers that come through have a
(05:29):
good experience.
If you have less reviews thanyour competition and they're not
engaged in their Googlebusiness profile, you can be
most likely are going to beahead of them in the map pack.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
So if I set this up years ago as Google my Business,
am I now if I haven't kept upto date?
Am I now out of date?
Am I not getting the searches Iwant?
Firstly because Google haschanged it, but then also
because I'm not active in it?
Am I getting searches stillwhen?
How does that all work?
Speaker 2 (05:58):
You could be.
It depends on your competitionin the area.
You know, if you have a lot ofreviews but you don't do any
updates, but then you there'sreally no other competition
around you.
Yeah, of course you're going toshow up, you know.
But the thing is is that youneed to be doing something.
If you haven't updated it sinceit was called Google my
Business, that means your hoursof operation might not be
correct.
That means you might havequestions that people have asked
(06:21):
that you didn't answer.
So there's a lot of play andthere's a whole lot of different
inputs.
Now you can add photos andvideos of your team and
introduction of yourself.
Like we see in reviews, theycan be photos and that sort of
thing.
So it's expanded on what youcan do.
So I would say you probably arebeing found in some searches,
but probably not the ones youwant to be in.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Okay, all right.
And reviews?
I mean, it used to be under theGoogle, my business platform.
It was all about reviews, allabout reviews.
Is that still where the money'sat, so to speak?
Is the reviews or all of theseother elements, pieces that we
should definitely be sitting upand taking notice of?
Speaker 2 (06:59):
All of it is something we should be sitting
up and taking notice of.
Obviously, reviews is huge, butthe striving for a 5.0, nobody
walks on water all the time, somost people think a 4.7, 4.8,
4.9 is fine.
So, yeah, you're going to getbad reviews.
Everybody has a bad day,whether it's the reviewer or
maybe one of your team members.
The key is to reply to everyreview Professionally, address
(07:22):
the problem.
If it's an incorrect review,report it, so there's things
that can be done.
But, yeah, your reviews areincredibly important, but making
sure you give Google enoughinformation about your business
so it can bring you up in thesearches that you want to be
found for.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Okay, and you're suggesting this should be
something that I set some timeaside every week to just check
on it.
How much time should I bespending on this?
Speaker 2 (07:45):
10 minutes a week.
Log in, I mean, and it's agreat.
It's a very simple managementplatform, management portal
behind your Google businessprofile, and the interesting
thing is is, if you don't claimit, your competition can claim
it and change the phone numberto theirs.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Oh interesting.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
But I suggest taking like 10 minutes a week and add a
photo, add a service, add aquestion and answer.
Reply to review, pick something, there's something and they now
even have posts.
So if you write blog posts, putthe blog posts on your Google
business profile.
If it's keyword rich, it tellsGoogle more about who you should
(08:23):
be found when the search ismade.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
These little things you're talking about.
How much is this going toimprove the traffic to my
website?
Speaker 2 (08:30):
It would improve it greatly.
And just as an example, trafficto website and phone calls.
We had a client that we wereworking with.
Suddenly, over the course of acouple of weeks, my phone
stopped ringing.
So we went in, made someadjustments, cleared up some
stuff, updated her hours ofoperation and her phone started
ringing within 24 hours.
Now a different client didnothing to their Google business
(08:53):
profile, so we went in, helpedthem claim it, optimized it, got
it going, kept track in theirinsights in the management
portal and we increased theirincoming phone calls by 42% in
less than six weeks.
Now how would it affect yourbusiness if you got 42% more
phone calls?
So that doesn't even count thedirect.
(09:13):
You know people.
There's a directions button.
How many people looked at thedirections?
There's a website button.
How many people click that?
So your insights tab will giveyou all the information on all
the traffic you're getting.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
And the reason why this is relevant.
This is a podcast that's gearedto podcasters, but a lot of
people in the podcasting spacestill have businesses with
addresses.
Exactly so even though podcastsare global and you're having a
larger, you're having a globalreach and that's great for
building your audience, it'sstill important to realize that
there's that whole concept ofbeing the local hero or being
the person that's top of mindwhen they're searching you on
(09:53):
where Google Exactly.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
I mean lawyers, real estate agents.
I even have a plumber who has apodcast.
It's important for them to befound locally.
So, absolutely, whether you'redoing a podcast or you have a
local business, if you've got alocal presence, that's important
and people can come into've gota local presence that's
important and people can comeinto your office or your
(10:15):
business.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
That's important for you to make sure your Google
business profile is set andready and up to date, and you've
already mentioned once a week.
