April 18, 2024 • 19 mins
Unlock the secrets of local SEO dominance as Marilyn Jenkins, a digital marketing virtuoso, joins us to share her expertise on leveraging Google Business profiles to boost your online presence.
Imagine the edge you'll have when Marilyn divulges how to transform your local SEO rankings and attract floods of traffic to your website.
She comes equipped with actionable advice that's easy on the wallet but rich in results—think weekly engagement with your Google Business profile, finesse in posting updates, and the wizardry of managing reviews to magnify visibility and lead generation.
Join Kaylee and Marilyn and you'll discover how to elevate your business’s reputation and presence, transforming customers into your most valuable advocates.
Want to get in contact with Marilyn? You can reach out to her on LinkedIn or her website, MaximizeyourGBP.com.
Want to reach out and hear more about Digital Journey? You can email us at info@digital-journey.net or check out our website, www.digital-journey.net.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's up guys?
This is Kaylee Johnson herewith Digital Journey.
If you're a person that'swanting to learn social media,
maybe that's just for youpersonally, maybe it's for your
business this is the right placefor you.
What's up guys?
Today we have Marilyn Jenkinsjoining us.
I'm super excited to talk toyou.
Thank you for coming on.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Thank you.
It's an honor to be here.
I really enjoy your show andI'm just happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Yeah, I'm so pumped.
So Fairlyn Jenkins is a digitalmarketing veteran with 16 years
of experience.
She's the founder of MJ MediaGroup LLC and Law Marketing Zone
.
Her expertise lies inleveraging paid advertising and
SEO, particularly for optimizingGoogle business profiles, to
(00:44):
propel business growth.
So SEO is something that is oneveryone's mind.
It's constantly questions Ihear about what is SEO, what is
even Google business, what isall of that?
So I'm excited to dive intothat with you.
But first, can you tell us alittle bit about yourself and
how you got to where you aretoday?
What was your journey like, Canyou tell?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
us a little bit about yourself and how you got to
where you are today.
What was your journey like?
Yeah, so I've done almost allaspects of digital marketing,
working for myself, and I'vebeen doing consulting since
about 2004, 2006.
And literally through doing myown ads, my own SEO.
Back in the day, when it wasn't, when there wasn't a Google
business profile to work with, Ihad clients come to me and
(01:28):
refer me clients to to do theirads, and so it kind of just
spiraled into an agency.
And recently, over the last sixyears, I've been working mostly
with attorneys and some homeservices companies.
So we do my, our my agencyfocuses on like an omnipresence
for our clients, so we help themwith SEO, social planning and
(01:49):
paid ads so that they can gettheir network out in the local
area as much as possible.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
SEO is so valuable.
I don't think a lot of peoplerealize that Some of our
listeners are a little new tothe digital world world, so can
you explain what SEO is for them?
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Well, it used to be this, this far reaching kind of
thing to explain, um, and it'swith google business profile.
It's made it a lot easier, um,so basically, it's when I go to
google to search for something,which we all go to google to
search for stuff, um, if you'vegot what I want and you've done
your right keywords, h1 tags andall those technical jargon
(02:26):
things, your website will comeup.
The key or the problem rightnow is, if you look at a regular
Google search, the top threesearches are paid ads.
The second three is the map andthen you finally get down below
the fold to those organicreaches.
So if all you're doing is SEOfor your website, you're missing
that map pack.
(02:47):
So that's what I focus on andthat's why I focus SEO on.
And it's easier to understand,because if someone's looking for
a restaurant near me or abusiness near me, you want to
show up in that map pack.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
So that's why now, with Google Business Profile,
which used to be google mybusiness, it's so much more
understandable of why do I wantto do this.
As a small business to be foundlocally, and you know anything
as important as your hours ofoperation, all of those
different things that you canput on, it's so important I know
, when I go on and look at abusiness and find their google
(03:22):
business profile and they don'thave the times they're open,
they don't have the phone number.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
I'm just like, how legit actually are you?
You know?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
it's like this.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
This doesn't take much time to upload and if
you're not willing to do it,like what?
What's going on here?
Speaker 2 (03:36):
well, I think there's a huge number of people that
still think your Google businessprofile is just a place to
store reviews.
They don't think about anythingelse because a lot of the times
it has your basic informationnot updated.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
I know it, wow, yeah, so what are some ways that
people can improve their localSEO rankings so that their
businesses can appear higher insearch results?
Speaker 2 (04:01):
I think you have to think of your Google business
profile as its own littlewebsite, dare I say, but not
website, because you can have.
The important part is havingsome engagement every week,
right?
So if it takes 10 minutes aweek to say, answer a question,
reply to a review, add a photo,add a video, and especially if
(04:22):
you offer a product or a service, you need to have those listed
in the products or servicessection.
So, and even you can addarticles.
So think about if you've got ablog.
You can put those articles onyour Google business profile.
Now tag team that with runningads, and Google sees that you're
engaged, so they'll give yourads more weight you're engaged,
(04:46):
so they'll give your ads moreweight.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
So it's kind of like social media and the aspect of
if you're staying active,they're gonna push your post or
your, your information moreexactly okay, okay and it's free
right, I know.
I remember when I was startingmy business and I heard about, I
was like oh wait, I don't haveto.
This is one thing I don't haveto pay for.
All the time it's like this isgood, why not?
Speaker 2 (05:03):
don't have to pay for all the time.
It's like this is good, why not?
It's a definite big bonus thatpeople should, small businesses
or local businesses should do.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yes, no, I definitely agree.
So how can using GoogleBusiness actually drive traffic
to websites and help generateleads?
Because I think a lot of peoplejust see it as okay.
(05:30):
This is where people can findinformation about me and they
don't realize.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Wait, this can actually get me clients that, or
people that will buy my product.
Well, exactly, I mean there's.
There's two buttons on it, oneis directions and one is your
website.
Um, you can even have yourphone number.
Your phone number isautomatically clicked to call.
So think of everybody on themobile that's walking around
your town looking for something.
So you've got your website onthere, you've got your address
on there, and behind it, in themanagement portal, is insights.
(05:52):
You can see what people areactually clicking on your Google
business profile and howthey're finding you.
But it's important to have allthat information up to date.
I had a friend that was tryingto figure out why his sales were
going down in a pet food store.
He goes you know, nothing'shappening on Tuesday.
I don't understand what theproblem is.
Well, someone on his teamupdated their hours of operation
(06:13):
.
It shows that they were closedon Tuesday.
Oh no, so they went in, updatedit and literally within two
weeks their Tuesdays were backto normal sales.
So it's just that simple of howit can help.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Wow, I mean that's that's crazy that they saw
results that all quickly too.
It's like, oh, wow, you knowyou need to make sure this is
updated.
I work a lot with realtors andsometimes I'll check out their
stuff and they're like open allthe time and they're like I
don't understand why I'm gettingcalls at midnight about this
and I'm like, maybe because yousay that's okay, it's a good
(06:48):
place to help set boundaries andto give a little bit more of a
roadmap into how you can reachout to people.
We all know that social mediacan be overwhelming.
You think it takes so much time.
You look at all these amazingcreators who are doing insane
viral posts and think how can Iever measure up to them?
The good thing is you don'thave to.
(07:09):
Your point for being on socialmedia is probably to earn money.
You want to increase your sales.
You want to gain more clientsso that you can have more free
time to pour into your clients,to pour into your family.
Digital Journey can help youwith that.
We have a group coachingprogram targeted specifically
for people who are overwhelmedwith social media.
(07:30):
It's really not as complicatedas you think.
We can teach you how to spend15 minutes or less a day on
social media so that you cangain more clients and you can up
your sales.
So if you want to learn more,you can go to digital-journeynet
and we'd love to help you out.
Now back to the episode.
(07:52):
That's one of the main reasonsI go on and look at it, for
people is like where are theirhours?
What is you know their reviews,that kind of thing, cause that
can be harder to find on aperson's website.
Sometimes, a lot of times, theydon't include that, especially
holiday time.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
It's an instant update, right?
So if you've got special hoursfor any particular period of
time that's holidays whetherit's you know the summertime
hours or you know back to school, whatever it happens to be.
If your holiday hours aredifferent, jump in there and
update it and then you know, puta reminder in your calendar to
put them back to normal.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
That's very true.
Otherwise, you'll have peopleshow up there and okay, it's
closed.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
And then they think bad of you.
They may not say anything, butthey're like I'm not coming back
here, you know so it's areputation as well, and a lot of
people don't realize that it'sthat you should reply to every
review, whether they're good orbad.
You know, that shows yourprofessionalism, that shows that
(08:50):
you care for people's opinions,whether it's good or bad.
Just reply professionally andfuture people that read your
reviews will then see that youare responsive and you care
about your customer's experience.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
That's so good and like.
That's.