10 minutes is, at least ifyou're not doing it yet is a
good place to get started.
If you want to do more,probably that's fine too.
What are some of the bestpractices?
If you haven't mentioned someof them yet, what are some of
the best practices formaintaining a positive online
(10:36):
reputation?
Speaker 2 (10:37):
One of the big things on their Google business
profile.
If you are involved in holidayhours, make sure your hours of
operation are updated.
One of the more recent thingsis whenever you do a search for,
say, I'm a consumer and I'mlooking for a pizza place, okay,
it will tell me on the listingrecently updated and tell me
what date you updated your hours.
So if I know that I'm likearound July 4th or maybe around
(11:00):
Christmas or any kind of holidaytime, I can see that you
updated your hours yesterday.
So if I'm not sure if Joe'spizza parlor or Betty's pizza
parlor and Betty just updated,but Joe didn't, then clearly I'm
going to go to Betty because Iknow she's open.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Right, right, yeah, for sure, and she probably has
really good pizza too and, youknow, wants people to.
If they haven't figured it outyet, they're definitely going to
.
You mentioned earlier thatreviews are still.
Everyone wants reviews.
They're still very important,as are some of the other tools
now that Google has madeavailable.
How do I go about getting morereviews?
What's the best way to do that?
Is it just like ask people, oris there a better way?
Speaker 2 (11:36):
It's.
I tell my clients to make itpart of your process.
Every time you finish with acase, every time you finish with
a job, every time you finishworking with someone, ask for a
review.
I notice you have a QR code inthe corner of your screen.
Some of my clients that haveretail locations have a QR code
that takes them directly to thelittle box on Google with the
(11:58):
five stars at the top and itsays please review us.
So when you're finished and youcheck out, they're asking for a
review.
Some restaurants put their QRcode in the.
What do you call that littlewallet you check in?
You know you ask for the check.
It's in that little walletthingy.
What do you call the walletthingy?
I don't.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
I'm trying to remember what do you call that
wallet thingy, the receiptholder thing, the bill holder
thing, I don't know?
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Let the receipt holder thing, the bill holder
thing.
I don't know, let's call it that, that's the technical term
Folio, folio, maybe that's it,but they have a QR code in there
.
So what you want to do is youwant to make it easy.
You don't want to say, hey,carl, can you give me a review?
Now, you got to go to Google,you got to type in, you got to
find the right one.
Nope, give them a link straightto that pop-up window and make
it part of your business processto ask every single client.
(12:43):
Now, if you have less than 10reviews and you don't have
enough clients to ask morereviews, ask your suppliers.
There's nowhere in the terms ofservice that it has to be a
customer.
You can have a character review, wow.
So that's the way you can buildyour reviews and don't get hung
up on five stars.
If you get a one star, beprofessional, reply to it.
(13:03):
4.7 and above is good.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
I love it.
I love it.
Great insights here.
The book, the Google BusinessProfile Training Guide.
We'll make sure we post thelink for that and all of your
other information in the shownotes.
Awesome, anything you'd like topass along to our listeners
today, of huge value to them,that they can chew on.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
I think it's just really important to look at your
overall online strategy, right?
Okay, have a digital strategy.
Just look at overall.
Don't get overwhelmed, pick onething and don't try to be an
influencer, unless that's whatyou want to be, but take one
step at a time.
You know how do you eat anelephant?
One bite at a time.
So try to do a little somethingevery day, or a little
(13:43):
something every week.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
I love it.
I love it.
My guest today has been MarilynJenkins.
Amazing Congratulations onceagain on being in a podcast
space and looking forward to allof your success, and thank you
once again for being my guesttoday.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Absolutely.
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
And thank you for joining us today.
Special thanks to our producerand production lead, dom
Coriglio, our music guru, nathanSimon, and the person who works
the arms all of our arms,actually my trusty assistant,
stephanie Gaffour.
If you like what you heardtoday, leave us a comment and a
review, and be sure to share itwith your friends.
If you don't like what youheard, please share it with your
(14:22):
enemies.
Oh, and if you have asuggestion of someone who you
think would make an amazingguest on the show, let us know
about it.
Drop us an email, askcarl atcarlspeaksca.
Don't forget to follow us onLinkedIn and Twitter as well.
You'll find all those links inthe show notes, and if you're
ready to take the plunge andjoin the over 3 million people
who have said yes to podcasting,let's have a conversation.
(14:44):
We'll show you the simplest wayto get into the podcasting
space, because, after all, we'repodcast.
Solutions made simple.
We'll catch you next time.
Welcome to Communication Connection
Community, the podcaster'spodcast.
This podcast takes a deep diveinto modern day communication
strategies in the podcastingspace.
We chat with interesting peoplewho make the podcasting and
speaking spaces exciting andvibrant.
We also dive into thepodcasting community with news
(00:24):
updates, latest trends andtopics from this ever-evolving
space.
So strap in, it's going to beone amazing ride.
Let's dive into today's episodeand my guest today is Marilyn
Jenkins.
She's a digital marketingveteran with over 16 years of
experience.
The founder of MJ Media GroupLLC and Law Marketing Zone.
(00:48):
Her expertise lies inleveraging paid advertising and
SEO, particularly for optimizingGoogle business profiles to
propel business growth.
Her recent published book, theGoogle Business Profile Training
Guide, which is available we'llmake sure the link is posted,
by the way, in the show noteslater delves into the
intricacies of local searchdomination by maximizing Google
(01:10):
business profiles.
She is also a fellow podcasterand a podcast guest.
Marilyn, welcome to the podcast, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I'm very excited to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
I have to say, firstly, congratulations on
taking the huge leap maybe evena leap of faith in some ways to
joining the world of podcastingas a host.
How does that feel so far?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
You know it feels really good.
I've gotten a really goodresponse from asking people to
be on the podcast and, yeah, I'mjust excited.
I just enjoyed being a guestand it just made sense to take
the step.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
And at the recording of this episode, it's the summer
of 2024.
You're getting started in thespace and, as I said,
congratulations.
I know it's going to be aphenomenal place and you'll just
continue to meet some greatpeople as you go.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Certainly happy to have a conversation with you
after today, but you know what?
It's a really great place to be.
We've met through a greatplatform as well, called
Podmatch, which you know.
Alex Sanfilippo is a great guyand he's done some great things
set up here.
We're going to talk today aboutsomething, though.
That is something that I thinka lot of business owners just
really drop the ball on, andthat's why you've made this.
(02:20):
You know a huge part of whatyou do the Google business
profile and the importancebehind it.
So why is it so important thatthe Google business profile is
something that we should sit upand take notice of?
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Well, first off, it's a free service provided by
Google, and most of us mightremember it, and a lot of people
still call it Google myBusiness.
Well, google business profileis basically like the eighth
iteration of Google Places.
It seems like they rebrandedevery time.
They add a bunch of newfeatures to it.
But this is one place where youcan, for free, tell Google
(02:55):
exactly what kind of search youwant to be found for, and if you
do it right and you get theengagement that Google wants,
you can be in that map packright.
There's always three in the map, so think about when you're a
consumer, what do you do?
You Google it right, so youGoogle it on your phone.
50 to 80% of searches,according to Google, click on
(03:15):
the map pack.
So that's where you want to beand that is your Google business
profile.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
And, let's face it, let's address maybe the elephant
in the room, google.
Even though it's a noun and averb, it definitely is probably
the most popular search enginefor most individuals.
Would you say that's true?
Speaker 2 (03:32):
That is true, that is statistically true.
And then, of course, youtube isthe next one.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Google.
What an ingenious thing to have.
There's no monopoly or anything, because there are others, but
everyone says, even if you'renot using Google as your search
engine, people will say Googlethat right, so it's clearly
evident that it's very importantto sit up and take notice of
this.
What are the most importantaspects, though, of your Google
business profile that maybefolks aren't aware of?
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Well, the most important is your name, address
and phone number needs to beconsistent across your Google
business profile, as well asyour website and any other place
you're listed online.
I mean the name has to be theactual legal name of your
business.
It can't be adding keywords toit or your city to it.
They'll reduce your ranking forthat.
(04:18):
So that's most important.
The second is choosing yourcategories.
You can tell Google exactlywhat you do with your primary
category and then the lessimportant categories, so now
they know where to show you whenthe searches come up.
So those are the two biggestones that you should do.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
What are some of the challenges that you're seeing
that individuals have when itcomes to having an effective
Google business profile?
What are some of the mainthings that come up for you time
and time again?
Speaker 2 (04:47):
The biggest thing I'm finding is people set it up
once, they don't completely setit up and then they never go
back.
So they look at it as a placeto store reviews and then they
never do anything with thereviews.
So you have to think of Googleas I know this sounds weird, but
as a social media platform.
They want engagement and theywant a good user experience.
(05:08):
That's how they stay the numberone search engine right.
So if you're consistentlymaking sure that you reply to
reviews, positive or negative,you add Q&A, you add services,
any little thing that you canadd, do something little every
week, you're showing Google look, I'm engaged, I'm interested.