One thing we focus on a lot atDigital Journey is authenticity
and you know being yourself andnot just caring about the client
because you want their money oryou want to sell them your
product, but instead showing youknow we care about people as a
whole, and I think responding toreviews can be a really great
way to kind of nail that in andshow that you're genuine and
care about a person afterthey've even bought your product
(09:21):
, not just when you're trying toget something from them.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
True.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
So what?
What platforms are mostimportant for local searches?
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Obviously, the Google business profile and any, if
you have any, facebook groupsthat relate to your neighborhood
.
One of my clients has a groupon Facebook that focuses on her
in real estate, her territory.
She started this during COVIDand it's just a way she invited
businesses in to refer eachother and it's grown over the
(09:54):
course of these past years towhere people are new.
People that move to the area gohey, I'm looking for someone
for lawn care or we need somepainting done.
That group's the first placethey go.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
That's awesome.
I live in a smaller town and wehave, I think, like 10 of those
groups on Facebook because it'sa smaller town.
But I know that that's where myfriends a lot of times go if
they're trying to say who'sgoing to be the best realtor,
who can do my plumbing, who cando you know?
And all of that's gettingpublicity for the people out
there who you know.
(10:27):
Hey, more people can hear aboutme by doing this and since
they're asking from a lot ofpeople, it might not sound as
pushy, you know, recommendingyourself versus just hey,
everyone, look what I do.
You know it's like hey, I canhelp you specifically.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Yeah, I mean, and when they become communities
like that, it's not just a wholebunch of sales messages and
most of them are monitoredenough.
So it's not, you know,inundating with messages, but
it's really good content, reallygood conversations, even simple
things like festivals going on.
You know what's going on thisweekend.
You know you can find out aboutthat Charities to support, but
(11:02):
I found a lot of it is a lot oflocal businesses.
People just have needs andthey're going to go to places
that they know to ask thatquestion.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Right, exactly, and that's when referrals can be
amazing, you know.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
That makes sense.
Why you refer?
Why you respond to them?
You know, to reinforce even.
Oh man, if I leave them areferral, my name is going to be
on there and they're going torespond to me.
You know, everyone has a littlebit of their ego that they want
stroked, and sometimes evenhaving their name on there
leaving a review can make peopleexcited.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Exactly A dopamine hit.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Yes, so how can, how can you get more reviews for
your business?
Are you?
Do you normally ask someoneright away?
What's your strategy for that?
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Asking right away when a customer so say you have
a one-off business or maybe justa retail store.
I mean it doesn't matter ifit's a multiple purchase or
whatever.
Every time you you finish apurchase.
It should be something that isautomated if possible, so that
at the end of a transaction theyautomatically get an email with
a link directly to your Googlereviews link not to Google, but
(12:08):
to the thing that pops up soit's ready to type in.
Make it easy for people,because people are not going to
go and look for you again.
So we want to make it easy andfor my clients and I suggest my
consulting clients always set upan automated email that, as
soon as you can, just hit abutton and that email goes out
and they get an email to leaveyou a review.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
That's great and that cuts down on the work for you
while still getting some ofthose benefits.
I'm a big fan of reviews.
For me, that's how I a lot oftimes judge if a product is
actually legitimate or not.
If you go on somewhere, theyhave two people that have left
reviews and it's like five stars.
It's like okay, are these justtheir mom and dad?
Is this just their best friendand their coworker?
(12:53):
So having more reviews is goodand I even I was talking to
someone the other day and he wassaying you know, even having a
bad review is OK, because if yousee a business, that's always
all five stars, it's like OK,are they legitimate?
Are they paying people to leavereviews?
You know he was like step intothat, you know, uncomfortable
zone of.
(13:13):
Sometimes people are going toleave a bad review and that's
okay.
Don't feel discouraged aboutthat.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
And respond to it.
Again, you know, whenever, whenyou it's kind of like reading
reviews on Amazon, right If yousee a really bad review, any bad
review on Google, you look andyou read all the others and you
get that one bad one.
That person may just be havinga really bad day, you know, but
if you, as a business owner,respond to it politely and
professionally and even if it'snot a valid review, you can't
(13:42):
get that taken off, but you canrespond like I'm sorry, kaylee,
I'm not showing that you everdid business with us.
I mean, you know, just beprofessional about it and when
people see how you respond toreal and positive reviews and
how you respond to negativereviews, that's your character.
That comes through and peopledo business with people they
(14:03):
like.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Yes, exactly, especially in the day you know
now of so much AI and automation, you know it can feel like
we're losing that personal humantouch.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
It's like you know, I'm just a number.