I want to make sure that theusers that come through have a
(05:29):
good experience.
If you have less reviews thanyour competition and they're not
engaged in their Googlebusiness profile, you can be
most likely are going to beahead of them in the map pack.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
So if I set this up years ago as Google my Business,
am I now if I haven't kept upto date?
Am I now out of date?
Am I not getting the searches Iwant?
Firstly because Google haschanged it, but then also
because I'm not active in it?
Am I getting searches stillwhen?
How does that all work?
Speaker 2 (05:58):
You could be.
It depends on your competitionin the area.
You know, if you have a lot ofreviews but you don't do any
updates, but then you there'sreally no other competition
around you.
Yeah, of course you're going toshow up, you know.
But the thing is is that youneed to be doing something.
If you haven't updated it sinceit was called Google my
Business, that means your hoursof operation might not be
correct.
That means you might havequestions that people have asked
(06:21):
that you didn't answer.
So there's a lot of play andthere's a whole lot of different
inputs.
Now you can add photos andvideos of your team and
introduction of yourself.
Like we see in reviews, theycan be photos and that sort of
thing.
So it's expanded on what youcan do.
So I would say you probably arebeing found in some searches,
but probably not the ones youwant to be in.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Okay, all right.
And reviews?
I mean, it used to be under theGoogle, my business platform.
It was all about reviews, allabout reviews.
Is that still where the money'sat, so to speak?
Is the reviews or all of theseother elements, pieces that we
should definitely be sitting upand taking notice of?
Speaker 2 (06:59):
All of it is something we should be sitting
up and taking notice of.
Obviously, reviews is huge, butthe striving for a 5.0, nobody
walks on water all the time, somost people think a 4.7, 4.8,
4.9 is fine.
So, yeah, you're going to getbad reviews.
Everybody has a bad day,whether it's the reviewer or
maybe one of your team members.
The key is to reply to everyreview Professionally, address
(07:22):
the problem.
If it's an incorrect review,report it, so there's things
that can be done.
But, yeah, your reviews areincredibly important, but making
sure you give Google enoughinformation about your business
so it can bring you up in thesearches that you want to be
found for.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Okay, and you're suggesting this should be
something that I set some timeaside every week to just check
on it.
How much time should I bespending on this?
Speaker 2 (07:45):
10 minutes a week.
Log in, I mean, and it's agreat.
It's a very simple managementplatform, management portal
behind your Google businessprofile, and the interesting
thing is is, if you don't claimit, your competition can claim
it and change the phone numberto theirs.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Oh interesting.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
But I suggest taking like 10 minutes a week and add a
photo, add a service, add aquestion and answer.
Reply to review, pick something, there's something and they now
even have posts.
So if you write blog posts, putthe blog posts on your Google
business profile.
If it's keyword rich, it tellsGoogle more about who you should
(08:23):
be found when the search ismade.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
These little things you're talking about.
How much is this going toimprove the traffic to my
website?
Speaker 2 (08:30):
It would improve it greatly.
And just as an example, trafficto website and phone calls.
We had a client that we wereworking with.
Suddenly, over the course of acouple of weeks, my phone
stopped ringing.
So we went in, made someadjustments, cleared up some
stuff, updated her hours ofoperation and her phone started
ringing within 24 hours.
Now a different client didnothing to their Google business
(08:53):
profile, so we went in, helpedthem claim it, optimized it, got
it going, kept track in theirinsights in the management
portal and we increased theirincoming phone calls by 42% in
less than six weeks.
Now how would it affect yourbusiness if you got 42% more
phone calls?
So that doesn't even count thedirect.
(09:13):
You know people.
There's a directions button.
How many people looked at thedirections?
There's a website button.
How many people click that?
So your insights tab will giveyou all the information on all
the traffic you're getting.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
And the reason why this is relevant.
This is a podcast that's gearedto podcasters, but a lot of
people in the podcasting spacestill have businesses with
addresses.
Exactly so even though podcastsare global and you're having a
larger, you're having a globalreach and that's great for
building your audience, it'sstill important to realize that
there's that whole concept ofbeing the local hero or being
the person that's top of mindwhen they're searching you on
(09:53):
where Google Exactly.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
I mean lawyers, real estate agents.
I even have a plumber who has apodcast.
It's important for them to befound locally.
So, absolutely, whether you'redoing a podcast or you have a
local business, if you've got alocal presence, that's important
and people can come into've gota local presence that's
important and people can comeinto your office or your
(10:15):
business.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
That's important for you to make sure your Google
business profile is set andready and up to date, and you've
already mentioned once a week.
10 minutes is, at least ifyou're not doing it yet is a
good place to get started.
If you want to do more,probably that's fine too.
What are some of the bestpractices?
If you haven't mentioned someof them yet, what are some of
the best practices formaintaining a positive online
(10:36):
reputation?
Speaker 2 (10:37):
One of the big things on their Google business
profile.
If you are involved in holidayhours, make sure your hours of
operation are updated.
One of the more recent thingsis whenever you do a search for,
say, I'm a consumer and I'mlooking for a pizza place, okay,
it will tell me on the listingrecently updated and tell me
what date you updated your hours.
So if I know that I'm likearound July 4th or maybe around
(11:00):
Christmas or any kind of holidaytime, I can see that you
updated your hours yesterday.
So if I'm not sure if Joe'spizza parlor or Betty's pizza
parlor and Betty just updated,but Joe didn't, then clearly I'm
going to go to Betty because Iknow she's open.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Right, right, yeah, for sure, and she probably has
really good pizza too and, youknow, wants people to.
If they haven't figured it outyet, they're definitely going to
.
You mentioned earlier thatreviews are still.
Everyone wants reviews.
They're still very important,as are some of the other tools
now that Google has madeavailable.
How do I go about getting morereviews?
What's the best way to do that?
Is it just like ask people, oris there a better way?
Speaker 2 (11:36):
It's.
I tell my clients to make itpart of your process.
Every time you finish with acase, every time you finish with
a job, every time you finishworking with someone, ask for a
review.
I notice you have a QR code inthe corner of your screen.
Some of my clients that haveretail locations have a QR code
that takes them directly to thelittle box on Google with the
(11:58):
five stars at the top and itsays please review us.
So when you're finished and youcheck out, they're asking for a
review.
Some restaurants put their QRcode in the.
What do you call that littlewallet you check in?
You know you ask for the check.
It's in that little walletthingy.
What do you call the walletthingy?
I don't.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
I'm trying to remember what do you call that
wallet thingy, the receiptholder thing, the bill holder
thing, I don't know?
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Let the receipt holder thing, the bill holder
thing.
I don't know, let's call it that, that's the technical term
Folio, folio, maybe that's it,but they have a QR code in there
.
So what you want to do is youwant to make it easy.
You don't want to say, hey,carl, can you give me a review?
Now, you got to go to Google,you got to type in, you got to
find the right one.
Nope, give them a link straightto that pop-up window and make
it part of your business processto ask every single client.
(12:43):
Now, if you have less than 10reviews and you don't have
enough clients to ask morereviews, ask your suppliers.
There's nowhere in the terms ofservice that it has to be a
customer.
You can have a character review, wow.
So that's the way you can buildyour reviews and don't get hung
up on five stars.
If you get a one star, beprofessional, reply to it.
(13:03):
4.7 and above is good.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
I love it.
I love it.
Great insights here.
The book, the Google BusinessProfile Training Guide.
We'll make sure we post thelink for that and all of your
other information in the shownotes.
Awesome, anything you'd like topass along to our listeners
today, of huge value to them,that they can chew on.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
I think it's just really important to look at your
overall online strategy, right?
Okay, have a digital strategy.
Just look at overall.
Don't get overwhelmed, pick onething and don't try to be an
influencer, unless that's whatyou want to be, but take one
step at a time.
You know how do you eat anelephant?
One bite at a time.
So try to do a little somethingevery day, or a little
(13:43):
something every week.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
I love it.
I love it.
My guest today has been MarilynJenkins.
Amazing Congratulations onceagain on being in a podcast
space and looking forward to allof your success, and thank you
once again for being my guesttoday.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Absolutely.
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
And thank you for joining us today.
Special thanks to our producerand production lead, dom
Coriglio, our music guru, nathanSimon, and the person who works
the arms all of our arms,actually my trusty assistant,
stephanie Gaffour.
If you like what you heardtoday, leave us a comment and a
review, and be sure to share itwith your friends.
If you don't like what youheard, please share it with your
(14:22):
enemies.
Oh, and if you have asuggestion of someone who you
think would make an amazingguest on the show, let us know
about it.
Drop us an email, askcarl atcarlspeaksca.
Don't forget to follow us onLinkedIn and Twitter as well.
You'll find all those links inthe show notes, and if you're
ready to take the plunge andjoin the over 3 million people
who have said yes to podcasting,let's have a conversation.
(14:44):
We'll show you the simplest wayto get into the podcasting
space, because, after all, we'repodcast.
Solutions made simple.
We'll catch you next time.
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