It's like you know, I'm just anumber.
But if you're willing to showthat you care and you know, take
on that individual time withyou know, replying to a review
might take a minute, but thatcould still make a big
difference.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
You're telling Google I'm involved.
But now I do want to caveatwhen it comes to getting reviews
.
If you or any of your listenershave not been doing requesting
for reviews, don't request 20 ina day.
I've had people want to do that.
If you request 20 in a day andsay 20 of them review, google
will gatekeep those.
(14:46):
So what you want to do is makeit a normal part of your
business.
If Google sees that you get areview every day, that's normal.
But if you get 20 in one dayand you haven't had any in two
months, they're going to gatekeep all of those.
So you want to slowly, you know, get them.
And the other thing too is, say,professional services companies
maybe they are just gettingstarted, they have maybe one or
(15:10):
two reviews.
You kind of need to get 10 toreally break into the map pack
in most small towns and then, ofcourse, get that raised up as
fast as you can.
But the other thing you can doif you don't have direct
customers or you're new, whatyou can do is you can ask your
service providers orprofessional friends to actually
give you a character review.
You know it's not a mentee interms of service that they have
(15:35):
to have done business with youor been your customer.
So it's it's called a characterreview and we suggest people
that don't have that manyreviews or that many past
customers get some people toreview.
Maybe you remember the chamberof commerce, uh, your bni group.
You know the people that you'renetworking with, people that
know the type of business personyou are.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
have them leave your review, trade reviews, it's the
same thing yes, I love tradingreviews because then you know
everyone's gaining somethingfrom it, um and I also like
reviews, even if they'renegative, because then I can see
where can I improve.
It's not, it's not just abouthow can I be known more, but
it's like you know, how can Igrow.
So you know my customers arecontinuing to be happy whether
(16:19):
that means I didn't realize thislesson in the group coaching
program really mattered so much.
We're gonna pour in and investon that or someone leaving or
viewing like this wasn't helpful.
We need to.
We need to reach out to peopleand see is this actually helping
them Exactly, it's really greatto be able to grow as a
business owner, not just in yourreputation, but grow and edit
(16:40):
your product as needed or yourservice.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Well, thank you so much for coming on.
If you could say one thing tothe listeners about SEO and
Google business profile, what'sone final tip you would give
them?
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Well, I'm going to plug my book here.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Yes please.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
So I have a lot of clients that are ads clients and
a lot of clients that are notyet ready to run ads.
So I put together a book thattakes you step-by-step from
claiming your Google businessprofile to optimizing it to
dominate your local map pack,and it's called the Google
business profile training guideand it's $27 and it is at
(17:22):
maximize your gbpcom.
Okay and um, it will walk youthrough step-by-step with
visuals of how to do that andit's the value of your Google
business profile is incredible.
You know you want to be thenumber one in the map pack.
What you're going to have to dois get in there 10 or 15
(17:42):
minutes a week, get it done andjust update it, be involved, be
engaged and get those reviewsand Google will reward you.
If you've got less reviews thanyour competitor down the street
, but you're involved andengaged in your Google business
profile, you can outrank them inthe map pack.
(18:03):
So it's that important.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
A lot of my listeners are busy but to be like, okay,
I don't have to pour hours intoit.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
No 10 minutes.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Take a photo, take a photo of your storefront, take a
photo of your team, take aphoto of your newest product.
Add photos, add videos, addproducts and services.
Find something to add everyweek.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
I love that.
That's so good, and then you'renot overwhelmed either.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
You know, I have some people that are like, oh my
goodness, I can't start all ofthis and make it look like I've
been going for months.
Well, you haven't been goingfor months, so you don't need to
, you know, automatically havethat expectation.
Let's take one step at a timeand grow you in a way where it's
not overwhelming.
Exactly Because I know, when Ifirst heard of Google business,
I was like, oh my goodness, I'mnever going to be able to get to
(18:48):
what everyone else was.
And then I kind of went throughthis one step at a time.
It's a process, it's a journey.
It's not an overnight thingnecessarily.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Yeah, it's not as big as building out a website.
You can't launch until it'sdone.
We're talking one little thingand the other big thing on it is
question and answer.
That gets overlooked If thereis an FAQ type thing with your
business.
Like every client, everycustomer asks this question.
Put it on your Google businessprofile as a question and answer
.
That's an engagement.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
That's really good.
I love question and answersections.
Honestly, Even if I'm unsureabout a product, I'm going to go
and read that just because Ifeel like I'm learning a whole
lot.
I didn't know you could addthat to your Google business
profile.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
That's really cool.
Well, we'll have all ofMarilyn's information linked
below.
We'll have her book linked,where you can buy it.
Get that checked out.
Thank you so much for coming on.
I learned a lot and I know mylisteners did also.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Thank you so much.
It's been a pleasure to be here.
What's up guys?
This is Kaylee Johnson herewith Digital Journey.
If you're a person that'swanting to learn social media,
maybe that's just for youpersonally, maybe it's for your
business this is the right placefor you.
What's up guys?
Today we have Marilyn Jenkinsjoining us.
I'm super excited to talk toyou.
Thank you for coming on.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Thank you.
It's an honor to be here.
I really enjoy your show andI'm just happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Yeah, I'm so pumped.
So Fairlyn Jenkins is a digitalmarketing veteran with 16 years
of experience.
She's the founder of MJ MediaGroup LLC and Law Marketing Zone
.
Her expertise lies inleveraging paid advertising and
SEO, particularly for optimizingGoogle business profiles, to
(00:44):
propel business growth.
So SEO is something that is oneveryone's mind.
It's constantly questions Ihear about what is SEO, what is
even Google business, what isall of that?
So I'm excited to dive intothat with you.
But first, can you tell us alittle bit about yourself and
how you got to where you aretoday?
What was your journey like, Canyou tell?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
us a little bit about yourself and how you got to
where you are today.
What was your journey like?
Yeah, so I've done almost allaspects of digital marketing,
working for myself, and I'vebeen doing consulting since
about 2004, 2006.
And literally through doing myown ads, my own SEO.
Back in the day, when it wasn't, when there wasn't a Google
business profile to work with, Ihad clients come to me and
(01:28):
refer me clients to to do theirads, and so it kind of just
spiraled into an agency.
And recently, over the last sixyears, I've been working mostly
with attorneys and some homeservices companies.
So we do my, our my agencyfocuses on like an omnipresence
for our clients, so we help themwith SEO, social planning and
(01:49):
paid ads so that they can gettheir network out in the local
area as much as possible.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
SEO is so valuable.
I don't think a lot of peoplerealize that Some of our
listeners are a little new tothe digital world world, so can
you explain what SEO is for them?
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Well, it used to be this, this far reaching kind of
thing to explain, um, and it'swith google business profile.
It's made it a lot easier, um,so basically, it's when I go to
google to search for something,which we all go to google to
search for stuff, um, if you'vegot what I want and you've done
your right keywords, h1 tags andall those technical jargon
(02:26):
things, your website will comeup.
The key or the problem rightnow is, if you look at a regular
Google search, the top threesearches are paid ads.
The second three is the map andthen you finally get down below
the fold to those organicreaches.
So if all you're doing is SEOfor your website, you're missing
that map pack.
(02:47):
So that's what I focus on andthat's why I focus SEO on.
And it's easier to understand,because if someone's looking for
a restaurant near me or abusiness near me, you want to
show up in that map pack.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
So that's why now, with Google Business Profile,
which used to be google mybusiness, it's so much more
understandable of why do I wantto do this.
As a small business to be foundlocally, and you know anything
as important as your hours ofoperation, all of those
different things that you canput on, it's so important I know
, when I go on and look at abusiness and find their google
(03:22):
business profile and they don'thave the times they're open,
they don't have the phone number.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
I'm just like, how legit actually are you?
You know?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
it's like this.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
This doesn't take much time to upload and if
you're not willing to do it,like what?
What's going on here?
Speaker 2 (03:36):
well, I think there's a huge number of people that
still think your Google businessprofile is just a place to
store reviews.
They don't think about anythingelse because a lot of the times
it has your basic informationnot updated.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
I know it, wow, yeah, so what are some ways that
people can improve their localSEO rankings so that their
businesses can appear higher insearch results?
Speaker 2 (04:01):
I think you have to think of your Google business
profile as its own littlewebsite, dare I say, but not
website, because you can have.
The important part is havingsome engagement every week,
right?
So if it takes 10 minutes aweek to say, answer a question,
reply to a review, add a photo,add a video, and especially if
(04:22):
you offer a product or a service, you need to have those listed
in the products or servicessection.
So, and even you can addarticles.
So think about if you've got ablog.
You can put those articles onyour Google business profile.
Now tag team that with runningads, and Google sees that you're
engaged, so they'll give yourads more weight you're engaged,
(04:46):
so they'll give your ads moreweight.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
So it's kind of like social media and the aspect of
if you're staying active,they're gonna push your post or
your, your information moreexactly okay, okay and it's free
right, I know.
I remember when I was startingmy business and I heard about, I
was like oh wait, I don't haveto.
This is one thing I don't haveto pay for.
All the time it's like this isgood, why not?
Speaker 2 (05:03):
don't have to pay for all the time.
It's like this is good, why not?
It's a definite big bonus thatpeople should, small businesses
or local businesses should do.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yes, no, I definitely agree.
So how can using GoogleBusiness actually drive traffic
to websites and help generateleads?
Because I think a lot of peoplejust see it as okay.
(05:30):
This is where people can findinformation about me and they
don't realize.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Wait, this can actually get me clients that, or
people that will buy my product.
Well, exactly, I mean there's.
There's two buttons on it, oneis directions and one is your
website.
Um, you can even have yourphone number.
Your phone number isautomatically clicked to call.
So think of everybody on themobile that's walking around
your town looking for something.
So you've got your website onthere, you've got your address
on there, and behind it, in themanagement portal, is insights.
(05:52):
You can see what people areactually clicking on your Google
business profile and howthey're finding you.
But it's important to have allthat information up to date.
I had a friend that was tryingto figure out why his sales were
going down in a pet food store.
He goes you know, nothing'shappening on Tuesday.
I don't understand what theproblem is.
Well, someone on his teamupdated their hours of operation
(06:13):
.
It shows that they were closedon Tuesday.
Oh no, so they went in, updatedit and literally within two
weeks their Tuesdays were backto normal sales.
So it's just that simple of howit can help.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Wow, I mean that's that's crazy that they saw
results that all quickly too.
It's like, oh, wow, you knowyou need to make sure this is
updated.
I work a lot with realtors andsometimes I'll check out their
stuff and they're like open allthe time and they're like I
don't understand why I'm gettingcalls at midnight about this
and I'm like, maybe because yousay that's okay, it's a good
(06:48):
place to help set boundaries andto give a little bit more of a
roadmap into how you can reachout to people.
We all know that social mediacan be overwhelming.
You think it takes so much time.
You look at all these amazingcreators who are doing insane
viral posts and think how can Iever measure up to them?
The good thing is you don'thave to.
(07:09):
Your point for being on socialmedia is probably to earn money.
You want to increase your sales.
You want to gain more clientsso that you can have more free
time to pour into your clients,to pour into your family.
Digital Journey can help youwith that.
We have a group coachingprogram targeted specifically
for people who are overwhelmedwith social media.
(07:30):
It's really not as complicatedas you think.
We can teach you how to spend15 minutes or less a day on
social media so that you cangain more clients and you can up
your sales.
So if you want to learn more,you can go to digital-journeynet
and we'd love to help you out.
Now back to the episode.
(07:52):
That's one of the main reasonsI go on and look at it, for
people is like where are theirhours?
What is you know their reviews,that kind of thing, cause that
can be harder to find on aperson's website.
Sometimes, a lot of times, theydon't include that, especially
holiday time.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
It's an instant update, right?
So if you've got special hoursfor any particular period of
time that's holidays whetherit's you know the summertime
hours or you know back to school, whatever it happens to be.
If your holiday hours aredifferent, jump in there and
update it and then you know, puta reminder in your calendar to
put them back to normal.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
That's very true.
Otherwise, you'll have peopleshow up there and okay, it's
closed.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
And then they think bad of you.
They may not say anything, butthey're like I'm not coming back
here, you know so it's areputation as well, and a lot of
people don't realize that it'sthat you should reply to every
review, whether they're good orbad.
You know, that shows yourprofessionalism, that shows that
(08:50):
you care for people's opinions,whether it's good or bad.
Just reply professionally andfuture people that read your
reviews will then see that youare responsive and you care
about your customer's experience.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
That's so good and like.
That's.
One thing we focus on a lot atDigital Journey is authenticity
and you know being yourself andnot just caring about the client
because you want their money oryou want to sell them your
product, but instead showing youknow we care about people as a
whole, and I think responding toreviews can be a really great
way to kind of nail that in andshow that you're genuine and
care about a person afterthey've even bought your product
(09:21):
, not just when you're trying toget something from them.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
True.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
So what?
What platforms are mostimportant for local searches?
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Obviously, the Google business profile and any, if
you have any, facebook groupsthat relate to your neighborhood
.
One of my clients has a groupon Facebook that focuses on her
in real estate, her territory.
She started this during COVIDand it's just a way she invited
businesses in to refer eachother and it's grown over the
(09:54):
course of these past years towhere people are new.
People that move to the area gohey, I'm looking for someone
for lawn care or we need somepainting done.
That group's the first placethey go.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
That's awesome.
I live in a smaller town and wehave, I think, like 10 of those
groups on Facebook because it'sa smaller town.
But I know that that's where myfriends a lot of times go if
they're trying to say who'sgoing to be the best realtor,
who can do my plumbing, who cando you know?
And all of that's gettingpublicity for the people out
there who you know.
(10:27):
Hey, more people can hear aboutme by doing this and since
they're asking from a lot ofpeople, it might not sound as
pushy, you know, recommendingyourself versus just hey,
everyone, look what I do.
You know it's like hey, I canhelp you specifically.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Yeah, I mean, and when they become communities
like that, it's not just a wholebunch of sales messages and
most of them are monitoredenough.
So it's not, you know,inundating with messages, but
it's really good content, reallygood conversations, even simple
things like festivals going on.
You know what's going on thisweekend.
You know you can find out aboutthat Charities to support, but
(11:02):
I found a lot of it is a lot oflocal businesses.
People just have needs andthey're going to go to places
that they know to ask thatquestion.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Right, exactly, and that's when referrals can be
amazing, you know.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
That makes sense.
Why you refer?
Why you respond to them?
You know, to reinforce even.
Oh man, if I leave them areferral, my name is going to be
on there and they're going torespond to me.
You know, everyone has a littlebit of their ego that they want
stroked, and sometimes evenhaving their name on there
leaving a review can make peopleexcited.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Exactly A dopamine hit.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Yes, so how can, how can you get more reviews for
your business?
Are you?
Do you normally ask someoneright away?
What's your strategy for that?
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Asking right away when a customer so say you have
a one-off business or maybe justa retail store.
I mean it doesn't matter ifit's a multiple purchase or
whatever.
Every time you you finish apurchase.
It should be something that isautomated if possible, so that
at the end of a transaction theyautomatically get an email with
a link directly to your Googlereviews link not to Google, but
(12:08):
to the thing that pops up soit's ready to type in.
Make it easy for people,because people are not going to
go and look for you again.
So we want to make it easy andfor my clients and I suggest my
consulting clients always set upan automated email that, as
soon as you can, just hit abutton and that email goes out
and they get an email to leaveyou a review.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
That's great and that cuts down on the work for you
while still getting some ofthose benefits.
I'm a big fan of reviews.
For me, that's how I a lot oftimes judge if a product is
actually legitimate or not.
If you go on somewhere, theyhave two people that have left
reviews and it's like five stars.
It's like okay, are these justtheir mom and dad?
Is this just their best friendand their coworker?
(12:53):
So having more reviews is goodand I even I was talking to
someone the other day and he wassaying you know, even having a
bad review is OK, because if yousee a business, that's always
all five stars, it's like OK,are they legitimate?
Are they paying people to leavereviews?
You know he was like step intothat, you know, uncomfortable
zone of.
(13:13):
Sometimes people are going toleave a bad review and that's
okay.
Don't feel discouraged aboutthat.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
And respond to it.
Again, you know, whenever, whenyou it's kind of like reading
reviews on Amazon, right If yousee a really bad review, any bad
review on Google, you look andyou read all the others and you
get that one bad one.
That person may just be havinga really bad day, you know, but
if you, as a business owner,respond to it politely and
professionally and even if it'snot a valid review, you can't
(13:42):
get that taken off, but you canrespond like I'm sorry, kaylee,
I'm not showing that you everdid business with us.
I mean, you know, just beprofessional about it and when
people see how you respond toreal and positive reviews and
how you respond to negativereviews, that's your character.
That comes through and peopledo business with people they
(14:03):
like.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Yes, exactly, especially in the day you know
now of so much AI and automation, you know it can feel like
we're losing that personal humantouch.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
It's like you know, I'm just a number.
It's like you know, I'm just anumber.
But if you're willing to showthat you care and you know, take
on that individual time withyou know, replying to a review
might take a minute, but thatcould still make a big
difference.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
You're telling Google I'm involved.
But now I do want to caveatwhen it comes to getting reviews
.
If you or any of your listenershave not been doing requesting
for reviews, don't request 20 ina day.
I've had people want to do that.
If you request 20 in a day andsay 20 of them review, google
will gatekeep those.
(14:46):
So what you want to do is makeit a normal part of your
business.
If Google sees that you get areview every day, that's normal.
But if you get 20 in one dayand you haven't had any in two
months, they're going to gatekeep all of those.
So you want to slowly, you know, get them.
And the other thing too is, say,professional services companies
maybe they are just gettingstarted, they have maybe one or
(15:10):
two reviews.
You kind of need to get 10 toreally break into the map pack
in most small towns and then, ofcourse, get that raised up as
fast as you can.
But the other thing you can doif you don't have direct
customers or you're new, whatyou can do is you can ask your
service providers orprofessional friends to actually
give you a character review.
You know it's not a mentee interms of service that they have
(15:35):
to have done business with youor been your customer.
So it's it's called a characterreview and we suggest people
that don't have that manyreviews or that many past
customers get some people toreview.
Maybe you remember the chamberof commerce, uh, your bni group.
You know the people that you'renetworking with, people that
know the type of business personyou are.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
have them leave your review, trade reviews, it's the
same thing yes, I love tradingreviews because then you know
everyone's gaining somethingfrom it, um and I also like
reviews, even if they'renegative, because then I can see
where can I improve.
It's not, it's not just abouthow can I be known more, but
it's like you know, how can Igrow.
So you know my customers arecontinuing to be happy whether
(16:19):
that means I didn't realize thislesson in the group coaching
program really mattered so much.
We're gonna pour in and investon that or someone leaving or
viewing like this wasn't helpful.
We need to.
We need to reach out to peopleand see is this actually helping
them Exactly, it's really greatto be able to grow as a
business owner, not just in yourreputation, but grow and edit
(16:40):
your product as needed or yourservice.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Well, thank you so much for coming on.
If you could say one thing tothe listeners about SEO and
Google business profile, what'sone final tip you would give
them?
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Well, I'm going to plug my book here.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Yes please.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
So I have a lot of clients that are ads clients and
a lot of clients that are notyet ready to run ads.
So I put together a book thattakes you step-by-step from
claiming your Google businessprofile to optimizing it to
dominate your local map pack,and it's called the Google
business profile training guideand it's $27 and it is at
(17:22):
maximize your gbpcom.
Okay and um, it will walk youthrough step-by-step with
visuals of how to do that andit's the value of your Google
business profile is incredible.
You know you want to be thenumber one in the map pack.
What you're going to have to dois get in there 10 or 15
(17:42):
minutes a week, get it done andjust update it, be involved, be
engaged and get those reviewsand Google will reward you.
If you've got less reviews thanyour competitor down the street
, but you're involved andengaged in your Google business
profile, you can outrank them inthe map pack.
(18:03):
So it's that important.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
A lot of my listeners are busy but to be like, okay,
I don't have to pour hours intoit.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
No 10 minutes.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Take a photo, take a photo of your storefront, take a
photo of your team, take aphoto of your newest product.
Add photos, add videos, addproducts and services.
Find something to add everyweek.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
I love that.
That's so good, and then you'renot overwhelmed either.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
You know, I have some people that are like, oh my
goodness, I can't start all ofthis and make it look like I've
been going for months.
Well, you haven't been goingfor months, so you don't need to
, you know, automatically havethat expectation.
Let's take one step at a timeand grow you in a way where it's
not overwhelming.
Exactly Because I know, when Ifirst heard of Google business,
I was like, oh my goodness, I'mnever going to be able to get to
(18:48):
what everyone else was.
And then I kind of went throughthis one step at a time.
It's a process, it's a journey.
It's not an overnight thingnecessarily.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Yeah, it's not as big as building out a website.
You can't launch until it'sdone.
We're talking one little thingand the other big thing on it is
question and answer.
That gets overlooked If thereis an FAQ type thing with your
business.
Like every client, everycustomer asks this question.
Put it on your Google businessprofile as a question and answer
.
That's an engagement.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
That's really good.
I love question and answersections.
Honestly, Even if I'm unsureabout a product, I'm going to go
and read that just because Ifeel like I'm learning a whole
lot.
I didn't know you could addthat to your Google business
profile.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
That's really cool.
Well, we'll have all ofMarilyn's information linked
below.
We'll have her book linked,where you can buy it.
Get that checked out.
Thank you so much for coming on.
I learned a lot and I know mylisteners did also.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Thank you so much.
It's been a pleasure to be here.
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